Alpino is a world leader in designing and manufacturing headsets to be used with laptops and computers. Founded in India in 1998 it quickly expanded by exporting different types of headsets through channels that offered these to call centers and game enthusiasts. As revenues and profit continued to grow in the targeted direction the company stepped up its game by opening webshops and warehouses in Indonesia, Canada, and the Netherlands.

2. Structure and staff

As of February of 2019 the company is made up of the following:

Mumbai, India: headquarters, one flagstone, a web shop, warehouse, and a factory

Toronto, Canada – three warehouses, a webshop

Amsterdam, the Netherlands – one warehouse, a webshop

Jakarta, Indonesia – one warehouse, a webshop

The warehouses handle the orders of the webshops and take care of shipping and goods returned by customers.

The company is structured as a typical pyramid; wide at the bottom and small at the top. Each warehouse has a general manager who ensures day-to-day management of the employees. A general manager is in charge of 15 to 17 team coordinators that manage the employees of the warehouse. The general manager is to report to the Worldwide Warehouse Director (based in India). Both WWW-Director and the Factory Directory are members of the management team. Apart from those mentioned, the management team is staffed by a Purchase & Logistics director, Finance director, HR director and CEO.

With the expansion abroad Alpino is now employer to around 42,000 employees.

3. Diversity

With Alpino’s recent expansion the Alpino management team feel that they are much more in the limelight now then when Alpino’s operation was restricted to India. To be considered a reputable company is important to share with the world what Alpino stands for and steer employees’ behavior in the desired direction. In order to show what Alpino is about and what kind of behavior is expected clear policies must be drawn and communicated on all relevant subjects.

Currently, one subject particularly has become urgent to communicate about. That subject is diversity. Public pressure is building to hear Alpino’s stand following an article in the Harvard Business Review which mentioned several companies, including Alpino, that remain silent on their stand.

The Head of HR has identified three specific themes Alpino needs to consider in its stand on diversity: nationality, LGBT, and religions.

With its locations in various countries Alpino employees represent a number of nationalities. Unfortunately, the management team and managers of each location remain homogenetic in their composition: in India, all management positions are filled by people from India, etc. The management team welcomes a policy that in the future will result in a mixture of nationalities on all management levels.

Additionally, Alpino’s management team is in favor of measures to support LGBT employees but has no idea what the company could do to help. Being a large company Alpino must have thousands of employees identifying as part of this community, but generally, they are not visible. Therefore there are no issues relating to LGBT employees that need urgent attention but it is assumed some members of this group might run in to problems without management being aware.

Regarding religion, the management team already had heard of issues as some Muslim employees wanted to celebrate the Eid al-Fitr after the yearly fast but were not allowed the two days off they requested due to limited capacity at the specific location. Another issue related to some employees not accepting a female manager at one of the warehouses. After the local HR manager intervened it became clear that Christian employees objected based on their religious beliefs. A local newspaper turned it into an article that fortunately did not cause much of a stir but next time a similar issue could get out of hand.

4. Alpino’s request

QUESTION : 

Alpino’s management team wants to be presented with a policy on diversity including nationality, LGBT, and religion. The policy should describe: the situation Alpino aims for per diversity aspect.

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

Alpino being a worldwide organization which is spread in various topographies for example Canada Ind... View the full answer