Why appreciate diversity

An inclusive university promotes and sustains a sense of belonging; it values and practices respect for the talents, beliefs, backgrounds, and ways of living of its members. Most people probably feel that they are very appreciative of diversity and always help others to feel included.

Here are a variety of assessments that you might take about yourself and your organization to get a more accurate perspective. This is critically important for successful leadership in any type of culture. You make a major difference in your organization, whether you know it or not, just by exposing it to your own nature and style of working.

Thus, you need to understand your nature. For example, the secretarial staff might interact with each other in a manner quite different from that of the marketing staff. In larger organizations, there are often several differences, for example, between senior management and support staff.

You should start in your first interaction with them. State that you recognize that different people might work differently depending on their own personalities and the culture of the overall organization.

Ask them how you can understand the nature of their organization. Attempt to get someone from the organization to help you understand their culture and how to work in a manner compatible with the culture of the organization. This request is not a sign of weakness or lack of expertise; rather it is an authentic request that better serves you and your employees.

Consider asking others to help you understand how each of the following aspects might be unique in the culture of the organization. Key cultural aspects that might affect your leadership include:. It is not uncommon for people of any culture to experience confusion or engage in protracted arguments about activities only to realize later on that they have been in agreement all along — they had been using different definitions for the same terms.

The following guidelines are most important when ensuring people continue to understand each other when talking about management activities. It is common for people from different cultures to become confused because different people are talking about results and others about the activities to produce the results.

Here is another example. Therefore, it is important for you to recognize if your employees have their own form of a certain activity and how that form is carried out in the organization. If your conversations with others about management seem to get stuck or mired in confusion, it often helps to separate terms from the intent of those terms. Teaching diversity exposes students to various cultural and social groups, preparing students to become better citizens in their communities.

These culturally responsive teaching strategies will help you to promote diversity in the classroom. Promoting awareness and creating a personal connection with diverse cultures in the classroom can prevent students from developing prejudices later in life. When working and learning with people from a variety of backgrounds and cultures present in the classroom, students gain a more comprehensive understanding of the subject matter.

It also teaches students how to use their own strengths and points of view to contribute in a diverse working environment.

This will make them open to new ideas and be able to attain a greater comprehension on a topic by taking in different points of view. Students who learn about different cultures during their education feel more comfortable and safe with these differences later in life. This allows them to interact in a wider range of social groups and feel more confident in themselves as well as in their interactions with others.

If students are exposed to diversity and learn cultural awareness in the classroom, it sets them up to flourish in the workforce. How do you Manage Diversity in the Classroom? Get to Know Your Students Ensuring that cultural awareness is promoted in the classroom starts with the teacher understanding each individual student.

Having diversity in a company allows employees to learn from each other and grow. When people are exposed to new ideas and cultures, they are forced to open their minds and gain a clear view of the people that surround them. The positive effects of diversity enable students to work with people from other races, ethnicities, and cultural backgrounds and challenges the views they are accustomed to.

This leads to greater awareness, understanding, and acceptance of differing beliefs and customs. The impacts of cultural diversity in the workplace can be both favorable and unfavorable. Some negative effects include dysfunctional conflicts, lost productivity, and difficulty to achieve harmony in group settings.

Diversity teaches us a lot many things. Apart from that, it also strengthens the feeling of brotherhood and oneness in the mankind. Groupthink might feel safer and more certain, but it invites cognitive dissonance, one dimensional ideas, and some pretty limited conversation. We need new ideas, views, and practices to stimulate and inspire us, to show us the way others eat, celebrate, and love!

Productivity Bringing together people of various backgrounds with different life experiences can generate ideas or perspectives that others may not have ever considered or been aware of.

Everyone has their own way of viewing a problem, shaped by the individual experiences that they have and the worldview they carry with them. When tackling an issue, a multitude of interpretations and approaches can generate creativity and innovation, instead of everyone contributing the same thoughts and conclusions.

Do we want our legacy to be one which allowed people to be their whole selves because it conveniently served capitalism or do we want to embrace diversity because it is in service of social justice?