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In September 2014 Leyth Jamal, a transgender woman, filed suit against her employer, luxury retailer Saks Fifth Avenue. Jamal alleged that she experienced harassment from managers and other employees because of her gender identity while employed by Saks, including verbal abuse and threats of violence. At the time she filed suit, no federal, state, or local laws protected transgender employees from discrimination. However, some federal district courts had recently begun to allow such suits on the premise that discrimination based on gender identity was a form of sex discrimination. Other suits and amicus briefs brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) furthered this trend. The EEOC is the federal agency charged with investigating and supporting claims of discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, so district and appellate courts watched the EEOC's position on the application of Title VII. Socio-culturally, many Americans supported transgender rights, even as they voiced anxiety about transgender men in women's bathrooms.

This case has students assume the role of a trusted member of the executive team of Hudson's Bay Company, which owns Saks Fifth Avenue. One Friday afternoon in late December 2014, the Hudson's Bay CEO sends an email to his executive team notifying them that he has approved corporate counsel's motion to dismiss Jamal's case based on the argument that transgender people are not a protected class according to Title VII. The motion will be filed in federal court on Monday. The CEO shares that he personally believes it is preposterous for anyone to think that Saks Fifth Avenue is anything but a strong advocate for LGBT rights, but he invites executive team members to call him if they have any concerns. Members of the executive team have a responsibility to consider the broader strategic implications for the company, so students must decide if and how to respond to the CEO.

Data for the case came from public sources, including legal proceedings, court filings and Securities and Exchange Commission filings. The authors perused hundreds of court documents and identified 28 that were most relevant to this case. The authors also used press interviews with the women highlighted in the case. The authors have no relationship with the company and no one from the company has reviewed the information presented in this case. As the case is drawn from sworn legal testimonies, interviews and related documents in the public domain, the authors did not have to seek approval for publication.

Pinterest touted itself as “the nicest place on the Internet.” It had an almost 80% female user base and purported to have an inclusive culture that embraced diversity. However, in June 2020, in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests, two former female employees of color violated their non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) to publicly accuse Pinterest of racial and gender discrimination. In August 2020, Pinterest’s former Chief Operating Officer, Francoise Brougher, filed a lawsuit charging the company with gender discrimination, retaliation and wrongful termination, and authored a public blog post titled, The Pinterest Paradox: Cupcakes and Toxicity, detailing her own experience with the company’s discriminatory culture. Three days later 236 of Pinterest’s 2,545 employees staged a virtual walkout and 445 employees signed a petition in an attempt to change Pinterest’s policies and culture. The case provides a brief overview of Pinterest, including its mission, values and organizational culture, and details several incidents and complaints by female and minority employees. The case questions whether employee complaints are a relatively narrow issue involving disgruntled former employees who did not fit at the organization or a much broader issue involving discrimination and managerial neglect in creating and maintaining a nondiscriminatory, inclusive culture. Students are encouraged to evaluate the situation in which Co-Founder, Board Chair and Chief Executive Officer, Ben Silbermann finds himself, evaluate the actions taken and decide if Silbermann should take any additional actions to address the discrimination claims and ensure a positive culture for all employees.

This case is appropriate for graduate and advanced undergraduate level courses in organizational behavior, human resource management and business law or any course where discrimination and workplace culture are discussed.

The Women’s US Soccer team in 2016 entered into the summer Olympics with a dark cloud over their heads, the lack of pay equity in the sport of soccer. Despite being heralded as the best female team in the world, the team’s compensation does not reflect their winning record or average work performance. Complex contractual negotiations and compensation intricacies surround this situation and the legal proceedings with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that include discrepancies between gender preferences for compensation, benefits packages and terms of the overall collective bargaining agreement in a monopsony. The financial impact of lost wages and the role of the fan base are also examined.

This case has been created through the eyes of past and current members of the US Women’s Soccer team using scholarly and periodical sources.

This case is designed for upper level, undergraduate human resource management, labor economics and employment law courses, specifically, principles of human resource management, gender equity courses, business law, labor economics, law & economics.

Students from undergraduate and graduate levels.

Leadership, implicit leadership theories, decision-making, gender stereotypes and discrimination.

Defne was working as a sales manager in Diel Turkey, an international technology company. Diel focuses on software, hardware, network and business consultancy services. Defne had worked as a computer engineer before starting to work in the sales department. In her leadership, she gave importance to long-term relationships and justice. Defne had two meetings this week. The first one was with T&X, a big scale fast moving consumer goods company; and the other one was with Q-Coding, a medium-scale technology company. Defne had negotiated with T&X two years ago, and the project got canceled. Defne worked on T&X new contract very cautiously, as this time she wanted to finish the project and make the deal. Defne had to deal with prejudices during the T&X meeting. Implicit beliefs are grounded in the cultural background of the country, which determines the perceptual framework for the society. Male-dominated countries have implicit beliefs that women’s priorities should be their families, thus being successful at work is not expected. Defne faced male-oriented stereotypes, which challenged her in doing business. Even though she was a successful manager, these subjective beliefs made her perform poorly. During the meeting with Q-Coding, Defne discussed the prejudice for women leaders with a women entrepreneur Suzan.

This case is trying to achieve two main objectives: first, to make all students be aware of implicit leadership theories and beliefs, which are rooted in the countries’ cultural background; second, to make female students be aware of these dysfunctional coping behaviors and increase their self-efficacy without thinking about their gender roles.

CSS 7: Management science

MBA/MS level programs.

Social entrepreneurship, sustainability and business strategy.

The case discusses about how social entrepreneur Katerina Kimmorley founded Pollinate Energy with five of her friends to provide solar lights to the urban slum dwellers in Bengaluru, the capital city of Karnataka, a state in the Southern part of India. The company recruited people known as “Pollinators” for distributing their solar lights to the communities on installments making it affordable to them. To scale-up its sustainable energy initiatives and expand its global reach, Pollinate Energy merged with the US-based solar energy company Empower Generation in 2018 to form Pollinate Group. Since the company was making losses and was a nonprofit organization, the new CEO of Pollinate Group Sujatha Ramani and the senior management team had to tackle the challenge of scaling up the company while financially empowering women microentrepreneurs from marginalized communities.

Study Pollinate Energy’s business model and explore ways in which it can be made sustainable. Discuss the personality traits of Kimmorley which contributed to her success. Discuss how the merger with Empower Generation will help Pollinate Group in expanding its global reach. Explore ways in which the venture can be scaled up further.

Pollinate Group focused on women empowerment to tackle the gender inequality challenge. The company provided equal opportunities for men and women, thereby removing discrimination from access to opportunities, sources, services and promotion of equal rights.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship

The purpose of this paper is to raise the question of whether having ethical values dictate actions at defining moments and builds upon theoretical frameworks in ethics, entrepreneurship and national culture. Three ethical approaches recommended for this case are: ends-based, virtue-based and rules-based.

The methods of data collection were both primary and secondary. Primary data were collected through face to face and phone interviews with the primary subject. Secondary data were obtained through research journals and articles.

This case study illustrates the experiences of a young female entrepreneur in Tanzania, Africa. It investigates the role of cultural practices, unemployment, corruption and ethics in shaping business decisions. The Tanzanian culture and business climate typically view women in traditional roles, while men dominate in corporate roles. These factors limit the ability of women to succeed. Elisa King is determined to pursue her dream to create a business beneficial to her community. To realize her dream, King finds herself in an ethical dilemma brought on by an overall corrupt culture.

This case is appropriate for undergraduate- and graduate-level courses with an ethics component.

1. Maria Jarlstrom, Essi Saru, and Sinikka Vanhala, “Sustainable Human Resource Management With Salience of Stakeholders: A Top Management Perspective,” Journal of Business Ethics, 152, (2008): 703–724. 2. Benjamin A. Neville, Simon J. Bell, and Gregory J., “Stakeholder Salience Revisited: Refining, Redefining, and Refueling an Underdeveloped Conceptual Tool,” Journal of Business Ethics, 102, (2011): 357–378. 3. Mick Marchington, Fang Lee Cooke, and Gail Hebson. “Human Resource Management Across Organizational Boundaries,” Sage Handbook of Human Resource Management, (2009): 460–477.

This secondary source case is based mainly on three documents: the 20-page report by a labor union, Unite Here, titled “One Job Should Be Enough: Inequality at Starbucks”; and two reports by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. and Covington & Burlington, LLP.

In February 2020, Unite Here, a labor union, released a damming report about employment practices at the airport Starbucks stores operated by licensee, HMSHost. Among other charges, the report identified several instances of racial and gender discrimination that HMSHost dismissed as a ploy by a union intent on organizing its employees. The adverse publicity, however, put Starbucks Corporation in the spotlight because of the company’s publicly stated commitment to workplace equality. The recently hired Nzinga Shaw, the company’s first-ever Global Chief Inclusion and Diversity Officer, had to address the issue at HMSHost lest it adversely affect Starbucks’ reputation as a progressive employer.

The case is best suited for a graduate or undergraduate course in human resource management or labor relations. As diversity is typically covered in the first third of such courses, the ideal placement of this case would be in the early part of the course. As Starbucks is a well-known name, and it is very likely that students have had their own experience with Starbucks, as either a customer or an employee, the case is likely to draw their interest.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

Data for the case came from public sources, including legal proceedings, court filings, company press releases and Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

In June 2020, former Pinterest employees made public charges of gender and racial discrimination. Despite changes implemented by the company, several Pinterest shareholders filed derivative lawsuits charging the company with breach of fiduciary duty, waste of corporate assets, abuse of control and violating federal securities laws. The case provides an overview of the company’s management, board and stock structures, as well as information on the shareholders who sued the company and their concerns. The case raises substantial questions about management’s and board member’s responsibilities in corporate governance, illustrates how stock structures can be used to impede governance and suggests ways to evaluate activist shareholders.

This case is appropriate for graduate, advanced undergraduate or executive education courses in strategy, corporate governance or strategic human resources that discuss corporate governance, fiduciary responsibilities, designing workplace culture or management responses to shareholders. Instructors can apply two sets of theories and frameworks to this case: theories of corporate governance and Hirschman’s (1970) exit, voice or loyalty framework in the context of shareholder activism.

Case explains how female leaders are more concerned about social issues the industry in which they operate could resolve. Obo-Nia, CEO of Vodafone Ghana, showed concern for resolving the digital divide in Africa and offered a collaborative solution. The case also suggests how female CEOs invest in strategic corporate social responsibility (CSR) that could create a competitive advantage for firms. The case also discusses gender diversity issues in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) field and how Vodafone Ghana’s CEO tried to enhance gender diversity in the telecommunication sector and Vodafone. Obo-Nai did not emphasize gender diversity from a CSR perspective but believed in a business case for gender diversity, as an increase in participation of women in the STEM workforce could help the telecommunication sector innovate faster and resolve the digital divide challenge while also empowering women working from the informal sector.

What is the significance of a digital divide and the societal role of the telecommunication sector; Why female CEOs are more concerned about CSR and how CSR makes not charity but business case; Why female CEOs are more inclined toward collaborative strategies and how stakeholders are involved in collaborative strategies for reducing the digital divide; Exploring various strategies for enhancing gender diversity in the STEM field and the significance of gender diversity in the STEM field.

The case is about the challenges faced by Patricia Obo-Nai, the first female CEO of Vodafone Ghana, to bridge the digital divide in Africa while doing so in a profitable manner. Obo-Nai was an engineer by profession and won several awards as she rose to the post of CEO in Vodafone Ghana in 2019. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she took several corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, such as making internet service freely available in certain schools and universities so that education could continue. Obo-Nai also emphasized gender diversity within Vodafone and urged other telecommunication players to focus on gender diversity from a social responsibility perspective because it was essential for innovation. Under Obo-Nai’s leadership, Vodafone itself launched several new products. She called for a multistakeholder collaborative approach to bridge the digital divide and to make 4G internet affordable in Africa. Obo-Nai collaborated with competitors like MTN Ghana to enhance Vodafone Ghana’s roaming services.

This case is intended for undergraduate or graduate-level business and management courses, especially international business and society, CSR and leadership courses. Graduate students in public policy may also find the case compelling.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CCS5: International Business; CCS10: Public Sector Management

Undergraduate university level – Core audience. Graduate university level & professional workforce – Secondary audiences

Business – Ethics, diversity, leadership, public relations

Noor Talbi (she) is a Moroccan entertainment entrepreneur, best but not exclusively known for her belly dancing. Noor remains actively engaged in her business enterprises. Although Noor obtained global prominence in recent decades, her life as an entertainer extends back to her childhood; Noor was born in 1970. Noor’s identity as a woman is not the gender she was identified as earlier in her life. This case explores how the complexities of identity, both personal and societal, intersect with business life as Noor is asked to use her business platform to take on the uncomfortable role of LGBT activist.

The expected learning outcomes are as follows: examine the nature of identity construction; weigh tradeoffs created by application of competing ethical theories; analyze and evaluate how identity ethics may impact public-facing leadership decisions; and formulate and defend recommended business responses.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

This case acknowledges the prominent role of culture in grappling with complex issues. Not designed as a comprehensive overview of all workplace transgender matters, it provides an introduction to generate pause and empathy among learners. The study strives to challenge students to think of ethics and identity more broadly than how an issue such as being “out” in the workplace is often depicted.

CSS 5: International Business