ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR-I
An
Analysis
Of
The case study on
“Julia Stasch’s Dilemma”
INTRODUCTION:
The case revolves around Julia Stasch who from being a teacher went on to join Stein and Company. Stein & Company is a real estate company providing complete array of real estate services. Stasch work here could be called as Change Agent in the industry. Her efforts in introducing affirmative action as well encouraging women and minorities to be part of real estate industry improved their conditions. However because of the mentality of being a male dominated industry in construction projects, she was facing problems of introducing and encouraging women workforce in construction industry
The Case study concludes as to what Julia Stasch should do to overcome her dilemma, introduce changes and also be able to obtain the bid Metcalfe Federal building to advance the cause.
OUTLINE OF THE CASE:
Stein & company, founded by Richard A Stein which started as a small venture handling rehabilitation of townhouses evolved into a successful enterprise responsible for over a billion worth of commercial properties in Chicago .
Julia Stasch, a socially conscious high school teacher, joined Stein and Company as a secretary to Richard Stein but rose to the status of president and chief operating officer within 15 years.
Julia Stasch’s first real opportunity to address minority and women’s issues in construction began in 1984 when Stein and Company was asked by the city of Chicago to include an Affirmative Action Component in a small project.
Shortly thereafter, Stein and Company was bidding to become the developer of a $360 million regional headquarter for AT&T, a telecommunications giant.
Stasch suggested that Stein and Company should distinguish its bid by including a strong affirmative action component seeing AT&T’s own attempts to support minority owned vendors and suppliers.
Stasch formed an affirmative action task force to meet the objectives and targets of AT&T. Once the work began, the task force wielded enough power. It adopted various measures to ensure that quality work was being done and each employee’s potential was being tapped to the fullest.
As a result, the affirmative action program was effective. More than 100 minority and women owned contractors and subcontractors worked on the AT&T project and about $37 million went to these firms. The AT&T Corporate Centre project’s affirmative action program brought Stein and Company numerous awards from both members of the task force and outsiders.
But affirmative action’s progress in using minority and women owned suppliers did not change the male dominated world of Chicago construction jobs which were still almost exclusively held by male. If women did manage to land jobs in the construction industry, they were considered exceptional for their gender if they performed well or were ridiculed and stereotyped as in the inferior gender if they performed poorly.
Furthermore, they were subjected to a lot of hostility and harassment at the workplace, but they held on to their jobs purely for the financial aid that it provided.
Gender discrimination persisted in the world of construction. Women faced difficulty in obtaining union apprenticeship, half hearted recruitment by employers and blatantly unfair treatment.
Stasch wanted to address this problem. She wanted to make a safe room for women in the construction industry. But how could she increase employment of women and minorities in the construction industry under such conditions?
Also, how could she use the opportunity to bid on a major public construction project, the Metcalfe Federal Building, to advance the cause?
OBJECTIVES OF THE CASE ANALYSIS:
ISSUES:
* Mentality of people(male dominated society) * Bad working environment for minorities and women. * Low employment rate in construction industry of women and minorities.
IMPACT OF THE ISSUES: * Contractors or businesses unable to accept women in their work environment citing low physical strength and low speed to perform a task as a reason. * Due to bad working condition productivity as a whole is getting hampered. Workers are unable to perform to their full extent. * Low workforce diversity leading to reduction in creativity.
POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS:
The solutions are two folds:
1. Internal solutions-Actions to be taken within the organization.
2. External solutions-Actions with the affect to external environment of organization.

INTERNAL SOLUTIONS: * GRIEVANCE REDRESSAL CELL-
The Company should open a grievance redressal cell to sort out problems minorities and women are facing. Stein & company’s grievance cell should comprise of equal number of men and women hired specifically for redressals and0 answerable directly to the management.
PROS:
* Women will not have to silently face the wrong doing of opposite sex. * Proper action ground for complaints regarding the effected groups. * Increase in Productivity due to feeling of security. * Co-workers will not misbehave fearing repercussion that will help enhancing workplace culture. CONS: * Company unable to convey the right message to the willing parties. * Increase in cost * WORKPLACE CULTURE AND ENVIRONMENT:
The roles of each type of worker should be defined according to the skills they possess. Women should be given less physically taxing work. Division of work should be done in such a manner so as to have an efficient and effective control. There should be a proper code of conduct defined by the company in which each and every worker will behave. Any aberration from it will follow strict action. PROS: * With well defined roles each worker will perform his/her task efficiently. * Involvement of women will increase. * Increased morale of women which will increase their job satisfaction.
CONS:
* It might lead to work discrimination. * Contractor might not be willing to accept the conditions put by the company.

EXTERNAL SOLUTIONS: * COMPANY JOB WORK CONDITIONS DEFINED TO CONTRACTOR:
The company may float tenders inviting contractors who follow certain norms such as having more than 30% women and minorities in their workforce. Moreover the company might prefer more of women and minority contractors. PROS: * Contractors will be willing to hire more of women and minorities because Stein & Company is pioneer in real estate business. * Promotion of women and minority contractors. * Setting an example for the industry as a whole. * Contractor may encourage the male workers to include their families especially women which will also improve the financial position of the worker.
CONS:
* Unable to get competitive contractors from the market. * Unable to get sufficient labor from market. * TRAINING TO REDUCE SKILL BARRIERS:
The company can directly recruit laborers from the market or unions. Special Training can be provided to those reluctant women and minorities who are willing to join construction industry but do not because they lack the minimum required skill set. PROS: * Increase in women and minority participation. * Increase in efficiency of the worker.
CONS:
* Increase in cost.
MANAGERIAL LEARNINGS FROM THE CASE: 1. Manager should inculcate an environment which is conducive for all workers under him or her. 2. How one socially conscious individual can make an effective difference in society? Julia Stasch represented and gave voice to the minority and women groups. 3. How the organization and Managers should develop strategies to reduce work place differentiation based on gender , race etc and encourage work force diversity 4. Developing a redressal forum that gives a platform for workers to express their inhibitions on discrimination
BEST OPTION:
In our opinion, the best way by which Julia Stasch can address this problem is by creating a “Grievance Redressal Cell”.
By the presence of a separate body solely functioning for the safety and security of the workforce, the women workers and the minorities would develop a sense of confidence and will take up responsibilities without any mental constraints and would be able contribute to the project’s success.
CONCLUSION:
From this case we are able to understand, the problems faced in the introduction of workforce diversity in effective anti discrimination enforcement by government agencies and through change agents like Julia Stasch, affected supervising bodies, proper organizational guidelines, it is possible to overcome such issues.