Category: Discussions/Homework

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Prompt questions, week of 6/1 [Toni]

  1. I’m looking for companies that are able to show more than just figures of diversity, companies transparent about how marginalized and minority peoples feel comfortable in going to work every day. Not only producing diverse organizational percentages, but a step further in researching ways minority groups feel supported walking through the door every day; producing better because of outwardly supportive allies as leaders; perhaps feeling less like a statistic only helping a company appear diverse. I came upon Ben & Jerry’s excellent explanation of systemic racism and was off and running with what this ICE CREAM company is doing.  It’s simple, it’s fairly grassroots, but it’s effective and I would love to delve more into their actual offices, if possible, to see how it operates and to see how they came upon this simple, effective, poignant, activism that’s as palatable as their ice cream flavors. I have these two inspiring sources do far:

https://www.benjerry.com/home/whats-new/2016/systemic-racism-is-real

https://www.forbes.com/sites/janicegassam/2019/09/04/ben-jerrys-creates-new-flavor-to-highlight-racism-and-criminal-justice-reform/#653e2f244b47

2.While Austin and Pisano are positively exposing and representing neurodiverse peoples, emphasizing overall the advantages of having them on a team, they also look at the impact of including differently abled people and the overall challenges, mostly discussing how management and leadership is being affected and molded through this process, unfolding how important adapting leadership to the inclusion and diversity process is.  Likewise, in Kaplan and Donovan’s topic of understanding Key Diversity & Inclusion Concepts they look at how conversations about unconscious bias and insider–outsider dynamics can easily be lost in the noise of the daily office grind, taking us through the day and life of “Kim”, whom represents a composite of managers they’ve interacted with over the past twenty years, and how intent frequently does not equal impact and when brought into the public light, the special facilities have an impact vastly different from the intention.

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Week of 6/1 Discussion

I am a passionate soccer (football) fan, particularly of the London-based, English Premier League team, Arsenal FC. When considering topics for our “Expanding the Canon” exercise,  I wanted to find something worth sharing about diversity in Europe’s top soccer leagues.

Using Google, I searched on terms such as “Diversity Europe Soccer”, and “Diversity Europe Football”. I found several articles featured on UEFA.com, which is the internet home of the governing body of European soccer. Many of these articles focused on programs and initiatives involving efforts to reduce instances of racism among fanbases. Those were interesting, but not quite what I had in mind.

I had heard it said by a commentator during a FIFA World Cup broadcast that the national teams whose squads were comprised of players who played their “club football” in Europe had an advantage. It wasn’t only because the European leagues are considered the most competitive in the world. The announcer believed it was also because of the exposure those players had to the different styles of play utilized by teams across the continent.

It was this contention which made me curious. Continuing my search, I ultimately found what I had been looking for, an academic study focused specifically on the impact of cultural diversity has on the success of European soccer clubs. The authors focus on the clubs who competed in Europe’s top competition, the UEFA Champions League, during a ten year stretch from 2003-2013. Drawing on statistics collected over that ten year period, the authors are able to prove that greater cultural diversity leads to greater success on the pitch.

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Kaplan and Donovan attempt to get the reader to consider inclusion during their daily decision making. By taking us through Kim’s day, they immediately allow the reader to see themselves in her. This is a most effective tool. Each of the different moments likely share DNA with those from the life of the reader. These vignettes prompt the reader to consider how they too have faced those decisions, and to think on what they may have done themselves.

The reveal of Kaplan and Donovan’s “project” actually comes after the story of Kim’s day concludes. Having gotten the reader to identify with Kim, and to compare their daily challenges to those she faced, the authors now name their key concepts. Again, this is quite effective, because the reader is now primed to apply those concepts to themselves. After several sections where Kim’s decisions are analyzed and alternatives suggested, the chapter concludes with several takeaways. The way the chapter is organized maximizes the potential for reader retention. Better yet, it gives the reader tools to change their behavior for the better, which was Kaplan and Donovan’s goal the entire time.

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Prompts week of 6/1

  1. For this unit, our focus is on diversity and inclusion and we have read a number of different articles surrounding diversity in the workplace and in certain organizations. For my own research, I have been using resources such as the New York Public Library as well as the Syracuse Library where there are countless articles on diversity. They are also very credible sources and I have used these resources in the past with other assignments. However, I wanted to make it more specific so I been looking at articles that focus on diversity in sport organizations and how race and ethnicity varies so much depending on the sport. I am looking for authors and researchers who are experts in the field and are proven to show true results in their studies. In addition, I am looking for articles that are fairly new up to 5 years. That way the articles are still relevant today and don’t have data thats taken from many years ago.
  2. Kaplan and Donovan show that in order to go about a lack of diversity in the workplace, all levels of management have to be on the same page and will then cause a domino effect for the rest of the organization. I believe that this is really important because management plays huge role in these companies. However, the focus not the other articles we read were more about the individuals. For example, Austin and Pasino argued how neurodiverse individuals would benefit from certain programs offered and as a result improve the company. I believe both are true and should play a role in increasing the diversity surrounding companies.
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Week of 6/1 discussion questions, Aaron

  1. For my article that I am choosing to add to the canon of diversity and inclusion I used the Syracuse library site to go through JSTOR to look for an academically peer reviewed article. There of course are many other outlets that would show a lot of results, but I wanted to make sure that I chose something that was credible in the field of academia. The subject i’m choosing to delve further into is diversity in the field of education, so I searched for articles that were published in teachers’ journals. Unlike some of my fellow classmates however, I am not limiting my search field to articles that were just recently published, and my reason for this is simple- just because something was written a while ago doesn’t make the findings any less relevant than something more recent, especially in the field of diversity and inclusion. We can get a better look at the results of questions posed in an article written years ago to see what changes (if any) occurred.
  2. In the 2015 article “Why Diversity Matters” we are shown graphics illustrating that companies who are more diverse have a higher percentage of productivity. While this is something that may seem to be common sense, a different article titled “The Inclusion Dividend: Why Investing in Diversity & Inclusion Pays Off” encourages us to look at diversity in a different way. While we can come to the agreement that diversity is good for us and our companies, we have to acknowledge that intent and impact make all the difference in the world. People may tend to claim that they are unbiased, but that is false, and this article reminds us that on a daily basis, any person can say or do things that are insensitive, no matter how honest or pure their intent was originally.
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6/1 Responses

  1. The type of material I will be looking for in order to expand the canon are pieces that are centered around the success of EAP’s in the work place. For my specific topic, I will be looking at EAP’s that are targeted towards those with addiction. This topic will follow up on the Kaplan and Donovan article, as well as play on the article presented by Austin and Pisano. Not only will this topic incorporate those, but the article about organizational culture will also come into play when considering how to expand the canon. The expert articles I will be searching for will be those who have experience with EAP’s with employees with addiction, and studies that reflect the positive benefits on implementing these procedures in the workplace. I will be looking on the summons page on the Syracuse Libraries page to be looking for scholarly articles to narrow my search. I will also be looking on APA and other Psychology resources to find my material. Using keywords to narrow my search is something I will be using when I begin my search to make finding these articles easier and faster.
  2. When discussing diversity inclusion in the workplace, a question that may arise is what steps are there to take to break down the barriers of biases. In Austin and Pisano’s article, they direct their approach on how the individuals will benefit from programs centered around tailoring to needs. On the other hand, Kaplan and Donovan remind us that in order to tackle diversity, it needs to happen at all levels of management to create a domino effect. My personal view is a combination of both of these tactics the authors propose, that including those who require a tailored workplace to satisfy their needs, all levels of a company need to be in agreement and aware of the circumstances that it will take to achieve a suitable work environment.
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Response #1 – Week of 6/1

For my unit 1 assignment, I found an article through the Syracuse Libraries website that discussed neurodiversity with a bit more research/data than the article assigned from Austin and Pisano. I think as a society, right now we should be focused on the Black Lives Matter movement and why the government, police, and other organizations across the nation refuse to understand that black people are not being treated equally. Please do not respond with anything like “blue lives matter” or some other nonsense to excuse your racism. Blue is not a life, it’s an occupation. The point I’m trying to make is that I’d like to do my unit 1 assignment on the topic of neurodiversity because it is interesting to me, but we should all remain focused on diversity in terms of race/the black lives matter movement as well. I found a good article about neurodiversity already, I just need to find some relevant media to include in the class inquiry post.

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Discussion prompts for Week of 6/1

1. Overall my search for materials is focused on diversity and inclusion. We have touched on diversity in regards to topics like gender, race, ethnicity, and neurodiversity so when adding to the canon I am looking for a diverse group that we have not spoken about yet. I want to pick one similar to neurodiversity that before reading the Austin and Pisano reading I did not think of. That being said to find a topic in diversity we have not touched on yet I first started by a google search of the types of diversity. After doing that my interest was peaked in the areas of able-bodied vs disable. I also have an interest in looking at gender in the workplace, although we have already touched on that, as a woman that will be going into her senior year and going into the workplace soon I am really curious about that topic. Google Scholars and the Syracuse Library are my main sources of research because the scholarly articles from both sources are credible. The authors of these readings that I am looking for need to be an expert in the subject and the work less than 5 years old so in my filters when searching those will also be included.

2. They say/I say sentence: Introducing Summaries and Quotations

In my They say/I say sentence I utilize the verbs for summaries and quotations.

Over the last two weeks, we read texts from Austin and Pisano and Kaplan and Donovan that discussed diversity and inclusion. While Austin and Pisano endorse the inclusion of diversity in regards to neurodiverse people, Kaplan and Donovan remind us of all diversity and inclusion in the workplace and suggest how it can appear in our everyday life. I agree with Austin and Pisano’s writing educating people on what neurodiversity and advocating for their inclusion in the workplace but I complain that they lack the solution to the problem. I celebrate the fact that Kaplan and Donovan give examples of how diversity isn’t made a priority in the workplace and then give the steps to solving the issue and making the environment more inclusive. I do not deny that Austin and Pisano show examples of companies creating programs to help Neorodiverse candidates but I encourage that they add a section similar to Kaplan and Donovan where they state what is involved in creating and maintaining a diverse workforce.

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Summary: Austin & Pisano, week of 6/1 [Toni]

Austin & Pisano’s Harvard Business Review looks at neurodiversity as a competitive advantage through the problem of a population with neurological conditions having extraordinary skills, but remaining largely untapped.  Several companies have reformed HR practices to capitalize on the talents of neurodiverse people, and in this process became better able to leverage skills of all workers. Because neurodiverse people frequently need workplace accommodations, managers have begun thinking about leveraging talents of all employees through greater sensitivity to individual needs, realizing everyone is to some extent differently abled as a result of our inherent “machinery”.  Still, neurodiverse unemployment rates run high and even when they are working, they are often settling for jobs many leave behind in high school. It comes down to finding and recruiting, and common notions of what makes a good employee, which has “redlined” neurodiverse talent with needed skills. The behaviors of many neurodiverse people counter common notions of what makes a good employee; common criteria which screens out neurodiversity and is not the only way to add value. In recent decades competitive edge from innovation has become crucial, which calls on those who see things differently, offsetting tendencies for companies to look in only one direction.

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6/1-Summary of A/P (Mikayla)

In the article “Neurodiversity as a competitive advantage” the passage begins by introducing the character John, a man with a strong work ethic, amazing technical skill and strong mathematical capability. Although on paper he is classified as a highly skilled and dedicated worker, he has been unemployed for 2 years because he is on the autism spectrum. This paper’s central argument is to speak on behalf of those with disabilities who struggle to find work in non-diverse and non-accepting environments. Its purpose is to spread awareness on behalf of those who have disorders and feel they are underrepresented in work environments. It presents the idea that even though neurodiverse individuals require some accommodations, having a more diverse staff incorporates new perspectives, cultures and various backgrounds. The neurodiverse community not only believes that they are underrepresented and underemployed even though they can complete the same tasks as typical candidates. Because the tech community is so open to implementing Neurodiverse candidates, they created new programs to help train people with disabilities and help them be more tailored to each workspace. Although they face many setbacks this article was presented not only to spread awareness but to make Neurodiverse individuals aware of the opportunities available for them and help them find the perfect spaces. 

 

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Understanding Key D & I Concepts

I recognized myself in so much of this week’s reading, Chapter Three of Kaplan and Donovan’s book, The Inclusion Dividend: Why Investing in Diversity & Inclusion Pays Off. I’m not a female executive, and I certainly don’t have access to an executive cafeteria. Regardless, many moments from Kim’s day resonated with me. The reading prompted me to think back on interactions I’ve had at work, and how while my intentions may have been good, the impacts were not what I would have hoped for.

The pressure of being late on an assignment (in this case annual reviews) drives nearly all of the decisions Kim makes during the day described by Kaplan and Donovan. In being so focused on getting the reviews completed, she doesn’t take time to reflect on how her actions are perceived. Any one of the actions could be seen as innocuous. However, when put together, the distraction of driving while on conference calls, skipping out on commitments, and not acknowledging her peers could cause many to form misconceptions about Kim which could be damaging to her relationships – all without her realizing it’s happening.

The story of Kim’s day was an effective mechanism for Kaplan and Donovan to get readers to reflect on how those small, barely-conscious decisions might lead to places we never intended.