Human Relations in Organizations: Applications and Skill Building 8th Edition by Robert Lussier

Exercise 19

Lilly's Promotion
The Carlson Mining and Manufacturing Company needs a new vice president of human resources. Its headquarters are in Detroit, but the company has mining and manufacturing plants in three states and five different countries. Foreign plants account for about 70 percent of total operations.
The president, Ron Carlson, is meeting with some of the vice presidents and the board of directors to decide who will be promoted to vice president. The following are excerpts from their discussion:
RON: As you know, we are meeting today to promote someone to vice president. Ted, tell us about the candidates.
TED: We have narrowed the list of candidates to two people. You all know the two candidates. They are Rich Martin and Lilly Jefferson. Rich is 38 and has been with us for 15 years, and he has worked in human resources for 10 years. He has an M.B.A. from a leading business school. Lilly is 44 and has been with us for 10 years. She recently finished her B.S. in business going to school nights at the local state college.
JIM: Lilly is an African-American female with older children. She is perfect for the job, fitting into two AA classifications. We can meet our AA quotas without promoting Lilly, but it would help. Besides, there are a lot of African Americans here in Detroit; we could get some great publicity.
ED: Wait a minute. We cannot have any girls at the VP level. You know they are emotional and cannot take the pressure of the job.
CARL: Their performance records are about the same, but Rich has been with us longer, and is better educated.
The discussion ended in a vote. Lilly won by a large margin. Off the record: It was because she is a qualified African American female. If she were a white male, Rich would have been promoted.
Answer the following questions. Then in the space between questions, state why you selected that answer.
Carlson is a multinational company.
a. true
b. false