Arizona State University

Module 7

Paper

William Fogg

OGL 350

Professor Zembruski

10/03/2020
Part I

If you ask me today what I want to do with my career I would tell you that I want to earn

the rank of Lieutenant in my current police department. I think it is fair to say that a lot of

departments experience a decent amount of diversity. The primary purpose of the police

department that I work for is to ensure the safety of the public and being a mediator when

needed. We do not sign up for the job to give people moving or parking citations, we sign up to

help. People tend to get lost in the fact that they are receiving a citation for making an unsafe

movement about 90% of the time. Law Enforcement is not something that only the US has,

there are police in just about every culture. I think this is a reason why we see so much diversity

in a department.

I believe diversity is so important in a police department because we deal with people

from all walks of life every day. Whether or not it is easy for you to communicate with anyone,

there are some people out there that do better with those of the same background or culture

as them. For example, if we are dealing with someone who is in a bad time in life, experiencing

some sort of poverty. It might be best for an officer who can relate with the individuals

experiences rather than one who grew up without. Another example would be if an individual

were a victim of sexual assault, it is proven to be better for someone of the same sex to

interview them as you would imagine they would be more comfortable for that individual.

There are many ways to use diversity effectively but without recognizing its presence, you will

have a tough time doing so.

Part II
 I have always liked to believe that I am a typically open individual who does not care

what your beliefs are or if they are different from my own. I know it sounds harsh, but I feel

that most of the time there is a problem with diversity is when there is conflict between beliefs.

If I truly do not care what your beliefs are, there is no way for me to have a problem with it.

Being in the military and seeing so many different types of cultures and diversities, I know that

humans are humans. It does not matter how they were raised or who they are, they are

capable of anything, as am I. Now what I do pay attention to when it comes to diversity, is being

able to identify things that may offend certain cultures or beliefs. Without doing so, there will

always be conflict in a workplace.

As a leader, I would not want to be one who is always presenting and making my

positional power known. “It is desirable for leaders to have only moderate amounts of

positional power.” (Williams, 2008 p.138). I am a firm believer in mutual respect, as a leader I

would not need the gratification of showing power or anything else. I would be a leader from

the front and be the leader that I would want today. I would also present a workplace that has

a climate ready for innovation and acceptance between diversities. “...diverse groups enjoyed

stronger innovation climates when transformational leadership was high.” (Gotsis p.248) As we

have learned in this semester, the climate of a workplace is extremely important. We cannot

expect others to change in order to meet a specific climate but develop a climate that is willing

to adjust with needs of others. I am also a big advocate of training. Training is so important and

highly overthought. I believe a monthly training involving some sort of diversity or identification

of diversity would be highly effective. “…successful leadership of diverse others requires a new
set of skill and practices that were not required of leaders when the workplace was

homogeneous.” (Chrobot, 2013, p.323).

At the end of this semester, I believe it has only increased my belief of the importance

of diversity in a workplace. It allows different minds to come together and develop success in

ways that one same group would not.

 Works Cited

Chrobot-Mason, D., Ruderman, M.N. & Nishii, L.H. (2013). Leadership in a Diverse Workplace.

Chapter 18 in The Oxford Handbook of Diversity and Work. ASU Library Holdings.

Gotsis, G., Grimani, K. Diversity as an aspect of effective leadership: integrating and moving

forward.

Williams, K. (2008). Effective Leadership for Multicultural Teams. Chapter 6 in Effective

Multicultural Teams: Theory and Practice. ASU Library Electronic Holdings.