Achieving Meritocracy in the Workplace SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Achieving Meritocracy in the Workplace
This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. For their companies to remain competitive and successful, many executives strongly believe that they need to recruit and retain top talent. And to do so, they must foster meritocracies -hiring, rewarding, and promoting the best people, based on their merit. The most progressive companies have thus created formal systems for ensuring that job applicants and employees are judged solely by their efforts, skills, abilities, and performance, regardless of their gender, race, class, national origin, or sexual orientation.When managers believe their company is a meritocracy because formal evaluative and distributive mechanisms are in place, they are actually more likely to exhibit the very biases that those systems may seek to prevent. The very belief that an organization is meritocratic may open the door to biased, non-merit-based behavior when managers make key individual-level career decisions. The good news, the author reports, is that establishing a more meritocratic workplace doesn't require an inordinate amount of time or resources. It is a matter of establishing clear processes and criteria for hiring and evaluating employees. It is also a matter of monitoring and evaluating the outcomes of such company processes and bestowing an individual or group within the organization with the responsibility, ability, and authority to ensure that those formal processes are fair. The collection and analysis of data on people-related processes and outcomes -often referred to as "people analytics"-can enable companies to identify and correct workplace biases. The author conducted a longitudinal investigation of the translation of employee performance evaluations into compensation decisions at a large service organization in North America. He found that, over the long run, women and minorities received lower salary increases than white men with the same performance evaluation scores, even after controlling for job, work unit, and supervisor effects. The company's solution was to adopt a set of organizational procedures that incorporated both accountability and transparency into its performance reward system. The intervention consisted of introducing three key changes. First, a performance reward committee was appointed to monitor the fairness of pay decisions. Second, all senior managers had to follow a formalized process for assigning rewards based on employee evaluations. This process required the senior managers to briefly justify how much was awarded to each employee in their work unit. Third, the performance reward committee was granted the authority to modify pay decisions made by senior managers. After the new system was implemented, the author found significant reductions in the gender, race, and foreign nationality gaps for merit-based pay rewards. In fact, any remaining differences from such biases were negligible. Follow-up interviews with executives and managers at the company suggested that both the accountability and transparency mechanisms had been effective in reducing those pay gaps.
Swot Analysis of "Achieving Meritocracy in the Workplace" written by Emilio J. Castilla includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Merit Biases facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Achieving Meritocracy in the Workplace case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Gender, Motivating people and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Achieving Meritocracy in the Workplace casestudy better are - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing commodity prices, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, wage bills are increasing,
increasing energy prices, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Achieving Meritocracy in the Workplace
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Achieving Meritocracy in the Workplace case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Merit Biases, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Merit Biases operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of Achieving Meritocracy in the Workplace can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Achieving Meritocracy in the Workplace case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Merit Biases
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Leadership & Managing People field.
4. Making a Leadership & Managing People topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Merit Biases
Strengths Achieving Meritocracy in the Workplace | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Merit Biases in Achieving Meritocracy in the Workplace Harvard Business Review case study are -
Innovation driven organization
– Merit Biases is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Achieving Meritocracy in the Workplace Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Merit Biases has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in, as mentioned in case study Achieving Meritocracy in the Workplace - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
High brand equity
– Merit Biases has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Merit Biases to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Merit Biases in the sector have low bargaining power. Achieving Meritocracy in the Workplace has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Merit Biases to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Merit Biases has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
Learning organization
- Merit Biases is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Merit Biases is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Achieving Meritocracy in the Workplace Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Merit Biases is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Achieving Meritocracy in the Workplace are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Merit Biases digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Merit Biases has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
Organizational Resilience of Merit Biases
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Merit Biases does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Merit Biases has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in Achieving Meritocracy in the Workplace HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Achieving Meritocracy in the Workplace firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Merit Biases to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Merit Biases to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– Merit Biases is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Achieving Meritocracy in the Workplace case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Weaknesses Achieving Meritocracy in the Workplace | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Achieving Meritocracy in the Workplace are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Merit Biases is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Merit Biases needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Merit Biases to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Merit Biases needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Merit Biases supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Achieving Meritocracy in the Workplace, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Merit Biases vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Achieving Meritocracy in the Workplace HBR case study still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Merit Biases has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Achieving Meritocracy in the Workplace HBR case study mentions - Merit Biases takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Achieving Meritocracy in the Workplace, is just above the industry average. Merit Biases needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Merit Biases has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Achieving Meritocracy in the Workplace has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Merit Biases 's lucrative customers.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Merit Biases has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Merit Biases has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Merit Biases even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Merit Biases has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Opportunities Achieving Meritocracy in the Workplace | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study Achieving Meritocracy in the Workplace are -
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Merit Biases to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Loyalty marketing
– Merit Biases has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Leadership & Managing People industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Merit Biases can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Merit Biases can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Merit Biases to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Merit Biases can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Merit Biases can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Merit Biases can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Leadership & Managing People segment.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Merit Biases to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Merit Biases to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Buying journey improvements
– Merit Biases can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Achieving Meritocracy in the Workplace suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Merit Biases has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in the sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled, as illustrated in the Harvard case study Achieving Meritocracy in the Workplace - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Merit Biases to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Identify volunteer opportunities
– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Merit Biases can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Manufacturing automation
– Merit Biases can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Leadership & Managing People segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Threats Achieving Meritocracy in the Workplace External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Achieving Meritocracy in the Workplace are -
Regulatory challenges
– Merit Biases needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Leadership & Managing People industry regulations.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Merit Biases demand
– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in the industry and other sectors.
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Merit Biases business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Merit Biases
– Post Covid-19 there is a sharp increase in the wages especially in the jobs that require interaction with people. The increasing wages can put downward pressure on the margins of Merit Biases.
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Achieving Meritocracy in the Workplace, Merit Biases may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Leadership & Managing People .
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Merit Biases in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Merit Biases can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate prominent markets illustrated in HBR case study Achieving Meritocracy in the Workplace .
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Merit Biases needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Merit Biases is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Merit Biases needs to have a robust strategy against the disruptions arising from climate change and energy requirements. EU has identified it as key priority area and spending 30% of its 880 billion Euros European post Covid-19 recovery funds on green technology. Merit Biases can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Leadership & Managing People field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Merit Biases can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Instability in the European markets
– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Merit Biases will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Achieving Meritocracy in the Workplace Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study Achieving Meritocracy in the Workplace needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study Achieving Meritocracy in the Workplace is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study Achieving Meritocracy in the Workplace is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of Achieving Meritocracy in the Workplace is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Merit Biases needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.