Case Study of Women and Global Leadership at Bestfoods

Of Women and Global Leadership at Bestfoods - Case Study Example Diversity should be maintained at all levels of the companies’ organizational structure. While ensuring diversity, however, managers of the subsidiary branches should be left with the freedom of formulating their own diversity policies by incorporating different cultural and economic aspects of their markets. Question 2: Brody’s idea to hold the forum I concur with Brody’s idea to hold the forum as one way of promoting diversity in the company’s workforce. The forum provided a great opportunity for the company to discuss the issues of diversity in detail and help each other understand the need to have a highly diversified workforce. Through the forum, various leaders of the company will be informed about the importance of diversity management and how a diverse workforce can steer the company to greater heights in to the future. Other ways through which the same objective could be met is by allowing the management teams of subsidiary companies to customize their own diversity policies based on the varying needs of the consumers in their markets. Question 3: Challenges for Brody and Shoemate in implementing the diversity strategy Like any other form of organizational change, this new diversity policy is likely to encounter resistance to change from various stakeholders in the organization. Conservative leaders are likely to be unwilling to implement the strategy and may prefer to maintain the status quo. Another challenge is the amount of resources and time that it will need to implement the policy. The employees will have to be trained and informed about the new strategies and this will take the organization a significant amount of time and resources. These challenges can however be overcome with proper management and cooperation between the management and the employees. Question 4: Steps taken to manage diversity prior to the forum Several steps were taken to manage the diversity situation in the company before the Women and Global l eadership forum. One such step was conducting a research in the company’s workforce in order to determine the best ways to improve it. There was a commission on Diversity already formed to look at the issues of diversity. By the time the forum took place the company was one of the best performing in the industry in terms of diversity, with women, Africans Whites and various other minority groups represented in the company’s Board of Directors. Question 5: Actions that have made this a successful change effort This new diversity policy has been a successful change effort for the company and this can be attributed to a variety of factors. First and foremost, there was proper planning that begun with a research study of the company’s workforce. The findings of the study led to the realization of the new path the organization ought to take. There was further planning and involvement of all the stakeholder in the company throughout the process. The success can also b e attributed to effective communication between the management team and other employees. Question 6: Other steps to be taken in order to institutionalize the changes that began at the forum In order to effectively manage and maintain diversity in the workforce of the company, there is need to put in place appropriate structures for assessing progress made by