Tag: week of 6/1

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Discussion week 6/1

  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.

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Week of 6/1 A&P Summary

The lack of neurodiversity in the workplace has become a talked about topic recently. Austin and Pisano’s article, “Nuerodiversity as a Competitive Advantage” highlights the issue of representation, describes the cause of it, then further explains how to resolve this problem. In the article, Austin and Pisano enforce the idea that everyone has different abilities based on how they were raised, and many business owners understand the positive effect that can have on a person’s work. Unfortunately, people who have disabilities are not represented in the workplace as much as they should be. In Austin and Pisano’s view, “Because neurodiverse people are wired differently from “neurotypical” people, they may bring new perspectives to a company’s efforts to create or recognize value” (Austin & Pisano 2017, p. 99). These new perspectives and backgrounds could be especially beneficial to companies because it allows new ideas to be brought to the table. Although accommodations may be difficult to set up, it is important that businesses become more diverse. Overall, this article by Austin and Pisano is extremely important because of the message it displays: people who have disabilities are talented, valuable, and can be a real asset in the workplace. 

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week 6/1 Isaac haseltine prompts

  1. While reading the assigned articles for this class I’ve noticed the main piece of information we are not focusing on is the true perspective from people in minority groups in an organizational culture. Most of the articles address minorities and subgroups that are excluded in some way, although none of the articles actually come from these subgroups. I believe our canon needs a source of information that is less about who and what these subgroups and are more about the perspective from these groups and what they believe is necessary. Using the SU Library and typical research practices I plan on finding an article from that disadvantageous side of the same central topic: How inclusion and diversity are necessary for an organization. I have not started my search yet, but an article written by someone who is part of a minority group facing challenges will stand out to me more since they have firsthand knowledge of how the issue can have negative effects on the people and the organization.

 

  1.   In the article “The Inclusion Dividend: Why Investing in Diversity & Inclusion Pays Off” there is a central example situation that the authors configured to help the reader comprehend their key points and how small variations can bring a larger impact than what is intended. The project that Kaplan and Donovan address is the importance of inclusion and diversity in a work environment, but it gets more complex than that. The standard level of inclusion and diversity is shared by the majority of organizational cultures; everyone with the qualifications should have an equal opportunity and prejudice in the workplace should be combated. Even though this statement is correct, there is a much deeper side to the idea of inclusion and diversity. The amount of actual focus that is given to this matter can be quite low, and the unconscious bias that takes place typically goes unspoken because the majority of workers are included. The articles main purpose is not to tell you why diversity is important, but to share with you the simple mistakes that go unnoticed that can have a devastating impact on the morale and performance of a company.
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K&D Week 6/1 Isaac Haseltine

When it comes to diversity and inclusion in an organizational culture everybody intends to Have a positive and healthy workplace. The article ‘The Inclusion Dividend: Why Investing in Diversity & Inclusion Pays Off’ uses a highly realistic fictional story to convey the difference between somethings intention and the actual impact. An example-manager the authors named Kim worked her way through a typical busy day and included how her actions and words can have a larger impact when you take a second glance. The article’s key points include unconscious bias that occurs in most decision-making settings, as well as the systematic levels and insider-outsider dynamics that form in every organizational culture. These are consequences that are formed when aspects of a culture don’t receive enough attention. For an organization to have a fully equal workplace the executives and staff must turn their focus to themselves and the people around them rather than just the company.

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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)
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Discussion prompts for Week of 6/1

This week you’ll begin injecting into this conversation about diversity and inclusion that we’ve been reading about. Each of you will suggest an article to add to this body of information, so that we can all continue to expand our understanding of the issues. Please be sure to reread the last page of the  unit 1 assignment sheet.

First, a quick refresher on rhetorical situation. This is the idea that everything is written by someone, for someone, for some purpose, and within some broader context. Considering these different elements of a text can give us a window into how the text works, why it looks the way it does, whether it is likely to be successful for its intended reader, etc. You’ve already seen rhetorical situation represented in visual form like this:

Just a little something to keep in mind as we move into discussion for the week–we’ll be thinking a lot this week about how authors respond to their writing situation in order to produce successful communications, and in particular about how an author’s audience connects to his/her purpose in writing.

On to the prompts–this week everyone should respond to the 1st question and then select 1 of the other 2 to answer. Responses should be >150 words each. Please tag your responses with “unit1,” “weekof6/1,” and [your name]. Categorize as “Discussions.”

  1. It’s time to get moving along with your unit 1 assignment. For this assignment, you will be adding to the set of sources we’re reading about diversity and organizational culture (which amount to a canon of sorts–a collection of important texts). We’ll expand this canon by suggesting additional valuable resources. So, for your first discussion post this week, please tell us a little about how you’re doing that: what kinds of material are you looking for? what topic are you following up on? what sort of expert(s) do you think we need to hear from? how are you looking (i.e. what particular databases or search tools are you using)? what techniques or strategies are proving helpful?
  2. This week’s readings move from the theoretical conversation about diversity that unfolds in the pages of scholarly journals to the practical–consideration of what is actually involved in creating and maintaining a diverse workforce, this time through the lens of (dis)ability. Let’s start to put the pieces together, as we’re adding to our growing foundation of knowledge: construct a they say/I say sentence (or series of sentences) that connects one of this week’s readings about disability inclusion with one of the readings from the last 2 weeks. (There are a number of templates in chapter 2 of TSIS that might help you with this work.) You are welcome to include yourself as an I in this formulation, but you may also choose to use 2 theys here–i.e. While Austin and Pisano contend that…. Kaplan and Donovan suggest that… Be creative, and use this work to further your understanding both of the texts you’re employing, as well as your own perspective.
  3. In chapter 1 of Rewriting, Joe Harris asks us to consider a writer’s project when we’re trying to make sense of a particular text. That is, he encourages us to think of “something far more complex than a main idea, since it refers not to a single concept but to a plan of work, to a set of ideas and questions that a writer ‘throws forward (Latin, pro + jacare)” and to recognize that “a project is something that a writer is working on–and that a text can only imperfectly realize” (Harris 17). Thinking in these terms, how would you characterize the project that Kaplan and Donovan undertake in “Key D&I Concepts”? That is, what do you think they are “working on” in this article? (Review Harris’s steps at the bottom of page 15.)