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Assignment 2 – Memo on
Structural & HR Analysis:
“Diversity at the New England
Aquarium”
by Aasia Farooqi

TO: Jamie Nolan

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FROM: Aasia Ashfaq Farooqi

SUBJECT: Structural & HR Analysis: “Diversity at the New England Aquarium”

DATE: October 5, 2019

This memo will review the Structural and Human Resource Framework in the case study

“Diversity at the New England Aquarium” and propose recommendations for the

challenges identified in the study. According to Bolman there are four frames on which an

organization focuses: Structural, HR, Political and Symbolic. This paper will discuss the

first two frames. The structural frame focuses on goals, strategies, hierarchy, roles and

their rules for better management.

Whereas the HR frame focuses on the humanistic side of the organization where it

highlights the dynamics of relationship amongst the organization and its employees. It

explains how the employees perform at their optimal levels when their needs are met.

The case study begins with highlighting the challenge the New England Aquarium faces

in increasing diversity in its visitors and how their initiatives falls short. In mid 1990s a

concerted effort by its education is launched to bring in the adolescents from inner city

which houses more communities of color and engage them in the new youth programs.

On the failure of their initial plan to engage the minority community through terrific

Thursday program, a consultant was brought in and a task force was created to research

the reasons. The findings highlighted that the image of the Aquarium as a white institution

still persists because of absence of significant minority staff. One of the reason being the

huge number of volunteer force manning the floor which mostly consisted of American

people as the minorities usually relied on income generating activities to meet their needs.
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Based on these findings, institution wide plans were developed, education department

was the first to launch its programs. However the first short fall can be seen when these

program are launched without realizing the full implications of these actions. The new

initiative engaged paid interns from high school who were younger than their usual

recruits. The staff faced challenges in dealing with these interns as most had no familiarity

with the aquarium and had no interest in learning more about it. The staff was not

equipped to train the younger interns and did not have the capacity to do so in short term.

Neither roles nor the rules were properly defined. Considering these new interns were

being paid to do the same job other volunteers did for free, they were scrutinized more

as more was expected of them and on the other hand were resented by the volunteers.

The young interns felt isolated as the educators tended to avoid them because they didn’t

know how to handle them. These interns were to be prepared for the real world however

the high schoolers didn’t follow the dress code, weren’t punctual and were perceived as

rude due to their dislike for public interaction. Both the staff and interns were getting

frustrated but some students did find some interest in the aquarium. Though a general

consensus among the educators was that this program was not worth the trouble.

Before the end of the summer program a new educator Williams joined the institution and

realized that the program needed to be customized to cater to adolescents. After some

experiences he decided to selected limited number based on their motivation level rather

than being assigned a group as was done previously. Instead of placing the interns on

the floor for public dealing he developed separate programs for them to give them a

holistic learning experience. That in fact improved the situation somewhat but failed to

increase interaction of the interns with other departments overall.

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After looking at the situation from the structural and HR lens it would have been better for

the organization to research youth programs implemented by other institutions and focus

on their success and challenges. Secondly it would have been better to equip the

educators with the skills on how to interact with the adolescents and develop a job

description for the interns before launching the youth programs. The interns would have

benefitted from trainings, customized to meet their needs and build upon their skillset

before being assigned tasks rather than going through the standard volunteer training,

which was designed for people older than them and had either interest or background in

the marine sciences. A better understanding of what was expected of them would have

decreased the communication barrier and not made them isolated which in turn would

make handling them easier for the educators.