What is diversity?

• Diversity covers a wide range of dimensions like: culture, religion, ethnicity, age, gender, sexual orientation and abilities.
• Diversity at work helps bring bright and talented heads together from different groups in a productive environment.
• Diverse teams bring greater opportunities for meaningful employment and cooperation within each identified workplace.

What is empowerment?

• This means self strength, control, self-power, self-reliance, life of dignity that will allow a worker to fight for his or her autonomy, rights, independence, freedom and capability to make authentic decisions in the workplace.

What is ethnicity?

• Ethnicity is a conceptualized descriptor that refers to the identity of groups of people who understand and acknowledge their shared backgrounds, origins, geographical location, and cultural practices (Garett, McAuliffe & Associates, 2013).

What is cultural sensitivity?

• Cultural sensitivity allows us to know that cultural differences and similarities exist, without assigning values (i.e. better or worse, right or wrong) to those cultural differences (National Maternal and Child Health Center on Cultural Competency, 1997). Cultural sensitivity begins with the knowledge and awareness that there are differences among cultures and this insight allows for us to place a value on this diversity.

What are cross-cultural differences?

• Cross cultural differences perceive how people from different culture vary.

What is the importance of dialogue in the workplace?

• Conversation and interactions are important in the workplace. The act of conversing helps dissolve and work through conflicts within the work environment.  Dialogue is the act of thinking together. In some settings, it is referred to as talking.  Historically, dialogue has helped communities and groups discover shared meanings and understanding. Unlike discussion or debate, there is no attempt to convince anyone of anything while having a dialogue. It isn’t meant to problem solve, It however “a spontaneous flow of communication [that engages] people [in] the workplace” (Altman & Louise, 2012).

What creates a healthier work environment?

• A healthier work environment prevails in an environment that fosters and produces positive relationships between employers and employees.  It is enhanced when peers in the work environment engage each other.

What is culture?

• Culture is a way of life of a particular group of people that represents internal and external  dimensions shared by members of this one group and passed on from generation to generation.

How does the work place embrace change and encourage unlimited potential and personal growth?

• Change is not an easy task within an organization of workers.
• Employers and workers who are from the majority culture within the organization learn to accommodate, embrace and celebrate differences within the workplace.

What do we mean by race?

• A family, tribe, people or nation of the same biological stock.  The concept of race has been debunked by many.  It is now a common belief by many that we are one human race because we all have the same biological stock and can breed together.

What is racism?

• Racism is discrimination based on a belief that one group of people are innately superior to another.

What is discrimination?

• Discrimination refers to making a difference in treatment on a basis order than individual merit (Merriam Webster Dictionary and Thesaurus, 2006).

What are racial microaggressions?

• Sue, Capodilupo,Torino, Bucceri, Holder, Aisha, Nadal, Esquilin, (2007) describe microaggressions as, “brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults toward people” (p. 271-286).
• Other scholars assert that “when such situations are interpreted as being linked to racial differences, they become distinct, and take on a different connotation[s].  As a result, people who perceive themselves as being subjected to [these differences, they] may experience emotional pain or other negative feelings…. Racial microaggressions are not limited by class or circumstances, and can be experienced by successful, upper middle class professionals” (Constantine, Smith, Redington & Owens, 2008).

What is the concept of equality?

• Equality is the concept that presupposes that, every person is on the same level in terms of potential, skill, position, worth, measure, or social positioning.  Fairness is an essential feature ofequality. The goal of equality is for all people to receive fair treatment regardless of his or her background or social status.

What is social equality?

• This is society’s ability to require that all individuals have fair access to society’s resources and also have the opportunity to utilize their access for successful end. (Garett McAuliffe & Associates, 2013).

What constitutes a diverse workplace ?

• Workplace diversity “focuses on differences and similarities that people bring to an organization.  It includes dimensions beyond those specified legally in equal opportunity and affirmative action non-discrimination statutes” (Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations ILR School, Cornell University).

What is oppression?

• This is the condition of being subject to another group’s power.  Oppression may be active or passive.  It is active when there is face to face discrimination (overt) and it is passive when an individual from a minority ethnic group hears a slur based on minority issues and say or do nothing (Garett McAuliffe & Associates, 2013).