...Workplace, Communication and Diversity Vanessa J. Bailey BUS 600 Prof. Sean O’Leary June 8, 2014 Diversity, by definition, has three meanings. According to Collins English Dictionary (website:http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/diversity), diversity means: (1) the state of quality of being different or varied; (2) a point of difference: and (3) the relation that holds between two entities when and only when they are not identical; the property of being numerically distinct. For many of us, however, when we hear the word diversity we immediately associate it with our work environment and maybe even associate it directly with race and ethnicity in the work place. Multicultural diversity is no longer defined by race and ethnicity alone. In today’s workplace, it is important to also include age, gender, sexual orientation, education, religion and life experience (Okoro & Washington, 2012). With a better understanding of how inclusive workplace diversity has become, companies and corporations can now put greater emphasis in effective interpersonal and group communication as it is essential in today’s success (Okoro & Washington, 2012). As future managers and leaders, it is vital to understand communication and the foundation it provides for business, managerial and organizational communication. All three have a lot in common as well as overlap, in their intended functions (Reinsch, 1991). As Reinsch (1991) put it: “organizational communication is communication...
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...Running Header: Introduction to Communication 1 Introduction to Communication Derrick Gordon BSCOM/100 January 17, 2016 Patricia Dolly Introduction to Communication Introduction With this assignment we will take a look at special issues that can affect communication. Diversity It seems that there has been a lot of focus and energy spent on educating people about the concept of diversity. This is a good thing. At its core diversity can be looked at as simply a form of enlightenment. It’s a way of looking at the differences in other people in a positive way. When you objectively examine varying cultures it makes it possible to learn from those differences helping to advance your self and maybe even your own culture. When you have the ability to look past biases it becomes easier to communicate more effectively. Diversity training helps to identify those biases and countermand them. Technology affects diversity just as diversity affect communication according to Shachaf (2008). “Results suggested that cultural diversity had a positive influence on decision-making and a negative influence on communication. ICT mitigated the negative impact on intercultural communication and supported the positive impact on decision-making. Effective technologies for intercultural communication included e-mail, teleconferencing combined with e-Meetings, and team rooms. Cultural diversity influenced selection of the communication media”(page 1). All is not lost. If used correctly...
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...Worldwide Telecommunications Team,”C” Joseph Collins, Megan Ward, Andrew Hoffart, Steven Rankin, Cheryl Bandy COMM/215 April 28, 2014 Irwin Shubert Worldwide Telecommunications, Inc. and the cultural changes within Diversity has brought a new importance to the work place. With the world becoming more diverse, and the work place becoming more multicultural, political correctness, affirmative action and disparities in pay pushed their employers to change their recruiting practices. A progressive workplace should consist of employees of wide-ranging cultures, ethnicities, religions, genders, and ages, and other factors. When you add people from the different backrounds there’s always going to be tension. However, each individual from each different culture or reign can bring something different, something new and exciting to the table. Worldwide Telecommunications, Inc. is meeting this rather complicated issue directly in the hopes of turning it into an opportunity to promote a multicultural work environment that its customers can connect with. The various cultures of the workers will have an effect on the way that the community understands and interacts with the organization in an affirmative way. This distinctive idea will not be without its difficulties. A diverse workplace can lead to challenges and struggles as people from different cultures, ethnicities, religions, genders, and ages learn to work together...
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...Globalization has changed the face of 21st century workforce. In today's fast paced and growing economy, there is an exponential increase of cultural diversity within big businesses and corporations. There is an opportunity to "achieve higher levels of productivity and extraordinary performance" (Nykiel) for large corporations with a multicultural workforce. At the same time, it may also "be more challenging in a multicultural work and managerial environment" (Nykiel). Workforce Diversity Statistics The term "multicultural workforce" which represents the personal characteristics of employees in an organization is today superseded and replaced by a much broader term, "cultural diversity". Diversity refers to the way organizations respond to a multicultural workforce. The strategy in large organizations is to leverage differences in employees to increase creativity and have a competitive advantage in a fierce market. In the 2014 survey conducted by Diversity Inc; which is the leading publication for the education and benefits of large organizations, 1215 companies participated in an empirically driven and ranked competition for a diverse workplace. It was carried out to help acquire and retain a multicultural workforce. . Competition got assessed on the talent pipeline, equitable skill development, CEO commitment, and supplier diversity. The top ranking companies had 76 percent more African- Americans on their Board of Directors. They also had 54 percent more women on their board...
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...INTRODUCTION As we enter the 21st century, workforce diversity has become an essential business concern. In the so-called information age, the greatest assets of most companies are now on two feet. Undeniably, there is a talent war raging. No company can afford to unnecessarily restrict its ability to attract and retain the very best employees available. Although we all share many traits and needs, human beings are different and unique. While diversity has always existed, globalization, an increase in immigration, the sexual revolution and the output of the open formerly taboo subjects - such as living with a disability and gender preference - were placed in front -plan diversity of our concerns and the need to accept it. In the workplace, diversity encompasses elements that are evident, among other demographic differences such as gender, ethnicity and age, and more subtle differences, for example, the way we think or solve problems, social class or education. Because of the variety of backgrounds and approaches, it is not always easy for people to get along in the workplace (Diversityworld.com, 2014). However, it could be quite different. By learning to understand the challenges posed by differences and accept different points of view within your workgroup, you can use the strengths that represent a diverse team, in addition to expanding your horizons. Workforce diversity refers to organizations that are becoming more heterogeneous with the mix of people in terms of...
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...Diversity Issues Diversity Issues Organizations who make a commitment to diversity can see a significant impact on business in many ways. Diversity “requires a significant commitment for change to occur” (Delong, 2007, p.9). It is extremely important that leaders understand the commitment and embrace it in order for a positive impact to occur. Employers with diverse cultures and leaders can build positive and successful relationships with customers, suppliers and vendors. They can better attract and retain top talent. All of these equal more financial gain for the company. Diversity Leadership I agree that being a diversity conscious leader is important to professional and organizational success. Not only is diversity consciousness important in business but it is equally important in all aspects of life. Diversity consciousness consists of three components “diversity awareness, understanding of diversity, and diversity skills” (Bucher, 2015, p.38). When dealing with people from different cultures, it is important to communicate effectively. In order to do so there are skills that should be adapted. An “integral part of developing diversity consciousness is developing diversity skills” (Bucher, 2015, p.37). Bucher states that the five skills essential to success at work are speaking, solving problems, taking initiative, ability to relate to others and teamwork. Being a diversity conscious leader means being well versed in the skills listed above. Teamwork...
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...Special Issues Paper and Presentation Corbo Mikah BSCOM/100 Introduction to Communication November 09, 2015 Mary Lee Special Issues Paper and Presentation This is our final assignment for your class, and because of my communication issues with my children, I am writing this paper again and will have to redo all of my presentation. When I started this class, I was stunned because I thought I knew everything I needed about communication. Well as you can guess, I was wrong I have learned quite a bit along this long journey through Introduction to Communication. I am here writing about some of the key points of communication that I have learned and hopefully I will be able to show you that I was able to learn from you and your course. This last week we have been learning about diversity, ethics, technology and mass communication. These four words seem to not have anything in common, right? Well, that is what I thought until I began to read and research all four of these words. I looked all through our Chapters and I had a really hard time finding the best meaning of diversity, so after more research I found the perfect answer. Diversity is the inclusion of individuals, representing more than one national origin, color, religion; a point of difference. Another good example to the meaning of diversity would be variety, or a range of difference. The next word is ethics and my favorite meaning to this is; a branch of philosophy dealing with values relating to human conduct...
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...Factors. Socio-Geographic Factors University of Phoenix Socio-Geographic Factors Companies face many factors that affect the ways management can operate the business. In the United States companies are becoming global and facing challenges of attracting and retaining employees. This paper entails Verizon Communications’ policies and procedures that the company uses to address new and old issues that management faces. In today’s society many people come from diverse backgrounds and companies have to learn to work with the differences. Verizon Communications is a leader in providing broadband and other wire line and wireless communication innovations to business, government, mass market and wholesale customers. The company’s wireless operates the country’s most reliable wireless network. Verizon serves nearly 71 million customers nationwide. The company’s Wire line operations consist of Verizon Business, which produces innovative and flawless business solutions to customers around the world, and Verizon Telecom, which brings customers the benefits of congregate communications, information and entertainment services over the nation's most highly developed fiber-optic network. A Dow 30 company, Verizon employs a diverse workforce of more than 228,000 and last year originated working revenues of $93.5 billion (Verizon Communications, p.20). Class and Work Values Class is described as the process of classifying people based on wealth, income, and education...
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...How a Multicultural Workforce Might Affect Teamwork and Communications in Large Companies Bethany Ward, Nicole Ortiz, Brandi Cook Learning Team B University of Phoenix COMM/215 Linda Lawliss February 5, 2007 Large companies find a multicultural workforce essential because they have to do business effectively with many diverse cultures in order to be successful. Unique skills and/or lower costs become more accessible to companies when they broaden their work forces. However, in working with different cultures and backgrounds, many companies face difficulties and challenges they must overcome. Managing a diverse workforce is an important task for today’s corporations. The idea of a diverse workforce is not a new concept. “According to The History Channel, in the 1850’s, Chinese and Irish laborers were brought over to lay the tracks for the transcontinental railroad, which raised anger of those who had arrived a hundred years earlier”. (Cartby, 2006). No matter how angry people may get over diversity and new workers coming to America in search of a better life, it’s not going to go away. Ethnic backgrounds are just one dynamic of a diverse workforce. According to the Workforce 2000 study funded by the U.S. Department of Labor: “Immigrants, women and people of color accounted for 85 percent of the net growth in the labor force throughout the 1990’s”. (Cartby, 2006). This study proves the workforce of the future is going to become even more diverse...
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...paper discusses the ever- changing cultural landscape and the obligation of educators to reform common communication practices by the use of diversity skills. Embracing the Change in Multicultural Education 3 Demographic Changes There are three dominant demographics present in the faculty and volunteers of our local school district. Our interest for this growing trend will reveal the source from which they derive as well as bring growth and improvement to our schools. They are as follows: * Socio-economic * Ethnicity * Language A diverse teaching staff as well as student community is important to strengthen our school as a whole. Students have the right to gain experience and knowledge from teachers with similar cultural backgrounds or at the very least teachers that can relate with and teach from an understanding of a wide array of cultures. “A benefit of a diverse workforce is the ability to tap into the many talents which employees from different backgrounds, perspectives, abilities and disabilities bring to the workplace.” (Lindenberger, J.) Knowledge and experience opens a door for teaching by increasing creativity and problem solving. In an article from Diversity And the Workplace, Ms. Judith Lindenberger discusses how diversity goes beyond race and gender. This article gave great insight into the benefits of diversity and how it can strengthen the workplace. For example, “Provide practical training. Using relevant examples...
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...Cultural Diversity Book Analysis outline 1. Text Name: “Diversity Consciousness”, Fourth Edition, by Richard D. Bucher. Main Idea: Opening our minds to people, Cultures and Opportunities. i) The book helps us in understanding the different concepts of diversity and its effects on individuals. The major topics that covered in the text books are listed below: * Diversity: Overview on diversity. * Diversity Consciousness and Success. * Personal and Social barriers to Success. * Developing Diversity Consciousness. * Communicating in Diverse world. * Social Networking. * Teamwork. * Leadership. * Preparing for the future. 2. This book has a great source of information for a people who wants to learn something about diversity consciousness, how it affects each of us in our daily life and how it is important for personal and professional growth. i) Chapter 2 talks about a Sociocultural Theory and Success, It explains us that why Diversity skills are important at school or workplace. ii) Chapter 3 discuss about the Personal and Social Barriers to Success that everyone encounters at one point of their life. iii) Chapter 4 talks about developing the diversity consciousness, six steps that can help us in learning the diversity skills. iv) Chapter 5 gives us the information about the different forms of communication in a diverse world, why effective communication is important in dealing within the diversity. v) Chapter...
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...Internal and External Factors Paper MGT/230 October 12, 2015 INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL FACTORS PAPER The purpose of this essay is to explain how both internal and external factors affect the four functions of management. And how those factors also affect the organization of Verizon wireless Level One Heading The major four functions of management includes planning, controlling, organizing, and leading. These four functions could be affected by both internal and external factors in any business environment. Planning in management is systematically making decisions based on goals and activities that will be pursued by an individual. Controlling in management is the Monitoring performance and making changes. Organizing in management is assembling and coordinating human, financial, physical, information, and other resources needed to achieve goals. Leading in management involves the manager’s efforts to stimulate the high performance by employees. The external forces that affect the four functions of a business in management includes political, economic, technological, and sociological. Sociological is the demographics status in which helps management to plan for the future and design products for different aspects of people. Political and Economic includes all essential factors such as competitors and suppliers and customers as well this allows them to study their suppliers and competitors. Technology has a big effect on businesses, and...
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...interprets people-organization relationships in terms of the whole person, whole group, whole organization, and whole social system. Workplace diversity can be defined as difference between people within an organization. It might sound simple but it encompasses: gender, race, ethnic group, age, cognitive style personality, tenure, organizational function, education, background among other. Diversity not only involves how individual perceive themselves but the manner in which they perceive others. The perception is likely to affect the interactions. For wide assortment of employees to function effectively within a given organization, human resource management professionals must deal with issues of diversity appropriately. Such issues include adaptability, change, and communication. This is due to the fact that diversity is likely to increase significantly in the coming years. Successful organizations recognize the need for immediate action and are ready and willing to spend resources on managing diversity at workplace. Challenges of diversity in the workplace Taking full advantage of the benefits of diversity in an organization or workplace is not without its challenges, some of these challenges include: Communication – Perpetual, cultural, and language barrier need to be overcome for diversity programs to succeed. Ineffective communication leads to confusion, lack of team work and low morale. Another challenge is being resistant to change; there are various employees who will...
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...Global Communication Through Advertising BSCOM100 Global Communication Through Advertising Our world has changed considerably in the last few decades through global communications. Our advancements in technology on platforms such as; computers, high speed data servers, mobile phones, and the internet have created a worldwide culture of mass communication with audiences that are ever changing in diversity and ethical make up. While communicators typically aim to be straight forward and clearly understood, there are numerous factors that can create a filter or barrier in which the message is perceived which can result in ineffective and unfavorable results in respect to mass communication through technology. Those who seek to communicate through global advertising are on the front lines of the war to communicate past all cultural barriers. Diversity is the term used to illustrate the broad difference in people. Ethnicity, religion, gender, age, and culture are all differing examples that create diversity from one person to the next. Communicating with others from unfamiliar backgrounds can be a challenging process. “One statistician notes that if the world were a village of 1,000 people, the village would have 590 Asians, 122 Africans, 96 Europeans, 84 Latin Americans, 55 members of the former Soviet Union, and 53 North Americans” (Beebe, 2013)) When we consider all of the many unique individuals that make up the world’s population, it becomes clear that the effort put...
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...the consumer. For over 120 years, General Electric (GE) has provided services in technology from appliances to water treatment. We will briefly look into the culture and values of GE and see if what they say they value is actually done in the eyes of the public. How does communication play a role in this company’s organizational culture and does it affect the perception of the company? Can conflict be used to improve the communication within this particular organization? How? These are questions that will be answered throughout this research. The organizational culture of General Electric shows characteristics of being a people-oriented company. As stated by GE concerning their employees “We believe that life at GE leaves you a better person than when you first walked through our doors. Our culture is all about providing everyone who works here with the opportunities to exercise their responsibility, integrity and creativity while growing themselves, their careers, and our business.” (General Electric, 2009). The values of the company are based on performance and integrity and it is in those values that GE tries to build and compete during the circumstances of the times. It is through communication and the commitment of the employee that they are able to uphold those values. The inherit growth of the company would show that the employees’ enacted values are align with the espoused values of the organization. Perception...
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