Module 2 Rodriguez

Field Study on Social Groups

Sean J. Rodriguez
OGL 200
Dr. Kermit Brown
9/4/23
Module 2 Rodriguez

During my field study I chose to observe people at my workplace, which is an Aviation

squadron comprised of over 250 men and women. The squadron is an oversized aircraft hanger

with an attached building comprised of over 40 offices throughout. I chose to observe at the

“smoke pit”, which is a designated location 50 feet from the squadron where Marines go to

socialize, take a break and/or smoke. I chose to go from 11am until 11:45am, because this is

one of the busiest times, especially on days with a heavy workload. I also chose to go in work

out attire so no one immediately knew my rank, so it didn’t change any of the results

The first thing that I noticed was that it was majority men, with only two women there

the entire time. However, when both women came in to the “smoke-pit” nothing changed, and

they participated in the conversations fluently. The second thing that I noticed was that it

appeared that the age and ranks of all the Marines were very close to one another. From the

population of Marines that I know and the ones where I could see their rank there were

approximately 75% E-3 and below, which means they are very junior and most likely have only

been in for one enlistment and that same population appeared to be under the age of 23.

There were a few older men who joined and were E-6 and above, however, they did not stay

long. When they were there the volume went down, but the conversations did continue, and

the gentlemen did interact with a few of the Marines who were already in the smoke pit. The

last three groups that I was looking for were ones that may not identify the same as the group,

those with disabilities and racial groups. This population did potentially skew those results due
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to the strict medical requirements to join, however, there was one Marines with crutches, and

he never appeared to be ostracized. As far as the racial diversity it appeared to be primarily

Caucasian and African American, but I did not ask or know for the study since I did not want to

intervene and break up conversation.

I did notice that throughout the time I was observing that there would typically be two

to three small groups in proximity and as new people approached the location, they tended to

pick one of the small groups. I did not find anything significant pertaining to gender, race, or age

throughout the time.

One thing that I was especially observant of was the topics of conversations and

whether groups were talking about each other or if they were discussing derogatory topics in

nature. I did not overhear any of those negative topics being discussed and for the most part I

noticed the Marines were talking about work or topics about the squadrons, which appeared to

be lighthearted and casual.

To conclude, I believe the Military is slightly different than most of the social norms

when it comes to how groups interact due to our extensive training and background with one

another. While most businesses operate and try to build a sense of pride and togetherness,

military members already have a common bond through their training. Although prejudice and

racism can exist anywhere, I feel that in the military it is harder for those people to have power

or influence because the majority are looking out for each other. I was very happy to see that

most of the individuals used their break time to unwind and discuss positive topics. Lastly, it

appeared that no one was excluded or was treated differently.

Module 2 Rodriguez

Diversity In The Workplace

Sean J. Rodriguez
OGL 200
Dr. Kermit Brown
9/4/23
Module 2 Rodriguez

The company that I chose to research is Lockheed Martin and I chose them because this

is a company that I intend on applying for a position in the future and want to know more about

their culture. Lockheed Martin is a multi-national aerospace corporation that holds one the

largest military contract in the world, per Aero Corner. “It’s no wonder because this is the

biggest company in the defense industry and recipient of defense contracts in the world.”

(Editorial Team, 2022). My research will consist of a thorough look into the diversity in their

company, their business values and priorities, and also what their plans are for the future with

their employees and business.

I begin by researching what Lockheed Martin puts on their public website, which to me

displays their priorities. On their page they have stated that their mission statement is, “We

solve complex challenges, advance scientific discovery and deliver innovative solutions that help

our customers keep people safe.”(Lockheed, 2023). I believe that this is a stand mission

statement for a company in the aerospace field, but I did note that it ended with safety and I do

believe that is significant for a company that has the largest defense contract in the world.

Right underneath their mission statement are their values, which are “Do what’s right, respect

others, and perform with excellence.”(Lockheed, 2023). I believe that these show where their

morals and ethics are, and I believe that they placed them in line with their priorities to show

they place a significant amount of importance on being fair and ethical. On this same page

there were statistics for the number of employees, some diversity in hiring and the length of the

company, however, I will use another third part source later to discuss these figures. Their

vision is outlined on the same page as, “We are committed to creating a more sustainable and

equitable future.” (Lockheed, 2023). I think this goes in line with their mission statement and
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theme of their page. The bottom of the page has additional statistics based on the company’s

financial success and how to apply to work for them.

For the next part of my research, I used a website called Zippia, a company that

specializes in company data. During this part of my research, I was specifically looking for data

pertaining to the diversity of the company to try to spot any trends or gaps. Zippia and

Lockheed Martin both report that Lockheed Martin’s number of employees is roughly 115,000

and Zippia reports that 29% of those are women and 71% are men. The most common ethnicity

was white at 58%, 15% Latino or Hispanic and 14% African American. The diversity within the

company scored them a 9.9/10 on the Diversity score. (Zippia,2023) Zippia also did a

comparative analysis against another company in the same industry, but most of the data was

very similar and did not appear to display and new trends other than the industry appears to be

hiring a diverse group. The data for the average age for employees appears to also be what one

would expect for a company whose largest field is engineering and that is that 32% are over the

age of 40. This graph also showed that between the ages of 20-40 made up a total of 59%.

(Zippia, 2023). Overall, I believe that the data shows that Lockheed Martin has a diverse group

of employees for gender, race, and age.

For the third part of this research paper, I chose to use a website called Glassdoor.

Glassdoor is another third-party site which uses a mix of reviews, data and photos to show a

company’s entire image. I used Glassdoor to specifically look at the employee’s experience and

their cohesiveness. Out of over 13k reviews Glassdoor shows that 84% of those people would

recommend Lockheed Martin to a friend and 90% approve of the CEO. (Glassdoor, 2023) I

believe that this is important because when people generally think of whether they would
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recommend a company to a friend, they are looking for a company that treated them well.

While the salary and benefits can often be negotiated, one thing that is hard to change is the

perception of how someone was treated. I also read some reviews and looked at photos to get a

better idea of the cohesiveness in the company. It appears that even when people were not

happy with how outdated a building was or that they were not qualified for a higher position,

they still felt that Lockheed Martin was a good company that had an accepting culture. A lot of

the photos may have been staged; however, it did appear that people were happy in the photos

and working as a team. Some examples of cohesiveness are the photos that appear to be taking

of a work event where it appears some individuals were recognized for their work.

Through my research at this point I feel that their patterns of norming and the company

appears to be very transparent in the direction they are going. So far all of the data and

information suggests that Lockheed Martin is aware of the importance of diversity and is trying

to create a very accepting company at each of their locations. I believe that employees may

choose to conform due to the environment, the leaders who are in charge and a proven track

record of success. It appears that the company has great benefits and a competitive salary,

showing potential to other employees.

Lockheed Martin does require different levels of diversity training throughout their

company. One of the newest introduced training curriculums was a 3-day training retreat for

over 13 executives. One of the topics was, “White Men’s Caucus” to discuss white male

privilege. (Golding, 2021). While this topic did receive some backlash in the press it does show

that they are trying to stay current on topics that currently have received a lot of attention. This

however was not the only topic during the training and that also goes to show that the training
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does not just go to the most junior employees, but also all the way up to the executives. I

believe that Lockheed Martin understands the importance of training and ensuring that

everyone is on the same page when it comes to diversity in the workplace.

To conclude, Lockheed Martin appears to be a very diverse company that places a great

deal of value on their ethics. I believe that they have already shown that products work, which

can be seen by the large contracts they were able to secure, but now we see that they believe in

their employees as well. While a lot of companies can write about the changes or ideas, they

have for their company it is another thing to actually implement them and especially difficult to

do when you have facilities all over the world. I believe that Lockheed Martin was successful at

this because they pay attention to their employees and take care of them.
Module 2 Rodriguez

References:
Leading aerospace and defense. (n.d.). Lockheed Martin. https://www.lockheedmartin.com/
Lockheed Martin. (2023, September 1). GlassDoor. Retrieved September 4, 2023, from
https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Lockheed-Martin-work-environment-Reviews-
EI_IE404.0,15_KH16,32.htm
Lockheed Martin Number of Employees, Statistics, Diversity, demographics, and facts - Zippia.
(2023, July 21). https://www.zippia.com/lockheed-martin-careers-6899/demographics/
Editorial Team. (2022, July 11). The 15 largest military contractors in the world - Aero Corner.
Aero Corner. https://aerocorner.com/blog/largest-military-contractors/
Golding, B. (2021, May 26). Lockheed Martin execs made to attend “white male privilege”
training: report. New York Post. https://nypost.com/2021/05/26/lockheed-martin-had-white-
male-privilege-training-report/