Module 7: Diversity Paper

By Brendan Weeks

OGL 350: Diversity and Organizations

Dr. Carla Mahnke
Arizona State University
11/29/2021
Module 7: Paper Brendan Weeks
11/29/2021
OGL 350

After I am finished with college, I have a well-articulated plan for what I hope to

eventually do with my life. I have had the opportunity in past ASU courses to create an entire

plan to achieve my ultimate goals in life. With the combination of that life plan and the

knowledge I have fortunately been able to obtain after taking this class. This knowledge mainly

regarding the benefits and the importance of diversity within structured organizations such as

community, family, business, teams, etc. I feel I have more than the ability to be able to take the

organization I plan to be a part of, which is not well diversified by this point and turn it into a

salad bowl of different cultures, genders, races, religions, etc.

The organization I plan to be a part of is a distribution center located in a small town on

the east coast of the state of Michigan. From what I have personally witnessed is that the

business currently does not stand for a larger meaning or purpose and the diversity from within

under current leadership is quite scarce. I have grown up around this business and noticed from a

young age the lack of diversity from within. I remember thinking to myself wondering the reason

for this. Now, at an older age, and with more education I can now comprehend the extreme

importance of the primary dimensions of one's diversity. Meaning their race, sexual orientation,

political background etc.

The effects that diversity has on a company's growth in the progressive world we live in

is extremely immense. An example of this could come from the article “5 Strategies for Creating

an Inclusive Workplace” by authors Pooja Jain, Julia Taylor Kennedy, and Trudy Bourgeois. In

this article the authors explain that “Women of color are entering the workforce in greater

numbers than ever before, bringing education, ambition, and diverse ideas and experiences with

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them” (Jain, Kennedy, Bourgeois, 2020). This shows the large change of workforce diversity that

is now being offered to employers.

The pie chart that we had the opportunity to take part in really helped to visualize and put

into perspective not only my cultural background but also the extreme importance of someone's

own individual identity. As stated in the article titled “Diversity Management and the

Postdiversity Vision: An Applied Pragmatist Approach'' authors Thomas P. Galvin and Charles

D. Allen describes that there was a “presidential executive order (EO) promoting diversity and

inclusion across the U.S. government (Obama, 2014)” (Galvin, Allen, 2021, p. 49). This in my

opinion is a clear example of how important it is to include all types of people within teams and

organizations. I plan to bring the identity of an understanding, open minded, and of course

diverse leader that the organization and its employees have never seen before.

To elaborate further on what I plan to bring to the business with my own personal

characteristics and personality, would be to start off with opening the doors. I feel that it is

important that my first action as leader will be to “open up the doors” for others to have just as

much of an equal opportunity for employment and growth as anyone else. I see this as a problem

that is happening from within current leadership. With the majority of the workforce having a

mindset not as open as myself I feel there may be some backlash from the change of operation.

As a leader it is important to understand what the right thing to do may not necessarily be

the most popular with the current workforce or employees you have. This can be connected to

the article titled “Why Diversity and Inclusion Efforts Fail to Deliver and How to Change That.”

Within the article the author goes on to say “the obligation to do something and say something is

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getting stronger” (Chhaya, 2020). With this being the case, I can see as new and more diverse

employees come into the business, we will observe a common trend of people standing up and

speaking out for themselves and others. Because of this I feel that with my personality being

very welcoming and uplifting, this will only help when it comes to getting others to understand

certain policy changes and welcome other people's diverse qualities.

Based on the beginning of the class assignments, my pretest scores for the CQ cultural

intelligence test came out to be a total of 78. At the time I thought this was a very good score

regarding my cultural intelligence score. However, after taking the posttest and receiving a score

of 111. I now see what an improvement that the knowledge obtained from this class has done for

me. For example, something I had learned from the reading presented in the class is that

“Research shows that inclusive workplaces are six times more likely to be innovative and twice

as likely to meet or surpass financial goals” (Hamill, 2019, p. 2). Statistics like this show clear

reasons on why a diverse and inclusive workplace are extremely important in today's business

world.

Now after finishing up with the class, the assignments associated with it, and looking

back at all of the learning the material that was presented to us. I feel that this has to be one of

the most extensive information filled classes regarding the ideology behind diversity and

inclusive workplaces. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to encounter this type of course

while attending Arizona State. I would suggest this to anyone who has to work with people face

to face in any organization, not just Organizational Leadership majors. I could not stress enough

how important individual and organizational diversity plays a role in our lives and will continue

to grow intensely as time continues on.

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References

Galvin, T., & Allen, C. (2021). Diversity Management and the Postdiversity Vision: An
Applied Pragmatist Approach

Chhaya, N. (2020, June 29). Why Diversity And Inclusion Efforts Fail To Deliver And
How To Change That. Retrieved June 30, 2020, from
https://www.forbes.com/sites/niharchhaya/2020/06/29/why-diversity-and-inclusion-effo
rts-fail-to-deliver-and-how-to-change-that/

Hamill, L. (2019, February 04). Council post: What an inclusive workplace actually looks
like, and seven ways to achieve it. Retrieved February 27, 2021, from

5 strategies for creating an inclusive workplace. (2020, January 13). Retrieved February 27,
2021, from https://hbr.org/2020/01/5-strategies-for-creating-an-inclusive-workplace