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Lefties for a Day

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Let’s Be Lefties for a Day!

“Diversity. It is a word that means something different to each and every person.” (Campinha-Bacote, J., 2003) There are many other faces of cultural diversity besides knowing the values, beliefs and practices of different ethnic groups. A few include religious affiliation, gender, political orientation and socio-economic status. The ball and sock experiment put into perspective how minorities might feel….different. Just trying to get through daily activities like brushing my teeth and eating cereal wasn’t easy and it made me realize that having a handicap was challenging and that a certain disability, strong accent, or a religious belief can make you a target for discrimination. Diversity can be a benefit and not a divider and understanding how to interact with individuals of a different culture teaches you how to see common values and appreciate different perspectives.
“Cultural values give an individual a sense of direction as well as meaning to life.” (Campinha-Bacote, J., 2003) Cultural competence plays an important part in helping managers and professionals in a business setting to meet the needs of culturally diverse groups. U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Office of Minority Health defines cultural competency as “a set of congruent behaviors, attitudes, and policies that come together in a system, agency or among professionals that enables effective work in cross-cultural situations.” (OMH, 2005) In order to bridge the gap between groups whether minority or majority, we have to develop certain abilities and skills and examine our own views of others. We need to become culturally aware recognizing our biases, prejudices and assumptions about those who are different. There is where ethnocentrism plays a part; evaluating cultural differences in relationship to ours. The prejudices that arise from our ethnocentric views are something we don’t need to change unless they are used in negative ways by degrading and discriminating against others. Recognizing these views can facilitate our communication and professional interactions with others.
Based on group memberships, individuals have different experiences and outcomes in the workplace. Whites have a better probability of working in the primary labor market making higher wages with advancement opportunities and other benefits like medical and vacation whereas, individuals of other ethnicities are more likely to work secondary labor market jobs making lower wages with no advancement opportunities and benefits. In an article often cited, Taylor Cox and Stacy Blake proposed that there are six specific reasons that organizations should value diversity. They explained that effective management of diversity could benefit organizations in the areas of cost, resource acquisition, marketing, creativity, problem solving, and system flexibility(1)(2), as presented in Fig. 1.1 (Cox and Blake, 1991)
Figure 1.1: Organizational and Individual Benefits of Diversity

Diversity in the workforce is beneficial not only to individuals but organizations and that everyone of any ethnicity should be allowed employment opportunities and given a chance to reach their potential as employees, leaders, and managers.

References

Myrtle P. Bell. Diversity in Organizations, 2010. Bookshelf. Web. 13 May 2013
Campinha-Bacote, J., (January 31, 2003). "Many Faces: Addressing Diversity in Health Care". Online Journal of Issues in Nursing. Vol. 8 No. 1, Manuscript 2.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Minority Health. (2005). What is cultural competency? Retrieved from http://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/templates/browse.aspx?lvl=2&1v1ID=11

(1) Cox, T., & Blake, S. (1991). “Managing cultural diversity: Implications for organizational competitiveness.” Academy of Management Executive, 5(3): 45–56.
(2) Ibid., note 3. Cox and Blake’s focus on those six advantages associated with valuing diversity was not meant to undermine the social, moral, and legal reasons for doing so but to investigate areas that had previously received little research attention. Along with the advantages proposed by Cox and Blake, in this book, we also discuss some of the social, moral, and legal reasons for valuing diversity.

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