1^st Intervention Feedback

After reaching out to the two new companies based in Veneto, Italy I have received feedback that I was not expecting and therefore I believe I was able to break new grounds and discover new knowledge from this new environment and these new stakeholders.

The first feedback has come from JDR Motors. Daniel Flueraru, which is the Area Manager for North Italy has responded in a very surprising way without leaving any space for discussion and showcasing no interest in my request.

Moreover, Mr Flueraru states that JDR Motors values diversity, promote inclusion and protect minorities at any stage and level, but afterwards, he also mentions that JDR aims to preserve their national identity justifying in this way the choice of hiring mostly nationals. In this regard, a question comes naturally, How can you value diversity and promote inclusion at any stage and level if you want to preserve your company’s National Identity??

Furthermore, Mr Flueraru states that they recognise the benefits that businesses can have from multicultural environments, but, because of the high skill level of their employees and of the general Made in Italy know-how, they do not need to implement evaluation tools and this project research could not relate to their business.

Reflection:

Knowing the importance that Diversity and Inclusion have in our society, it is very concerning that JDR answers in this way to the public and specifically to a Master’s Student aiming to investigate further this topic. It is also very concerning that this answer comes from an environment that has been mentioned before having issues related to Inclusivity not only in the workplace but also in a social context. At this stage, I must consider this feedback carefully and evaluate if this is a reality related to only this or a few companies or this is a general pattern present in the North-West of Italy.

I believe that JDR is certainly not an Inclusive company and their culture is strongly conservative. As mentioned before JDR is a family-owned company and therefore the power and decision-making are in the hands of a few people and this could seriously threaten the future of the company.

2^nd Intervention Feedback

The second feedback has been from EcorNaturaSí, as it is possible to see from the picture below, Mr Bhuiyan, the Product Manager has answered all my question providing some very useful findings for this project.

In order to summarise the main points made by Mr Bhuiyan, I have written below what I have considered meaningful knowledge at this stage:

• EcorNaturaSí does not use any Employee Performance Evaluation Tools
• Mr Buhiyan states “our copmany must implement these in order to evaluate everyones performance, i feel sometimes demotivated because my colleagues lacks on professionalism and we are both rewarded in the same way”
• “Our Compnay’s culture has negatively influenced our business as for example we struggle in acquiring new clients and we lack of communication skills”
• “We are very inclusive towards people with Learning Disabilities or Womens with kids and we aim to provide them flexible working and reduce salary gap”

Reflection

In this regard, the feedback from EcorNaturaSí is very different from JDR and leaves space for an open discussion regarding their business’ ability to create an inclusive environment.

Mr Bhuyian has honestly and transparently shared information that could be easily understood and not taken as the desire of this company to be a non-inclusive workplace. As mentioned in answering question Nr 4, I genuinely believe that this company has had in recent years a very rapid growth and that it has somehow not realised the importance of implementing performance evaluation tools. As also stated by the manager, he feels sometimes demotivated from the lack of productivity and professionalism shown by his colleagues who are not assessed based on their results and therefore rewarded in the same way as him.

Although EcoraturaSí is sensitive in providing better work conditions to women’s with kids and people with learning disabilities, it is possible to see also that a conservative environment around this company has influenced their ability to be innovative and provide a high level of Inclusion and create a better workplace environment for all the team members and not only for a small category.

New Knowledge – Discovery of possible limitations

At this stage of the project and with these two new feedbacks, I have realised that the environment around us can be very a very strong influence affecting human behaviour, and therefore we must take into consideration some limitations as also part of the learning journey.

Comparing my two initial interventions with Louis Vuitton and VOWOW I would say I have met a very favourable and welcoming environment with highly skilled managers who have demonstrated invaluable experience, knowledge and desire to provide to their teams the best environment around them by considering every tool possible. This has also showed to me the high level of Cultural agility demonstrated by these 2 companies who have been willing to take the time to discuss this with me and possibly find a way to improve their businesses. I also believe that where there is a desire and a high level of cultural agility people can make things happen, and when generally leaders in organisations are lacking cultural agility the overall situation of the company is influenced negatively, JDR is one clear example of management lacking in cultural agility allowing them to contradict themselves when considering inclusivity an important aspect for businesses but also not thinking this could be beneficial to their company, and also recognising the benefits that multicultural environments can have on team performances but also stating that this could not be applied to them as they believe that Italian know-how is well known worldwide and employees do not need performance evaluation tools to review their achievements.

In the next few weeks, I am aiming to interview some industry experts in Diversity and Inclusion and evaluate wether Cultural agility can negatively influence businesses and workplace environments and wether employee performance tools are beneficial to create inclusive workplace environments