Principles of Management free essay sample

1. Why was the succession of Ursula Burns to the top position at Xerox considered historic? It was considered historic because Ursula M. Burns was the first African-American woman to lead a major U. S corporation and she also was the first female CEO to take the reins from another woman. During those times it was hard for a woman to get a job and it was even harder if she was a minority. Further, she succeeded another woman, Anne Mulcahy, who was one of the very few women to head a major U.S. corporation. (George, 2011) 2. Why are there so few women and minority CEOs of large corporations? There are so few women and minorities CEOs in large corporations because they haven’t gotten past the fact that they don’t look like their role models who are the people they look up to. What they should be doing instead is start to focus on the similarities they have with the white male executives. We will write a custom essay sample on Principles of Management or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page If they focus on that they will see that they are the same as their white-male coworkers.Another reason why there are so few women is because many large companies have maintained their traditional beliefs that business men look better in suits. Furthermore most people tend to promote others who are like them and since then white men have dominated the corporate executive suites it’s no surprise to see that even today white men still dominate the corporate world. (George, 2011) 3. What steps have managers at Xerox taken to effectively manage diversity? What are the consequences of these initiatives?Since the 1960’s’ Xerox has made use of its employee similarity networks where representatives of minority groups would represent the interests of those groups to senior management. The network provided women and minorities the chance to display their leadership capabilities to upper management. Xerox also has performance reviews that rate managers on their capabilit y to employ, guide and promote underrepresented groups. The consequences of these initiatives are Anne Mulcahy who is a celebrated female CEO and now Ursula Burns who is a historic female African-American CEO. (George, 2011)