Project Homework: Managing Diversity in Organizations
E-BOOK Diversity in Organizations, 3rd Edition
Unit I Project
Instructions
Project Information
Throughout this course, you will complete homeworks that lead up to a final project. The project, titled "Consultant to the Client Organization," is based on a scenario presented below. It may be helpful to refer back to this scenario as you complete each homework.
Consultant to the Client Organization
Fig Technologies is a global technology solutions firm with offices around the globe. Fig Technologies' corporate headquarters is just outside Mobile, Alabama. Fig recently acquired several smaller firms in different regions to expand its products and service lines. Assimilating the processes, systems, and human capital has presented a significant challenge. The leadership has chosen to bring in an outside firm to address concerns. You are the consultant from that firm, The Solution Group.
In each of the homeworks in this course, you will be given a scenario to address the concern that is presented. You will be expected to develop assessment, analysis, and research in order to support your proposed solution. Often, you will be asked to present the top three solutions for the concern and support your answer. Use of course materials (textbook and required readings) and external credible materials is strongly encouraged. The scenario is not intended to have a set answer but to develop critical thinking on what can often be very emotional and opinion-based topics. Consider carefully your position and how you will support the proposed solutions.
The project serves as an opportunity to stretch your thinking and your organizational skills whether you are a business or human resources major. Working in an organization or being contracted to an organization will require this type of thinking from you as to how you will handle diversity issues within an organization. The project and the course will allow you to build a solid foundation to build upon while also enriching your resource library on the topic for future business world opportunities.
Fair Treatment of Ethnicities
The Executive Leadership Council (ELC) has authorized The Solution Group, (the company you work for) to assess assimilation of recent transfers into the workplace environment in the newly opened IT division of Fig Technologies in Tyler, Texas. The Tyler IT division was aligned with its counterparts in Qatar and Germany. In an effort to assimilate the newly formed virtual teams, a contingent from each of the three offices went to the other offices for a two-month immersion. The purpose of the short-term exchange was to learn culture, process, and systems. Some hostilities have been reported in all three offices by team members as to difficulties with the visiting team members. The ELC wants more information.
Your objective is to determine how to assess the assimilation progress of workers to different people and cultures. Is there acceptance? What are possible roadblocks and obstacles (e.g., language, common terminology, customs, and work ethics). As a consultant, how would you complete this assessment and report results?
Your homework instructions are as follows:
o Introduce the composition of the three 10-member teams in each of the sites. You do not need names, though you should develop an ethnically diverse team of locals and visitors from the other respective worksites and national cultures. Explore the differences in culture, perspective, and experience of your team. Include whether the work culture in these countries is individualistic or collective. This section should be 200 words, approximately half of a page.
o Develop a short assessment tool in order to measure assimilation. Tools may include one of the following: a survey (no more than 10 questions), an interview (no more than 10 questions), or natural observation (approximately half of a page, including a copy of the assessment tool questions). The CSU Online Library is a great place to find information about research questions.
o Assessment and results: Develop a one and a half-page summary of your assessment results and how you determined these results based on the answers. The results must address the challenges of these three dynamic cultures and perspectives working together in a live, onsite, and remote environment. Also, identify the demographic data and cultures that make up the organization and how these relate to the U.S. population. Show how you will analyze and use this data in your assessment.
o Present your three approaches for improving assimilation onsite. Support your approaches. This section should be approximately half of a page.
Your completed homework homework should be three to four pages in length, not counting your references page. No title page is required. The report will require you, as the hired consultant, to review briefly the cultures in play in this scenario. What would be challenges these teams might face? Work ethics, religions, systems, cognitive processes, and cultural dynamics are all factors.
Unit II Project
Instructions
Benefits of Organizational Diversity
You are the consultant assigned to study the organizational environment in the Miami, Florida, and the Kansas City, Missouri, offices. Both are service call centers for Fig Technologies. The workforces have a large cross-section of locals from the area, university graduates from nearby institutions, and transfers from other offices within the organization. The offices are facing issues in several areas.
The two offices have a friendly rivalry with regard to professional sports and local college teams. In the Florida office, there have been concerns raised, including some complaints that the rivalry has gone to extremes.
Contingent software developers in both offices from Brazil and South Africa have been unable to get people excited about fútbol instead of football. A few individuals in the Kansas City office have begun hanging out together and talking in the break areas about their relationships with same-sex partners, multiple partners, and some encounters of homosexual and heterosexual relationships together. A petition is circulating around the Kansas City office about these types of discussions being banned.
You are being sent to assess the environment and provide a report of your findings. The report should be in three sections:
o Assessment of findings in Miami, FL;
o Assessment of findings in Kansas City, MO; and
o Recommendation for addressing these findings to the Executive Leadership Council (ELC) for review.
In your assessment of findings, be sure to evaluate how organizational cultures are perceived and how problem solving and creativity are promoted with organizational diversity. In your recommendations for the ELC, contrast the benefits and disadvantages of diversity, and establish the value of working through these issues to create a dynamic organizational culture. How will you channel this diversity and help create a positive atmosphere?
Format your homework according to the following formatting requirements:
o The answer should be typed, using Times New Roman font (size 12), double spaced, with one-inch margins on all sides.
o The response also includes a cover page containing the title of the homework, the student's name, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
o Also include a reference page. The Citations and references must follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.