best of intentions case study

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Best of Intentions (HBR Case Study)

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Publication Date: July 01, 2002

Cynthia Mitchell has finally gotten a plum management opportunity at AgFunds, a Houston-based company that provides financial services to farmers and farmer-owned cooperatives. Peter Jones, regional vice president, has recruited Cynthia to revive the Arkansas district, which has been losing customers for 15 years. The sales force there isn't bad; it's just been poorly managed by an indifferent boss for too long. Still, Cynthia knows she'll need at least one powerhouse sales rep to get things back on track. She thinks she's found that person in Steve Ripley, this year's top trainee at AgFunds, who is inexplicably available three months after the training period is over. In the interview, he proves to be ambitious, intelligent, and personable. But several of Cynthia's colleagues suggest that Steve might not be the best fit for the job: He's a black man in a company whose customer base is mostly conservative and white. Uncomfortably recalling her own experiences at AgFunds--she'd been rejected for a position in a territory that was deemed too unfriendly to female sales representatives--Cynthia addresses the issue with Peter. The mostly white farmers in Cynthia's district just won't trust their books to a black professional, Peter explains. And other minority professionals at AgFunds have derailed their careers trying to make inroads in unfriendly districts. "Steve deserves to start out in a more hospitable district. Once the right opportunity opens up, he'll be hired, and he'll do brilliantly," Peter reassures Cynthia, but she's still uncertain. Should she ignore her customers' biases and hire Steve, possibly setting him up to fail? Or would it be better to let Steve wait for a friendlier opportunity? In R0207A and R0207Z, experts David A. Thomas, Herman Morris, Jr., Daryl Koehn, Alicia Leung, and Glenn C. Loury comment on this fictional case study. For teaching purposes, this is the case-only version of the HBR case study. The commentary-only version is reprint R0207Z. The complete case study and commentary is reprint R0207A.

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The Best of Intentions: The Tale of Robinhood

• Markkula Center for Applied Ethics
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• Leadership Ethics
• Leadership Ethics Resources
• Benison: The Practice of Ethical Leadership

The story of the stock-trading app, Robinhood, presents an opportunity to reflect on the many tensions that exist within business activities.

Robinhood brand logo on NASDAQ building signage

Mark Lennihan/Associated Press

Sarah Cabral is a teaching and research fellow in the Carroll School of Management at Boston College. Amy LaCombe is associate dean for undergraduate curriculum in the Carroll School’s undergraduate program. Ann Skeet (@leaderethics ) is the senior director, leadership ethics, with the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University. Views are their own.

Robinhood, a stock trading app, was founded in 2013 by two Stanford roommates who began their careers developing trading software for hedge funds. They realized that while millions of everyday traders were charged fees for trading, the big banks were excluded from this practice. In order to combat this perceived injustice, the founders developed an app that allowed people to trade for a monthly fee, rather than a per-trade fee, thus democratizing the financial markets. However, the road for Robinhood has arguably been anything but smooth and democratizing. They have been in the news several times in the recent past, from their entry into the unregulated cryptocurrency market to being fined nearly seventy million dollars by FINRA for its systemic supervisory failures. Robinhood also made headlines and fell under much scrutiny for halting trading of GameStop stock in January of 2021, which is the focus of our attached case. As we have seen with other well-known companies like Facebook and Google, even when the original intentions of business builders are justice-oriented, problems can occur when executives do not build out systems across the company to keep those intentions at the forefront of decision making.

A Jesuit Analysis

The attached case and discussion questions were written in consideration of the context and experience of students, in order to provide opportunities for reflection, action, and evaluation. This model is referred to within Jesuit education as the Ignatian pedagogical paradigm. In regards to context and experience , we understand this to mean that a Jesuit education takes a learner-centered approach. In deciding to write this case study, we considered what topics and cases might engage our undergraduate business ethics students, by asking, “What are they already interested in?” Of particular interest to our students is the role social media now plays in varying business sectors. We understand reflection as expanding student understanding and guiding students toward the tensions that exist within business activities. This case identifies that there are investors who are betting against companies by short selling stock. This can be risky but the fact that there are investors betting on both possible directions of the stock allows for liquidity in the market and strengthens the market by correcting over inflation. In regards to action , this case will spark a class discussion about whether or not Robinhood should try to make amends for decisions that cost their customers money. Students will be asked to provide concrete ways in which Robinhood might make amends. Finally, a Jesuit education is concerned with social justice and prioritizes the common good. Students must evaluate why this case matters. This case highlights how conflicts of interest may put companies in a position where they have to act in a way that goes against their stated mission and culture. Robinhood was founded to “democratize” the stock market, but when it halted trading, it did not allow its individual investors to purchase shares of GameStop stock. As educators preparing our students to make ethical decisions, it is important to have these discussions early on as evidence shows that “scripting” or anticipating difficult situations can be a powerful tool to prevent both individuals and companies from compromising their values.

For business leaders, this case is an object lesson in the costs of unintended consequences. How much responsibility should Robinhood have for making it easier for less experienced investors to take on risks they may not understand? What practices might leaders have drawn on to result in a more ethical outcome, one in which all of Robinhood’s stakeholders flourish?

Ignited Global

The Markkula Center for Applied Ethics does its work from a front-row seat in the hotbed of global innovation. We are fortunate to work alongside colleagues throughout the Jesuit network of universities worldwide, such as the authors of this case, who bring to bear time-tested Ignatian values-based learning models to modern dilemmas. In addition to cases available on the Markkula Center website, educators can find detailed teaching notes at the Jesuit Business Case site Ignited.global, a global community of scholars changing the world through better business education.

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Best Of Intentions Case Study

Cynthia should not hire Steve Ripley. As well as being in a minority population as Steve is in the company, Cynthia had put great empathy into consideration when deciding on the promotion case.

While it seems not fair to raise a less qualified trainee rather than a more competent one Just because of race, it Mould be truly unfair to put an employee in a position that his or her failure is destined.

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From the following paragraph, I am going to explain the exact three reasons NH I think Steve should not be promoted in this case. First of all, learned from the regional senior vice president Peter and the longest-tenured district manager in Arkansas, we know that Steve was not necessarily a good fit in the region. Since some degree of discrimination still exist in Arkansas that those white farmers don not have trust in black people dealing with their assets and manage them.

Business is business, when taking business managerial decisions, one should follow both rational analysis and objective statistics to make moves that would be in the best interest for your company.

Though Steve was upon the most well-perform trainees, Nee research and past experiences indicated that his chance of doing successful business in this region would be slim, his is not suitable and should not be put into this position.

Furthermore, Peter had mentioned both his former failure of hiring two employees named Betty Nines and Hugh Conley and Cynthia predecessor’s reluctance to hire Steve as indicator why Steve would not be a perfect fit in this position. As Peter described, two employees as talented as Steve does was put into a region which is similar to Arkansas with regard of the discrimination problem, and they both had their career derailed. Moreover, from the last part of the article, we can see that even Steve himself stood for the opinion that he should get a better chance rather than being set up to fail due to the reality.

Eventually his own reluctance was why I think this would not be a great promotion for him from any standpoint.

Since both objectively from the environment and subjectively from his own viewpoint, they all seemed to be negative on this potential promoting move. We can assumed that Steve himself went through some critical analysis process after hearing all the stories from Cynthia and came up with the conclusion that he would ether wait for long odds than impossible ones.

In conclusion, from the past experience and their knowledge of Arkansas from the supervisors, this position and situation were not the best fit for Steve Ripley, and it would be unfair and against the company’s odds to give him such an unsuitable promotion. Last but not least, Steve made a decision not to take the position due to all the disadvantages against his future success and career. Because of the reasons raised above, I think not promoting Steve in this case would be the best decision for himself and Cynthia and the Company.

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The best of intentions

Affiliation.

• 1 College of Business, Eastern New Mexico University, Portales, USA.
• PMID: 12140853

Cynthia Mitchell has finally gotten a plum management opportunity at AgFunds, a Houston-based company that provides financial services to farmers and farmer-owned cooperatives. Peter Jones, regional vice president, has recruited Cynthia to revive the Arkansas district, which has been losing customers for 15 years. The sales force there isn't bad; it's just been poorly managed by an indifferent boss for too long. Still, Cynthia knows she'll need at least one powerhouse sales rep to get things back on track. She thinks she's found that person in Steve Ripley, this year's top trainee at AgFunds, who is inexplicably available three months after the training period is over. In the interview, he proves to be ambitious, intelligent, and personable. But several of Cynthia's colleagues suggest that Steve might not be the best fit for the job: He's a black man in a company whose customer base is mostly conservative and white. Uncomfortably recalling her own experiences at AgFunds--she'd been rejected for a position in a territory that was deemed too unfriendly to female sales reps--Cynthia addresses the issue with Peter. The mostly white farmers in Cynthia's district just won't trust their books to a black professional, Peter explains. And other minority professionals at AgFunds have derailed their careers trying to make inroads in unfriendly districts. "Steve deserves to start out in a more hospitable district. Once the right opportunity opens up, he'll be hired, and he'll do brilliantly," Peter reassures Cynthia, but she's still uncertain. Should she ignore her customers' biases and hire Steve, possibly setting him up to fail? Or would it be better to let Steve wait for a friendlier opportunity? Four experts comment on this fictional case study.

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HBR CASE STUDY ON THE BEST OF INTENTIONS

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Question: Case #4: Best of Intentions: Would you recommend that Cynthia offer the job to Steve and that Steve accept the job assuming it is offered? What are the pros and cons of your recommendations? How does the lack of diversity in the organization reflect the organization’s values? If you were a leader in the organization, what actions would you recommend to

Case #4: Best of Intentions :

Would you recommend that Cynthia offer the job to Steve and that Steve accept the job assuming it is offered? What are the pros and cons of your recommendations? How does the lack of diversity in the organization reflect the organization’s values? If you were a leader in the organization, what actions would you recommend to improve the company’s diversity?

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• The Best of Intentions

The Best of Intentions - Case Study Example

• Subject: Management
• Type: Case Study
• Level: Masters
• Pages: 3 (750 words)
• Downloads: 4
• Author: awiza

Extract of sample "The Best of Intentions"

Some of the key issues include the following: Business decisions which are made based on race or gender rather than an evaluation of strong or best performance Discriminatory clients or customers influence decision making in the AgFunds company. The issue of minorities is evident with the company having low expectations for blacks becoming successful. The company has made little effort in reforming customer attitudes and supporting their previous minority representatives Racial and cultural differences strongly influence company decisions which show racial biases.

Analysis and explanation of decisions will be made based on expert discussions. Researchers agree that Cynthia should offer Steve the job. According to Humphreys et al (2002), Cynthia should give Steve a good list of prospects after finding out the clients. These clients assume that she will not send to them a representative that under performs. Therefore, clients will be more open to Steve. Also, Cynthia needs to act as Steve’s sponsor through working with Steve but at the same time work with others to communicate the high expectations she has for him.

This effort may not be successful though because Peter Jones, Cynthia’s boss, believes that the clients are not yet ready for a black person to become their representative. That is why he shows unwillingness to risk proving that he is wrong. Therefore, Peter is denying Steve a chance to prove himself in a cross cultural environment. According to Morris (Humphreys et al, 2002), Cynthia should offer Steve a job because he has the right qualities and he is the best qualified candidate. He states that if Cynthia allows discriminating clients to influence her decision to hire Steve, it may put the AgFunds Company at risk of a discrimination claim.

He proposes that strong performance could be a great equalizer in the organizational culture. In this case, some prospective clients may be in need a high performer irrespective of race or gender because the district has been losing customers for fifteen years. Again this might not be possible because of Peter’s paternalism which is rather offensive and lack of effort by the company to change the attitude of customers. Also, the company lacks support to previous representatives considered as minorities.

Based on these facts, the causes of lack of effective communication across cultures is the clients’ unchanging attitude and the lack of support and mentorship for representatives from the black minority. Koehn & Leung (Humphreys et al, 2002) work in collaboration on research examining ethical problems that arise during cross cultural interactions. Koehn is for the opinion that Cynthia should offer the job to Steve if she thinks she is the right person. She says that Steve may be in a better position than other sales representatives at AgFunds to handle the Arkansas farmers.

This is based on several studies that have shown that minorities who were being treated as outsiders have often outperformed others in handling difficult and stressful situations. However, this might not apply in this case because Peter with other district managers may be already set to push Cynthia into not hiring Steve. Koehn’s and Leung’s research give an example of gender bias in decision making where male executives have over the years argued that female employees should not be given international postings.

They argue that nationals

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