Reflection journal

I learned many aspects about myself that I need to be improve on based on this exercise. The pie chart showed me that my self- concepts and need to change. After answering the diversity questionnaire, I learned to become more diverse in a diverse workforce. The first thought exercise taught me to stop making stereotypes about groups. The pie chart, diversity questionnaire, first thoughts, and masculine and feminine speaking styles taught myself what I need change.
My pie chart consists of seven different group affiliations that are somewhat important in my self-concept. My biggest group was education at 40%. I choose education to be the most import because it is key to have in life if your. The more education I have, the better job I can get. Also with a higher level of education I can open up more opportunities because when I continue to increase my education less and less people are as highly educated as me. I personally like to have many opportunities to choose from for jobs. Then next highest group affiliation on my pie chart was work experience at 30%. I feel that having work experience is necessary before entering a job that requires a college education. Internships are a great way to build up work experience before entering a job. I feel that just because you get a college education does not mean you know how to do the job you want to do. By getting an internship in the field you want to work in, helps you understand some of the process the job entails. If you have some knowledge and experience working in the area you would like to get a job in, then it will be easier for the company to train you. Training costs are high and a way to keep some cost down is by having an employee coming in knowing some of the process. If the employee knows some of the process then it will save time training. Mental ability came in third on my pie chart at 8%. Everyone needs to be mentally stable to hold down a job or else they won’t have a job for long. Also, you have to have a strong mental ability in the workforce. Sometimes you will not like what you hear, but you have to move on from it. Income is the next group affiliation in my self-concept at 7%. I feel that the amount of income matters to be able to support yourself and a family. I want income that is enough to support my family and me and to be able to live comfortably. I don’t want to be struggling to pay bills because my income level is not enough. I also gave physical ability a 7% on my pie chart. I feel that physical you need to be healthy to perform in the workplace at your full potential. If you’re in a group and are not physically able to fulfill your part like you said, then you are letting the group and business down. Then, I put age on the pie chart at 5%. I think that age is a factor in the workforce. If you are younger you might not have as much experience as the older employees. If a job entitles a higher level of knowledge, then most likely the older person will be chose for the job. The older you are usually means you have had more experience in the job position. Lastly, gender is another group affiliation I made and gave it a 2% on my pie chart. Gender does not mean very much in the workplace, but I still think it matters a little. For example, if you are a man then typically you are stronger than women. Some jobs entitle heavy lifting and in that case usually males fill that job position. These seven group affiliations are from my self-concept.
I learned many things from completing the diversity questionnaire. First, I need to work on recognizing and challenging the perceptions, assumptions, and biases that affect my thinking. I never really thought about how much my perceptions and assumptions affect my thinking. In the workforce you can have perceptions, biases, or assumptions of people, but it will affect working with them. For example, if you assume that the race of African Americans is slower paced, then you might try to avoid working with them. Secondly. I need to encourage people who are not from the dominant culture to speak out on their concerns. I have not worked with anyone not from the dominant culture so far in my work experience. When I do work with people not from the dominant culture, I will make sure that what they have concerns about is said. People who are not in the dominant culture will have different concerns in the workforce. The dominant culture might not think of these concerns because it does not affect them. If a non-dominant culture employee has a concern it should be brought up and addressed because it can change the concern that maybe all the non-dominant employees have. A concern being stated can help some of the diversity issues in the workforce. According to the text (Canas and Sondak, 2011), “the overall communication about diversity and diversity management is an essential component of an effective diversity management program.” There were three questions that I answered that I was good at doing in the workforce. I do think about the impact of what I say or how I act before I speak or act. I never want to say something in the workforce before thinking about it because if I say it in the wrong context then I could be offending someone. Also, I could be fired for something I said or did. In this economy you want keep your job, which might mean holding your tong. If I ever have offended anyone by accident I will apologize immediately. In the workforce you don’t want people to have a bias about you just because you said something that you did not mean. Another aspect I seemed to score well in was trying to know individuals and not as representatives of a specific groups, and welcome many different types of people into my peer groups. I am a person who likes to interact with different groups because I like to learn about the similarities and differences we might have. Having different people from all kinds of different groups in my peer group makes life a lot more interesting. You learn new things all the time from people who are not in the same group as you. The workforce is diverse, which means you have to be open minded about everyone and work with him or her. When companies hire employees it is their goal to make there staff more diverse. If you are an employee who does not work well with others who are different, then you won’t be employed very long. There are something’s I have to work more on and others I already excel at. After I wrote down two adjectives for each group, I realized they were all stereotypes and prejudice. One example for a person with a disability is injured. This is my perception of people who are disabled. A stereotype that I wrote down for gays and lesbians was cheerful. I got this information from movies and have used that perception as my own. Another stereotype I wrote down for African Americans was obnoxious. I have seen African Americans on many occasions being obnoxious and now I think most of them are. I am part of the blonde, jock, and white groups. I know people use the stereotype dumb for blondes, but I am far from dumb. I think this world needs to stop making stereotypes and labels, because all it does it hurt people feels. Everyone needs to look at everyone as a different individual and not just as part of a group because of the way they look or act. Most stereotypes are based on one person’s look or action, which does not make it correct. People need to start not judging the book by its cover and read deeper before prejudging. In the module discussion, I learned about others speaking styles. I thought that women would be feminine and males would be masculine. I found out I was wrong and that some woman do use masculine as their speaking style. After reading a post by a woman who used masculine style, I agreed with her speaking style. Her situation was talking to other employees in her workforce that were all males. She thought that if she used a feminine style she would not have been taken seriously, so she used a masculine. In her situation it was best to use a masculine style, so the men will respect her more if she talks strongly and sternly.
I need to change my self-concepts because some are not as import as others. Also, I need to interactive with other groups in the workforce more. I need to stop making stereotypes about groups because it is not something I like others to do to me. Lastly, not all women use feminine speaking styles in the workforce. I plan on taking this learning lesson and bring it into the workforce with me, so I can improve on all four of these subjects.

Canas K. A., Sondak H. (2011). Communication. Opportunities And Challenges of Workplace Diversity (pp. 51). New Jersey: Pearson.