Case Study Ellison's Furniture

Surface Problems. In this case study, the main surface issue is the lack of diversity at Ellison’s Furniture. With a small staff of 20 salespersons, there is only one African American employed at the company. Despite her manager’s support, Karla feels ignored, isolated, and an outsider excluded from social gatherings especially those held outside of the office. Karla responded to the isolation and cold reception from her co-workers by becoming quieter and more withdrawn. While feeling ostracized, Karla remains very successful in her position in spite of these problems with the culture at Ellison.
After a couple of years, Daniel, her manager, promotes Karla to his position as he was promoted to an executive level at the headquarters. Even though the sales department has not socially accepted her, Karla feels that they respect her sales ability enough to win them over. Despite having a positive mindset, Karla begins getting a greater avoidance and resistance from the sales department. They appear to be joking and laughing behind her …show more content…
If they continue to ignore her, then she needs to speak up and let Daniel know what is bothering her. This should be done before she is promoted to management. Based on what we know, Daniel thinks very highly of Karla, but it appears that he has not noticed how the rest of the team has ostracized her and resisted the shift of a more diverse culture. Or if he has, he has ignored and failed to address it. Daniel needs to treat all of the employees the same, and perhaps he has given Karla special treatment to make her feel welcome. There needs to be team bonding for the sales group, so they can learn to work together and support one another. Daniel should be obtaining feedback from all employees, so he has a pulse on his sales department. Once Karla takes over the sales team, she can continue the same approach with the team bonding