Free Essays on Diversity

Useless Lectures On Wednesday, April 3, a â€Å"Diversity Enlightenment Session† held in the Cardinal Lounge was presented by the Director of the Center for Diversity, Pluralism and Inclusion (CDPI), J.W. Wiley. As Wiley said, the Center’s goal is to inform people that diversity is all around them, and that diversity affects everyone. In order to do this, Wiley went over some ten exercises. These exercises included titles such as â€Å"thought exercise, diversity and you, diversity experiences, toleration scale, and privilege.† Even though the objective of the workshop was to raise awareness of diversity, and to increase the attendee’s comfort with differences around them, comfort was anything but present. Wiley proceeded to lecture on the subject rather than present the interactive workshop he intended. CDPI’s mission is to get people to â€Å"Acknowledge your level of sophistication about diversity, and realize that you will never be as sophisticated about diversity as you would tike to be!† Along with â€Å"At minimum, seek exposure; at a maximum, attempt to immerse yourself in environments that are outside the comfort zone in which you have been socialized.† And finally to, â€Å"Constantly remind you that diversity involves you.† Comfort was a large focus by Wiley during the presentation. Most college students are aware of the number different races and cultural backgrounds here at Plattsburgh State University. The problem with the workshop was that it felt like a lecture. Even though Mr. Wiley came off as a charismatic and enthusiastic speaker, he almost made his audience feel as they were being drilled. The possible reason for this feeling was the constant use of the word â€Å"you.† For example, he would say things like â€Å"You need to realize your surroundings, which is something I don’t think you do.† This thereby suggests that he was trying to tell us what we did and did not know. Sentence after sentence ... Free Essays on Diversity Free Essays on Diversity Diversity is what we chose to analyze based on the desire to understand an inclusive environment and be able to incorporate this into our companies. This paper will describe diversity and it’s importance to the workplace environment. We plan on describing how a company should evolve into an inclusive environment. We will analyze three different companies and discuss the importance of diversity in these organizations. We then will create a diversity benchmark for corporations to incorporate into their policies. Defining Diversity Diversity is defined as â€Å"describing human qualities such as race, gender, and ethnicity that are different from our own and outside the groups to which we belong† (Gibson, pg. 477). Diversity is important to companies because with a diverse environment people can benefit and learn from others’ ideas. Other reasons for the importance of diversity to many organizations are the recognition of differences as prerequisites for high performance and continuous improvement, enhancing the effectiveness and creativity of the organization, and valuing conflicts as opportunities for more effective decision-making and problem solving (CIGNA’s seminar). Diversity has a major impact on our behaviors and the decision making process. The success of individuals in the organization and the organization as a whole is effected by these decisions and behaviors (CIGNA’s seminar). Our cultural values and beliefs influence our way of doing things. For example, if I strongly believe in women’s rights then I am going to potentially hire more women and take their viewpoints into higher consideration. The Importance of Diversity With society integrating so many different cultures into one working melting pot, we need to take into consideration these differences and understand how they will all work together. â€Å"As in any relationship, the key to its strength is mutual understanding, facilitated by ... Free Essays on Diversity Useless Lectures On Wednesday, April 3, a â€Å"Diversity Enlightenment Session† held in the Cardinal Lounge was presented by the Director of the Center for Diversity, Pluralism and Inclusion (CDPI), J.W. Wiley. As Wiley said, the Center’s goal is to inform people that diversity is all around them, and that diversity affects everyone. In order to do this, Wiley went over some ten exercises. These exercises included titles such as â€Å"thought exercise, diversity and you, diversity experiences, toleration scale, and privilege.† Even though the objective of the workshop was to raise awareness of diversity, and to increase the attendee’s comfort with differences around them, comfort was anything but present. Wiley proceeded to lecture on the subject rather than present the interactive workshop he intended. CDPI’s mission is to get people to â€Å"Acknowledge your level of sophistication about diversity, and realize that you will never be as sophisticated about diversity as you would tike to be!† Along with â€Å"At minimum, seek exposure; at a maximum, attempt to immerse yourself in environments that are outside the comfort zone in which you have been socialized.† And finally to, â€Å"Constantly remind you that diversity involves you.† Comfort was a large focus by Wiley during the presentation. Most college students are aware of the number different races and cultural backgrounds here at Plattsburgh State University. The problem with the workshop was that it felt like a lecture. Even though Mr. Wiley came off as a charismatic and enthusiastic speaker, he almost made his audience feel as they were being drilled. The possible reason for this feeling was the constant use of the word â€Å"you.† For example, he would say things like â€Å"You need to realize your surroundings, which is something I don’t think you do.† This thereby suggests that he was trying to tell us what we did and did not know. Sentence after sentence ... Free Essays on Diversity Diversity in the workplace is becoming one of business’ top management strategies. Many businesses recognize that their ability to tap the skills and insights of increasingly diverse workforce play an integral role in their ability to compete successfully in the today’s global economy. They recognize that diverse employees possess cultural competencies, for example, language skills and cross-cultural expertise. Diversity increases companies’ competitive advantage by enabling them to broaden their consumer base, compete in the global marketplace successfully, and hire from an expanded labor force. Diversity in the workplace means creating a comprehensive environment utilizing the contributions of people from different backgrounds, experiences and perspectives. Diversity can relate to difference in gender, age, language, cultural background, sexual orientation and religious belief. Diversity also refers to difference in other respects such as educational level, work experience, personality, or even marital status. Diversity seeks to capitalize on the variety of talents and skills of all personal. The potential benefits of diversity can be realized by business whether small, medium or large in size. To capitalize on diversity, all that an organization needs to do is engage the diverse range of skills and talents into their workforce to maximize productivity and innovation, and to gain a competitive advantage in their business market. Companies can recruit and hire employees to create a diverse work force. Managers can build teams with diversity. However, organization cannot thrive on diversity if employees do not know how to communicate with one another. The followings are the tips for manager who is about to take on a diverse workgroup. Learn about others’ cultures – While something is very common in one culture but for the other culture is unacceptable. Manager must learn about his or her colleagues’ cultures in orde...