Case Study on Diversity and Inclusion

The modern world has become highly diversified and inclusion is becoming a major issue
in most social circles and business organizations (Totten 2013). Inclusion is a phenomenon
whereby a community of people is willing to accept individuals that have unique identities and a
belief system to what is considered common practice within that specific Society. Diversity
allows for the exploration of differences and believes in a positive and safe environment without
collision with other individuals in that space (Levine et al. 2019). It allows for the exploration
and appreciation of various forms of diversity that are contained within specific individuals by
providing positive value and without hate or discrimination. In recent years, there have been
great concerns over institutions that do not appreciate diversity and which discriminate
individuals based on a specific trait that is not considered Commonplace within the larger
community (Levine et al. 2019). There are a lot of conversations in various countries with
propagation towards allowing for diversity within these societies. Business organizations that
appreciate diversity and inclusion have become popular with most liberal communities for
example in the West and most developed countries. The case of Ballira expresses that may arise
due to business is failing to support diversity and inclusivity in their organizational culture and
the negative effects it could have.
In a series of advertisements, Dove developed a body wash advert that showed a black
woman removing her brown shirt and a white woman will come underneath with a white shirt.
This showcased the capacity of the soap to wash away the black color from an individual and
bring them whiteness, which the advert portrayed as a desirable characteristic. The advertisement
created a major backlash against the company and individuals opting to tarnish and avoid the
product completely due to its racist message. The main question that uses sought to understand

social media is how the advertisement could have gone through the numerous layers of review at
the company and still come out as a racist advertisement. Unilever, the parent company for the
advertisement came out and apologized for the advert which cost them a lot of losses due to
customer response across the world. The fact that the company had made another advertisement
previously with a similar condescending notion of transforming a black woman into a white one
through one of their products catapulted the boycott against their product (Levine et al. 2019). It
is evident how much backlash that companies that do not engage diversity and inclusivity called
propagate especially when communicating with audiences that consume their product. Such
actions could have a detrimental effect on the brand and portray an undesirable brand in the
market.
In a similar case of inclusivity and diversity, Barilla Group is a global business enterprise
and that was founded in 1877 and has its presence in more than 100 countries around the world.
Barilla Group is a huge enterprise with annual sales of over 3 billion euros. In the year 2013, the
company's chairman made comments that the community in America deemed very homophobic
after giving a speech on why they did not feature gay people in their advertisements. In his
controversial statement, Guido Barilla stated, “I would never do a commercial with a
homosexual couple, not for lack of respect, but because we don’t agree with them. Ours is a
classic family where a woman plays a fundamental role. If gays don’t like it, they can go eat
another brand.” This statement initiated a major backlash triggering boycotts against the product
in the United States and other countries around the world where the country maintains a
stronghold of the pasta market (Totten 2013). The backlash from the statement posed a major
threat not only to the company losing market share but also tarnishing their company's reputation
and image which would attract a great level of opportunistic behavior from competitors and

initiate a great level of competition that would level down the company. Batrolli and San Remo,
considerably large competitors took the opportunity and posted adverts on various messages
including social media supporting various Communities and especially showing great support to
the gay community. This proved to be a major Challenge for Bartrolli and goes a long way to
ensure the need for inclusivity in business organizations especially in the modern diverse
community.
The two cases of diversity and inclusion by Dove and Barilla group show the immense
effects of lacking cultural diversity on a brand. On some occasions, organizations communicate
without deep reflection into the consequences of their communication and this is the specific
case of the two companies. It also signifies a much deeper problem within the organizations
since even though the individuals there do not hold ideologies that support DI, it would be
appropriate for them to communicate in a manner that does not fight it, especially in major
liberal communities. Diversity highlight the different characteristics that people Hold and which
they expressed when interacting with different members of society (Karsaklian 2019). Inclusion
on the other hand signifies Harnessing these diversities and ideologies in a way that is beneficial
to an institution, business organization, or a community as a whole. Diversity does not
necessarily bring about chaos but if managed effectively it may bring about the effectiveness as
has been the case in many locations around the world. After the backlash against Dove for its
racist comments, the company embarked on a journey to try and change its notion over minority
communities and people of color in general. Following the backlash from this advert, the
company committed to developing Solutions with systemic racism and especially related to skin
and hair color. The company formed a Coalition dubbed ‘CROWN’ which is an acronym for,
Creating a Respectful and Open World with No racism. Unilever has since gained positive Image

from its fight against racism and discrimination against people of color. This implies that
organizations that appreciate the role of diversity and inclusion have a higher opportunity of
increasing growth and especially when they feature it within their communication processes in
general.
According to Totten (2013), Diversity and inclusion play a major role in propagating
innovation and development. He does this by explaining the case of Russia and the United States
when competing for the opportunity to be the first to go to space. Where are the US was relying
on its population alone Russia hard cyst scientists from Germany and Jewish intellectuals in
thousands and why using them for the space program development (Karsaklian 2019). Russia
had taken charge of many regions of Europe and one could distinguish Euro into two sides with
one side being the free countries and the other being mainly consisted of Russia seized countries.
Russia had an upper hand over the US because it had a wider pool of professionals and some of
the brightest Minds in Europe an opportunity it took advantage of. The Cold war between the US
and Russia had escalated to its peak and is the first to enter space Russia won the war against the
US. Russia expressed a great case of development as propagated by the existence of diversity
and its willingness to appreciate the knowledge that these individuals had and how it contributed
to their scientific and technological growth.
Moving forward, despite Russia's appreciation of diversity it did not propagate
inclusivity among the diverse cultures that it had due to its seizing professionals from other
countries. The country tried forcing in cultures and ideologies into people to form the Soviet
Union and maintain its authority. On the contrary, the United States promoted a culture of
inclusivity and diversity and has continued to do so to date. The country focused on providing
educational opportunities for all its citizens no matter the ethnic Communities that they belonged

to. The government also and rolled up learn to appreciate diversity in terms of gender and
religion even sexual orientation which has propagated America’s success to date. Tottan (2013)
states, “Our educational system knows that embracing diversity results in effective learning.
There is a need not only to embrace a diverse student body but also to embrace diverse leaders—
principals, teachers, and administrators. How else can we prepare a bright talent pool for
tomorrow's scientific, technological, and societal leadership? Education has learned to embrace
diversity." The continued development and appreciation of diversity in the US have propagated
the growth of the country as a center of technology and innovation around the world.
In the case of Barilla Group, the company’s chairman underwent a process of
transformation by changing the structures in the organization to adopt diversity and inclusivity.
The chairman tried developing personal relationships with leaders from the LGBT community to
come to an understanding of the various diversity issues in the organization (Levine et al. 2019).
The company also developed Processes to deal with other types of discrimination apart from
homosexuality which included disability, race, and nationality (Karsaklian 2019). Considering
the backlash from the community against the company due to its homophobic remarks the
company went ahead to develop policies that would help it in expressing diversity and inclusivity
in the company. One of the measures that it developed was instituting a global diversity and
inclusion body that will help the company deal with similar issues (Totten 2013). The institution
was responsible for the development of policies and recommendations that would help monitor
and establish progress towards attaining inclusivity. The company also developed the position of
chief diversity officer and also aboard for the same which had a total of 10 senior-level
employees. The changes made a great improvement to the company's processes and how it

would perceive individuals from minority communities and address them in the most appropriate
ways possible.
Foundationally, business organizations that express the meaning emotions are Guinness
people of minority communities when dealing with the external environment also expressed
similar opinions within the internal operations of the organization. As seen above, such
organizations suffer detrimental effects from their demeaning opinions against such
Communities and could face a major backlash especially from the US Communities due to its
general liberal nature. Over the years, the US has expressed itself as the center for democracy
and openness which has allowed minority Communities to continue to thrive throughout history.
The world is moving towards this kind of the point of view due to the many advantages
associated with Diversity and inclusivity. Modern communication by a business organization,
should, therefore, take the approach of inclusivity by appreciating rather than shaming minority
groups. Communication should as well recognize the different ways in which people express
themselves and therefore select communication that expresses these opinions and considers the
differences in individual differences. This will enable organizations to continue to gain growth
and enhance their reach in smaller communities. Therefore, they will gain a lot of growth
internally and improve their market reach in the external market which is of great advantage to
them.
In conclusion, diversity is continuously growing as a desirable attribute for businesses
around the globe. This is due to the positive influence that inclusivity has on the image of
companies towards its consumers and society at large. Also, companies that have expressed
consent for discrimination of individuals who come from minority groups often experience
backlash from the society and hate which adversely affect their acceptability in the market. This

report has focused on Dove, which had immense opposition after sending an advertisement that
portrayed a racist message. Barilla group also faced a backlash from the US community after its
chairman expressed negative concerns about homosexual and stated that they could not be used
in advertisements for the company. The effects of such actions brought our change into the way
these organizations function and began communication on why organizations should appreciate
diversity and inclusivity. Also, there are many more countries that have gained growth due to
appreciating diversity and the US is a model example. This generally showcases the great
capacity for the organizations to gain appreciation and acceptance in the communities they serve
and therefore be in a position to grow immensely.