Managing Workplace Diversity - Assignment Example

Managing Workplace Diversity Task People with disability Time and again, disability has been perceived by most of the people as a limitation. It is this misconception that has led to the exclusion of this group of people in most due opportunities. However, it is surprising that one of the studies done in 1981 reveal that the disabled people’s performance equals that of non-disabled co-workers, and in some instances, they outperformed the non-impaired. Such finding is a good indicator that a disabled person can perform the same way a non-disabled perform can with or without accommodation.

For fear of compensation, many companies are lax to hire the disabled. However, in the course of this unit, I have discovered that every state in the United States have The Second Injury Fund that assumes the responsibility of compensating the disabled in an instance they sustain an injury and become totally disabled.Affirmative actionsThe affirmative actions were created to supplement what law could not do in ensuring equality among people of different cultures, gender and ethnicity. There are policies and laws that are in place to ensure that discrimination is addressed, but their effectiveness remains equivocal.

Affirmative actions will remedy these inequalities, but presenting the long-time disadvantaged minority groups with equitable opportunities that ultimately addresses inequalities.Although the affirmative action will present added advantage to the minority groups, I learned in class that they, too, should meet qualifications. Affirmative action does not translate to undue advantage over others. It simply means providing more opportunities to the underserved group of individuals. Another misconception I had is that affirmative action is only concerned with providing people of the color with more opportunities.

However, Caucasian women can attest to the more open doors available to them following affirmative actions.Task 2Religious accommodationIt is evident that we mostly practice the religion passed down to us, and with time, we believe that our religion is the right one. This belief may lead to creating an environment that disregards co-workers’ religion. When handling religious diversity, I have learned from the class work that the best way to go about it is to have an open mind. It is impossible to understand all religions and their beliefs and practices, but keeping an open mind will facilitate accommodation of people with religious beliefs that differ from mine.

Work diversity is often viewed in terms of cultural diversities among the workers. Often, religious contributions towards the same are neglected. From a few case studies we have addressed in class, it is clear that religious insensitivity can lead to many problems in the workplace, in addition to exposing the organization to legal issues. Religious discrimination does not only mean that the organization degrades the worker’s religious beliefs. Being aware of religious discrimination in the workplace and doing nothing against it or having practices that do not regard the religious beliefs of a worker translates to religious discrimination.

Task 3 Thought: People should often give personal experiences to help in relating to real life situations.The class has been great, all through. Most of the assignments and exercise activities enabled us to grasp the ideas and concepts more clearly. As such, I believe that all of us have been brought up in an environment where we have experienced diversity issues in play. I would suggest that people give more personal experiences in the class where such issues arose as a result of workplace diversity.

As students, we would then try and apply what we have read in class to resolve an issue raised by personal experiences. This, I feel, would lead to even further and deeper understanding of concepts as they apply to the management of diversity in the workplace.