Workforce In The United States Case Assignment

Workforce In The United States Case Assignment

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Workforce In The United States Case Assignment

For the last half-century, the workforce in the United States has been undergoing tremendous demographic changes. For example, in 2009 women accounted for almost 48% of American workforce, compared to 37% in 1970 (Barsh & Yee, 2011). Additionally, workers under the age of 44, and those most likely to be in school, college, or professional training, are more ethnically and racially diverse than ever before (Policy Alert, 2005). This is only diversity of gender, race, and ethnicity; consider how managers today must also lead increasingly diverse teams in terms of age, experience, nationality, geographic location, and even diversity of thinking styles. Contemporary businesses draw employees from a more diverse pool of talent than ever before. To be successful, top managers must understand how to develop and lead diverse teams.

Managing a group composed of individuals with unique cultures, backgrounds, personalities, and abilities can be a daunting task. As a manager, it is your responsibility to ensure that team and group interactions are successful. As you review the Learning Resources this week to prepare for your Discussion posting, think about how you define diversity and diversity affects teams. Pay particular attention to the media resource, “Will Differences Doom the Team,” which presents some of the challenges managers face when leading a diverse team, and consider the key competencies managers must possess to effectively manage a diverse team. As you prepare for your post, consider what diversity means for you and how the diversity you have encountered in your professional experience have impacted how the team functions.

With these thoughts in mind:

Part 1 (At Least 350 words or more answer questions below)

Post your response that includes the following:

  • Explain the types of diversity you have encountered in your professional experience and the challenges that each type of diversity posed to a team’s performance. Include in your explanation how a manager can leverage a team’s diversity to improve its performance.
  • Explain the challenges posed by managing, and working within, a diverse team. In your explanation, include how managers should motivate individuals within a diverse team environment who are likely to have differing, and at times, clashing priorities.

Part 2

Read a selection of your colleagues’ posts.

Respond to two or more of your colleagues’ postings in one or more of the following ways: (WITH AT LEAST 250 WORDS FOR EACH COLLEAGUE RESPONSE)

  • Expand on your colleague’s post by providing your experiences and observations, thereby providing additional context for how diversity can impact team performance.
  • Provide additional or alternative insights to a colleague’s post as to how managers are able to lead teams with diverse composition.
  • Expand on a colleague’s post by discussing he types of measures that managers can employ to promote diversity and develop individuals within a diverse work environment.

1st Colleague post to respond to:

According to the website, https://globaldiversitypractice.com/what-is-diversity-inclusion/, it states that “diversity is any dimension that can be used to differentiate groups and people from one another.” There are many types of diversities one can encounter in the workplace. As an employee, there are three types of diversities that I have faced in the workplace they would be age, gender, and spiritual beliefs.

First, when entering the workplace I entered has one of the youngest members and believe it or not I was surrounded by persons that were twice my age so this made the situation diffciult  I became very intimidated. These women already knew that they had more experience than I so it made some of them treat me like I was not eligible for the job. For example, when I first arrived at the workplace my supervisor allowed me to have an opportunity to conduct an assembly that consisted of my entire class and parents were also invited. There were two teachers that were in the educational system years before me, that laughed and scorned my practice before the assembly instead of given me tips. However, they were so used to the usual format that when my students performed the final day they blew the minds of the audience. How you may ask? Well, I was able to introduce new ideas and I was able to create an entire song for them to perform.

Secondly, another diversity that took place in the workplace was gender. When we look at gender this simply means an equal representation of men and women in the workplace. It was noted by working in the environment with a few male teachers that they were more respected. The attire became very obvious because their attire was very casual and on the other hand the females had to dress more professionally. This made the female’s counterparts disgruntle. They felt unfairly treated.

Thirdly, another diversity that was faced in the workplace is spiritual beliefs. This is seen when a person is treated differently according to their religious beliefs. Working in the business establishment that I worked at the supervisor was of a different religion, this religion does not celebrate certain holidays so because of this the supervisor would not let the workers throw certain events for the students and the teachers with her being amongst the groups. This made the workers feel that the school was not unified, there was a lack of togetherness because the group was not always together., and in any organization, there should be some form of staff togetherness where we can all talk and get to know each other.

When looking at all these things a leader can leverage a team’s diversity to improve its performance by being proactive. Be proactive when seeking out new and diverse opinions. Set a clear inclusive vision, this includes identifying the organizational purpose, values, and goals. Also, remember to consider the whole person. This simply involves others even if this is something they may not want to do, everyone should be able to make their own choices.

There are also many challenges posed by managing and working within a diverse team the two I will look at are the differences in communication / respecting and accepting the differences of others. These two challenges were chosen because they affect the workplace on a daily base. When we look at the language English is spoken all around the world but the increase in a different language is increasing all around the world. When it is not understood it can become a barrier in the workplace and it can affect one’s partnership with others. Copdei (2019) notes “Language provides a means for communication among and between individuals and groups. Language serves as a vehicle for expressing thoughts and feelings. And when it comes to diversity, language can be a bridge for building relationships or a tool for creating and maintaining divisions across differences. ” Also when we look at accepting the differences of others part of this may stem from a lack of understanding or respect. Examples of this can include refusal by an employer or manager to allow an employee to observe their faith by taking time off for any holidays that may be related to their faith.

Finally, as a manager, we must keep in mind when our employees are motivated this will help in the productivity of a company. One must always paint the bigger picture this simply means to remind your employees that there is one goal for the company and always remember to try to achieve this goal because this helps in showing how vital they are to the company. Also create a strong environment, where members can address their concerns but at the end of the day still respect each other.

References

Copdei. (2019, June 10). The Language of Diversity. Retrieved October 8, 2019, from https://copdei.extension.org/2019/06/the-language-of-diversity/.

What is Diversity & Inclusion? (2018, December 3). Retrieved October 8, 2019, from https://globaldiversitypractice.com/what-is-diversity-inclusion/.

2nd Colleague post to respond to:

Diversity comes in many forms. The few I highlight here are related to cultural and religious bias.

Working in a Japanese company in NJ, everyone was mindful of how communication was conducted. It was a formal environment and communication was handled accordingly. I was hired to lead a team and create new processes for learning, training, and engagement. I developed a newsletter in which I shared information about my team, the latest scientific literature relative to what the company was developing, and highlights of what our team did, applying a more casual style of correspondence. I learned however, that given the culture, there was high resistance to adopting new ideas, despite what I was directed at the onset of the hire. Although I received accolades from the team and others, as the newsletter did serve the purpose of bringing people together, I was told pointedly by upper management to stop, and that the company culture was that even if management said ‘yes’, they meant ‘no’.

My manager could have been more helpful but wasn’t. He advised me not to continue to create and distribute informative newsletters. This manager didn’t offer suggestions as to what concepts could be used in order to highlight the new team. The company had intensive onboarding training and could have used this as an opportunity to discuss cultural diversity and show examples as to how the company preferred to communicate. This event demotivated me as I found all innovative ideas I created were quashed.

Another example was when I worked in a company that had a wide range of employees, both young and old. The overwhelming majority of the company was white. The company held frequent happy hours which were good to facilitate social mixing. Young and older employees used this as an opportunity to meet. There weren’t necessarily conflicts in this environment during the time I was there, however I did experience religious bias. Invariably, all food that was brought in for working meetings or celebrations contained meat (pork), which I did not eat. As the only Jewish person I was intimidated to call attention to myself and find out (from whomever ordered food) how to modify the menu. I did not say anything to my manager, whom I am sure would have suggested vegetarian options had he known. Several months later at a holiday event, one very high company leader made a derogatory remark about my religion which was shocking. I called him out on it as did another individual.

“This verbal microinsult sends several negative messages such as you should avoid being yourself in public, being a spiritual person in public is inappropriate, and only secular forms of expression are acceptable in public forums” (Hodge, 2019, p. 11).

Managers could have enhanced the cultural diversity of these events by having the Happy Hour at different ethnic restaurants. In this way they would have learned about dietary restrictions of different people and further learned more about the individuals in a social environment that would have enhanced curiosity without making people uncomfortable. Microagressions are aimed at groups, whether cultural, religions, biased to women, health, or races Hodge, 2019). This quote, “not all spiritual microaggressions are cloaked in ambiguity” (Hodge, 2019, p.7) showed how there was no ambiguity in this upper managers’ comment,  even if the person who said it promised he, “meant nothing by it”. Nevertheless, I felt extremely uncomfortable and it tarnished our relationship thereafter.

 

Hodge, D.R. (2019): Spiritual microaggressions: Understanding the subtle messages that foster religious discrimination, Journal of Ethnic & Cultural Diversity in Social Work, DOI: 10.1080/15313204.2018.1555501

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