After my two successful interventions with Louis Vuitton and VOWOW and many discussion with my tutor, I am motivated on discovering something new by planning an intervention in a different environment to understand what factors may limit or not and in what way would influence the implementation of my proposition. In this regard, there have been many studies confirming that the environment around us influences our behavior in countless ways, for example, it can “encourage or discourage social interaction, academic pursuit and risk-taking behaviours” Writer (2021).

According to a study conducted by Silverforce (2021), there are three categorizations of environment and are Physical, Social, and cultural environment.

These environments could significantly influence the outcome of my intervention if tested in another location as people have generally different values, beliefs, lifestyles. The Physical Environment is defined as “anything that we can physically experience through our senses, touch, smell, sight, hearing, and/or taste” The physical environment includes both the natural environment and the man-made environment and it can cause success or failure in the workplace environment.

The social environment is intended as “the environment that was originally formed from the existence of social groupings, in which there is an adjustment to the existence of rules in society that have a compelling nature”. In this regard, social grouping has been defined as:

• Social Groups are a key building block of social life but can also have negative consequences.
• Primary groups are generally small and include intimate relationships such as family or friends, while Secondary Groups are larger and more impersonal such as Workplace.
• Reference Groups provide a standard for guiding and evaluating our attitudes and behaviors.
• Social Networks are increasingly important in modern life, and involvement in such networks may have favorable consequences for many aspects of one’s life.

This could easily be related to my project as Social gatherings may be consciously or unconsciously creating discriminations against minorities even in the workplace environments without considering anyone’s ability to perform a job or their skills. ( defining skills is as “an individual’s capacity to perform various tasks in a job”. The overall skills of a person are essentially composed of two sets of factors, including intellectual skills and physical skills)

The Cultural environment includes non-material values, norms, customs, arts, political systems, etc that are common in that environment.

New Environment Definition Criteria

As mentioned before, I am motivated on testing my findings obtained from Louis Vuitton and VOWOW in a different location as I believe that these two companies being based in London might share some environmental similarity aspects that might facilitate the implementation of my proposition and therefore unconsciously underlying possible weaknesses of my research project.

Considering the foremost reason for starting this project research being related to my personal experience, I have immediately felt necessary to test and obtain new knowledge from an environment that I know very well and has made me feel in some occasions not considered, not valued, and not included, and this is the Veneto area in the North-West of Italy.

I have found many articles outlining an unpleasant situation in this area of Italy, and therefore confirming my own statement of being a generally not inclusive and socially conservative country, for example, an article from Diversity Abroad (2021) states that “depending on your identity, your experience may be affected by the status of Diversity & Inclusion in the country. With the large increase in North African immigration into Italy, tensions between Italians and immigrant groups have heightened” and “the society remains largely patriarchal and street harassment (cat-calling) of women by men is not uncommon” Diversity Abroad (2021)

As mentioned before, during the time I have lived in the Veneto area, I have been experiencing these kinds of behaviours from Italian nationals, especially while applying for a position after the termination of my studies. In this particular case, the hiring manager of a well-known clothing store has met me on the shop floor and knowing my desire to work for that Brand has invited me to bring my CV and schedule an interview for a role based on the shop floor. The following day, I have met the same manager and given her my cv, after reading my name, and realizing it was not an Italian name, she told me that the position on the shop floor was not available anymore, but there was one in the stockroom if I was interested.

Initially, the hiring manager could not understand my background was different as I was living in Italy for 15years+ and my education was from that country, therefore her behaviour was welcoming and very supportive until she realised I was Albanian and offered me a less visible job to the public. As mentioned in the previous posts, this discrimination has been done by many companies such as Abercombie and Fitch who gave to Black and Latino staff less visible jobs.

Therefore my next intervention will cosider these main points:

• Reaching out to companies in the area of Veneto and discuss Diversity and Inclusion practices in their organisation
• Demostrate findings obtained from collaboration with VOWOW and Louis Vuitton
• Discuss current Employee Performance Evaluation methods adopted or propose to support on implementing new ones and create employee performance monthly reviews for senior management.

1^st Company – JDR Motors

I have reached out to a vehicle spare parts manufacturer based in Verona, Italy introducing myself as a Master’s student currently undergoing research on Diversity and Inclusion and Employee Performance Evaluation practices.

The reason for choosing this company relies on its Brand Identity; JDR Motors is a well-known company in Veneto that was born nearly 50years ago and still today is a family-oriented business. This company produces some of the most high-quality and personalized spare parts for premium and high-end cars in Italy and therefore it would be interesting to understand the importance they give to Diversity and Inclusion and also to my availability in supporting them to create a more inclusive environment through fair and transparent employee performance review.

In this regard, I aim to reach out to JDR Motors Senior Management and hopefully have the chance to discuss in-depth my previous findings and evaluate any possible validity or limitations.

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2^nd Company – EcorNaturaSí

EcorNaturaSí is also a family-oriented company and leader in Italy in the Organic Food Industry. This company has a very wide distribution network not only in the north of Italy but also in Central and South Italy. At this point it would be very interesting to understand the company’s positionality as the cultural and environmental differences between these areas in Italy are very noticeable and well reported by many studies, therefore, in my opinion, the company must adopt a tailored to the specific environment strategy for inclusivity in the workplace.

In this regard, I have reached out to Shakibul Alam Bhuiyan, Product Manager at EcoraturaSí since 2015, and kindly requested if there was any possibility of discussing this topic further and understand if I could be helpful in supporting any pre-existing evaluation tools used by the company.