Unit 1 assignment: Expanding the Canon (DAN)

“Bridging the generational gap in the workplace: How I learned to stop worrying and love working with the millennial generation” is an article written by Dr. Thanakorn Jiresevijinda at Cornell university. It was written for the Journal of communication in healthcare and published by Taylor & Francis group.

In Dr. Jiresevijinda’s 20 years of supervising medical students, he has received an unsettling and growing amount of complaints about the millennial generation. One could easily draw a conclusion that there exists a disconnect between Gen X and Gen Y. This problem encouraged him to explore new ways to create a more integrated work force that understands and accepts each other regardless of age difference. The purpose of his article is to offer the methods that he found to be helpful through his exploration. He admits in the article that he too has experienced frustration while educating the students from the younger generation. By stating this he levels the playing field as he explains that he understands the discontent that his colleagues have with Gen Y. He then continues his article by citing a sentence in a piece written by the prominent figure Chelsea Clinton. Her statement suggested that millennials are often portrayed as disinterested and selfish individuals, though the millennials that she has worked with do not fit that stereotype. He included this quote as it attests to the fact that the Millennial generation tends to have a bad reputation. This also helps persuade the audience to be more accepting of his suggestions as he shares a similar perspective with an influential figure. The author also builds up his argument by sharing his own personal experiences. Dr. Jiresevijinda speaks from both his experiences at work and the conversations he has had with his coworkers. Some of their frustration with the millennial group stemmed from increased technology use; different communication preferences; the students craving for feedback; and their preferred work like balance, which can be misconstrued as students being disinterested in learning. He was then able to identify positive traits from Gen Y and craft methods to remedy these problems. The positive traits that he identified included their tech savviness, confidence, and their ability to work well in a team environment.

The first suggestion that Dr. Jiresevijinda made was to focus on inclusiveness. He understands that in a social media driven world, millennials need to feel that their voice is heard. This has led him to listen more closely to his students without judgement and help them by asking pointed questions. He also allows them to work in groups as they often thrive better through student collaboration. Pre-class quizzes are given to ensure that everyone is engaged and keeping up with the pace of the class as a whole.

His second suggestion is that we must leverage social consciousness. The millennial generation is one that truly values having a positive impact on the world. They tend to be more accepting of diversity and progressive change. This observation led him to see the importance of framing the knowledge he gives his students in such a way that they can see the importance it has on improving society. He keeps this importance in the minds of the students by having them sign up for community service. The students worked alongside the professors and another medical organization to offer a free clinic for refugees seeking asylum in the United States.

His last suggestion is to include more technology in the curriculum. One way he suggested doing this is by incorporating fun and engaging games such as jeopardy to keep his students involved. He also finds it useful to use a smartphone app that is an audience-response system. I found this interesting as the students must stay engaged in the class because the context of the class is literally on their phones on which they must participate.

I find this text to be an important contribution to expanding our canon as every single sustainable organization will always be multigenerational. Though it is not often the first thing that comes to mind when we hear the term diversity, people in different generations have vastly different life experiences and are indeed quite diverse. Rapidly accelerating technological advances; Unforeseen world events; and new global challenges are among the factors that affect the overall behavior of a generation significantly. This inevitably leads to differences in the way that people of a generation view the world and interact with one another. Though this may present its own challenges, it is paramount that we learn to come together to create a synergistic environment at work. This can only be done by valuing each other’s differences. I found Dr. Jiresevijinda’s work to contain the wisdom that is crucial to solving our intergenerational struggles. One final source of valuable information about generational diversity can be found in the video link below. Keevin O’Rourke conducts a TED talk of which he speaks on the issue of generational diversity at work. One may be able to draw multiple parallels between the video and Dr. Jiresevijinda’s article. I found it intriguing how they both had similar suggestions to their respective audience even though one of them is Gen X and one is Gen Y. This gives hope that in the future our organizations will reap the benefits of a more accepting workforce

Link to the article and citiation

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17538068.2018.1485830

Thanakorn Jirasevijinda (2018) Bridging the generation gap in the workplace: how I learned to stop worrying and love working with the millennial generation, Journal of Communication in Healthcare, 11:2, 83-86, DOI: 10.1080/17538068.2018.1485830

Ted Talk to further explore intergenerational diversity in the workplace

June 15, 2020June 15, 2020

Exploring the Impact of Cultural Diversity on Professional Soccer (Football)

Written by Keith Ingersoll, Edmund Malesky and Sebastian M. Saiegh, and published in the Journal of Sports Analytics, “Heterogeneity and team performance: Evaluating the effect of cultural diversity in the world’s top soccer league” is an academic study focused specifically on determining the impact cultural diversity has on the success of European soccer (football) clubs. Using data science, the authors determine that those clubs which are more culturally diverse have a greater rate of success on the pitch.

I had heard it said by a commentator during a FIFA World Cup broadcast in 2014 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 clubs across the continent.

This seemed plausible to me, but was there any actual evidence to back up such claim? Could exposure to such diversity translate to better performances? It was with these questions in mind that I sought out such a study. “Heterogeneity and team performance” goes a long way towards answering them both.

The UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) Champions League is an annual competition comprised of the top clubs from around the continent. It is by far the most popular club competition in the world, with viewership numbers in the millions. In order to qualify for the Champions League, a club must have finished in the top four or five positions of their domestic league the previous season. In “Heterogeneity and team performance”, Ingersoll, Malesky and Saiegh focus on the English, French, German, Italian and Spanish clubs who competed in the Champions League during a ten year stretch from 2003-2012.

Ingersoll, Malesky and Saiegh collected data on 168 players across 41 clubs. Each of the clubs were given a cultural diversity rating based on a calculation referred to by the authors as “linguistic distance”. This, they explain, is to account for clubs comprised of players who may be from different countries, but where the same language is spoken. (For example, South American players who play for Spanish clubs.)

Keeping in mind to address potential impacts to the results of the study, such as the financial resources of each club, player movement, etc., Ingersoll, Malesky and Saiegh used the linguistic distance measurement, and per-goal difference as variables. They then used total and average roster value as a control variable. To measure overall club quality, they cited such resources as player rankings published by ESPN and The Guardian as a means to establish player quality and averaged that across each club. It seems that the numbers do in fact back up the assertion made by that commentator back in 2014. More diverse teams do have a greater rate of success.

Put simply, goal differential is the number of goals a club scores minus the number of goals allowed. It’s an especially effective measurement for success, because the higher the goal differential, the more likely a club is winning or drawing matches, as opposed to losing them. As you can see in the above chart taken directly from the study, clubs with a greater rate of linguistic diversity also had higher average goal differential per season.

If cultural diversity translates to success in soccer, does it not also stand to reason that the same would be true across a myriad of endeavors? The cultural influence of soccer, the UEFA Champions League, and of clubs such as Barcelona, Real Madrid, Juventus, Bayern Munich, Paris San Germain, Manchester United and Arsenal cannot be overstated. Soccer is a game played and watched by billions around the planet. The most successful clubs in the most successful competition are comprised of the most talented players from around the world. To see a collection of players from diverse backgrounds work together towards a common goal and be rewarded for it, should serve as an inspiration for soccer fans around the world. Maybe, just maybe, soccer fans will see that success, and attempt to emulate that in their own lives.

Heterogeneity and team performance

June 11, 2020

Week Four Discussion

I loved all three TED talks, but my fast favorite was Jason Fried discussing “Why work doesn’t happen at work”. Fried argues there are too many distractions at the office for anyone to get any work done. This could be considered a “controversial” stance to take, but one that immediately resonates with the audience. Just about everyone watching and listening can relate to the idea of having too much work to do, and too little time during the workday in which to get it done.

Fried may identify managers as a contributing factor to that lack of time, but immediately puts any managers in the audience at ease by self-identifying as a manager himself. This creates a sense of simpatico, as if the entire audience are now working with Fried on this problem and are open to hearing his thoughts on potential solutions.

—–

Sticking with Fried, I think his proposals on how organizations can give back time to their workers have merit. However, as he stresses, it’s up to managers to make that happen. By dedicating meeting-free blocks of time, management can communicate to the entire organization that it recognizes the value of interrupted time. This in turn could lead to those meetings which do remain on the calendar to be more productive than they might have been previously.

Thinking about how this connects with other things we’ve been reading and discussing with regards to organizational culture, I came up with the below Venn diagram:

June 11, 2020

Exploring The Impact of Diversity in Professional Soccer- DRAFT

Heterogeneity and team performance

June 5, 2020

Discussion Prompts 6/4

In relations to the kind of material I’ll be looking for, I decided to look for data using the Syracuse library as my other classmates have mentioned. I also plan to take a closer look into Google Scholars and JSTOR. The topic within diversity and inclusion I would like to focus on is religious diversity, because we have yet to read about this. I got this idea because I just remember taking a world religions class in high school and automatically was intrigued. I have a strong Catholic faith, so I am looking forward to this challenge. I am eager to step out of my comfort zone and learn more about the different religions around the world. My goal is to gain statistics on what religions are practiced most in each country, what experts think is going to change or remain the same in the future regarding these statistics, how this difference in religion affects the workplace and company’s ethics, etc. A strategy that I found to be helpful to me is writing a summary like we’ve been doing after an article so I know what to focus my attention to what the author is trying to say.
Austin / Pisano’s argument that companies are not tapping into neurodiverse talent is supported by research showing that the unemployment runs as high as 80% among those with neurological conditions. I have always believed that neurodiverse people should be represented in the workforce, and question why is it has taken companies like SAP this long to just now implement programs. I understand that the conventional hiring processes companies use for their employees has been a challenge when it comes to testing the skills of someone with autism for example, but the author makes an important point about innovation. On the other hand, “Why diversity matters” focuses on racial diversity and includes no mention of the disabled. I found it interesting, though, that the articles states that correlation does not necessarily equal causation. I agree with this statement because I do believe that in order for a diverse company to be successful, the leadership performed by managers must be held to extremely high standards. If a company is diverse (considering both race and ability), but the leadership skills practiced by managers and CEOs isn’t strong or does not set examples, what makes it true that these companies would actually drive in profit and attract future potential employees?

June 5, 2020June 5, 2020

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.

———————————

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.

June 4, 2020

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.

June 3, 2020

Responses – Week of 6/1

I hadn’t heard the phrase “neurodiversity” until I read this article, but I liked a quote from John Elder Robinson in the article which described neurodiversity as “the idea that neurological differences like autism and ADHD are the result of normal, natural variation in the human genome” which is accurate and inoffensive. The article explains that many people with neurological conditions have extraordinary skills in areas other people might not such as pattern recognition, memory, and mathematics. Despite these skills, the neurodiverse population remains largely unemployed (roughly 80% unemployment rate, this includes people with neurological conditions that prevent them from working in any capacity) because it takes more time and energy to hire someone with a neurological condition. Another two reasons why the neurodiverse population remains untapped is that traditional recruitment methods like job interviews and the belief that scalable work processes require absolute conformity to standardized approaches end up filtering out neurodiverse people who could be valuable employees. More and more companies in the last 4-5 years have reformed HR practices to capitalize on the talents of neurodiverse people, which has benefitted those companies in terms of productivity, reputational enhancement, innovation, and employee engagement. In the process, these companies are becoming better able to fully leverage the skills of all workers.

June 3, 2020

Discussion week 6/1

I find that the stereotypes and schemas individuals use to guide their understanding of the world have a very strong, unconscious impact on our judgements and decisions. Specifically, I am curious to follow up more with the different studies that involve focusing on individual’s opinions or perspectives on group diversity within the workplace. I will most likely hope to find a study performed by someone who is an expert with group interaction and the effects of how different demographics can change the group mentality. From these experts, I would hope that they would open up discussion as to why some people are more inclusive than others, why some pride themselves on their uniqueness while others try to blend in. I think it would also be worth the time to find research done by I/O psychologist, who have worked within companies to help improve organizational diversity, maybe shedding some light onto which means of action taken by a company create longer lasting impacts. I am primarily going to be looking into studies done within companies and groups of people, as case studies would insufficient, and potentially researching some survey results taken from groups pertaining to topics like “inclusivity” and “diversity”.

3. In thinking in terms of Harris’s approach focused on in Rewriting, it was simple to use when focusing on Kaplan and Donovan’s article. After reading the text, I think it was easiest to define the intended project; in this case, I would define the project to be “Kaplan and Donovan delve deeper into the unsaid conversations about the key concepts pertaining to workplace diversity and inclusivity. Utilizing these key concepts, although there are plenty of other concepts that are also involved, they set up an example of an employee work day, further analyzing the day through each of the key concepts to create a “visual map” for the audience.” I think that this article is mainly to show how in everyday situations, these concepts can be found. Through their deeper analysis, the pair seem to have found ways to jog the mind of the audience, to have them also consider the concepts they have intended for identifying means of diversity and inclusion.

May 30, 2020June 1, 2020

Overview of Week of 6/1

Now that we’re getting our feet under us in terms of what organizational culture is, why diversity and inclusion are part of the conversation, and how thinking about rhetorical situation can help us to engage with complex texts, it’s time for us to build on that.

As a group, we’ve all been working with the same set of texts, and that gives us a shared foundation of knowledge. What I’ve tried to assemble here is a set of texts that function as a canon–works that are essential to an understanding of the subject matter, important and influential works. But there’s so much more out there to explore, and that will be your primary work for the week–looking around to locate an additional text that you think should be part of the canon.

Canonical works are substantive–building on careful and thoughtful research. They provide new insights and ideas, and don’t simply re-present known information. They work well for their audience, so that they can contribute to the world of knowledge.

Chances are you’ll need to look at several articles to find one that does all this and that meets the particular criteria that are set forth on the unit 1 assignment sheet . The SU libraries’ website is a good place to start here. You can use the Advanced Search functions there to help filter the results so they meet some of the basic criteria to start with. You’ll find a number of useful tutorials on the library site if you’re not already familiar with using it. This search tips page is a good place to start.

(A quick note on using SU libraries vs. Google Scholar–you’ve already paid for the SU services and won’t ever bump into a paywall; on Google Scholar, you often will. The library also provides free research support, which you can’t get on Google.)

So, where to begin? Here’s an overview of your tasks for the week:

Reading assignments:

chapters 2 and 3 of TSIS
chapter 1 of Rewriting by Joe Harris (PDF on Blackboard)
“Understanding key D&I concepts” (PDF on Blackboard)
your selected article (that you plan to contribute to the canon)–to write an effective summary, you will need to read this carefully and probably more than once. Be sure to consult the close reading handout and the handout on summary.

Discussion/writing assignments:

write a 100-200 word summary of either the Kaplan and Donovan article from this week OR the Austin and Pisano article from last week, and submit this on the blog (categorize as “Discussions/Homework”; tag with “K&D” or “A&P” as appropriate, along with “week of 6/1,” and [your name] (due Weds., 6/3)
respond to 2 of this week’s discussion questions (available here). Categorize as “Discussions/Homework”; tag with “week of 6/1,” “unit1,” and [your name]. (due Thurs., 6/4):

Discussion prompts for Week of 6/1
respond to at least 2 of your classmates’ discussion posts on the blog (due Sat., 6/6)
write a 200 word summary of your selected article. Include a link to or PDF of the article you’re working with, and reference the author and title of the text you are summarizing. Categorize this as “Expanding the Canon”; tag it with “summary,” “week of 6/1,” and [your name]. (due Sun., 6/7)