Diversity is about recognising that everyone is different in a variety of visible and non-visible ways. It is about creating a culture and practices that recognise, respect and value difference. It is about harnessing this potential to create a productive environment in which the equally diverse needs of the customer/client can be met in a creative environment. It is about generating a workforce that feels valued and respected and has its potential fully utilised in order to meet organisational goals. Diversity is not an 'initiative' or a ‘project’; it is an ongoing core aim and a core process.…
Having a diverse team will be beneficial to the team because we all have a different approach to learning and handling task. From all of us having different cultural backgrounds and experiences will help each one of us contribute different ideas and solutions to deal with the challenges to come before us. A…
1. Describe team members’ results on the Discovery Wheel and Develop your multiple intelligences exercises. What similarities and differences exist within the team?…
In A Rounded Version: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, Howard Gardner introduces the idea of seven different intelligences, combating the idea of contemporary intelligence. Gardner defines the contemporary view of intelligence as, an individual 's intelligence test score based on his or her age with no regard to experience or training. In his words, "It is an inborn attribute or faculty of the individual." Gardner defines MI as a multiplication of the contemporary view, but with added emphasis on an individual 's ability to problem solve, or create a solution to a problem. Gardner 's 7 MI 's are Linguistic, logical, Mathematical, Spatial, Musical, Bodily Kinesthetic, Interpersonal and Intrapersonal. Each MI is paired with an example of an individual who displays in abundance the specific intelligence being discussed. Gardner discusses the idea that most intelligence 's are paired. In other words, a professional football athlete would most likely (in addition to his Bodily Kinesthetic ability) have Spatial intelligence allowing him to be aware of the opponents and team members around him. Gardner 's main reason to choose the intelligences he and his team did, in his words was, "We have begun with the problems that humans solve and worked back to the "intelligences" that must be responsible." Gardner concludes that while intelligences can work alone and independent of other intelligences, most of the time they work as a collection of aptitudes.…
The definition of a team is “a group whose individual efforts result in performance that is greater than the sum of the individual inputs” (Robbins & Judge, 2011, p. 316). A team works together in harmony since they all need one another to succeed, such as a football team. Effective teams have adequate resources, effective leadership, a climate of trust, and a performance evaluation and reward system that reflects team contributions. Team members are more likely to take risks and expose vulnerabilities when they believe they can trust other on their team. Some of us hold the optimistic view that diversity should be a good thing; diverse teams should benefit from differing perspectives and do better. Two meta-analytic reviews of research…
There are many advantages to having diversity on a team, a team made up of people from different cultures, ages and religious group can bring different ideas an different ways of solving the same problem where as a…
1. Describe team members’ results on the Discovery Wheel and Develop your multiple intelligences exercises. What similarities and differences exist within the team?…
Introduction: Diversity makes an organization innovative and creative. Even smart people working collectively can make dumb decisions if they do not see different perspectives. Diversity in problem-solving groups encourages independent and creative thinking (Smith, 2012)…
Every day the global workforce is growing and for many years there has been big issues within the workplace. One of those big issues being diversity. Every employee has something very unique to bring to the company. The ideal company will have the best team players with great work ethic. In most cases a successful company holds employees that have different views which come in handy for big business decisions. In a growing global workforce, some of these differences cause barriers which can affect the company.…
In our lives it is necessary to be exposed to many elements whether they are places, people or experiences. This diversity can foster complex forms of thought and encourage critical thinking and plays a critical role in the advancement of students and employees of organizations alike. Diversity is often overlooked; this can play a negative impact to the advancement of any organization.…
Three affective outcomes of diversity are making the minority members of the team feel valued and important, functional diversity, and making them feel equal to the rest of the team (Griffith & Dunham, 2015). Having minority members in a most dominate race can be intimidating. They may not feel they can speak up and be taken seriously. To have an affective outcome, it is up to the team and the leader to offer reassurance that their opinions are welcomed. Functional diversity can bring a whole new aspect to the team in a positive way. If the team members are trained correctly and to make use of the skills they can bring some benefits to the team. Making them feel equal is an important aspect. This can be done by team building activities…
When communicating, it is important to be aware of the cultural diversity of your group and how you respect it as such. Cultural diversity can be a valuable asset to a group or organization; however, when not respected properly, it can cause a major rift between team members. By using the diversity of your group to obtain data and ideas from the different types (diversities) of people in the group, you are successfully doing a small in-house case study. You are collecting data from different types of people with different upbringings, all with different opinions and data. In business, this is very important. On the other hand, if you fail to respect the diversity of your group, you will most likely not be favored by the rest of your group, and more time will be spent on conflict resolution that completing the overall goal of the group.…
To identify the learning and development style of myself and a team member we both completed a Multiple Intelligence (MI) test developed by Howard Gardner.…
Diversity in groups and teams is often portrayed as a positive force leading to effective functioning of the team. Diversity supposedly leads to greater variance in ideas, creativity, and innovation, thus generating better group performance (Cox, 1993; Jackson, May and Whitney, 1995). In the popular press, diversity is almost always synonymous with gender or ethnic diversity. Research on…
Williams, W. M., Blythe, T., White, N., Li, J., Sternberg, R. J., & Gardner, H. (1996). Practical intelligence for school. New York: HarperCollins College Publishers.…