Professional Development Workshop On Diversity In Public Institutions

Introduction to Diversity in Public Institutions

Diversity refers to the accommodation of different groups within a common given environment in a way that each group feels a sense of belonging. It can be depicted well in places such as universities and workplaces (Taniguchi, 2016). The workshop is geared in evaluating the key differences in our diversity, recognizing our differences in public institutions, introducing the awareness these differences and their challenges in order to achieve an environment that is appreciating of the benefits of coexistence of our different diversities. 

There are different types of diversity such as: Workplace diversity which is depicted by a range of differences between the employees in an institution such as nationality, race, and political affiliation. Inherent diversity which is evident by the difference in traits inherited from birth from one person to another.  Acquired diversity which is mainly the traits acquired through new associations, partnerships and explorations, Service Level Diversity are the physical differences that can be observed e.g. racial difference (Goyal, 2013). In contrary, Deep Level diversity cannot be observed but are psychological-based such as beliefs. 

Soft skills are the human skills which is another facet of diversity that makes an individual efficient and effective in relating with others. Finally, hard skills are the acquired specialized and technical skills through educational qualifications, training and work experience. Lack of both the soft and hard skills is a factor that contributes to the misunderstanding of peoples’ differences. Appreciating people for who they are demands working with others and trying to accommodate as well as tolerate their physical and psychological differences. Leaders that recognize and appreciate acquired hard skills through performance review facilitate motivation in workplaces. 

The workshop analyzes the diversity challenges, the obstacles that are experienced by the implementation of diversity facets (Robbins, 2017). It evaluates the negative outcomes and consequences caused by the conflicts of diversity in public institutions. Diversity challenges face different countries differently. Advocating for human rights and equal right for every person usually vary from place to place. Some observable challenges of diversity trickle from the top level management to the bottom level management hence affecting organizational productivity. Institutions that do not make effort to recognize diversity and appreciating the individual contribution of individuals irrespective of their differences widen the gap of achieving an equal platform for all people. 

Moreover, the level of resistance of institutions in attempting to incorporate diversity activities and groups that can revolutionize the perceptual views of different individuals is key. Management of diversity in any environment requires effort, hard work and patience. It’s a process that can be exhaustive hence require organizations to recognize the changing cultures in order narrow the diversity gap.

Prioritizing recognized types of diversity is important for employee performance in an organization. The two factors to be considered when prioritizing include the diversity climate that is mainly the employees’ perceptual behaviors and how the organization incorporates diversity and supports it through fair employment practices and the psychological safety that explains the ability of an individual to act or operate without fear of facing any consequences of their actions. 

Part 2: Practical Activities of the Workshop

1. Diversity
2. Identify as many surface-level and deep-level diversity factors among yourselves as you can.
3. Gender – Our group is composed of both male and female individuals. This is a surface-level diversity that can be easily noticed.
4. Religion – Three people in our group are of the Christianity religion, two Muslims, one Buddhist, one atheist and two people who do not belong to any religion.

• Age – Composition of different members of a group with different ages. The age variance is a surface level diversity that can be observed through facial patterns, body structures or individual disclosure.

1. Race – One individual is an African, two whites and the majority being Asians. The racial difference can be easily noticed through skin color orientations and textures.
2. Sexual Orientation – Individual sexual orientations such as lesbian, gay, straight and bisexual can be observed to some extent. Only one individual has been noticed to possess the sexual orientation of homosexuality.
3. Generation – In our group, we are composed of young people that are approximately in the same age bracket hence belonging to the same generation portraying the same set of behaviors.

• Marital status – All of the members of the group are single i.e. they are not married. This diversity can be noticed by individual declarations of marital status such as wearing a ring.
• Personality – this is a deep-level diversity that cannot be easily identified, however, each individual of the group possesses varying set of actions and behaviors that are dictated by their personality types.

1. Beliefs – it a deep-level diversity that inform the state of mind or what they think towards something. They cannot be observed or known because what an individual think is there private perceptual concepts unless they let them out accurately.
2. Interests – these are personal wants that individual perceive them important for their lives. Each of our group members have their set of interests that would want to pursue. These set of interests cannot be observed unless the person outlines them. 

1. How many do you share in common?
2. Marital status – This is a service-level diversity factor that is being shared by all members of the group whereby every individual is not yet married.
3. Interests – All the members of the group have the same set of interests, i.e. to pursue quality education and skills to enable the secure a good job for a better future life.

• Generation –The members of the group is composed of young people in the same age bracket. The same technology based generation with similar set common operations and expected behaviors. 

1. Which ones are isolated to just one group member?
2. Sexual Orientation – There is only one individual that portrayed behaviors of homosexual/gay sexual orientation. He publicly declared it and is owning his sexual orientation status.
3. Religion – The same individual does not belong to any religion but is an atheist. He does not believe that there is an existence of a supernatural being referred to as God. 

1. Global Challenges

Allocated group – Immigrants

1. In what ways does your group encounter workplace discrimination?

• Protection – Some workplaces have set protection laws for the native employees which do not apply for immigrants’ employees.
• Wage gap – There was a varying gap between native employees and immigrants’ employees. The immigrants are paid much less compared to the native workers.
• Work benefits – Some organizations declare different work benefits for different types of employees. Immigrants are the most affected with low rates of housing allowance benefits, medical benefits and others.
• Unfair document practices – This is another challenge that immigrants face at workplaces. Some organizations required immigrants to certify all their academic and work-related certificates and do a check-up with their previous employers, which is not the case for native employees.
• What are the direct and indirect consequences of that discrimination?

• Reduced productivity – Discrimination at work places reduced the immigrants’ motivation to work as well as increasing absenteeism which in turn leads to reduced productivity.
• Legal consequences – Discrimination of immigrants at workplace caused a direct legal consequence implication of the organization where in many cases the immigrants sue the company.
• Disloyal employees – Some of the discriminated immigrants have been reported being disloyal and thereby operate in ways that can jeopardize the functionalities of the organizations. 

• In what ways can that discrimination be eradicated?
• Laws and Regulations – The Government must set constitutional laws and regulations that protect immigrants, their equality in payment and work related benefits.
• Public programs – Programs should be created to handle immigrants’ discrimination cases. Victims of discrimination of immigrant-related employment must be able to easily report such cases to the standard bodies. 

1. Soft Skills
2. Top ten vital soft skills for managing a diverse team
3. Dispute Resolution 
4. Problem Solving 

• Giving Feedback 

1. Managing Difficult Conversations 
2. Decision Making
3. Collaborating

• Time Management
• Process Improvement 

1. Problem Solving 
2. Giving Feedback 

1. Diversity-Related Incivility
2. Have you ever witnessed diversity-related incivility in the workplace? – Yes 

1. Story Sharing

I was working for a Software development company that develop software applications, being an Africa-American in an American company, I was paid less compared to my fellow colleagues while working on the exact work responsibilities. During performance review, my supervisor gave me a consistent low rate compared to my fellow comrades. This incivility demotivated my synergy to continue working effectively hence it lowered my productivity level. The other employees were reluctant to comment or make suggestions that could improve the situation. The manager did not question my supervisor concerning the discrimination cases. Instead of making efforts to address our diversity and appreciate our differences, he did not act upon it.

If I were the manager, I would make awareness of the different races of people working in the organization and our interoperability benefits. I would ensure performance appraisals are done according to the correct measurable employee contributions. 

1. Prioritizing Diversity
2. Allocated Diversity factor – psychological safety
3. List of actions to help employees express their true selves.

• Value individual ideas and suggestions – Make the employees be aware of the value of their ideas and suggestions that could improve the organization performance.
• Enable employees realize that there should be no shame of expression of their personality. Making believe that it is neither wrong or a crime to behave the way they do.
• Awareness of diversity – make employees be aware of our different diversity. The benefits of the expression of these differences that could facilitate interoperability.
• Address problems – Put all the previous problems that faced employees when expressing themselves and address them appropriately.
• Groups recognition – Recognize different set of groups of employees. Groups that share the same set of behaviors and characteristics to be recognized.
• Recognize employee’s effort – Recognize hard work that is put by employees into the organization. 

Part 3: Comments

The workshop enhanced my understanding of the different diversity that exist between individuals. For coexistence of members of any society, one needs to understand the different types of diversity. It helped realized that regardless of the differences that exist among employees in an organization, they can be used to ensure interoperability to increase company’s productivity. The identification of common diversity factors and those that are isolated to a few individuals is vital to the understanding of people’s personality in order to work with them effectively. The process of identification can be ease when observing surface level diversity, however, it can be quite challenging when noticing deep-level diversity.

The workshop helped me analyze and evaluate the negative consequences of the diversity that impact a workplace. These consequences can jeopardize companies’ operations therefore it is the responsibility of the management to ensure that employees are aware of the diversity. Moreover, it helped me recognize the positive benefits of workplace benefits. These benefits allow any organization to advocate for equality at workplaces and allow employees to freely express themselves.

The critical identification of soft skills helped me realize how they can be implemented in a team to increase its performance. Handling discrimination at workplaces helped me devise and recognize possible ways in which it can be addressed to appropriate bodies. The process of address workplace discrimination also involves empowering the employees to know available list of actions that can help them express their true selves without fear of discrimination. 

References

Goyal, S., 2013. Organizational Diversity Climate: Review of Models and Measurement. Journal of Business Management & Social Sciences Research (JBM&SSR).

Robbins, S. P., 2017. Demographic Diversity. s.l.:s.n.

Taniguchi, M., 2016. Diversity Management Improving Business Performance. [Online]
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