Cultural Diversity Assignment on Workplace Intelligence

Question

Task: Your task is to create a Professional Workshop.

Assessment Description
This individual assignment requires students to demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of Learning Outcomes 1 to 5 covering topics between Weeks 1 to12.

Assessment Instructions
You are an independent consultant and are asked to prepare a Professional Development Workshop on one of the topics discussed in class during weeks 1 to 12. Develop an Interactive Workshop based on what you have learned in this subject.

1. Part 1 of the assignment consists of a schedule of the practical activities of the workshop (approximately 1200 words) and is based on topics discussed in class. You can be as creative as you wish in this part as long as you apply practically the chosen topic in the form of a professional workshop.

Please take care to consider the following factors when designing your workshop:

• The inclusion of activities that are relevant and interesting
• The appropriate timing allocated to each of those activities
• The way in which the topics and activities are integrated
• he instructions that ensure the activities are facilitated well
• The potential barriers to the successful implementation of the activities
• The diversity of activities to suit the varied personalities of the participants. 

2. Part 2 consists of final comments (approximately 300 words) summarising what you have hoped to accomplish through the workshop. None of the parts require any referencing.

Answer

Part A
Introduction
This cultural diversity assignment is focusing on learning the impact of diversity on an organisation and its performance. Different theories for organisational behaviour suggest that diversity could work both sides and could result in either a positive outcome or a negative one. One way to access this impact is by identifying the cultural identity and discussing it with the members of the group. The empirical studies try to focus on the positive links between the diversity and firm performance however its other half couldn't be ignored.

Learning objectives of the workshop.

• Understanding the link between diversity and organisational performance
• Value of inclusiveness in promoting diversity
• Measures that promote diversity at work
• Ways by which diversity can be integrated at the workplace

Activity 1
Selection

• An organisational dimension
• An external dimension
• An internal dimension
• concluding all the discussion with the class

Concept
The two major dimensions discussed within this cultural diversity assignment is the primary and secondary dimension which can be used both the source of an advantage as well as a disadvantage in some case. For example, in any organisation, there could be bias for a person who is physically attractive which will be under the primary dimension while those having nice dominant organisation values come under the secondary dimension.

The learning here is to pay attention to all the layers of the diversity that is hidden in the organisation at the very basic level and aligning both similarities and the differences to achieve the desired goal. Being valued by the firs is one of the desirable things by the employee and diversity must not influence it.

Also, another complex composition is that people could easily move in and out of the dimensions of diversity. The basic want for achieving organisational diversity is that it will create a productive work environment in which everyone is valued and no one feels discriminated. In such an environment, all the talents are well utilised and the goals of the organisation are fully met.

Activity 2

• https://inclusive.vcu.edu/media/inclusive-excellence/DiversityandInclusionDictionary.pdf-The following dictionary is to be visited and three words of the choice of the attendee are to be selected.
• Explain these terms in the workshop in your own language and use diagram if needed.

Concept
The main difference between diversity and inclusiveness is that diversity is the reality of the organisation while inclusiveness is really a matter of choice. The state of inclusiveness is good for the organisation as every employee feels welcomes to the organisation and they will feel like a valuable employee to the firm and will always perform accordingly. The employees will handle the situation maturely and with a high sense of responsibility. Inclusivity is never the end it is always the beginning of closeness.

The exercise will help candidates in getting friendly with the complex terms of the exclusiveness and will make their way easy to work. Also, they will understand the difference between interpersonal and intrapersonal inclusion. Inclusion is experienced by everyone at all the levels of the organisation. The inclusivity within an individual which include their thought processes and other personal things is intrapersonal inclusion. The willingness to experience something new with a group of individuals is inclusion.

Activity 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6kUaDp5FVU&feature=youtu.be-After watching the following video the candidate has to access what will be his take in such a situation.

Concept
This will come under the branch of situational ability test and will address the diverse challenges that are linked with the place. This study of cultural diversity assignment will focus on creating a safe environment and removing the bias from every part of the organization. There should be space in the mindset of every individual and the firm for any kind of social interaction that is based individually and is not driven by a group. In this space personal relations of people could be developed very well and they will get a chance to share their personal values and emotions and will get a free zone to explore these all.

It will help in bringing and uniting the organisation together and will create a shared identity for all. It will discourage the individual goals of the people and will abolish us vs them in the employee. The key aspect of teamwork and its benefits are learned by the employees and the high growth of the firm could be a result of this exercise.

Also, by discussing it in a group the diversity challenges that are linked to the issues will be addressed. The value of smaller or subgroups in an organisation will increase. It will increase the wholeness of the organisation. There is a number of organisations which organises several social educational events to strengthen this bond and bring these diverse group together on the same platform to discuss ideas and feel equal. Also, it facilitates the social and cross-boundary creativity thus adding a positive point to the organisation.

Gender diversity is something which has always been widely discussed whenever the issue has been raised and although the work is going well in this sector there are several issues in the sector which are still unaddressed. Some of them are targets and quotas in the system, merit is flawed, the position of women in leadership is hardly seen in any organisation, there is no gender pay equality and still, men are paid more than women for the same work as they are considered to be a better resource, the maternity leave issue is still a big problem in this industry.

Activity 4
Discuss the cultural differences and try to reach a decision. It may be right or wrong. The idea here is to listen to the views of different people and then jump onto a conclusion. The only reason here is to justify your answer.

Concept
In this cultural diversity assignment, impact of cultural diversity at a workplace include Dress, the religious practices of the individual, customs they follow, their, social values, the family which they belong too, and also their non-verbal behaviour. All these may not look big bet highly affect the position of an organisation and evolves the differences in the employees. The idea is to discuss how much they affect the mindset of the manager or an employee and what needs to be done if it is not going well in any case.

Activity 5
Using the Empowerment model of the employee discuss any three-way in which might increase the acceptance of cultural diversity in the firm.

Concept
The activity is based on the analysis and discussion and individual has to put their points forward of what they think would be right in this case or could be done to improve the situation.

Activity 6

• The diversity initiatives related to recruitment interventions, retention strategies, development programs, awareness training must be discussed and looked into. All these programs if planned always help an organisation in easing out its decision and reaching out on a decision much easier.
• Each group will be assigned one of this initiative and their task will be to identify how one of these is affected by the age-related diversity in a firm. It will help in managing all the situations in a much better way.

Concept
There are a lot of stereotypes in a firm related to age like young are considered highly energetic, healthy, bored sometimes committed to the task while old people are considered ill, unfit to work, slow while they are loyal to work and patient. With a proper discussion focused on the age group, all these tasks will be addressed.

Activity 7
Each group will be assigned a task to access how disability and sexual orientation effects work and it will be discussed later.

Concept
Disability is considered one of the most difficult parts of getting a job done also there are a number of jobs which are sex oriented and are considered to be better done by particular sex than the other.

Conclusion
All the activities illustrated in this cultural diversity assignment are designed in a way which is interactive and take place in group sessions. The activities build the confidence of an individual and help in learning as well. While Activity 1 starts on a very broad point of view on selecting the dimension of the firm. Activity 2 focuses on the inclusiveness with the firm. Activity 3 covers a wide topic of the rise of discrimination due to diversity. Activity 4 focuses on the cultural differences due to diversity and activity 5 leads to the empowerment model. Activity 6 Activity 7 focuses on the issues related to age and the importance of maintaining age and sex diversity. All these activities are designed in a way which guides the learning outcome in an easy and interactive way.

Part B
Summary
Based on the outcomes of this cultural diversity assignment study, it can be easily concluded that diversity is a key aspect of the organisational performance. The state has to practice all type of diversities whether it is ethnic, age, any specific needs or gender. All these variables affect the organisation in a very positive way. Out of all these the followed one is the gender diversity followed by ethnic diversity, education diversity and then age diversity. Special need diversity has been observed to have the least impact on the performance of any organisation.

However, it has been revealed that there are certain gaps in the dimensions of the diversity that the organisation follows. Also, it is seen in a firm that most of the diversity is on the paper and it often leads to inequality. Some elements of the diversity were well implemented however some were seen to be missing. The special needs diversity although having the least share in affecting any organisation is the one which most firm struggle to cope up with. The respondents generally remain neutral to the diversity they are not able to attend.

Therefore, the management of the firm needs to be fixed in such a way that it is open to more diversity so that the organisational performance could be increased. More facilities and equality should be given to the employees who are physically challenged so that they get an equal level of opportunity. Also, the number of women in the top management position should be increased.

Also making sure that there is an age diversity in the firm is also a very crucial thing which helps the firm to grow further and ease out the succession planning. All these key tools if implemented well could help in coping up with the organisational flaw.