Background
Diversity in leadership entails diversity in thought, with teams that are full of people with diverse experiences, backgrounds, and perspectives being more likely to develop ideas covering a broader spectrum of actions and strategies that can be used in business. The Bestfoods case study is dedicated to the exploration of women and global leadership as the senior executive positions could significantly benefit from gender diversity. The case study will be explored from the perspective of change management methods, focusing on improving gender diversity and increasing women’s leadership participation within an organization. In addition, the perspectives of leading the change strategy in specific processes and steps that can facilitate organizational transformation in terms of leadership.
Bestfoods dates back a century ago, beginning from the creation of Blue Ribbon mayonnaise by Richard Hellman. Over the years, the company developed into the producer of popular sauces and condiments, with its mayonnaise being considered a staple in American kitchens. The product is the best-selling mayonnaise in the United Stated because of its distinct taste. Being US-based and one of the largest international food companies, Bestfoods has annual sales of more than $8 billion, operating in 110 countries, with 60% of revenue being acquired outside the country (Osland & Adler, 2014). Its business is divided into Savory, Dressing, and Catering sections with core values of growing, caring, sharing, and daring. The goals of the vision of the organization are facilitated by a Balance Scorecard created at the three levels: division, affiliate, and department. In addition, Bestfoods has a highly decentralized structure with local autonomy.
Analysis of Organization’s Leadership Diversity
When it comes to the strengths of diverse senior leadership at the organization, the first advantage entails the commitment of senior leaders to promote women’s careers. In addition, Laura Brody’s significant prior experience has allowed creating a global action-learning task force, employee-driven education, and mentoring programs. This resulted in the increased efforts of organizing the first-ever Women’s Global Leadership Forum. Besides, Brody, after analyzing the staff of her organization, she discovered that “15% of the employees who had been designated as high-potential were women” (Osland & Adler, 2014, p. 7). It was also found that there were more US women in management positions when compared to other regions where Bestfoods operates, even though Europe was the region where the first woman was appointed as a country general manager. Overall, the organization benefited from the global strategic vision in combination with consistent local focus decision-making allowed to look deeper into the understanding of female leadership and its roles in contributing to the stability and effectiveness of workers within the company.
As to the weaknesses illustrated in the case study, it was revealed that fewer women than in industry norms and fewer at the senior level were involved at the organization. The emphasis on traditional company culture, which has been developing over a lot of decades, is slow to change. Some executives worry about being blamed if changes that are being made do not work. Because of this, many of them use the ‘drip method’ of change, which entails making small changes over time, hoping that they will eventually result in progress (Osland & Adler, 2014). What is also challenging is that there are varied attitudes, hesitation, and misconceptions about promoting women. For example, in the survey that was implemented before the Women’s Global Leadership Forum, it was concluded that there was a variation in the way responders perceived the leadership of men and women (Osland & Adler, 2014). Specifically, while both men and women agreed on the majority of barriers that inhibit women’s career advancement, women reported several obstacles that appear to have invisible to men. These included senior men’s discomfort when working with ambitious women, the negative stereotyping of women in leadership positions, as well as men’s difficulty reporting their work to a woman. Besides, the HR policies were not centralized, which meant that there was no strategic vision.
Nevertheless, the advancement of women in leadership positions at Bestfoods represents multiple opportunities for successfully integrating change management to improve diversity in the workplace. Specifically, the available global competition allows forcing the tapping of all talent available. This means that Bestfoods can attract and retain the best talent available on a worldwide scale, having local employees from each country in which they operate, in order to reflect the consumer base. Besides, with women making 80% of purchasing decisions for the products sold at Bestfoods, the organization will experience significant challenges if it fails to understand the perspectives of women, their needs, and the criteria for decision-making (Osland & Adler, 2014). Therefore, it is a good idea to consider the idea of promoting women into leadership positions not only due to the need to encourage diversity but also for achieving strategic competitive advantage. Capitalizing on this opportunity, it will become possible to explicitly express the commitment to develop the most skilled and talented women and men who have diverse experiences and perspectives. Nevertheless, it is essential to facilitate more rapid progress of the set goal to include more women in the senior management of the organization.
Finally, it is necessary to consider the threats that prevent Bestfoods from implementing a drastic change in leadership and include more women for the purpose of diversity. One of the threats entails unrealistically heightened expectations about which the senior management worried, even though Brody wanted to implement change rapidly and forcefully. Besides, some of the members of the senior management group wondered how they could cater to both men and women in the organization so that neither group would feel threatened. In addition, it is necessary to consider the role of global competition, which can be threatening to a decentralized business model. Finally, Brody acknowledged the variety of attitudes towards promoting women varied among the management, ranging from highly supportive to indifferent, and, in some cases, even chauvinistic. For the majority of cases, Brody believed that even though managers had good intentions, there was no certainty among them as to how and what improvements could be carried out to facilitate significant career advancement among female workers.
Change Management Goals
Implementing root cause analysis regarding the limitations of diverse leadership at Bestfoods, the lack of exposure of women to leadership at all organizational levels. There are only a few women at high enough levels to be chosen for the opportunity to become senior managers. The management training programs carried out in the company are usually available to senior managers who have already been promoted higher up the hierarchy (Osland & Adler, 2014). The problem is that very few women have and will attain such a high level, which means that they will receive little in terms of company-funded, proper management and career improvement opportunities. This will limit their executive-level exposure and the visibility that such opportunities can provide.
Thus, the goal stemming from root cause analysis of Besfood’s diverse leadership opportunities is increasing diversity and involvement of women in high leadership positions by identifying and developing high-performing managers at the organization. Diversity, therefore, is a strategic issue that needs to be addressed on a systematic level. This is also because of the nature of the industry in which the organization operates – consumer foods is a highly competitive market and is becoming increasingly competitive each year (Osland & Adler, 2014). Therefore, only organizations with top talent and top leadership strategies will survive. In addition, while many consumer foods companies previously used to operate as loose confederations of relatively autonomous country operations, the worldwide competition encourages all industry members of the industry to coordinate their operations on a wider scale more closely. Therefore, it is necessary to facilitate the ongoing integration of all members of the industry in order to coordinate global operations.
Recommendations for Women’s Leadership Forum aimed at improving the diversity in leadership include the following steps:
- Career development of women in both higher and lower positions of leadership;
- Integrating diversity as a core principle of change management;
- Creating a work/life balance philosophy for all members of a team;
- Implementing personal responsibilities for career development;
- Integrating personal responsibilities for maintaining the work/life balance;
- Carrying out Women’s Global Leadership Forum and group responsibilities.
The change management process entails valuing diversity in the workplace to energize effective change. Drawing from the findings of the McKinsey report called “Why Diversity Matters,” businesses that have higher levels of diversity show outperforming others by up to 15% (Hunt, Layton, & Prince, 2015). Even though the evidence shows that diversity has a direct impact on organizational performance, the case of Bestfoods shows that the main principle of change management entails combatting cultural conflicts. How leaders will deal with creating a framework where conflict becomes a driver of more significant innovation and creativity. It is imperative that leaders work on acknowledging and eliminating their unconscious biases and implementing a care-fronting approach to resolving conflicts.
In the context of the existing leadership framework at Bestfoods, it is recommended to ensure that the company’s leaders are well-equipped to take advantage of diversity. This will include the identification of differences in work approaches offered by diverse attitudes, experiences, and skillsets. Because communication styles between genders and groups of leaders are likely to be different, it is necessary to be mindful of such differences for the purpose of creating a sustainable strategy of change management. By adhering to this principle, the differences must be embedded into the leadership approach that calls for diversity.
Within the change management initiative, communication in leadership is critical, and without attention to differences between diverse workers, a leader’s approach can destroy collaboration. Another crucial aspect of change management entails paying attention to the diversity of opinions and communication styles not only in terms of gender but also in terms of culture. Within some cultures, gender equity and equality is not a well-identified concern, with diversity being defined locally to refer to other groupings within the population. This means that for companies headquartered in the US, the leadership has to be careful, strengthening its advantage of providing continuity and establishing, with the downside being fewer innovations and fewer new members. The problem with American employees and the leadership at the company is that Bestfood’s employees represent Middle America, which is highly conservative and traditional, having old-fashioned values (Osland & Adler, 2014). This is an issue because of the need for the company to push for more gender equality in leadership, a problem that remains relevant in the wider society today. Besides, even though the leadership has been updated with the involvement of Brody, the culture remains traditional and conservative.
The most potentially successful strategy of success entails beginning with leadership tools, including developing a newer vision and story of the company’s future, cementing the change in place with management tools, such as role definitions, systems of management and control. Finally, the pure power tools can include coercive control and punishments; however, only as a last resort. However, in the case of Bestfoods, which is quite opposed to cultural changes, the overuse of power tools of coercion can result in increased resistance, which is why it is necessary to place emphasis on communication and collaboration.
Leading the Change Strategy
Considering the traditional and conservative organizational culture at Bestfoods, the recommended change strategy can align with Kotter’s eight-step process for leading change that companies over the world have been using for decades. However, the purpose of change management will instead push the idea of an innovative approach toward leadership. Therefore, the leading the change strategy will have to combine both conventional and innovative approaches (Tanner, 2021). The first step in this strategy will entail helping others, specifically the leaders that have a traditional approach toward change, understand the need for a bold and aspirational chance process. Laura Brody is responsible for negotiating with the majority of leaders and executives as to communicating the importance of introducing the principles of gender diversity into the leadership of an organization.
As the need for change has been identified, Brody will work closely on building coalitions within the organization so that the parties involved in the change process can share their opinions and perspectives about how change can be implemented. It is necessary to combine both traditional and advanced perspectives regarding gender equality in leadership. By doing so, Bestfoods leaders will have the opportunity to understand how different parts of the organization approach the goal of facilitating gender equality within the company’s leadership structure. The collaboration within the organization can lead to the formation of a strategic vision and accompanying initiatives. It is necessary to clarify that the future success of Bestfoods depends on integrating the principle of gender equality in its leadership structures. The more diverse the leadership structure is, the more likely will the company exhibit high competitiveness in its industry and pave the way for a sustained advantage (Knudsen et al., 2021). In a highly integrated world in which limits of organizational structure are blurred, it is necessary to ensure the diversity of ideas and opinions that leaders can offer.
The next step entails mobilizing a group of like-minded individuals who share similar perspectives on gender equality within leadership to drive the change. According to Kotter’s principles, change is not a project but rather a movement and a journey that can help transform an organization and its core principles (Tanner, 2021). Action will be enabled by removing barriers and inefficient processes that prevent the leadership from becoming increasingly diverse. Some of the obstacles can range from the organizational structure, such as the outdated Balanced Scorecard reporting to cultural challenges in the form of limitations in personal growth and advancement, with the emphasis placed on work time. The elimination of barriers can help generate short-term wins, which is a good strategy for Bestfood’s leaders, who are often opposed to radical changes and prefer small steps that add up to progress over time. The small wins are especially relevant to consider for the global action-learning task forces that collaborate to identify pressing issues and develop recommendations to top management. It is essential to facilitate direct reporting for the purpose of considering each recommendation within the task force.
According to Kotter’s change leadership framework, with the help of small wins, an organization has the capacity to sustain acceleration to integrate diversity into its leadership efforts. This means pressing harder for more changes after the first success stories begin emerging (Tanner, 2021). The increasing credibility of the change process can improve the existing systems, processes, and structures. The strict implementation of one change after another is necessary until the vision of a diverse leadership framework becomes a reality. Within the change management framework, the final state is instituting change, which entails the articulation of connections between new behaviors and organizational success. It is necessary to ensure that the efforts to boost diversity continue until they become strong and consistent enough for replacing old structures.
To conclude, the change management process aimed at the integration of gender diversity in leadership at Bestfoods is a multi-dimensional process that entails the implementation of several steps and best practices to change the system. The global angle to the objective of diversity is no longer a US-specific issue, with the company having to pay more attention to the cultural differences inherent to a global organization, calling for the interplay between varied perspectives, ideas, and challenges. The awareness of diversity-related issues across different Bestfoods departments can facilitate the easier implementation of steps toward diversity. The leaders of the company will work on a structured and uniform Diversity and Leadership Forum while programs such as Cultural Connections, an employee-driven education and awareness program, can be made global for all employees working at Bestfoods.
The advantage of the chosen path toward leadership diversity is the implementation of structured global communication that facilitates the easier integration of relevant processes and recommendations. Within this implementation process, it is essential to remain inclusive of men in leadership positions and provide greater flexibility to improve the work-life balance. No longer should Bestfoods focus on Balanced Scorecards as the methods of measuring employees’ performance and effectiveness in their positions. The set team goal should also include the percentage of women in the team, facilitating short-term rotation programs within the company to give them the opportunity for women to explore new roles and responsibilities. By doing so, Brody expects to have a positive impact on the retention of women leaders and the representatives of minorities in such positions. It is possible that change toward leadership diversity at Bestfoods will not occur easily or quickly due to the tendency of the company’s management to resist change and implement long lead times to reap some benefits. Therefore, the initiative needs time and dedication, with all relevant steps implemented gradually and through maximum collaboration between leaders and managers.
References
Hunt, V., Layton, D., & Prince, S. (2015). Why diversity matters. Web.
Knudsen, E. S., Lien, L. B., Timmermans, B., Belik, I., & Pandey, S. (2021). Stability in turbulent times? The effect of digitalization on the sustainability of competitive advantage. Journal of Business Research, 128, 360-369.
Osland, J., & Adler, N. (2014). Women and global leadership at Bestfoods. Web.
Tanner, R. (2021). Kotter’s eight step leading change model. Web.