Month: August 2020

1. Heterogeneity and team performance: Evaluating the effect of cultural diversity in the world’s top soccer league

In Heterogeneity and team performance: Evaluating the effect of cultural diversity in the world’s top soccer league, by Keith Ingersoll, Edmond Malesky and Sebastian M. Saiegh, the authors discuss a study in which the success of various professional soccer teams was analyzed on a premise of the level of diversity in each team. What they found was a positive relationship between diversity and performance. Teams with international talent on their roster outperform teams with a motivation towards cultivating “homegrown” (local) talent.

This source is extremely useful to my research because it brings the topic of diversity from within the realms of workplace structure, to the outside world, in the far reaches of professional international sports. This brings the topic from a small to very large scale, and opens up the possibility to relate the topic to other realms. By reaching to sports performance , something very different from office performance, it opens up all the places in between where there is room to look for connections between diversity and success. This article will work as a connection point from the workplace research to the larger world research.

2. In Readers Respond: Open Offices Are Terrible For Women, the women who respond build on the original ideas from the article. One women does this effectively by extending some of the original examples with her own experiences. She describes how she has been meaning to speak with her manager for a while now about a man who stares at her consistently and has caused her to take other routes throughout the office in order to avoid him. By illustrating her own experience she helps validate the original articles claims. I found her input interesting because it shed light on the feelings women have throughout their day while in an open office plan. The nature of many men cause them stress the men don’t ever have to bear. She furthers the point by adding that usually when women bring up issues like this their managers claim there is little they can do to fix it , and it has a negative impact on the worker who reported it and not the man.

1. Throughout this course so far we’ve read many contributions on the discussion of diversity, especially in the workplace. People make points for both the business and ethical effects of having more diversity in the workplace. In Wong’s, Culture: Equity and Inclusion, she adds to this conversation with her comparison of “equity vs. equality.” This is in the section titled “Equity vs. Equality.” Equality means everyone is treated the same, but this does not result in equity. Equity means a fair playing field. It is this particular point that Wong adds to the conversation of diversity we haven’t discussed thus far. It’s crucial to talk about how the time of this article’s release affects its contents. As the conversation around diversity progresses, more points like Wong’s are added to change what it means for a safe workplace for everyone.
2. In chapter 8 of They Say, I Say, the authors employ a variety of techniques to make connections between different parts of a piece of writing. In Cori Wong’s article she uses some of these techniques herself, connecting part to part throughout the article. One example of this is in the following paragraph: “While diversity often refers to representation of difference, inclusion refers to how differences are meaningfully incorporated and integrated into daily practices. As such, a better way to frame the commitment to be more equitable and inclusive would start by asking, ‘Who is not represented at the proverbial table? In what ways have we kept some people out.'” She uses the beginning explaining a definition for diversity and uses the transition “as such,” to begin the next sentence in taking the definition elsewhere, asking a counter on top of it. This technique is effective because it ties two points together seamlessly. It informs the reader the next point is similar but different and will be adding a new thought on top of it.

1. One search tool that has worked well for me is the Syracuse Library Database search tool. Through this I was able to search by category and look in a specific realm of research. I was able to look at a whole pool of articles about organizational culture and workplace diversity. One roadblock in using this search tool was finding a lot of articles about the exact same thing. To get past this I had to search for specific topics, not the broad “organizational culture.” Before learning how to utilize Syracuse Library’s search tools, I would use google search and have an even broader range of results, with many articles again, coming up with the exact same thing, just due to google’s search algorithm.  Sometimes, with both methods, it takes searching some of the things I have questions about and not what I already know.
2. Going forward into this research problem, my goal is dive more into the real-world applications of our findings from these articles. I want to find more cool and different ways some of these concepts apply. through this I hope to find primary sources that dive into the voices of minority members of corporations, institutions and societies. To find them I’ll continue using the SU library database search tools to find articles with new information. My goal is to find information completely different from what my classmates have found thus far, and really expand our canon when it comes to the topics we continue to discuss each week.

1. One article I found interesting in the class canon was Mike’s contribution, Exploring the Impact of Cultural Diversity on professional Football, by Keith Ingersoll, Edmond Malesky and Sebastian M. Saiegh. This contribution added to our class understanding of organizational culture and diversity because it adds the element of sport. The graphic he included really pushed the article’s point through, in showing how having players from different countries on a team contributed to the team’s success.

Another interesting contribution was Toni’s article,  Challenging the dialogic promise: how Ben & Jerry’s support for Black Lives Matter fosters dissensus on social media, by Erica Ciszek and Nneka Logan. What this piece adds to our class’s understanding is how social media and company’s influence impacts our culture when it comes to opinions on diversity. Toni included a screenshot of a tweet from Ben and Jerry’s, showing clearly a stance on the racism, specifically with the murder of George Floyd.

3. In The problem With Diversity in Computing, by Ian Bogost, he moves between paragraphs and sections smoothly, using transitions effectively. One example of this is when he moves from an overview of several experiences in the issues of diversity with computing, to a counter point. After finishing a story of Webb and her experience in the airport security, he begins the next paragraph with, “But that’s an aspirational hope.” This immediately has the text do a 180 and gets the readers refocused on a new direction the author takes them. He begins to explain the experience of Webb on a broader scale and takes his point to the real world. This transition is effective because it’s short and to the point. He doesn’t drag on the topic of Webb, but instead uses her experience as a boat to the next, more important point. Her experience leads into what it means for the rest of the world, but Bogost doesn’t waste time in switching to his main topic.

1. It has become common today to overlook the experiences of minorities in the workplace, something Gundemir details in The Impact of Organizational Diversity Policies on Minority Employees’ Leadership Self-Perceptions and Goals. However overlooked, these issues are as prevelant as the actual need for diversity corporations now call for in the workplace. 

I used the template in They Say, I Say that Graff and Birkenstein display as “It has become common today to dismiss ________.” I found this framing useful, because it’s more exciting than simply stating, “in this book *blank* says that *blank*”. Instead of this this overused way of framing common in high school English essays, the framing in TSIS does a better job of grabbing the audience’s attention and setting the tone for a less typical analysis we’re used to seeing. The framing I used not only introduces a section from the piece of writing, but brings a real world setting with it, using, “it has become common today to…”

2. Austin and Pisano and Gundemir’s ideas matter because they help piece together this bigger picture we have begun to discuss with diversity. They take different angles to what diversity means in the workplace. Diversity in the workplace has a ripple effect to both the success of the workplace and the outer sphere of society. Our readings have discussed how even in the earliest stages of diversity discussions with gifted programs in elementary schools, the lack of diversity has a ripple effect to the workplaces much further beyond that. A lack of diversity at the earliest level ripples into high school, college and eventually the workforce. Their ideas matter because they show once again the effect diverse people and ideas have on a institution, corporation or workforce. The impact of new and different ideas and techniques shows us again and again what diversity can do to help the success of any group.

1. This week’s readings have me eager to learn more about organizational culture and its impact in our society. It seems to be a blueprint for some, and a cancer to others. In what ways does organizational culture help success in an institution? In what ways does it harm success? Does it cultivate success for only some and the opposite for others? I’m interested in learning more about how an organizational culture came to be in our society, and how it didn’t in other societies. What is t that has society suddenly questioning our organizational default, and is it good or bad to begin to move away from it?

2. “Organizational culture is the sum of values and rituals which serve as ‘glue’ to integrate the members of the organization.” — Richard Perrin

   Culture is a carrier of meaning. Cultures provide not only a shared view of “what is” but also of “why is.” In this view, culture is about “the story” in which people in the organization are embedded, and the values and rituals that reinforce that narrative. It also focuses attention on the importance of symbols and the need to understand them — including the idiosyncratic languages used in organizations — in order to understand culture.

   This definition can be misleading because it relates to the bad realm of organizational culture which attempts to force its parts in line and make them all similar, taking away their individuality. This goes away from a newer call for diversity within organizations, which has proven to bring great success. The idea of “reinforcing a narrative” does the opposite of this.