the company to promote at least one African American employee and ordered a diversity plan be implemented at the company. The diversity program will be developed by an outside director in accordance with the court's decision ("Circuit City was Ordered," 1997, p. 16).
The most obvious cost to Circuit City of the judgments is that the company must pay the awards and implement a diversity program. These are quantifiable costs which can be measured in terms of the dollars associated with the awards, the salary associated with the diversity director, and similar measurements. It is more difficult to measure the amount of money that the retailer lost in terms of the consumer action called for by the NAACP, the loss of the public image that the company suffered, and the concentration of resources that the company committed to fighting the various lawsuits (Lee, 1996, p. A13).
There are other costs to the organization as well, and these may be found in the long-term performance of the company. Investors and consumers who hear of the lawsuits may decide against patronizing Circ
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