Purchasing

Lack of minorities within upper management at Company ABC, Inc. has a direct effect on the morale of eager employees

KaShawna Davis

Webster University

MNGT 5000

Dr. Medley

March 10, 2014

“In 1856 Thomas James Smith, a druggist and cod liver oil merchant established a business to cod liver oil to supply British hospitals. Forty years later Horatio Nelson Smith (Thomas Smith’s nephew) joined the business and brought with him knowledge of the textiles industry: Company ABC was formed. In 1928 the world's first self-adhesive dressing; Elastoplast was launched. Manufactured in Kingston upon Hull, United Kingdom, Elastoplast became one of Britain’s best-known brands. Established in 1980, Company ABC Extruded Films has over thirty years' experience in the manufacture of films, aperture meshes and nets, adhesive and laminating and bonding products. We pioneered the bi-axial net manufacturing process as well as the development of the world’s first breathable films for wound-care products and gained the Queen’s Award for Innovation for breathable IV films. (http://www.smith-nephew.com/snef/history/)

I began my career as domestic order management specialist at Company ABC in January 2012. The department is very small; there are eight domestic order management specialists, eight international order management specialists, and eight offline management specialists, four managers and one director. This call center is not your typical call center; the order management representative takes incoming calls from sales reps, office managers, and the procurement department of hospitals. I quickly witnessed the lack of African Americans within upper management and the direct effect it had on the morale in the department. No one wanted to move outside customer service nor did they want to move into a management role. At this point I began to realize the lack of upward mobility on African Americans and the direct effect it had on my...