Discussion Responses

1) What are some of the researchable questions that this week’s readings raise for you? In other words, what issues do these readings make you wonder about? What questions would you be interested in exploring further?

Both the readings definitely brought up some interesting questions from both. The first, focusing on organizational culture, had be wanting to look more into “Who were the people responding to this question?” Although a broad question to research, I was initially curious how these individuals were creating their rendition of the definition for ‘organizational culture’; that maybe influences of their education, work place, and status may have a reflection on the answer they provided. For the other reading, focusing on why diversity in the workplace matters, I was curious to then further research what some of the companies I support have to say about their workforce diversity. Thinking about different brands and labels I buy into; how many of those companies advertise the diversity they have within their business, and is it features like these that make the company more appealing? I would be fairly curious to look further into both of these questions, as I believe that by doing so it would reveal more about each of the conversations both aim to start.

3) Select one of the definitions from “What is organizational culture and why should we care” OR one statistic from “Why diversity matters,” and discuss what questions this sparks for you? What do you think is interesting or significant about this idea? In other words, how does your look at this article open up questions about what organizational culture is and why it matters?

Focusing on the ‘Why diversity matters?’ article, I found that the most eyeopening statistic was that, “while certain industries perform better on gender diversity and other industries on ethnic and racial diversity, no industry or company is in the top quartile on both dimensions”. This was a statistic that really started to jog my thinking about both demographics. I immediately questioned: Which of these two demographics – racial or gender diversity – matter more to a company and why? Clearly there was no company that was able to secure top rating for both, so I wondered why exactly. Could some companies value the gender diversity of their company with little regard as to what is to be said about the racial diversity – and vice versa? Connecting back to organizational culture, this statistic in a way shows that there is no equal representations for all demographics within a given company. Furthermore, I think that this, at least for myself, confuses the definition and idea of organizational culture because there is no company that is able to identify and support all cultural backgrounds their employees may stem from.

May 23, 2020

Unit 1 Responses

The readings from this week about culture and diversity made me question many factors. The reading on organized culture piqued my curiosity because it never gave one definition of culture. We are used to having one definition in mind for a word so seeing many variations made me think about what my definition of culture was. When I thought about it I wasn’t sure about how I would define it. The different discussions about what culture was also made me think about who the people writing the responses were and why they each had such a different definition of culture. Another question that I would like to further explore is how do companies that are racially and ethnically diverse describe their culture vs how companies who are gender-diverse describe their culture. The article “why diversity matters” talk a lot about how companies that are diverse in race, ethnicity, and gender are more likely to be successful but they never mention why. I would like to research more as to why that is.
After reading “culture is consistent, observable patterns of behavior in organizations,” I began to think about culture in organizations that I am involved in. One organization I am apart of at college would be my major. As a Communications Design major, I have been in class with the same teachers and students since my first day of freshman year. That has created a culture between us in the classroom. The classroom culture reminded me of Robbie Katanga’s response titled “Culture is how organizations “do things.” My experience relates to his response because as a class we have developed patterns that are as Katanga states “consistent, observable patterns of behavior in organizations.” Every year I take classes for my major and have a very similar experience to the year prior. I think that is because the teachers create a structure that stays the same along with the people that are in the class, therefore, creating a pattern. I think that the pattern created and the behavior that comes from it creates our culture.

May 23, 2020

Organizational Culture and Diversity

As I read Michael Watkins’ article, I began to think about the various organizations of which I am a member. What sort of cultures do they have? How do I contribute (or not) to the fostering of that culture? What do I like and dislike about each? I have been reflecting lately on how lucky my wife and I both are to have jobs which allow us to work from home during the pandemic. While both jobs have their fair share of stress, I find that my company has been much better about establishing a work/life balance. This comes directly from the CEO, who has been an advocate for such a balance prior to the pandemic. Moreover, since the beginning of self-isolation, he and the rest of the leadership team have been emphasizing the importance of self care during this time. This includes taking time away from work to focus on one’s physical, emotional and mental health.

The McKinsey report on diversity immediately reminded of the diversity discussions we’ve had at work. In particular, during the last several IT leadership conferences, there have been presentations and discussions around the company’s efforts to improve diversity at every level of the organization.

I found one such presentation particularly memorable. The speaker acknowledged that while most discussions on diversity focus on such important areas such as race and gender, diversity of thought and experience are equally critical to an organization’s success. To illustrate his point, he displayed a diagram representing a small team. The team was made up of six boxes. He then told us that leadership were interested in adding some diversity to the team. On the screen popped up a number of circles, triangles, rectangles, ovals, etc. This represented the candidate pool. Leadership decided to hire the triangle, and a new team diagram was displayed. This time there were six squares and the triangle.

The next slide simply said “One Year Later”, before switching to another featuring seven squares. The speaker then shared a warning. It was of course wonderful to strive for diversity. However, without an openness to different perspectives and a willingness to try new ideas, organizations run the risk of converting triangles into squares.

May 23, 2020May 23, 2020

Responses – Week of 5/18

This week’s readings made me think about culture and diversity in the workplace which I’ve never really considered, but it’s interesting. The article about why diversity matters made me question how an organization would even achieve diversity in the workplace, do they stop hiring people of certain genders or ethnicities once they reach a set amount? I’m definitely in favor of diversity in the workplace, and it doesn’t surprise me that more diverse companies are financially more productive, but I question how companies become diverse. The article about organizational culture made me think about just how different every organization’s culture is, and how it’s constantly changing because of new employees, locations, and acquisitions. I was curious about the relationship between organizational success/productivity and organizational culture, but the other article suggests that a more diverse organization and, as a result, a more diverse organizational culture typically means more success/productivity.

There are a handful of definitions and explanations in the article about organizational culture that lead to me think about what organizational culture really is and what it means. The definition “Organizational culture [is shaped by] the main culture of the society we live in, albeit with greater emphasis on particular parts of it,” from Elizabeth Skringar isn’t farfetched, but what is the society “we” live in for a multi-national organization operating in the context of many different cultures? The author, Michael Watkins, mentioned that “a company’s history of acquisition also figures importantly in defining its culture and subcultures,” which would also make it difficult for an organization to identify with a specific society or culture. The last definition of an organizational culture where Abdi Osman Jama calls it “living” is close to what I would’ve said. I hadn’t heard of the phrase “organizational culture” until I read the article this week, but I’m fascinated by its ambiguity. I’d definitely be interested in exploring this topic further.

May 23, 2020

Unit 1 Response Questions

From the reading entitled “Why Diversity Matters” many questions surrounding diversity arise for me. The first one being why do gender and ethnically diverse companies produce better results financially. Because of this, how do we further diverse companies so that most companies are outperforming and doing better financially than they did in the past. Although this is a hard task to do, it can be done over time. According to the article, for every 10% in recital and ethnic diversity, the company sees a 0.8 in earning before taxes and interest. This number should catch the eye of a lot of companies and as a result, hopefully diversify not only the workers, but leadership as well. In the other reading talking about culture, I noticed that using the quotes of various people, culture plays a huge role in our everyday lives. Katanga’s quote stood out to me which read “culture is how organizations do things.” I thought this was interesting because there are a bunch of different cultures in companies so I was wondering how do organizations go about this.
In the article “Why Diversity Matters” there were a lot of intriguing quotes. The one I would like to talk about is “Companies in the top quartile for gender diversity are 15 percent more likely to have financial returns above their respective national industry medians.” This statistic raises a bunch of questions for me. One being why don’t more companies diversify their organizations if the numbers show drastic improvements? In addition, what do people outside of these companies think? all these statistics show that with less diversity, it is harder to succeed and the same amount of financial returns. In a lot of companies, you need people of many different backgrounds and cultures to connect to all the customers which is why these diverse companies show such an improvement. Although it may be difficult and take more time, these statics show that is is well worth it and companies should be changing their hiring.

May 23, 2020June 20, 2020

Week of 5/18 – Discussion

One topic I instantly became attracted to came after reading the title of one of this weeks required readings. ‘Why diversity matters’ unlike the other readings, makes a direct claim shy of any open question or neutral position. It exploits the sum saying “We know intuitively that diversity matters.” While we can agree that there is undeniable research benefits brought by diversity, I would argue that its subject title and opening statement suggest no room for counterargument value. Throughout the entire article it implies diversity is always correspondent for the subject. What I would be interested in finding out are cases where diversity rather is not always relevant– areas where diversity might actually bring more harm then good, inside and out of business. Ofter time organizations that are tailored for minority populations such as Black and Latino communities reserve themselves from other cultures. Why is it that diversity, in this case, may implicitly or explicitly exclude Caucasian or Asian races? Equally, why or why not would it be important to celebrate only one ethnic or one gender population? Why might diversity not always matter?
I found the article written on organizational culture rich in its elaborative ability to aggregate multiple voices (over 300) and relate them back to the value of what ‘they say’. It shifts the over-arching complicated nature of culture with smaller scale supporting claims inviting one to feel apart of an overall discussion. The question “why we should care” I would add unavoidably becomes the most important part of the article. Understanding how far one sees an organization fit requires putting yourself in the shoes of someone else. Being apart of the university-student culture, for example, required I work and continue pursuing academic studies. Being apart of the Latino community meant having this pre-determined characteristic I was born with because of my Hispanic upbringing. Being somebody who lived abroad influenced my will to learn and become apart of that areas cultural surroundings. Culture, from what I’ve come to learn, is something we are forced to accept, reject, or try and sublime into. This, I would contend, should be another another universal agreement. Regardless of whichever above positions we take, we will all fit on some side of the spectrum.

May 23, 2020

Benjamin Fisch, 5/18 week responses

These readings make me wonder about a few issues. The reading suggests that “culture is powerfully shaped by incentives.” After reading this, this reminded me of capitalism, and the issue that the system of intense capitalism can sometimes lead to greed and abuse of power. This raised the issue for me that a culture of incentives can lead to a culture in an organization of greed. A culture of a greed is an issue to a business for example, because this culture will promote individuals under the organization to work towards their own selfish goals rather than work towards the agenda of the organization. I would be interested in exploring further the question of deciding whether or not the culture of incentive is the best option that an organization has. Although, capitalism and working towards and incentive is flawed its the system that we use, because we decided the capitalism is better than socialism or communism. I would be interested in exploring whether a culture of incentives or capitalism is better than a culture of socialism.

2. When reading “culture is consistent, observable patterns of behavior in organizations,” I am reminded of many of my own personal connections that relate. Aristotle said, “we are what we repeatedly do.” The first connection that comes to my mind is the mentality of my high school basketball team. We had a strong culture, and that was a culture of winning. We very rarely lost a game, and a lot of this stemmed from the mentality that we had of never giving up and our culture of winning. Another connection that I made after reading was that my family has its own culture as well. My family is small, but it can still serve as an organization. My family had a culture of togetherness and love. If one of us was having an issue, then we were all having an issue. On the other hand, if one of us was thriving we were all thriving. My family exhibits consistent, observable patterns of organization, which defines it as a culture.

May 23, 2020

2 blog responses

Some of the researchable questions that this week’s readings raised for me is wanting to know which other companies in the US stand at being the most diverse, like McKinsey, and how they can further set examples of expanding diversity in the workplace. While I completely agree with putting race, ethnicity, and gender aside when hiring someone because I do think the decision should be based on an individual’s skills and knowledge for that position, one statistic in the “Why Diversity Matters” caught my attention. The article says that “the unequal performance of companies in the same industry and the same country implies that diversity is a competitive differentiator shifting the market share toward more diverse companies.” As I read this, I came to understand how diversity is a strong component to making up a company. At the end of the day, it’s the consumer’s choice whether or not to purchase from a business or invest in them. I feel as though if consumers notice that a company is lacking in diversity, for this reason they may not choose to not give them any business. So while it gives me hope that more diversity in a company may equal more success for that business, it will be interesting to see how long (will it be years and years?) other companies will take to become accustomed to this new change in the work space.
In the article, “What is organizational culture and why should we care?,” Richard Perrin writes that “Culture is a carrier of meaning.” This sentence alone intrigued me because it reinforced the thought that everything we do, we do for a purpose. In this definition, he puts emphasis on the “why is” and on having a story. I think this idea is very significant because it can help employees understand their importance in a company and how they’re so much more than just a worker. I feel as though having values and rituals create a routine, so I really like the glue analogy. That without these values and rituals, cooperation and strategy in a business would not be as successful. I understand that culture is how we communicate, as Richard explains the importance of understanding language and symbols. A question that this definition sparked within me though is how opened to accepting other values and rituals would leaders need to be while also making sure they do not lose sight of their own narrative and original culture?

May 23, 2020

Unit 1 Question Responses

One question that this week’s reading has raised for me is, what can we do as a society to add more diversity to different businesses? I understand that it is in a company’s best interest to hire qualified people who also have diverse backgrounds. However, I wonder if there is a way to go about diversifying without making it too difficult. In Watkins article, “What is organizational culture and why should we care?”, the author talks about culture and how it is shaped by stating that “Culture is powerfully shaped by incentives. The best predictor of what people will do is what they are incentivized to do” (p. 1). In this case, the incentive is money. According to the article, “Why Diversity Matters”, companies will gain more money if they have more diversity in their staff. So, why does it seem like there is still not enough diversity in many companies and businesses?
In the article, “Why Diversity Matters”, there are many important and interesting statistics included. The main purpose of this article is to get readers to understand that diversity matters in business One of the statistics that struck me was “In the United States, there is a linear relationship between racial and ethnic diversity and better financial performance: for every 10 percent increase in racial and ethnic diversity on the senior executive team, earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) rise 0.8 percent” (p. 2). This is important to know because it shows that without diversity, it is difficult to succeed. This statistic was interesting to me because I did not realize that this was a fact. However, it makes a lot of sense because companies need all types of life experiences and backgrounds in order to reach others with whatever they are doing. At the end of the article, the author says that achieving more diversity is not going to be easy. However, it is extremely important that we do our best to include as much diversity as possible.

May 23, 2020

Overview of Week of 5/25

Now that we’ve gotten to know each other a bit and have gotten our feet wet, so to speak, in what organizational culture and diversity are, we’re going to spend this week deepening our knowledge of those topics AND beginning to think about some writerly concerns.

In this post, I’ll lay out a little more info about the week’s assignments and point you toward some additional resources that will help you to complete those tasks. Please read on for more.

Reading assignments:

“The impact of organizational diversity policies on minority employees’ leadership self-perceptions and goals” by Gundemir et al (you will use SUMMON on the library website to locate and download this article)
“Neurodiversity as a competitive advantage” by Austin & Pisano (on Blackboard)
chapter 1 “They Say” of They Say/I Say

Writing/discussion assignments:

100-200 word summary of Gundemir et al (working with the guidance from the handout on summary, on Bb and in the blog post linked below) [due Weds., 5/27 through Bb]
200-300 word comparison of Gundemir and Austin & Pisano article, focusing on how the pieces differ in author, audience, purpose, and approach [due Sunday, 5/31 through Bb]
discussion posts in response to this week’s prompts [due Saturday, 5/30]

Discussion prompts for Week of 5/25

Check out these additional resources:

read over the Close Reading handout on Blackboard (click on the Handouts tab there)
read through this blog post (and check out the embedded links) for some more background on genre and summary

Thinking about summary and genre