Reference no: EM132210593

Wilson's Widgets -- Aligning Hiring with Corporate Culture Runda Show is the Manager of Widget Production at Wilson’s Widgets, a family-owned widget manufacturer that employs about 1000 people. Wilson’s Widgets—which has been in business for about 100 years, provides widgets to many industries and the federal government. Wilson’s has a longstanding corporate culture that supports hiring and promoting employees from within the company, giving priority in hiring to those with seniority, and seeking diversity in the workplace. As a family-owned company, there are many members of the Wilson family working at the company, and the company has no prohibition on nepotism or the employment of family. Show has an opening on her team for a Senior Widget Analyst, and her company has been advertising internally and externally for the position for the past month. The Senior Widget Analyst will have two primary areas of responsibility: (1) overseeing widget production (which requires knowing and understanding the Wilson’s Widgets product and process), and (2) driving new product and process development (which requires creativity and product development skill). Show has narrowed the field to four candidates, whose resumes she has in her hands, although she hasn’t conducted any interviews or engaged in any other hiring tasks. Those candidates are: Sheila Outzider – a female minority candidate, Sheila has six years’ experience at a widget competitor, where she worked with a different type of widget, and she also has some experience with new product development from her time at the competitor. Although she has worked with a different widget, she would probably be able to learn and understand the Wilson’s Widgets method, but there would be a learning curve. Sheila brings some experience in product development, and would likely bring a fresh perspective due to her work at an outside company. Sheila’s resume was brought to you by your recruiter in HR, who dropped it on your desk and said “please consider Sheila; she’s a great candidate and we could use the diversity here at Wilson’s.” Bob Oldtimer – an internal candidate whose resume has come to you through the internal bidding process. Bob has been at Wilson’s for twenty years, and he is a white male likely between 45 and 50 years old. Bob has been a Widget Processor and knows and understands the Wilson’s Widget process extremely well; he is also well-respected by the company workers for this knowledge. Bob doesn’t have much product development experience; in his decades of work he has driven a few product enhancements, but he has no other track record of product development. Todd Ambitious – another internal candidate who applied via the internal bidding process. Todd is a white male who has been at Wilson’s for five years and is a Widget Processor like Bob. However, unlike Bob, Todd has proposed numerous new products, and has worked as part of the team that launched a couple of those. Maya Interne – a great-niece of the Wilson’s Widgets founder, Maya is a white female who has just graduated college with an undergraduate degree in business, specializing in product development. She has also interned at Wilson’s for the past six summers as a Widget Processor. Maya’s resume came to you via your supervisor—Wegman Wilson—who runs your division. He dropped the resume on your desk saying: “no pressure here, Runda, and you can certainly select the candidate you prefer, but it would sure make the old man happy if you were able to hire family for this job.” At Wilson’s, hiring managers, like Runda, have complete autonomy to make their own hiring decisions, with the support and help of the HR department as the manager needs. If you were Runda, what would be your next steps in this process?