Culture Clashes at Mehta Investment Group: A Case Study Kamlesh T.
Mehta, Peace College ABSTRACT The case study is about a small
multinational financial investment firm located in England with over $43
million in net profit and employs over 500 people. Thirteen employees
of the firm have complained about the display of a “Swastika” by
co-workers in the workplace. The company is faced with the challenges
associated with diverse workforce with different nationalities, cultural
values, and religious beliefs, and legal complications in the European
Union. THE COMPANY Mehta Investment Group [MIG] Inc. is a global,
private, for-profit, financial investment company headquartered in
London, Britain. The owner and the Chairman of the company, Cameron
Mehta, started the company with $500 dollars as a result of an argument
with his father at the age of 20. Since its inception, over the past 41
years, company has grown in the financial sector of the European Union.
The firm’s core business is investment on behalf of its clients. In
2007, the company reported $43 million in net profits, has clients from
the 20 member countries of the European Union, and employs over 500
employees in Britain, France, Germany, and Spain. The company is in the
rapid growth stage and has projected a $50 million in net profit in
2008. Mehta Investment Group attributes its success to the corporate
culture that stems from the leadership style and personal values of
Cameron Mehta, Chairman of the company. In addition, Cameron Mehta
attributes the success of the company to his diverse employees. The
diverse work-force of the company is composed of different
nationalities, religious beliefs, and cultural values. With the growth
of the company, Cameron plans to increase his work-force from 500
employees to 700 over the next four years. THE EMPLOYEES Over the years,
company has not had any serious complaint from the employees. The job
satisfaction among employees has been very high. The company has enjoyed
a steady growth every year for the past 40 years. The growth and
success of the company is due to diversity of employees at all levels of
the organization, who are characterized as hard-working, dedicated,
loyal, family-oriented, and religious. The diverse work force is
composed of numerous religions and national origins. Also, the company
Chairman and the majority of the employees share similar values, which
have driven the growth and success of the company. As a result, more
than 50% of the employees have been with the company for 15 years or
more. The employee turnover rate is at 6% and well below the industry
average of 26%. The diverse work-force has strengthened company’s
contacts in the industry and brought in clients of different national
origins and from all 20 member countries of the European Union. Table 1
presents the breakdown of employees by national origin, location, and
religion. Table 1: Company-Wide Employees National Origin Location
Religion Indian 60% Britain 80% Hinduism 50% British 20% Germany 9%
Judaism 25% German 12% France 5% Christianity 22% French 3% Spain 5%
Islam 2% Other 5% Other 1% Other 1% THE DILEMMA Allysa Liverpool, the
CEO of Mehta Investment Group (a British company) receives a memorandum
from Priya Mehta, the Vice President of Operations, regarding
dissatisfaction among several employees. The memorandum addresses a
complaint from thirteen employees through internal Employee Feedback
Card. The employees at the Britain location have expressed their
dissatisfaction and outrage regarding some of the co-workers displaying a
“Red Swastika” in their offices. The thirteen employees find the
display of swastika offensive and a commendation of acts of Nazi during
the WWII. The thirteen employees’ nationalities are—British (9), Indians
(1), French (2), and Other (1). The religious faiths of the thirteen
employees are: Judaism (6), Christianity (4), Islam (1), and Other (2).
Although only 13 employees have complained about the display of a “Red
Swastika”, Priya stated “the problem is severe and if an immediate
solution is not reached, it could get out of control”. The practice of
displaying a “Red Swastika” is common to the British and German
locations and has been going on for over 15 years. However, she stresses
the seriousness of the dilemma and employee complaint since one of the
employees making the complaint, a British national with Judaism faith,
is married to the son of the owner of a major local newspaper. Also, she
assesses the situation to be a companywide issue and connected to the
laws of Germany, Britain, and the European Union. After a few months,
the issue was becoming a major concern as few more employees joined in
support of the complaint. In their complaints, the employees have
demanded that the company fire the employees displaying the “Red
Swastika”, provide an apology (from Cameron Mehta) to the employees and
their families for allowing such a conduct, and pass a companywide
policy banning the use and display of the “Swastika” in any form and in
any place in the company, immediately. The Chairman Cameron Mehta, the
Chairman of Mehta Investment Group [MIG] Inc., has always worked for
him-self. An entrepreneur at heart, his passion was to start his own
business. He has never worked in management positions for any company
nor has he started more than one business of his own. He spent his
entire career with Mehta Investment Group [MIG] Inc. Cameron Mehta is
the primary reason of the success of the company, today. He was raised
in London, is 59 years of age, and has an MBA degree from a small,
private College in London, Britain. His parents met in London at an
Indian festival called Diwali. His mother was an Anglo-German Christian
and father was an Indian migrated from India with Hinduism as his
religious faith. Cameron grew up to appreciate both the cultures and
religious faiths. Also, the name Cameron Mehta is a representation of
both Anglo-German and Indian cultures. During his pursuit of the
Bachelor of Business Administration degree, Cameron Mehta’s performance
in the classes was below average (equivalent to the US education system
at or below C). As a result, one day, in an argument, Cameron’ parents
told him that “he will not be a successful person unless he has the
discipline and drive to do something with his life”. They added, “It
seems to us that you are wasting your life away although we have
instilled the best values of two cultures in you”. Cameron had a
tremendous amount of respect for his parents and saw them as his heroes
and role models. He wanted to make them proud. So, his parent’s words
hurt his feelings and he took them to heart. On one side, to prove his
parents wrong, and on the other side, not to disappoint them, Cameron
decided to invest $500 dollars in the stock market. He had saved this
money from the summer odd jobs as newspaper delivery boy, bus boy, and a
waiter. He had a special interest in the stock market and often used to
look at the stock prices in the newspaper every week to see how
companies were doing with their stock prices. While delivering the
newspapers at age 16, he had conceived a dream of becoming a millionaire
by buying and selling stocks of different companies by the time he
reached the age of 30. Cameron Mehta attributes his and Mehta Investment
Group’s success to the values he received from his parents, which
include discipline, hard-work, honesty, loyalty, passion, leadership,
family, and religious faith. He lives his life by these values on a
daily basis. For example, he always arrives at work at 7:30 a.m. before
any employee and starts his day with a brief prayer as per the religious
practices in Hinduism and Christianity. According to his philosophy and
leadership style, employees are part of his extended family. Thus, he
always wants to be informed of employees’ professional as well as
personal growth and success. The Chief Executive Officer Allysa
Liverpool, the CEO of Mehta Investment Group. (a British company), is 50
years of age. Prior to joining the company, Allysa was the Vice
President of Finance, Director of Financial Operations, Investment
Analyst, Financial Planner, and Investment Broker with numerous
multinational companies in France, Britain, Germany and Spain. Although a
Christian, she respects people of all faith for their beliefs and
practices. Although, in her past experiences, Allysa’s clients included
high powered and influential people, she did not have the opportunity to
work with employees with varied religious and cultural backgrounds.
Some of her clients were prominent lawyers, doctors, top executives,
politicians, parliament members, high level government officials, and on
the Forbes Top 100 Richest People in the World from numerous countries
in the European Union. Although she is not in contact with them on a
regular basis, her relationships with some of them are very good. Her
past relationships with the clients help the company establish a good
image of the company and public relations standing with the public and
media. After the review of the complaint and pertinent information,
Allysa concluded that the situation and the complaint was not a serious
concern and did not need to be classified as a high priority. As a
result, she decided to not bring the issue to the attention of Cameron
Mehta. She considered Cameron Mehta to be very set in his ways,
religious in his beliefs, traditional in his values, and old fashioned
in his thinking. She thought that brining the complaint to the attention
of Cameron will only make matters worse since he probably would support
the religious practices and family values of his majority employees.
She is confident that she could tackle the problem without getting
Cameron involved in the situation. Vice President of Operations: Priya
Mehta has a Doctorate in Human Resources Management from a prominent Ivy
League University in the USA. She is raised in US and Britain and is 35
years of age. At Mehta Investment Group [MIG] Inc., she has been the
Vice President of Operations for the past 5 years. Prior to joining the
company, her cumulative experiences of 4 years include Director of
Operations and Assistant Director of Public Relations with prominent
companies in US and Britain. She is the daughter of the Chairman of the
company. As her father, she shares the values instilled in her from her
parents. She is well respected in the industry and by the employees at
her company and maintains outstanding relations with the employees and
his father. She regards her father, Cameron Mehta, as her mentor, role
model, and hero, however, often has disagreed with her father on key
issues in the best interest of the company. She regards Allysa
Liverpool, the CEO of Mehta Investment Group [MIG], Inc., to be less
concerned about the employees and more focused on the bottom line, i.e.,
profit in monetary terms. Due to Priya’s expertise in human resources
and understanding of the legal and regulatory implications related to
labor issues, she often finds herself opposing Allysa Liverpool on
matters related to human resources at the company. RESEARCHING THE
COMPLAINT In her research of the complaint, Priya Mehta learned the
following at the Company level (inclusive of subsidiaries at all
locations): It was true that some employees were displaying a “Red
Swastika” that was mentioned in the complaint. No one in the company was
displaying the “Nazi Swastika”. In the Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism
religions, the “Red Swastika” is used during marriage ceremonies,
religious prayers, house warming parties, grand opening ceremonies of a
new business, New Year celebrations, in homes and temples, and painted
on the forehead of a baby on her/his first hair-cutting sacrament. It is
viewed as a good luck charm. Hindus regard “The Swastika” in much the
same way as Christians view the Cross. Nazi Germans copied the original
“swastika” from Hinduism and with a slight modification, used it for
Nazi propaganda. The Hindu swastika faces to the right, unlike the one
adopted by the Nazis which faces to the left. Also, the Hindu swastika
is traditionally red, a color regarded as auspicious by Hindus, whereas
the Nazi Swastika is black. The employees displaying the “Red Swastika”
were of different nationality, Anglo as well as non-Anglo with the
religious faith of Hinduism. The total number of employees displaying
the “Red Swastika” was 60% of the total company work-force. Table 2
presents the company-wide breakdown by national origin, location, and
religion, of those employees (60% of company work-force) displaying the
“Red swastika”. Priya Mehta noted that when Prince Harry was pictured
wearing the “Nazi Swastika”, the people asked for an apology, which he
rendered. However, due to the lack of sufficient time she did not
include specific information pertaining to the laws of the European
Union related to the employee complaints, but advised Allysa Liverpool
to review EU laws prior to making any decision. Table 2: Company-Wide
Employees Displaying the “Red Swastika” National Origin Location
Religion Indian 37% Britain 45% Hinduism 54% British 14% Germany 13%
Judaism 00% German 08% France 01% Christianity 05% French 00% Spain 01%
Islam 01% Other 01% Other 00% Other 00% Position of Employees with
Hinduism Faith The “Red Swastika” display was part of the ritual in a
brief prayer according to Hinduism religion and was symbolically drawn
in red color on the photo of one of the Goddess called Lakshmi—known as
the Goddess of Money. Employees of Hinduism faith believe in starting
every day with a symbolic ritual and a prayer that was one minute long.
In Hinduism the general belief is that drawing a “Red Swastika” brings
spiritual, mental, and financial success and prosperity for the day in
everything they do, including bringing new clients to the firm. It is
regarded as the second most sacred symbol after the “Om” and is used to
ward evil spirit and devotion to God. Hinduism is the oldest documented
religion in the world and the practice of drawing the “Red Swastika”
dates back to 5000 years. The Hindu employees stated that the Hinduism
religion, its rituals and practices, and the symbolic use of swastika
had been around before the existence of western countries, Nazi
propaganda, and Adolf Hitler. According to the people of Hinduism,
Buddhism, and Jainism faith, the company cannot ban their religious
symbols, which have been part of their beliefs, culture, and religious
traditions well before the Western culture and countries were born. They
reminded Priya Mehta that they too are the citizens of Europe and have
the right to practice their religion. In addition, it is their belief
that over the years, company has benefited from their prayers. They
raised interesting questions for the company executives: If the company
decides to ban one, will it ban all other similar symbols such as the Om
in Hinduism, Cross or Jesus Fish in Christianity, The Star of David in
Judaism, CTR-Choose the Right in Mormon, and the Crescent and Star in
Islam? Where will the company draw the line on what is acceptable and
what is not? Will the company ban the way certain employees dress?
Should the company ban the display of Cross just because the Ku Klux
Klan used to burn it? Should the company ban the display of a "Swastika”
just because the Nazi used it for irreprehensible purposes? Position of
Employees with Judaism Faith A “Swastika” used by Nazi Germans has been
a symbol of atrocity towards Jewish people, in particular, and the
world, in general. A display of such a symbol is offensive, insulting,
and a commendation of acts of Nazi during the WWII. Such a message from
the company will not be tolerated. All nations and governments around
the world have condemned the acts of Nazi Germans and the representation
of the “Nazi Swastika”. Also, in order to learn from the History
associated with the “Swastika” company must take proactive actions on
this issue and eliminate its display and use in its entirety from the
work-place. Position of Employees with Christian and Muslim Faiths
Employees with Christian and Muslim faith did not provide any
explanation for such a display nor did they take a position in favor or
against the display of the “Red Swastika” by coworkers. Although, the
thirteen employees that have brought the complaint forward suspect that
the Christian and Muslim employees are displaying the “red swastika” to
align themselves with the Chairman and majority of Hindu employees of
the company. Position of Employees of European Origin The nationalism
and regionalism is on the rise in European Union. As a result, several
legislations have been introduced in the European Union Parliament to
legally ban the use and display of the following in both the public and
private places in the European Countries: (1) “The Swastika”, and (2)
all religious symbols. In addition, legislations have been introduced in
the British Parliament to legally ban the use and display of “The
Swastika” in both the public and private places in Britain. The results
of the vote on all of the legislations are pending. They may or may not
get passed through the Parliament. According to the laws of Germany, it
is illegal to use or display the “Nazi Swastika” anywhere in Germany. In
France, it is illegal for anyone to wear a hijab (a scarf covering the
head or face) in public places. The French law directly affected the
religious beliefs and practices of the people of Islam. Priya Mehta
attached all of the detailed research information associated with the
complaint to her memorandum for the review of Allysa Liverpool, CEO of
Mehta Investment Group [MIG], Inc. Note: To conceal the identity and to
protect the individuals and interests of the firm, the names of the
company and employees were changed and the statistical information
provided by the firm was proportionately modified in this case study.
Student Instructions:
Prepare a case study addressing the following elements: 1. Describe at least two cultural differences, views, values, and organizational culture of Mehta Investment Group (MIG). 2. Discuss how these cultural differences impact the business practices and employee relations for MIG. 3. Propose at least two courses of actions as to how to solve the cultural issues presented in the case, fully explaining the process and implementation of the proposed actions. 4. Determine and recommend the most appropriate course of action, outlining the decision making and reasoning behind chosen recommendation.
Prepare a case study addressing the following elements: 1. Describe at least two cultural differences, views, values, and organizational culture of Mehta Investment Group (MIG). 2. Discuss how these cultural differences impact the business practices and employee relations for MIG. 3. Propose at least two courses of actions as to how to solve the cultural issues presented in the case, fully explaining the process and implementation of the proposed actions. 4. Determine and recommend the most appropriate course of action, outlining the decision making and reasoning behind chosen recommendation.
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