Chapter 11

I. Synopsis: Northern Industries
Northern Industries which is a family-owned enterprise that manufactures greeting cards and paper and plastic holiday decorations was two manufacturers in Springfield and Massachusetts. 125 employees with 80% female are working fulltime including African-Americans and Asians. Peak Season Company creates second shift made up of 50 women/minorities employees. The number of different orders from paper stocks, inks, plastics, and setups is reached at 70 for a period of a week. Therefore, the company needs to make a plan for a long-term policy of giving priority to high-volume customers and processing other orders on a first-come first-served basis because these orders have a great size of diversity. A consultant in organizational change and diversity management asked Mr. Fisher who is the president shares his idea to resolve some racial issues in the company. Mr. Walter Bacon who is the production manager of the company has the responsibility to take him around the plant to introduce the production areas responsible for each of the various steps in the manufacture of a greeting card, from purchasing to printing to quality control and shipping. However, the first reaction of a person realizes the different languages from the employees. Fisher suggests the managers to read the managing diversity and hopes to help the company. After that, Fisher then turns his executive team to its daily business but an angry argument occurs both of sales and shipping/receiving managers. Finally, the conversation changes another topic when someone mentions a joke with Fisher’s wife to break up an argument.
II. Case questions and answers 1. What recommendations would you make to Northern’s leaders to help them move toward successfully managing diversity issues?
I would make recommendations to Northern’s leaders to help them move toward