Current Question: “How can organizations increase fair performance assessment and create a more inclusive workplace environment?”
Knowledge Research Process:
- Secondary Research and discovery of knowledge from pre-existing literature
- Further knowledge aquisition through events, discussions or podcasts
- Primary research – Definition of samples to be interviewed and proceed with questions
Secondary Research and discovery of knowledge from pre-existing literature
My secondary research direction has been mainly dictated by the desire to investigate more about workplace inclusivity and what can be done to improve it. This was initially supported by the audience request during the previous intervention of the Instagram live event and therefore I have found it meaningful to obtain new knowledge in this area.
A very informative book for the initiation of this research has been ” Plain Favourites” by Butterman E, (2007). The author states that “People are socialized to relate to each other on the basis of race, class, and religion. As a result, a boss may unconsciously, or consciously, distance employees who don’t have the same skin colour, social class or religion” and this has supported my initial project research focusing on inclusivity, but not only, although people bring all their differences to the companies they work for, Management “must treat everyone fairly and evaluate them transparently”, as according to Idvik, (2015)
In this regard, findings from the literature suggest that Workplace favouritism is “a common thing happening in teams, and it helps to minimise or remove the cost of an organization on searching for a new employee”. Furthermore, “favouritism depicts that a candidate is given special treatment based on the several elements or factors that indirectly relay to a person’s ability in performing a job.” Ponzo and Scoppa (2011).
Moreover, according to Woods (2011), favouritism promotes bias and discrimination to some groups of people especially the minority group. Considering a workplace environment, according to Kapadia (2013), more than 70% of employees posit that favouritism makes the relationship between colleagues become strained and promote hatred toward the recipients of favouritism. It can also be stated that favouritism can harm the overall performance of the employees and reduce respect for supervisors and senior management.
Further knowledge aquisition through events, discussions or podcasts
“Voices of Inclusion – LVMH Event “
Available here: https://lvmh.fcst.tv/pride2021
In order to enrich my knowledge with new and more recent findings, I have attended a private event from LVMH called “Voices of Inclusion” where Senior Management and CEO’s of some of the most important Fashion companies in the world have participated in order to discuss the importance of Inclusion in the workplace, what are the steps that their companies are taking to promote workplace inclusivity and what are the future plans for its development. This event has been particularly influential and inspiring as it has made me feel much more motivated to continue with this project. I have felt extremely aligned with the mindset and the vision provided by the participants, which have outlined strengths of their businesses regarding inclusion and transparently reported areas of improvement and their plan for improving these aspects.
LVMH is among the most inclusive businesses in the fashion industry consisting of a group of 75 companies operating across 3 different markets and also leaders in supporting women in reaching higher positions that have previously only been occupied by men.
Participants at the event have been:
- Jasmin Allen – SVP Moet Hennessey USA
- Chantal Quimperlè – EVP of Human Resources and Synergies LVMH
- Charles Leung – CEO of Maison Fred Paris
- Mark Chaya – Ceo of Maison Francis Kurkdijian
- Corey Smith – Head of Diversity and Inclusion LVMH USA
REFLECTION
This event has made me realise how Inclusivity should not be only considered for businesses purposes, but also to make the world a better place. This has sounded extremely personal to me and my dedication in pursuing this project. I have felt that my desire to make a change was also shared and acknowledged by leaders in the industry and provided me with more motivation to take meaningful actions and be supportive in improving this matter.
Moreover, some of the most interesting findings that came out have been considering Inclusivity a core aspect of their businesses in order to make businesses successful and creative. Also, safety has been an aspect that has been considered carefully in order to allow everyone to perform at their very best and be evaluated in the most transparent way. I truly believe that businesses can be diverse but lack Inclusivity and especially starting from the performance evaluation process, which if is not fair and transparent could be harmful and create toxic environments.
Primary research – Definition of samples to be interviewed and proceed with questions
My primary research has been conducted following the “Voices of Inclusion” event and I have focused on obtaining more influential findings related to my question being: “How can organizations increase fair performance assessment and create a more inclusive workplace environment?”.
During this stage, I have interrogated myself who my stakeholders were with the final desire to obtain knowledge from them. In order to be as efficient as possible, I have divided this into 2 categories, consisting of
- 1. Industry Professionals at Senior Management level
- 2. Businesses who don’t have yet in practice tools for employee performance evaluation or needing support in improving this aspect
In this regard, I have decided that my Industry professionals should have been people who are genuinely interested in this topic and can provide me with useful findings and therefore I have decided to reach out to the Voices of Inclusion participants from the LVMH event attended above and reached out to:
- Jasmin Allen – SVP Moet Hennessey USA
- Charles Leung – CEO of Maison Fred Paris
- Mark Chaya – Ceo of Maison Francis Kurkdijian
- Corey Smith – Head of Diversity and Inclusion LVMH USA
I have therefore reached out to each one of them, I connected on LinkedIn and introduced myself as a researcher looking to follow up with questions regarding the event they attended. Interestingly. Mark Chaya, has invited me to talk about this during a phone call or zoom video call instead of LinkedIn messaging to better discuss our opinions.
Corey Smith was the first person to accept my invitation and to answer my question, “Do you think a fair and transparent performance assessment can create a more inclusive workplace environment and reduce workplace favouritism?