meanor and dress that he must be in charge. He approaches the well-dressed observer and asks him to direct him to the executive conference room, he replied that he was standing in it. The new hire told him that he was there to observe a high-level meeting of corporate officers and again asked if he knew where the event was taking place. The gentleman tells the new hire to ¡§have a seat, the meeting will begin right here in a few minutes.¡ Astonished, the new hire asked ¡§but who are all these other people?¡ The gentlemen points to the black woman seated at the head of table; ¡§her name is Margot Jones, VP of Manufacturing. The man to her left wearing the tan suit and gold earring is Clark Baker, VP of Public Relations. The woman next to him is Katherine Proudfoot, our VP of Finance; she¡s also a lecturer in American Indian history at the local university. Then there¡s William Gardner, the African-American next to Margot; he¡s the General Counsel. Carl Philips, wearing a tan suit also is the new VP of Marketing and today is his 30th birthday. Seated next to Carl is his boss, Eduardo Mendoza, VP of Sales. The differently abled man at the opposite end of the room is Bill Burton, our Human Resource VP. The gray haired man next to him is Ed Dynan, VP of Strategic Planning. Then there is Mary McKenzie, our President. Amy Wu our VP of R&D and me. I¡m Rodney Bates, Ms McKenzie's executive secretary. Can I get you some coffee or juice before we begin?¡ The new hire speaks aloud to himself ¡§ten senior people and only four white men! What kind of company is this anyway? Rodney replies, ¡§Why, your typical American company of course.¡ (62)
             The scene Loden and Rosner described could very well be seen in today¡s boardrooms of American businesses; however, just 10-15 years ago the reaction by a typical businessman would have been the same as the new hire in the scenario. Our society has bee...