Case 3 - Discrimination case at Amazon In 2022, Charlotte Newman, who was a senior manager in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) division, filed a lawsuit against Amazon and two of its employees. Charlotte claims to have been discriminated against and harassed. Before working at Amazon, Charlotte, an MBA Harvard graduate, worked in Capitol Hill in roles related to economic and financial services. When she began the selection and recruitment process to work at Amazon, she was applying to what Amazon calls a \"level 7 role of Senior Manager, Financial Services, in which she would represent the organization before the financial sector in the US, Canada and Mexico. However, Amazon did not offer her this position and instead offered her the \"level 6\" role of Public Policy Manager, which is a lower rank role in the organization and therefore has lower compensation. The hiring manager told her that this position carried out similar tasks but in the US only, and that there was no room for negotiation on compensation. Charlotte had some reservations about accepting the offer for decided at the end to take on the role. Charlotte claimed that she was qualified for the Level 7 job and that other while male colleagues that were hire for Level 7 jobs had less experience that she did. She also claimed that other Level 6 employees had significantly less experience than she did. Charlotte describes that only a few months after her hiring she was performing Level 7 and Level 8 work, including public policy work in relation to Latin America. She claims she was performing task of levels above her such as \"devising strategy plans, formulating the company's approach to new regulations, serving as a project lead, meeting with senior business leaders, and securing meetings with senior officials, among others\". Charlotte was promoted to a level 7 role after almost 3 years of joining Amazon. However, she claimed that white employees were promoted at a faster pace that her and other black employees. She pointed out that a white women hired at Level 6 four months after her was promoted two levels (from 6 to 8) in the time she had been an employee at Amazon. Charlotte claims that Amazon frequently hires black employees at lower levels commensurate to their qualifications and that back employees wait longer periods of time for promotions compared to their white counterparts. In addition to this claim, Charlotte claims to have received discriminatory treatment and harassment by her manager and his boss (on of the employees against whom she filed a claim). Charlotte describes an environment in which the work of black employees was disparaged or discouraged from joining the Public Policy team. Examples of the treatment she received are: e Her boss told her she was \"too direct\he \"grabbed and groped the upper thigh of her right leg.\". After dinner, when she was waiting for an Uber, Maz \"badger[ed] and implore[d] her to go home with him to have sex.\" She refused and told him the next day that his conduct crossed the line. Throughout the year and into 2019, she altered her behavior to avoid coming into contact with him. But she claims he sexually harassed her again on September 19, 2019 in Seattle, when they were at a hotel bar with colleagues. When Newman said she was leaving, He \"insisted that she stay, laughed, and yanked hard on her hair, \" which was in long braids. He said, *\"You can leave this behind,\" while pulling her hair. Newman interprets this as \"an unmistakable mockery of [her] hair as a Black woman.\" (Please note that citations were left out in this quote for ease of reading) Charlotte filed a written complaint with HR about the harassment and discriminatory treatment. The internal investigation at Amazon found that indeed, her boss made stereotypical comments about black employees, but kept his position. The company did not assist her in avoiding contact with the harasser. Only after she filed a complaint with Washington D.C's Office of Human Rights against Amazon, was her harasser fired from Amazon. Questions: 1. Identify and describe the specific issues Charlotte encountered in the workplace. Do the actions the plaintiff faced represent discrimination and/or harassment? Justify your answer. 2. Assuming that there is discriminations and/or harassment, answer the following: a. What is the legal basis or provision for the alleged discrimination/harassment? b. What would Charlotte need to demonstrate to make her case? c. Based on your answer to the previous question, what defense would the employer (Amazon) use to demonstrate that discrimination/harassment did not occur? d. How do you think the court should rule? 3. Evaluate the actions of Amazon and their HR department in response to the situation. a. Did they handle it properly? If yes, why? If no, what do you think they should have done? b. What recommendations would you make to this organization to avoid similar situations in the future? Bonus Question - International HRM Using the information below, explain if the following practice would need to be tailored for India's culture. Explain which dimension of culture will create conflict and why. Practice: The organization sets objectives to teams of employees as part of their talent management system. Employees contribute in establishing the goals for the team. Employees are evaluated individually for their contribution to goal achievement. The evaluations consist on a self-evaluation, a peer evaluation and a supervisor evaluation. Development opportunities, career advancement, and variable pay are determined by the levels of performance for each employee individually. Power Distance | Individualism Uncertainty Avoidance Medium (40) High (91) Medium (62) Low (29) India | High (77) Medium (48) Medium (56) High (61) | Important Note: In your answers, make sure to make reference to the specific information from the reading, article, or any other source to support/justify your answers. Include any additional sources that you used to support your answers. * In your answers, make sure to make reference to the theories, concepts, or knowledge that you are using to inform your answer. ***Remember that this is an assessment of your knowledge, understanding, and application of the materials covered in class. It is not merely an opinion piece; your answers must reflect your ability to refer to the relevant theories, concepts, or knowledge available on the topic and to apply it correctly. IMPORTANT: ALL CONTENT IN THIS DOCUMENT SHOULD NOT BE SHARED OR REPLICATED IN ANY FORM. PLEASE DO NOT COPY OR REPLICATE