SCENARIO
Corollary Marketing is a leadership development company known for its EI training programs. Corollary was recently hired by Alliah Company’s leadership to conduct emotional intelligence training for Alliah’s employees. Alliah Company recently received a rating of 10/100 on the A–Z List of Emotionally Intelligent Companies.
Company leadership is very concerned that this low rating could significantly impact its market share, access to talent, and customer satisfaction. This is especially concerning since Alliah revised its mission, ethics, and corporate social responsibility statements this year.
Mission Statement: Alliah Company will provide the most innovative products designed by the best and brightest talent in the technology industry.
Ethics Statement: Alliah Company is committed to ensuring that all employees, suppliers, contractors, and any other entities engaged in business with Alliah will do the right thing for stakeholders.
Corporate Social Responsibility Statement: Alliah Company is committed to reducing the environmental impact of the business.
In addition to revising its mission, ethics, and corporate social responsibility statements, Alliah’s leadership wants to create an innovative culture that approaches all ideas as possible customer solutions that could create the next profitable approach to market growth.
Employees are not surprised by Alliah’s rating of 10/100 on the A–Z List of Emotionally Intelligent Companies. In recent communications with company leadership, the human resources team has advised the leadership to consider certain best practices.
Understanding that employees are valuable not just for their ideas that could lead to profits but as individuals who are valuable on their own merits, can improve morale.
Increasing the diversity of the company’s employees, suppliers, and contractors could better reflect the customers that purchase Alliah’s products.
Reducing resistance to allowing employees to work remotely requires reconsidering expressed concerns over not being able to manage employees’ productivity if they work outside of the office.
Changing the way employees communicate with leadership from a chain of command approach of working through managers to having avenues for meeting with leadership could open communication channels and increase trust.
Corollary’s EI training session will be coordinated by the employees’ managers, and company leadership will not be in attendance. The leadership is expecting that the result of the training will be a move towards their desire for a culture of innovation, and that the next year’s rating on the A–Z List of Emotionally Intelligent Companies will be significantly higher.
QUESTIONS
A. Explain your top four core values (e.g., accountability, honesty, integrity, respect, loyalty, fairness, etc.) with detail on why they are personally meaningful.
B. Evaluate how each of your four core values from part A align or misalign to Alliah’s values and social responsibility.
C. Evaluate how EI and CI impacts interactions within the Alliah Company by doing the following:
1. Explain two potential ways the Alliah’s leadership will improve their cultural intelligence by working with a more diverse group of stakeholders.
2. Explain, with a specific example, how you would overcome a potential challenge that may arise when working with Alliah’s diverse group of stakeholders.
3. Explain how an aspect of Hofstede’s six-dimensions of culture can help you respectfully communicate with Alliah’s diverse work culture.
