Wittenberg Professor Sunny Jeong
What roles do diversity, equity, and inclusion play in business success? This is the question Professor Sunny Jeong poses to students in her 400-level class as they close the first semester of their year together.
Professor Jeong has challenged her Wittenberg University students to analyze corporate strategy, alongside the role of culture, emotion, and policy in business strategy, to ultimately engage with industry professionals and bridge theory with practice. The students were divided into groups and asked to examine the careers and perspectives of working professionals in a variety of fields.
As she explains: “The trajectory of life which brings people to their current position…it's never linear. The lived experience of life is not simple. Humans make up the parts of a business and we have to understand that context. I think we’re lucky because Wittenberg University is a liberal arts institution so we have those values in our education which we can emphasize.”
Professor Jeong has been working on this concept of blending humanities with operational efficiency for years, especially after having worked within the world of Big 10 research institutions at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
“They emphasize technical skill sets so much, using more analytical skills as fast as you can to find quick solutions," Jeong says, “They’re really good at it. I've seen so many students doing that, even here! But then when you incorporate the students from different educational backgrounds who are majoring in English, Philosophy, Religion, etc.…those people are very deep thinkers. They bring different variables to the conversation which more succinct minds might not consider.”
She attributes her more enriched perspective to case studies she has worked on at corporations in Canada and South Korea, alongside her current involvement in the Academy of Management and the Management of Spirituality and Religion. One way she has found to implement this notion in her classroom, on a daily basis, is by asking every student, “What’s your intention here today?” This is a small but effective way to activate a more visceral experience of the curriculum.
The Hub Springfield’s Managing Editor David Esparza was selected by one of these cohort groups of students to speak on his own professional career in late November.
During this classroom appearance, Esparza made it a point to touch on the reporting of the social divide created by the election earlier this year, and the climate of distrust which it ignited.
As editor of Hub Springfield.com it became Esparza's responsibility to stay up to date on the ways in which this affected the community, particularly once the current president-elect made false claims that besmirched the area on a global scale during the Presidential Debate.
Esparza told the class, “My responsibility as editor of a small-town news website is to do my very best to tell the truth in my own reporting and to assist our writers in doing the same."
He went on to say: “The political and cultural divide in America is magnified by social media because anger and controversy generate engagement, likes, and the resultant— and all important—ad revenue. Ad revenue which is no longer supporting responsible journalism. This [ad-based] system does not take into account the great harms it causes. It actually thrives on doing us all the disservice of inspiring mistrust, division, and antipathy toward our fellow citizens."
The problem with this system, Esparza says, is that, "By and large, what we are being offered as citizens of the most powerful nation on earth is just two perspectives: one from the left, and the other from the right. And neither viewpoint is free from partisan or cultural influences. Its purpose is not to dutifully inform the citizenry but to maintain the financial and cultural interests of for-profit news organizations, corporate, and political interests."
Over the past 25 years, thousands of newsrooms of print publications across the nation have been downsized or shuttered altogether. This means a staggeringly significant percentage of the U.S. voting population is much less informed about essential matters of public policy, Esparza told the class.
Hubspringfield.com is part of Issue Media Group, one of some 20 Solutions Journalism news websites in the Midwest and beyond.
"To me,” says Esparza, “Solutions Journalism means many things. One of them is rejecting the two-perspective narrative. No political party, ideology, or social group of any kind, has an exclusive on truth, good ideas or the formulation of just, and equitable public policy. Neither does any social group hold an exclusive on being wrong. There is good and bad in absolutely every human population on the planet.”
Issue Media Group editors and writers are tasked with focusing on how communities are successfully addressing their respective societal challenges.
As Esparza says, “It doesn't matter which political party, social group, or individuals are developing the solutions. It only matters that the problems are being solved.
All of us want breathable air, clean water, and nutritious foods. We all want to be able to earn a living and safely live in peace with each other. Our responsibility is to report on any program, public policy, or idea that supports the overall well-being of communities.”
Mustapha Kinteh, a current student and attendee of these discussions, says his takeaway is, “To create a positive and thriving community, the people need opportunities and kindness for everyone to feel like they can get involved without criticism.”
When asked about what he thinks Springfield needs in this day in age, Kinteh says, “I think Springfield is stuck in a state where people are unsure of where the community is headed. Creating events and programs which let everyone be heard can really set people’s minds at peace and create a sense of togetherness.”
This take on how to amplify a more constructive esprit de corps of any community, in order to improve its ability to function, reflects the instruction of this type of research on a greater scale.
Professor Jeong’s takeaway is, “A CEO who is value-driven, is either faith-based, or possesses a very strong morality of their own values which they believe is better to make money. Profit maximization is not an end. It is a means to an end. Human beings should be the ends, and businesses are always tools to deliver to that end… Make sure your people are treated right.”
The question of what role diversity, equity, and inclusion play in business success is a more modern examination of big business. Nonetheless, the human spirit proves time and time again that we are social beings who work better together, as a collective, than apart. Professor Sunny Jeung’s project, however, goes to show that the human collective functions best when all of its members are included.
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Read more articles by Wil Hoffman.
Wil Hoffman is a Springfield Native and recent graduate of Ohio University. Having
achieved a degree in Communication Studies with a concentration in the Performing Arts, it wasn’t until a screenwriting class that he became aware of his interest in writing. Upon his return hewas eager to get involved in the community that Springfield has to offer, and found the Springfield Hub to be a great opportunity to do just that while sharpening his typographic abilities. In his spare time he enjoys golf and exploring the nature trails of the area when it's warm enough, and enjoying the numerous live music acts from the region when it's cooler.