Responding to student interest in having the curriculum consider more diverse points of view, Yale SOM's Case Research and Development Team (CRDT) has made DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) a focus area for our work. CRDT’s efforts have been directed at two (often intersecting) types of materials.
Cases that feature women and underrepresented minorities as protagonists;
Cases that consider DEI efforts inside organizations and within their communities.
Representativeness of Protagonists
Among the reasons that case studies have become a preferred learning tool in management education is that cases allow students to step into the shoes of organizational leaders. But when nearly all the cases feature decisionmakers who are white and male, the vicarious experience of being a leader is blunted. The curriculum sends a subtle and unintended message about the nature of leadership that may be dispiriting to a large segment of our student body.
Therefore, CRDT and faculty has been identifying case protagonists that are women and/or from underrepresented minority. In most of these cases, the dilemma does not focus on the protagonist's identity and instead deals with core management challenges such as financing, hiring, or marketing.
The Federal Reserve Response to 9-11
Financial Regulation, Investor/Finance, Leadership & Teamwork, State & Society
The September 11th attacks challenged the Federal Reserve. On that day, Roger Ferguson, Vice Chair of the Fed's Board of Governors and one of only three Black governors in the Fed’s history, was the only member of the Board of Governor reachable by phone to make the immediate decisions facing the organization.
Before the COVID pandemic struck, Hertz CEO Kathyrn Marinello and CFO Jamere Jackson (pictured right) worked to change the capital structure of one of the largest rental car companies in the world.
In May 2019, Vicki Hollub, the CEO of Occidental Petroleum and the first female to lead a major oil company, pulled off a major deal by outbidding Chevron for Anadarko. Hollub believed that the combination of the two firms allowed for tremendous synergies, however, the stock market and activist investors disagreed.
A changing workforce, supply chain, customer expectations, and investment environment have forced organizations to reconsider their commitment to DEI. In each of these cases, the need to foster greater inclusion and equity, either within the organization or in its community, is the major dilemma facing the protagonist.
Nielsen: How Will the Company Maintain Its Commitments to Multiple Stakeholder Groups?
Employee/HR, Competitor/Strategy, Operations, Metrics & Data
Nielsen is a company that prides itself in unbiased measurement of media audiences. Could the company find an equitable way to compensate all of its employees engaged in field work?
TIAA had an enviable record for diversity within its own ranks. Could it leverage its understanding to engage groups that had historically been unresponsive to appeals from financial service firms? What messages and channels would be most effective?
Customer/Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Innovation & Design, Social Enterprise, State & Society
Can James Johnson-Piett of Urbane Development guide a market of local vendors into a hub for the Little Caribbean neighborhood of Brooklyn? Could the traditional vendors learn to update their wares and selling techniques to match their new marketplace?
