Quality Telecommunications Services

Quality Telecommunications Services has been operating in Sydney since 1995 and provides telephone-related services to its business clients. It employs over 120 people in Australia.

Harry Woodland is the marketing manager who looks after the business clients in Sydney. He is supported by six sales executives. Kim Wong has been working with the organisation for the past six years. She migrated to Australia 10 years ago and has university qualifications. She has worked hard to acquire necessary skills to succeed in her profession. She is the oldest employee in the team of sales executives and has won different awards for excellent performance. However, she feels that she is not being treated fairly by her seniors and us being ignored. She sees no prospects of moving upwards in the organisation.

Rob Dunn is another member of Harry's team. They get along well and Kim feels that Harry gives preference to Rob over others - Rob acts as marketing manager when Harry is on leave. During their weekly meetings Rob's suggestions are taken seriously and mentioned in the minutes of the meeting whereas Kim does not get due credit for her ideas and they are barely ever mentioned in the minutes. Her attempts to discuss the matters are further ignored by Harry or given no attention with little opportunity to discuss further.

Kim feels that Harry has a very stereotypical view of her as an immigrant from Asia. She knows that he had never travelled overseas and has not interacted much with other Asian people. When it comes to dealing with new customers from an Asian background, Kim is the automatic choice for Harry.

Kim thinks that she is treated unfairly due to her Asian background. She considers this as an ethical dilemma and doesn't know what to do. She feels uneasy complaining against her manger to the senior management as she has never done this before. Her peers have encouraged her to take the matter further. She decided to report it to the human resources department and Harry has been invited to discuss the matter.

Quality Telecommunications Services has never had such a problem and management was of the opinion that there were no ethical issues. The human resources department also informed the CEO that the company does not have any written documentation addressing ethical issues.

Source: Amar Sood, Ultimo and Nav Sood, Sydney Institute.

Please read and answer questions below:

a.Describe the culture of Quality Telecommunications Services. Do they value cultural diversity?