Topic > Driving change by embracing diversity

"Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why violent video games should not be banned"? Get an original essayThe downstream oil and gas industry has faced a extremely difficult challenge in recent years, from 2015 to 2017. How could companies in this sector have survived while the average selling price of a barrel of oil was twenty dollars and the business models of many oil companies had been built on the sale of barrels of oil at eighty dollars? at one hundred dollars? If companies wanted to survive the longest recession in industry history, that meant a lot of corporate-level changes merging departments and offices as well as laying off many support and management staff. My division lost all internal management, moved to a new facility, and a leader from a very different department stepped in. Jessie[1], the new manager, had her work cut out for her. for him. Leading during a major industrial transition is challenging enough; however Jessie was also taking on a new, young team with a very different culture than he was used to overseeing. His previous department was large, with well-established procedures and protocols. They had many global consultants who could answer any question at any time. Our division had the same human capital, but our knowledge resided in the operations team. Our global consultants were limited and did not always answer the phone during nights and weekends. Our field service personnel possessed a multitude of tribal knowledge that did not always make it into the office and was not currently included in procedures. Most of this team had more than ten years of industry experience, while the office staff had between one and five years, and most of the global consultants had less than ten years of experience. Jessie ignored repeated requests from office staff to recognize field service personnel. He felt that field service personnel were replaceable and not worth his time. They earned enough money for the work they did and should be happy to have a job with the current industry conditions. Creating a culture that devalued its employees, making them seem like just “salaried help,” field staff began leaving to pursue other careers. Jessie didn't appreciate the human capital she encountered on her new team. The team realized that the new management believed they were replaceable. They feared for their jobs even though they were knowledgeable, hardworking, and team-oriented. Jessie had a Theory X perspective. She assumed that all employees would be easily replaced because they were “mere field workers.” A study by Lawter, Kopelman, and Prottas (2015) examined both Theory X and Theory Y management styles with job performance. They have proven that there is no one way to get maximum performance out of all types of people. They conclude: (Lawter, Kopelman, & Prottas, 2015) “It is not just managerial attitudes that matter, but the way managers behave towards employees affects performance at both an individual and group level.” As people started to quit, the quality of service rapidly declined. Jessie's second mistake was not valuing and understanding the diversity of her new team. He continued the management style he had perfected with his previous team. He attempted to use fear and money"