The rationale for firing employees was that they were having a sexual orientation that is not considered to be normal whereby they were gays and lesbians. Further reasons were because of the public pressure including consumers who would be upset with having homosexuals in the company.
Does it make sense from a business perspective?
What benefits did Cracker Barrel achieve by ridding itself of lesbian and gay employees?
Cracker Barrel had benefits of expanding into several geographic areas and most of its workers are then protected from discrimination. It has also created liberal populations for supporting its workers in order to satisfy its interest groups.
What were the disadvantages?
The identified disadvantage was that preferences of the management conflicted with interests of other stakeholders.
How should the perceived values of a customer base affect company’s personnel policies?
Values of a customer base should focus on customer loyalty and their satisfaction. Personnel policies will then work hard to ensure that the customers are satisfied by all means.
In a large national corporation, should personnel policies be uniform across all operating units or should they be tailored by region according to local mores?
Personnel policies are best when they are uniform across all units of operation. This is because the policies should be aimed at the satisfaction of consumers and profit making for the organization and uniformity should be created for a balanced organizational structure.
Chapter Eight
Discussion Questions
How should management accommodate a variety of conflicting spiritual perspectives in the workplace?
Conflicting spiritual perspectives should be accommodated by management in the workplace, and this should be done by increasing importance of the phenomenon. Religious discrimination should also be decreased and barred at all times if possible. The religious perspectives must all be appreciated and made important before all people in the workplace.
Tom Chappel created a spiritual framework for Tom of Maine, a family owned business. Can such a framework be created for the publicly traded company?
Yes, such frameworks can be important for publicly owned companies. This is because Tom of Maine promoted ethic sustainability in the environment of business. The ethics involved then pressurizes other people also to practice ethics and assist in the increase of sales and profits. Ethics development also leads to increased degree of divinity and proper spirituality.
What Differences might there be in its effects?
The frameworks can have effects of differences because not everyone thinks the same. There will be a different degree of inspiration, and many people will foster a good spirituality just for the sake of increased sales. The pursuit for divinity should be to change individuals and their behaviors in all aspects yet there can only be changes at times for the sake of good business. Policies implemented may as well not cooperate with people’s thoughts and spiritual commitment.
The spiritual perspectives of Chappel are to an extent of successful competition and strategies that are consistent with spiritual ethics in the organizational culture of the company. Tom’s spiritual perspective has welcomed a diverse number of employees as a success and inconsistent policies as failures.
What risks might a company encounter when encouraging expressions of spiritual values in the workplace? What advantages does it gain?
Risks might come with the interactions among different religions and spirituality in the workplace. Expressing spiritual values can be problems of transformation and accommodating different religions may be difficult. Advantages gained can be the accomplishment of totality in the workplaces and activity performances that are related to the inner self of people.
Works Cited
Kathryn A. Canas/Harris Sondak. Opportunities and Challenges of Workplace Diversity, Third Edition. Pearson (ISBN-978-0-13-295351-1)
Putnam, Robert D. "E pluribus unum: Diversity and community in the twenty‐first century the 2006 Johan Skytte Prize Lecture." Scandinavian political studies 30.2 (2007): 137-174.
Steinkuehler, Constance A., and Dmitri Williams. "Where everybody knows your (screen) name: Online games as “third places.”" Journal of Computer‐Mediated Communication 11.4 (2006): 885-909.
