Diversity and Inclusion
Juanita Guthrie
SOC/315
January 25, 2016
Jennifer Hudgins

Diversity and Inclusion Cultural diversity has many dimensions which is what makes one person different than the other. Some of these dimensions include “cultural, gender, ethnic, religious, sexual orientation, ability, age, and size differences (Harvey & Allard, 2009).” While some of these different dimensions can be chosen, such as, religion others cannot because they are born into it. Cultural diversity helps us to identify the different subordinate groups or minority group which is “a group whose members have significantly less control or power over their own lives than do the members of a dominant or majority group (Schaeffer, 2011).” The differences of each group help us to understand the differences of each and their accomplishments and struggles. We have learned with these differences so much with statistics for health and other related issues that give us insight to better prepare ourselves for different outcomes. I am a Mexican American. My mother was raised in Texas and my father in Wyoming. I have been fortunate to learn the culture, especially how to make Mexican food. Recently, with my work, I am have been able to learn more Spanish than I have growing up. My parents did not speak much Spanish to my siblings and I when we were younger. They did take us to events that celebrated significant dates that are special to Mexico though. My life was kind of comical because I was the minority in my school being part of the only family that was Mexican American and we only had one family of African American nationality. So you can kind of see why I did not learn or retain much Spanish when I was surrounded with the English language. I grew up though in a predominantly African American neighborhood. I felt a little lost, but I was able to meet friends that I could learn from and find new things I liked that we shared such as Italian food and pork skins. Food always brought our differences together because they loved the Mexican food we would make too. According to Harvey and Allard (2009) diversity “refers to the collective (all-inclusive) mixture of differences and similarities along a given dimension.” It is both having differences and things that are of the same nature at the same time. Understanding and Managing Diversity (2011) gave a perfect example of jelly bean in a jar and their different colors of being diverse. In 1968, the Age of Discrimination in Employment Act was implemented “to protect 40 years of age or older from being fired because of their age and replaced with younger workers who presumably would receive lower salaries (Schaefer, 2011).” This is an example of inclusion. People over the age of 40 wanted to be included as being able to do the same job as those younger than them. History gives many examples of inclusion of different backgrounds like ethnicity or sexual orientation that allows for a more diversified unit. Today diversity in the workplace is “about business and the bottom line and about leveraging the skills and talents of all employees to enable the organization to compete. Diversity is not about reaching quotas and hiring unqualified minorities for the sake of “having diversity” (Harvey & Allard, 2009).” Training employees for diversity helps to open their mind of how each of their skills are important to the company. People’s skills are different and having inclusion allows for new ideas that are beneficial in the workplace. An older gentleman is definitely beneficial to workplace environments because they can possess insight in areas where they experienced negative and positive impacts that a younger persona may not have. Their expertise can help a company to already know what ideas to use and what not to use. A younger person in a company can have fresh new ideas that have not been implemented before which could result in higher sales or new customers for that idea. It is important to implement diversity in the workplace for not just legal reasons, but to help a company put forth their best with different skills and ideas. Five years ago I worked in a facility that only hired woman to be medical assistance (M.A.) and secretaries. When I had questioned my boss why he only hired females for these positions and only males for physicians his response was woman do this job better and men are better physicians. I remember being absolutely mad at this response, but thought it better to keep my mouth shut to keep a paycheck as I was a single mom trying to make ends meet. In this case, inclusions would have been wonderful. There were some times that male patients preferred a male M.A. to work with them over a female. I always wondered how things would have been differently if there were a male in our office. Males can contribute just as much as females in that field. Our minds think and organize differently. I strongly believe they would have been an asset to our office as an M.A. and not only a physician.

Reference

Schaefer, R. T. (2011). Racial and ethnic groups (12th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson
Harvey, C. P., & Allard, M. J. (2009). Understanding and managing diversity (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.