Overcoming Workplace Discrimination
GM591 Leadership and Organizational Behavior
April 15, 2012
Dr. Barb Vallera

Introduction
The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, Inc. is the oldest and largest privately-held specialty coffee and tea retailer in the United States, whose corporate headquarters are in Los Angeles, CA. They have experienced steady growth and profits since their conception in 1963, but have since embarked upon an international expansion boost. The company has expanded at such a rapid pace that they are considering an IPO in the next couple of years to raise further capital.
We primarily sell premium coffee and tea blends that are harvested across the world from private farmers and growers to ensure exclusivity. We select only the top 1% Arabica beans and the finest hand-plucked, whole leaf teas. Our coffee is freshly roasted daily in small batches in a manual European roast style in our private roasting facility. All of our teas are hand blended under the direction of our tea master. Today we proudly offer over 30 varieties of coffee and 20 varieties of teas. In addition to our coffee and tea selection, we have developed the CBTL system, which is a single-serve, automatic proportioning system that provides customers with The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf experience in the comfort of their own home. You can now find The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf products in grocery stores, restaurants, and offices.
The company has grown to be an international icon and currently has more than 800 stores in over 20 countries. Each one is dedicated to serving our community and providing a warm and inviting environment. Throughout all aspects of our company, The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf remains dedicated to providing the highest quality products and customer service.
The company culture of The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf has always been to provide our customers with a great experience and to rely on our amazing Team members and staff. With our recent growth and expansion, we offer continuous development and an opportunity for career advancement. We believe it is more important for us to identify you as who you are as opposed to what you can do. It is this standard and culture that set us apart from our competition and provide our employees with a fulfilling work environment.
In addition, we pride ourselves on our Guiding Principles, which can be found in every store and the Home Office. Employees are reminded to refer to them in questionable circumstances. The following is a brief description of our Guiding Principles.
• Friendliness – with each other and customers.
• Respect – for each other’s values, opinions and individual diversity.
• Ownership – because we are proudly entrusted with the responsibility.
• Teamwork – because we achieve success by working together.
• Honesty – because we are truthful to ourselves and each other.

The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf’s Guiding Principles help to ensure that we deliver a total quality experience to our customers, team members, and community. We do this daily for our customers through our great product, service, and environment.

Problem Statement
It’s been more than 48 years since the champions of the civil rights movement gained one of their crowing achievements – the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Many hoped the new law would spur a new era of opportunities for minorities. (Grossman, 2000, p. 41). But many workplace experts say that once bright outlook on the future has yet to materialize for the Hispanic members of the nation’s workforce. How can the issue of workplace discrimination against Hispanic employees be resolved in corporations in this country? A primary example is the case of Hector Gomez and his denial of a corporate position, even though he was well qualified for the position.
The human resources department of The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf has been receiving complaints from their Latino employees who claim that the organization is not diverse in offering corporate promotions within the company for the Latino employees. This is not the first time that this complaint has been brought to the attention of the human resource department, but things are more serious now since the Latino workers are threatening to file a class action discrimination lawsuit against the company. The company strongly discourages any lawsuits or court mediations and would like to resolve all conflicts in-house. The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf shrugged at the fact that there is a diversity problem within the company, since there is one Latino who works in the corporate office. The employees argue that this is not enough considering that there are many Latino employees who seek and apply for corporate positions on a regular basis and they are never promoted to the sought after positions.
The majority of the Latino and Hispanic employees’ posses’ jobs as baristas or work in the company roasting warehouse in Camarillo, CA. There is a sprinkle of diversity among the store managers at certain locations, primarily in Hispanic communities, but the ratio is very small compared to other nationalities that hold these positions. The Latino employees believe that the corporate department of the organization does not encourage or promote the diversification of Latino employees in corporate positions, even though they include these statements in their Guiding Principles. The Guiding Principles of the company are the core values and fundamental truths that guide the employees through their everyday lives at The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf.
One employee in particular, Hector Gomez, has filed a formal complaint with the human resource department stating that he saw an opening for the Vice President of Marketing on the company’s intranet. Hector had his BS in Marketing and his MBA in Business Administration and Marketing. He is bilingual and was currently working as a store manager for one of the Los Angeles locations for the past 8 years. Hector felt he was qualified for the marketing position and submitted his application. He saw this as a great opportunity to introduce more diversity into the corporate arena of the company. There were a few other qualified candidates that also applied for the position, but Hector felt he had a “leg up” because of his seniority with the company.
All of the applicants were called into the corporate headquarters for an interview, including Hector. Hector became increasingly excited, as he believed his chances for obtaining a corporate position were well within reach. Once in the interview, Hector was asked a series of questions that were related to his professional background, including his multiple degrees in business. He was also probed about his personal life, including his background and family life. Hector was very obliging in the interview, answering all questions completely and with professionalism. He was also given a timed, written test, in which he received a perfect score. After his interview, Hector strongly felt that the cards were in his favor and there was no way that The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf would not offer him the position.
In the end, Hector was not hired for the position. Along with him was another female Latino employee who also applied for the same position. She too was not hired. The position was filled by a Caucasian male, who had only been with the company less than a year, and started off as a barista. To make matters worse, the employee hired for the marketing position held only a Bachelor’s degree and did not posses the continued education that Hector and his Latina colleague possessed. Hector was furious at the results and decided to file a complaint with the human resources department based on racial discrimination.
Literature Review
In conducting research for this course project, I used the DeVry University Online Student Library to find my scholarly sources. The following sources were used as a base for my analysis and solutions for the workplace discrimination issues at The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf.
In the article by Robert J. Grossman titled, “ Race in the Workplace, The Nation’s Workplaces Still Struggle to Become Colorblind,” the author offers a glimpse into the eyes of how workplace discrimination is still very much present in today’s society. The article provides sobering statistics relating to the number of Fortune 500 companies who have a minority as their CEO. The statistics suggest that there are only 3 black CEO’s and not one Hispanic Fortune 500 CEO. Combined, blacks and Hispanics account for less than 2 percent of executive positions in the United States. (Grossman, 2000, p. 41). Many of the larger companies will allow for a couple minorities to be placed in executive and corporate positions so the company can say that it is diverse. But, in actuality, the 1 or 2 who get those positions are not even a drop in the bucket compared to the masses of minorities who work the entry-level jobs of these companies. In addition, it is not that workplace discrimination is no longer present in our society; it is just in more subtle forms rather than the blatant forms of years ago. In fact, the blatant and direct form of discrimination has lowered and the subtle and sly discrimination tactics are on the rise. (Grossman, 2000, p. 44). Discrimination tactics that used to be upfront, such as, telling a job candidate they weren’t hired because of their color, have now taken a more subtle approach. For example, employers will now hire minority employees at lower level positions, but never allow them to move up in the company into executive or corporate positions.
It has also been noted that one of the primary reasons for companies to hire sprinkles of minorities, especially Hispanics, into corporate positions is for the company to give the appearance of diversity, but not actually addressing the issue in its entirety. The company would rather spend its money to look good rather than doing good. (Grossman, 2000, p. 44).
Another source I chose to examine was an article titled, “How Hispanics See Discrimination In the Workplace,” by HR Magazine. The author discusses the how more and more Hispanics have been incorporated into mainstream American culture, but a large percentage of Hispanics still believe that discrimination is a problem that prevents them from succeeding. In a poll conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center found that 31 percent of the Hispanics polled revealed that they or someone they knew had experienced job discrimination in the past five years because of their racial or ethnic background. (HR Magazine, 2003). In addition, 14 percent reported experiencing employment-related bias personally, including not being hired or promoted due to their ethnicity or race. Some 78 percent felt that bias is a problem in the workplace and 75 percent feel that it is a roadblock in the school systems in this country. The Hispanics polled added additional reasons for the prevalent discrimination are the language that they speak followed by their physical appearance. (HR Magazine, 2003). The following graph shows the percentages of Hispanics who felt discrimination in the workplace and the reasons for the discrimination. *NOTE* You can scroll your mouse over the graph to view the percentages.*

Another source I examined is an article titled, “The Rising Hispanic Workforce.” The article gives an in depth look at the rising Hispanic workforce in this country with focus on large companies, such as McDonald’s and Microsoft, who advance Hispanic employees into executive positions. The article also addresses the stereotypes that surround many Hispanic workers, that they are only good for working hard, blue-collar jobs, with a limited educational background that is needed to posses an executive position. (Erikson, Falzon, Mishra & Mishra, 2012). This article relates to my work in respects to the breakdown of the Hispanic culture, family values, and reasons for why Hispanics are singled out for workplace discrimination. For example, the article states that Hispanic people are in nature very family oriented, religious, mostly bilingual, and are diligent workers.
An additional source that I examined was Diversity in Leadership: Where's the Love for Racioethnic Minorities? from the Business Journal of Hispanic Research. This article pleads for a more multidimensional perspective on leadership. (Pegues, D. A., Cunningham, C. L., 2010).

Analysis
The analysis of the leadership and organizational behavior concepts of The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf are that the company engages in a multi-level leadership style, which includes the production domain at the bottom of the organization, the organization domains at the middle level of the company, and the systems domain at the top of the company. This leadership style is consistent with how the company operates on a whole, with the senior management or corporate positions being at the top, the human resource department being the middle level, and the store workers and employees being at the bottom of the organization.
At The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, the company does demonstrate levels of inclusion within their organization, but many employees fail to experience this inclusion at the corporate level. For example, the company has a workforce diversity that can stand up to any multicultural organization, but this multiculturalism is only seen at the lower levels of the company’s employees. There are but a couple of minority corporate executives that work for the coffee giant, yet they still claim to be diverse. How can this be?
As I mentioned previously, this occurs when a company is more concerned about “looking good” rather than “doing good.” In this case the organization wants to be able to boast that they are diverse because they have a few minorities in corporate positions. When in all actuality, this number does not represent any form of diversity compared to the thousands of employees that the organization has working as employees. In addition,

Solutions
There are many solutions in Hector’s case that The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf can propose in order to mediate this situation.
• Strive to become affiliated with a local outreach program to help establish trust with their Hispanic employees.
By The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf going this route, it will give the Hispanic employees a greater sense of hope and trust in the company that they are attempting to dive deeper into learning about the Hispanic culture so that they can be more inclusive in nature towards them. An example of a local outreach program would be The National Society of Hispanic MBA’s. (Erikson, Falzon, Mishra & Mishra, 2012). If the coffee giant affiliates themselves with this organization, not only will they be able to recruit qualified Hispanics for corporate jobs, but also gain the trust of their current Hispanic employees.
• Set up a program within the corporate office to encourage more diversity in corporate positions and applicants in the organization.
This is very important because it shows that the organization is willing to put more diversity in executive positions through outreach programs and internal programs that will promote qualified Hispanic employees. The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf should set up these programs for the Latino employees so they feel like they have somewhere to go with someone who understands them and their culture. It would be very beneficial to both the company and the team by creating a more comfortable work environment for Latino workers. In addition, the company should reward employees with bilingual skills. (Erikson, Falzon, Mishra & Mishra, 2012). This would lessen the language barrier between the managers and team members and build an emotional trust between them. The Hispanic employees would also have a greater sense of comprehension and a smaller risk of miscommunication.
• Bridge the gap between the Latino employees and the senior management of The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf with group forums. Discuss various ideas and topics, including discrimination within the company among the staff. Employees can host a forum with each other and management to discuss their day-to-day work and their lives outside of work. This type of engagement, again, builds a trust between the employee-employer relationships and demonstrates that the organization cares about the employee as a person, not just a worker.

Reflection
In reflection, this assignment genuinely helped change my perception of leadership and organizational behavior for the better. I now have a better understanding of what to expect in dealing with employees and how to better handle and manage difficult situations as they arise. The most important factor I learned and will apply to my current situation is how to encourage a team of employees or members who are resistant to change. As a manager who is implementing change to a group of team members, I now know it is better to introduce the change in a structured way, show how the change will benefit the organization, integrate the team into the change, and allow for discussions and suggestions on how the transition can be done to work smoother.
I also better understand what it means to be successful in your organization, and it is not always being the boss. Being a team player in your company, knowing how to adapt to and accept change, and showing others that you can follow suit when needed is just as successful as being the manager or team leader. I have learned how important it is to not only to be able to give out orders, but to accept them as well. Working within an organization is not about a competition, but to be able to work together with a group or team to see to it that the main goals of the company are accomplished. Many groups or teams of people are put together randomly and others are put together with specific people in mind. Either way, the primary focus of the team is to work together and separately, the best way they know how. This has been a great experience and I plan to use all of my newly found knowledge in my current and future life.

References
Flanagan, J., & Green, R. (2011). Stereotype Threat in Manual Labor Settings for Hispanic and Caucasian Participants. Journal Of Organizational Culture, Communications & Conflict, 15(2), 111-132.

Pegues, D. A., & Cunningham, C. L. (2010). Diversity in Leadership: Where's the Love for Racioethnic Minorities?. Business Journal Of Hispanic Research, 4(1), 12-17.

Triana, M., Garcia, M., & Collela, A. (2010). Managing Diversity: How Organizational Efforts to Support Diversity Moderate the Effects of Perceived Racial Discrimination on Affective Commitment. Personnel Psychology, 63(4), 817-843. doi:10.1111/j.1744-6570.2010.01189.x

Volpone, S. D., Avery, D. R., & McKay, P. F. (2012). Linkages Between Racioethnicity, Appraisal Reactions, and Employee Engagement. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 42(1), 252-270.

Weaver, C. N. (2011). Hispanic Prejudice in the United States. Journal Of Applied Social Psychology, 41(11), 2723-2738. doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.2011.00836.x

Grossman, R. J. (2000). Race in the Workplace. (cover story). HR Magazine, 45(3), 40-45.

Hispanics See Discrimination in the Workplace. (2003). HR Magazine, 48(2), 16.

Erikson, S., Falzon, R., Mishra, J., & Mishra, B. (2012). The Rising Hispanic Workforce. Advances in Management, 5(2), 7-14.