Jeri Caldwell at Moex, Inc.: CEO'S Dilemma

The COE at MOEX learns from the vice president of Strategic Human Resources exactly how people of color feel they are being treated under his leadership. Employee Jeri Caldwell has informed this vice president that she is considering filing discrimination charges against MOEX, based upon her not being promoted again. This case targets how systems and cultures can exclude people from participating and thriving in an organization. The material also bridges the experience of African American employees in U.S. corporations. This case is one in a series, where different employees reveal individual experiences with discrimination and how each functions within a large technology company. While this version of Jeri Caldwell focuses on the CEO as the decision maker, Jeri Caldwell at MOEX, Inc., (A) (UVA-OB-0691) and (B) (UVA-OB-0693) focus on the vice president in the primary decision-making role. Jeri Caldwell at MOEX, Inc.: CEO's Dilemma (Condensed) (UVA-OB-0834) is the abridged version of this case and shortens student preparation time. Excerpt UVA-OB-0836 JERI CALDWELL AT MOEX, INC.: CEO DILEMMA Shortly after Jeff Fairbanks had left his office, Mike Desmond, the CEO of Morris Electronics, Inc., (MOEX) stared out his window, reflecting on the situation at hand. Fairbanks, his vice president of Strategic Human Resources, had just told Desmond something curious and disturbing. Desmond had listened intently to Fairbanks and tried not to feel defensive as he heard some pretty harsh information about how some people in his company felt they were being treated. Fairbanks was the highest-ranking executive of color at MOEX. He had told Desmond he had received a call from an engineer, Jeri Caldwell, in which she relayed to him the details of what she called the Friday blowout. Frank Tanner, her manager for the past three months, had informed her that she was denied the promotion to product manager, and she had been unable to contain her frustration. Caldwell had been passed over twice before for similar promotions, and this time, after yelling at the top of her lungs, she had stormed out of Tanner's office. Caldwell asked Fairbanks to meet with her to discuss what she should do next—and he agreed to do so. Arriving at Caldwell's house the Sunday after the blowout, Fairbanks learned that three other African American MOEX employees were also invited. Normally, Fairbanks would not have met informally with an employee at the center of such a volatile situation, especially a situation that was happening at a management level three layers below him. But Fairbanks told Desmond that these were not normal circumstances, and that it was time for MOEX to face the brutal facts about diversity in the company. Desmond was disturbed over Fairbanks's information because he thought MOEX had made tremendous progress with its diversity initiative by recruiting from historically black colleges and universities, implementing the Diversity Advisory Council, and making other company efforts to be inclusive. Yet in the last 60 minutes, Fairbanks had revealed the kind of information Desmond had never heard before, and he was not sure what to do with what he had learned. . . .