Review the assignment and then answer the following:
Its purpose is to provide you with an experience where you are in the minority, preferably going further where you are the only one of your "kind" in a given situation. This assignment requires pre-planning on your part.
First your task is to go to a place you are not familiar with and engage with those you do not know well. Select an environment where you will be different in some clear way. You may go with someone you know if needed, but remember that your goal is to experience it alone. You might feel uncomfortable, as minorities often feel.
Be creative in where you might experience this. Remember to choose a setting where you feel you can learn, remembering to respect the rules of any organization or business you might select to attend or shop at.
Create a 2-3 page paper give the following:
1. Briefly describe the experience which you had and the setting where it took place.
2. How did it feel? How did you act differently?
3. Did you feel any reaction within yourself or from others? Explain how.
4. From this experience, what did you learn about being different in an environment?
5. How might being a minority influence your behavior at work?
Being a Minority
This paper is being or Michael Heard’s Managing a Diverse Workforce Class, Section 06 Online Plus, 2016 Winter Mid-Quarter.
Being a Minority
Introduction
Use this section as an introduction to provide an overview about what it means to be a minority and how it impacts today’s organizations. This would be a good time to include research to help define minority. Include examplesthat managers need to acknowledge when decisions are made, particularly with personnel actions and job assignments/division of work. Set the reader up for the discussion to follow.
Description of Experience
Describe the experience that you encountered as a minority. Include enough detail so the reader can visualize the scene. For it example, where did you go? What types of people where there? What was it about this setting that put you in a minority role?
Internal Feelings and Reactions
Discuss how entering this environment as a minority made you feel. For instance, were you scared? Were you defensive? Were you personable and outgoing? Did putting yourself in this environment cause you to act differently than your normal self? For example, if you’re normally extroverted, did you keep to yourself and avoid eye contact with others?
External Reactions
Discuss any reactions you may have received from others in that environment who were not considered to be a minority. Did you notice any reactions from anyone, such as non-verbal behavior, comments, etc.?
Lessons Learned
Explained what you learned from this experience. Did it give you a new perspective about minorities? Did it provide any new perspectives that you haven’t thought about before?
Work Application
Given all of the above that you have written, how will this experience influence your behavior at work? If you were a manager giving advice about managing people from a minority perspective, what would you say based on this experience? This would be a good point to include another reference to back up your advice.
Conclusion
Finally, write a conclusion that summarizes the importance of understanding perspectives of minorities and how this exercise could help people understand it better. Ideally, conclusions should be at least five (5) sentences in length. Your references will then begin on the last page. Make sure this paper contains at least two (2) references.
References