Since I have ben appointed to be a branch o ce manager on the plains of a Lakota

reservation I have undertaken a very challenging position to hire some locals and help them
build a better life for the community. Before doing so I will meet some challenges to make all
this work as smoothly as possible.

The rst challenge I will encounter is to understand the how to select the best
candidates and how hire them, without being discriminatory from any aspect. It is obvious that
the community is struggling to make ends meet and anyone that could get a good paying job
would like to be considered for a position. These people’s lives are a ected by the low income
and poor family circumstances. They are facing some problems that others more privileged
people do not have to deal with. As Megivern would word it “I understood in that moment the
privilege of being White, and I reminded myself how my race had almost certainly played a
bene cial role in my escape from poverty.” (Megivern, 2005)

The second challenge that I would face is how to make sure that the selected people
are reliable, their needs are understood and their voices are heard. As we learned from the
video the community faces some signi cant issues with alcoholism and our company would
need to step in and help give people a chance to turn their lives around. This problem stems
from the lack of opportunity and the disengagement of people from the world. O ering proper
support will be critical. There will also be challenges on whether the new hires will accept the
help and actively try to better themselves.

The third issue will be if the community will accept our company’s presence in the rst
place or they might see us as uninvited guests and they have historical reasons to see it that
way. It is important to make sure to convince them that our company would bring help and
prosperity to the community. Our company’s game plan has to be very well constructed.

As a game plan to tackle these challenges I would suggest the following. I would
consult with the local leaders and the community members about the plan that my company
has and the bene ts that our presence would bring. We need to understand that their
skepticism has it roots in past experiences where they faced discrimination and unfair
treatment. These people value hard work as Robert cited his uncle’s words “the poor kid takes
the muddy rough road and they are building up strength the whole time like you are becoming
a warrior.” (YouTube, 2011)

Further we need to understand what their needs are from their point of view and they
mindset, otherwise we can never achieve a successful onboarding and employee retention in
this community. Our team has to be well prepared understanding the culture and the economic
and social challenges that these people face, because our background and upbringing is
completely di erent. We have “to think beyond one’s own life experiences by utilizing active
engagement and questioning “what we know” and “how we have come to know what we
know.’” (Middleton, et al., 2009) This critical re ection will help better connect because “We get
systematic training in "how to be" each of our social identities throughout our lives.” (Harro,
2010)

References

Harro, B. (2010). The Cycle of Socialization.  In M. Adams, Sticks & Stones: Readings in
diversity and social justice.  Routledge (UK).

Inside life on the Lakota Sioux reservation l Hidden America: Children of the Plains. ABC News.
October 14th, 2011. Retrieved November 2, 2022 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=IJapHc7B8Xs

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Megivern, D. (2005).  Supposed to know better: On accepting privilege.  In S.K. Anderson &
V.A. Middleton (Eds.), Explorations in Privilege and Diversity  (17-23).  Belmont, CA:
Thomson.

Middleton, V., Anderson, S., Banning, J., (2009). The journey to understanding privilege: A
meta-narrative approach. Journal of Transformative Education, 7, (294-311).