- 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.
responses for week of 5/18
- A researchable question that came to mind was the culture of workspaces and work areas where racism is highest. What does that say about the company? If organizational culture is driven by incentives and is adaptable to society, what does that say about society? I think it is interesting with the increasing diversity to analyze the deeper workings of companies who have employees who experience institutional racism. If organizational culture reflects the society surrounding it and adapts to culture in it, how come many are still made to feel left out. Another question it raises is why do many employers tolerate or try to excuse discrimination. Although it is clear and evident that many employees experience it, why do many workplaces fail to conduct diversity training. These are questions that I would be interested in exploring further as I am coming up on looking for jobs and internships. A moral standard that is important to me is how the workplace is conducted and if employees feel comfortable going to their employers with an issue. And if they do not feel comfortable, why is that so?
- In regards to the diversity article, there have been a few instances in my life where I have experienced a lack of ethnic diversity, but diversity in other identifications. In the past, I have worked at an assisted living home serving food to the elderly. In this job, I noticed that all of the wait staff were female while the kitchen crew was only male. For the waitstaff, majority were white females aged 16-30 while the kitchen crew ranged in age however they were predominantly white. Although each staff member came from a different economical background, we all shared the basic superficial traits. I thought this was interesting as the elderly who lived in the home were all white, creating no physical diversity in the workplace. I never had gone through a diversity training or having a job properly address workplace discrimination until I started working at the Syracuse Barnes Center as a lifeguard where the staff is more diverse. The team I am surrounded by at my job at the Barnes Center is more efficient and we are able to have an open dialogue with each other at any moment, while my other lifeguarding job at a country club yielded very little diversity and less comfortability with addressing issues. Although the lifeguarding staff at both jobs were predominately female, at my job at the country club we never had training on how to address if someone makes us uncomfortable, only if a woman was wearing a revealing bathing suit and how to address the situation. The difference in efficiency of the staff was clear to me once I started working at Barnes, which coincides with the points made in the article surrounding workplace diversity.
Unit 1 question responses, Aaron
- The article “Why diversity matters” does a good job at using graphics to grab our attention immediately and show some of the differences in company performance when they are more diverse. The first research question that I find myself looking at is the actual title of this article. I know that is a broad question to ask in terms of research, but the statistics that are cited in this article help a lot as far as pointing out why it is beneficial to have a mixed group of people in a workplace. It seems that if you are an employee of a company and you’re trying to be more productive at work, it would help to have a positive mindset and also be challenged- I feel diversity fits both of those parameters.
In the article “What is organizational culture and why should we care?” It’s instantly noticed that while there are some similarities in the contributors view on culture, there are also some differences, and that was worth looking into further for me, to ask “Is diversity of thought in the same sphere as race, gender, orientation, etc.?” I know it wasn’t anything super profound, but to see, or read other peoples views while asked the same question was something I valued. - In my professional life I have been lucky enough to have a diverse group of people that surrounded me. The bulk of my jobs have been warehouse employment, where admittedly going into them I had a preconceived idea of what kind of person would be working there (a white male), and while that may have been the majority in most cases, there certainly were other genders, races and mixes of openly gay, straight, trans people working with me. This was a godsend to me because even throughout my personal life I strive to live by that saying “diversity is the spice of life”. By this I mean that it’s boring just being around the same kind of person that you are (in my opinion), and not only that, it helps your performance, your expansion of ideas, and your attitude. With all of the political division that has been going on lately I have always tried my hardest to seek out conversation with people who may look at things differently than I do, because shutting people out who don’t look like I do or think like I do seems very destructive.
Unit 1 5/18 Isaac Haseltine
The article “Why Diversity Matters” highlighted the inequality that has plagued the human race for thousands of years. Since industrialization, the world has only seen the recent few decades where women and people of color are given an equal chance in the workplace, although we are far from a world filled with racial tension we have made large strides in the direction of a true blended diversity rather than the segmented groups we still must deal with today. The standards and stereotypes that have been assigned to women and people of color have become a generational problem, where the belief in a monochromatic workforce outways the idea of letting a new perspective be apart of the organization. There’s no question that the color of your skin plays a crucial part in your perspective of our world today, to diminish a perspective that can shed light on the opposing side of the same goal is exactly what the article is proving to be the inefficient, wrong move for an organization. Racial/gender bias is developed from a mind closed to new ideas, for any type of organization to maintain a forward-thinking initiative the doors must open to the same caliber as they would for any human, regardless of the visual characteristics that segment our population today.
Cultures are formed around sets of ideas and moral codes. When an outsider enters a culture they bring their own ideology and morals, but to fully immerse yourself you and the people who make up the culture must agree and disagree together to form a community around the unique ideology you are creating and evolving. The quote from Bruce Perron stated “Organizational culture defines a jointly shared description of an organization from within.” The organizational culture is a shared collective, without everyone’s perspectives pointed toward the same direction and proper discourse the culture can not survive at its fullest potential. The author of the article, Michael Watkins, elaborated on this idea by bringing up sense-making, and states “a shared awareness and understanding out of different individuals,”. Whether there are more disagreements than agreements, the main goal of an organizational culture is to bring people together to create a shared mindset of how the organization will operate. Therefore, the culture can not be stagnant, the world is not perfect and clashing ideas are a necessary part for an organization to grow. The people that are a part of an organizational culture can have differing perspectives, although, for the culture to thrive they have they must share the same goals and beliefs for the organization.
Intro
Hey everyone my name is Bryan Cordova and I’m entering my fifth year at the School of Architecture. Over my past four years I’ve taken a wide range of classes from traditional lecture halls and studio environments to cooking classes and physics labs. I was also fortunate enough to have studied abroad in London and Florence the semesters right before the COVID-19 outbreak. This semester was definitely a forceful and self-motivational push on everybody’s end though from my experience, one piece of advice I could share would be to set weekly goals and keep track of incremental process work.
Unfortunately my summer plans to work in NYC had to change but I’m just as happy with where I am at now. I managed to secure an internship with a firm thats doing interesting research and entering design competitions on how we rethink NYC restaurants in the future. I’m looking forward to see how that plays out while also taking this writing class. Its a requirement I’ve been looking to fulfill for some time now but just never got to fitting it around my schedule. As I begin my final year of thesis, I’m certain the research skills and writing practice I can takeaway from this class will definitely be of value.
Intro Toni Salisbury
Hello everyone, I am Toni Salisbury and I’m working toward a second bachelor’s degree in Cybersecurity Administration, and this course is one of my required courses to complete my degree. However, I’m very much looking forward to it! I’ve really enjoyed all the writing classes I’ve been required to take for this degree, they seem to open up in some new way, how I think of writing and how I think of myself as a writer, even though I’ve been writing (professionally–mostly plays/scripts) for quite some time. I’m working toward my degree part-time, entirely online, as I currently reside in NYC. I’m a theater artist in NYC and have been for going on 11 years now; however, I’m also an employee of Syracuse University. My day job is the Administrative Specialist for a theater intensive program for seniors in the drama school, where they come study with us in NYC for their final semester of college. As I mentioned, I’ve taken all my Syracuse University courses online so far, and my best advice is be very communicative with the instructor when you have any issues, and try to stay on top of the work and deadlines as much as possible. Don’t wait until the last minute! These all-online courses can really catch up to you. I find them in some ways even more rigorous than in-person classes, most of the time. I look forward to learning with you all!
Intro
Hi all, I’m Mike Kavanagh, originally class of ’96, now class of 202X. Yes, you read that right. I started at SU back in the fall of ’92, and for various reasons was forced to walk away from school without finishing. I’m now back through University College in the Creative Leadership program. This is my second semester of taking online classes and the experience has been extremely positive. Originally from New York, I now live in Baltimore with my wife Heather. I work as an IT Manager for a Fortune 100 company, and am a Gooner, Deadhead, Phishhead and Ravenclaw. I love (and am missing) live music, am obsessed with buffalo chicken and look forward to spending this quarantined summer with you all.
Discussions/Homework
Hi everyone, my name is Justin Orriola and I’m a rising sophomore from New York City majoring in information management and technology. Just a little about me, I love just about every sport and am a big New York sports fan. I enjoy listening to music and taking long walks along the park with my dog. This class is one of my required courses however I really enjoyed another writing class I took my very first semester. This summer I was supposed to do a lot of traveling which I really enjoy as well but due to the circumstances all of that got canceled and thought it would be a good idea to get some credits out of the way. This past semester has prepared me for online classes so that now I am more accustomed to the format of them. I am looking forward to improving both my writing and reading skills in this class.
Intro
I’m Ian Botnick and I’ll be a sophomore this fall. I’ve never taken an online class because I think I’m better when I go to actual classes, but that’s obviously not an option right now so I’m excited to see how this goes. I’m an Econ major so writing and research skills are important for me to work on. I also took writing 109 and liked it a lot so I wanted to take this class. I would normally be working in the summer, but my internship was cancelled so I decided to take a semester’s worth of classes instead. Hope everyone is healthy and staying safe!
Intro
Hi, my name is Michaela Reis and I am a rising senior from Long Island. I am majoring in Communications Design. Though this class is required for me I am excited to take it since I haven’t had the chance to be in many writing based classes. This summer I am enrolled in one other online class so I can get ahead on credits, I also have a internship. My internship was supposed to take place in NYC but due to covid it is now remote. I am looking forward to starting this class and hopefully improving my writing skills throughout.