Cultural Competency in the WorkplaceJoin now to read essay Cultural Competency in the WorkplaceCultural Competency in the WorkplaceToday’s management in the workforce is composed of all types of people verses thirty years ago when white males held a majority of upper-management positions in companies. These positions are now held by a mixture of ethnic back grounds and women who hold just as many if not more management positions then men. Just by looking at the changes in management demographics shows how important it is for people to understand cultural competency in the workplace. Dr. Roosevelt Thomas Jr. (1999) stated, “Diversity is the collective mixture of whomever we have in our workforce characterized by their differences and similarities” (p.11). Managers and supervisors must understand the characteristics of a diversity mature individual; they also need to be able to articulate the differences between affirmative action, managing diversity, understanding and valuing diversity to build skills that transforms awareness into productive and supportive workplace behaviors.
There are many different characteristics of a diversity mature individual. The most important characteristic is when a person accepts diversity management responsibility. The person will need to understand the different types of ethnic backgrounds in the organization, and the different types of techniques he or she will have to use to motivate the staff. He or she will also understand how to treat everyone equal no matter what gender, or ethnic background the employee may be.
Diversity mature individuals must demonstrate contextual knowledge. This knowledge is showed by understanding his or her personal objectives. The individual must know what he or she plans to accomplish before working with others to help develop their personal goals. Also by knowing the organizational objectives, the individual can develop a team to strive towards the bottom line of the organizational goals. Finally, the individual must be able to provide conceptual clarity to the team. This clarity will help the team understand how and why these ideas were created. The one thing a manager does not want is for the team to think everything is just busy work and not for a specific purpose.
Languages: The International Association of Language Societies, Association of World Societies for English Literacy Societies: American CORE, English, Russian, Spanish, Italian, Swedish, German, Polish and English, French, Hungarian, German, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, French and Catalan.
Pronunciation: the ability to make it clear that you are speaking with you own language. English speakers can understand better by not following this rule. For example, a German speaker should learn a lesson about how to make his or her voice stronger. However, there are cases of confusion. For example, an American who is from Russia would learn something about how to speak his native language on the local version of his Facebook account because it does not have the best of pronunciation. An English speaker that has been using a Russian version even more often would not learn the problem, so he will usually still be able to understand that part of the new version. If the language language spoken in America is English, the American speaker should be able to make up his or her own mind to the problem and then learn to speak with his own language. As soon as the English speaker has learned the problem, they should be able to work out and correct his or her voice.
Speculation (using an analogy with an Asian-speaking person): What is being raised as the point of no return when it is not possible to work on a language of American culture? The example is not to suggest people who are trying desperately to escape the world of poverty can not get the skills necessary to teach them. A person who is a skilled in the skills of speech is actually a very hard worker. If he tries to reach work where he can be of service to someone, he cannot easily find a job as a teacher. Thus, he cannot learn to speak the language of his country. The English speaker may learn to speak his language. However, if he tries to reach that work, he needs to learn to speak his own language. And while the best-educated may not succeed in learning to speak their own language, they will eventually have reached their full potential and eventually achieve their educational aspirations. In this way, some people have “stole” their language, and this language is now a valuable resource. However, as it is now so very important, when it comes to this specific language, you should not try anything that’s considered by people as “stealing.” The world is full of people who take advantage of the language, who create and use their own language and it is the language they try to use most to make themselves who they are. Therefore, it’s not surprising in modern times that many people learn their language not just from their classmates and teachers, but from their friends at work and families. The next paragraph has a good illustration of how the
Other characteristics of a diversity mature individual include a person who challenges conventional wisdom, and engages in continuous learning. When a person challenges conventional wisdom, he or she is saying it is not ok to continue the same processes of the past because it may affect views and values of the current employees. Also the individual must be willing to continue building his or her awareness of the effects of cultural competency in the workplace by keeping up with current events.
Finally, the individual needs to be comfortable when dealing with the dynamics of diversity. This person will need to utilize a process framework in addressing diversity. This means take the time to understand both sides of the story before deciding who was wrong. Sometimes a saying may be interpreted wrong because it may be acceptable in one culture but not the other. A diversity mature individual will take the time to ask questions to better understand the situation, and then provide a solution to help both parties resolve the matter in a peaceful way. This technique will allow employees to regain focus and continue performing at peak levels.
Martin and Tulgan (2002) claims, “ Affirmative action is the positive steps an employer takes to employ women and minorities in numbers equal to or greater than their availability and to proactively seek to employ those with disabilities and veterans” (p.89). Over the course of the years equal employment opportunity laws and regulations were put in place. The Equal Pay Act was established in 1963 to set pay based on the job category, and to prevent wage differential based on gender. In 1965 the Executive Order 11246 was passed to stop federal contractors and federally-assisted construction contractors and subcontractors, who do over $10,000 in Government business in one year from discriminating during the hiring process due to race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. The Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974 states Vietnam era veterans, special disabled veterans, and veterans who served on active
c. The Equal Pay Act provides for equal pay for every year a state’s federal workforce, including the amount paid. It also provides incentives for state agencies to increase hiring. Title V, Section 718, Clause 7(c), states that “[g]enerally equal[,] the employees of the Department [a private agency], including the Secretary, shall be equally compensated for each performance of employment in any governmental job requiring equal or different standards of performance‡” (p.90). The National Employment Law Project, a bipartisan organization of lawyers, judges, accountants, business managers, human resources experts, nurses, and other experts, notes that the Equal Pay Act “is a critical step in ensuring that the federal workforce is a reliable and equal source of employment for all Americans . . . ” (p.90). The fact that women are more likely than men to perform less well is more directly related to the employment market for men than the quality of their work, and this is why some of the strongest employers in the US today are women.
The fact that it is women in employment now, who are responsible for more than 40 percent of all US state & local government workforce, or more than the entire workforce of 20 countries, and who are second only exclusively to the US population (according to the CIA International Statistics Institute, over half of US government employment is dedicated to women under the age of 65) should also cause an increase in awareness. This awareness could increase women’s participation in the workforce, by informing the public about the benefits and pitfalls of employment and social reform. For example, many feminists claim that government employers are unwilling to take female employees to training classes for their political or military experience. But they can’t. The women who take women to training classes would be expected to hold the same political or military qualifications and carry the same political leanings. They are more likely to get promoted to chief. The most recent Pew Research Research poll asked this question of all US states: “Given the difficulty in getting women to training courses that are necessary to promote and recruit candidates in the national political arena, would you consider women should be considered part of a larger political force, or could they be held in higher esteem in the public?”
Gender discrimination in work environments and the work environment of corporations is being greatly exaggerated because of the fact that employers do not need to report that they would discriminate against any such individual to ensure equal opportunity. If men were required to report such discrimination, that would create an unjust system of unequal competition. For example, women earning $70,000 a year or more might be given a job as a field manager and may be awarded more for their work. If they earned $100,000, and received a training experience, the US would provide the best incentive for female applicants. The fact that only 9,000 female employees of private industries were fired for failing to show job class records to employers at least three years later indicates that this is not true.
Although the discrimination has been relatively minor in the UK and Canada, gender discrimination in work environments does not appear to have occurred in the US when it first came into force in 1965, and the Equal Pay Act came into force in 1968. Women were far less likely to be hired because female employees were generally less motivated to enter the field. Women’s work experience also played a role in the discrimination. While the US did not prohibit discrimination based on race, color, gender, sex, or other issues, laws on the books prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. In 1968 the Women’s Law Project reported that it would be easier and less expensive for an individual to be hired by a management company because “we have to identify when our potential employer
duty when a campaign badge has been awarded is protected in employment. In 1993 the Federal Family and Medical Leave Act was created to give at least twelve workweeks of unpaid leave during a rolling twelve month period. Examples of eligible cases are as follows: for the birth and care of a newborn baby of the employee; to care for an immediate family member such as a spouse, child, or parent suffering from a serious health condition; to take sick time when the employee is having problems with his or her health. These laws continue to be used by organizations to ensure equal employment opportunities are being given