Caselet 2: China Enterprises N.A. China Enterprises N.A. is a distributor of goods manufactured in China. The company sells its products to U.S. wholesalers and “big box” retailers like Wal-Mart, Target, and Kmart. China Enterprises is located near the Port of Los Angeles and employs 32 salespeople who are geographically assigned across the United States. When the firm first opened, experienced salespeople were hired who had existing relationships with wholesalers. Later, as China Enterprises began to sell to big-box retailers, employees were assigned to work at the headquarters of these corporations. After more than 20 years, China Enterprises has a number of field salespeople who are of Hispanic and Asian heritage. Likewise, a large number of customer service and support employees within the China Enterprise’s Los Angeles headquarters are first- or second-generation Americans whose parents immigrated to the United States from Asia and Mexico. The national sales manager at China Enterprises is John Aquino, a firstgeneration Filipino-American. Aquino is a proud American. All three of his children are college graduates of prestigious U.S. universities, and he feels that his sales team and customer service reps are hardworking and want to advance within the firm. Because it’s an international firm, China Enterprises has embraced diversity and always hires the best candidate for the job, regardless of the person’s race, gender, religion, or national origin. However, Aquino feels he needs to analyze the firm’s HR policies and practices to ensure that current and future salespersons will not be discriminated against and that everyone has opportunity for advancement within the firm.
Questions
1. What policies should Aquino examine with regard to hiring, training, evaluating, and compensating his sales force and customer service employees?
2. What managerial practices should Aquino consider?
3. What other functional areas within the firm should Aquino work with during and after the study is complete?
4. Why is such a study necessary?