Dissertation chapter 2

Workplace Barriers facing Black West Indian Men and Women in the United States

Tracey Joseph

Argosy University

Dissertation Outline

January/22/2019

Table of Contents Chapter One 3 Introduction 3 Background of the Problem 3 Problem Statement 4 Purpose of the Study 5 Nature of the Study 5 Significance of the Study 6 Research Questions 6 Hypotheses 7 Brief Literature Review 7 Conceptual Framework 8 Assumptions, Limitations, and Delimitations 8 Assumptions 8 Limitations and Delimitations 8 Definition of Terms 9 Conclusion 9 References 10

It has been over 20 years since affirmative action become law in the United States of America and during this time issues related to racial diversity in the workplace have been looked at and addressed (Jayaraman, & Ness, 2015). As the contemporary corporate world continues to accommodate the emerging changes in pursuit of efficiency and effectives, the issues surround culture has had to be given the attention they deserve. As a result, people of color have been given the opportunity to be part and parcel of organizational development and their ideas are now an important part of the decision-making process. Comment by Bob Goldwasser: Please be more specific in your descriptions. Comment by Bob Goldwasser: This sentence is not clear and should be revised. Comment by Bob Goldwasser: Please support a statement like this with information from the leading experts.

Despite the steps made to ensure there is equal opportunity for all, several problems continue to affect Black West Indian men and women as they interact with other individuals in their places of work in the United States. These men and women face both excitement and challenges as they strive to create better lives for their families, become integrated into the American community and in their quest of citizenship. It is the prejudice and discrimination that continues to make it difficult for them to adjust to the new culture and language. Comment by Bob Goldwasser: You should include a paragraph or two explaining “Black West Indian” since most readers are not familiar. Does this concern the country of India? Does this concern Puerto Ricans and Cubans? Which islands make up the West Indies?

When these Black West Indian men and women enter the United States, they are guided by their traditional and cultural values and norms that make them believe that although man can live individually, his survival greatly depends on how he works collectively with other men. Therefore, the workplace culture of these men and women is further anchored on the belief that strength is due to team spirit and overall bonding that is established within organizations (Waters, 1999).

To these Indian men and women, their personal lives and whatever goes on in the workplace are not separate entities. But when they come to America, they are surprised to encounter a completely different way of life that looks at the workplace as just that. Professional relationships are not important as long are there is productivity and profitability. The lack of team environments and family-like setting contributes a great deal to the general culture shock that these individual faces. Comment by Bob Goldwasser: Please be consistent in your explanations. Are we now including White West Indians? Comment by Bob Goldwasser: Please include information from your research to support every point.

Consequently, it is evident that dialogue has to take place in order to fix the situation. The creation of an inclusive work environment should be prioritized with emphasis on diversity accommodation. Positive relationships within the workplace should solemnly rest on the contribution an individual brings to the table rather than their cultural or racial orientation. Attempts to enable people from different cultures to not only create positive relationships within the workplace are a must, but also the elimination of other situations that hinder their smooth transition in to the America employment system. Comment by Bob Goldwasser: Why is this evident? Who says? This should also be supported by research. If it is your opinion, then it should not be included here. There is a place in Chapter 5 for you to express your opinion, but after the research has been completed. Comment by Bob Goldwasser: All of this must be supported with information from your research.

There are several barriers that have for a very long time continued to affect workplace productivity by affecting the morale and relationships of employees and employers within organization. When there are obstacles in place that prevent a certain group of people form performing their responsibilities or achieving advancement within their workplaces, the overall objectives and bottom lines of the organizations will be greatly affected. Comment by Bob Goldwasser: Your paper should be full of in text citations showing the reader which leading experts have stated these claims.

The attainment of a positive workplace has been considered a myth simply due to the fact that wherever work is involved, it is nearly impossible to achieve a positive working environment. Therefore, the understanding that these Black West Indian men and women have a problem and the only way to fix it is to completely engage with them and their cultures, and at the same time foster teamwork, recognize and appreciate their contribution towards the achievement of set objectives, will ultimately help create a positive and conducive environment where they can showcase their talents and abilities for the benefit of the organization. Comment by Bob Goldwasser: Who says this? Please provide support for these claims.

The primary purpose of this research is to find solutions to the workplace barriers that Black West Indian Men and Women in the United States with the specific aim of understanding how both the individual and the organization are affected. The employment of the mixed research method is appropriate because it uses both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods, hence it will allow the researcher to choose employees from different organizations to take part in the study further contributing to comprehensive findings that will in due course result in credible conclusions.

A parallel-convergent mixed method study was conducted involving workplace barriers facing Black West Indian Men and Women which allowed the researcher the opportunity to understand the role of culture in affecting both the behaviour and the outcomes of the organizations. It is important to recognize that there are some problems that face one gender but not another, therefore, employees were separated into groups that define the workplace barriers they have encountered. The chosen participants will take part in questionnaire filling session where they will each answer the set of questions prepared by the researcher. These questions are meant to assess how the current status of workplace barriers and what can be done in order to alleviate the situation for the benefit of both the employees and the organizations. The study further ensures credibility and reliability of the data collected by conducting number of tests which include but not limited to searching for discrepant evidence, comparing results with other studies and using simple statistics to summarize results. Comment by Bob Goldwasser: This should be in future tense since the study will be conducted in the future.

The study aims at looking into the workplace barriers in the United States that hinder people from different cultures specifically Black West Indian Men and Women from reaching their full potential. This was selected purely because of the ongoing worldwide efforts to ensure diversity is accepted within working environments. Since the structure of modern organizations is complex and prosperity is highly dependent on the interactions and relationships within the organization, eliminating these barriers fosters performance thus general business success. Comment by Bob Goldwasser: You must go into much more detail on this point. How much money is being lost due to these barriers? Please try to make the issue seem more important. How is this impacting the Us economy, the Global economy and the individuals involved?

The modern working environment is characterized by diverse aspects which are as a result of factors such as globalization, technological advancement and internal migrations. Therefore, so that this complex system is positioned for success, embracing diversity must be aligned with both the organizational behavior and culture. The significance of this study spreads far and wide up to a point where it is relevant to inform government policy and decision making especially around culture and diversity in the workplace.

The research questions that guided this study were;

Research question 1: What are the workplace barriers that affect Black West Indian men and women in the United States? Comment by Bob Goldwasser: This research questions can be answered in an online survey and does not require a mixed methods study.

Research question 2: Are factors such as culture and ethnicity a significant on organizational behavior? Comment by Bob Goldwasser: I don’t understand this question. Please revise it or delete it.

Research question 3: What is the significance of diversifying the workplace to both the individual and the organization? Comment by Bob Goldwasser: Will you be able to answer this question from your questionnaires and interviews? Aren’t their responses just speculation?

The hypotheses that guided this study were:

H01: Workplace barriers such inconsistency, lack of clarity, ethnicity and language differences do not have a significant effect on organizational and individual performance.

Ha1: Workplace diversity factors such inconsistency, lack of clarity; ethnicity and language differences have a significant effect on organizational behavior.

H02: Organizations do not benefit from diversifying the workplace Comment by Bob Goldwasser: I am not sure about these. Obviously diversity is beneficial. Your study may not be able to answer these questions just like Research Question 3. Maybe these should be eliminated.

Ha2: Organizations benefit from diversifying the workplace

H03: Workplace diversity is not a necessity in the modern organization.

Ha3: Workplace diversity is a necessity in the modern organization.

In order to reject or fail to reject this hypothesis, statistical hypothesis testing will be conducted using the student t-test.

Given the above discussed rationale for and the purpose of this study, the following section provides the existing literature concerning workplace barriers that affect not only Black Wrest Indian Men and Women that go to the united states to work, but also other individuals from other cultures in the world by other researchers, giving contributions by each researcher. This paper will be mainly concerned with areas including the context of the problem, contribution of this study to the literature, similar and related studies as well as the gap in the literature.

To find out the exact extent of workplace barriers facing people from different cultures and how they affect both the organization and the individual the following questions need answering;

· What is the state of workplace diversity in organizations today?

· What are the benefits and limitations of workforce diversity?

· What are the tools required by top managers to effectively manage workplace diversity barriers?

From the conceptual framework above, there are assumptions that the study made. For instance, it was assumed barriers such as language, cultural differences and ethnicity have a huge effect on the general situation of Indians coming to work in the United States. This essentially means that no other factors do. Having a qualitative study means that the researcher assumes the methods used are inductive in nature and will thus be based on his own experiences while collecting and later, analyzing data.

Define the commonly used words in order to enable the reader to understand the concepts when they are reading, interpreting or evaluating the research.

Chapter 1 included an outline of the entire study on workplace barriers facing Black West Indian Men and Women and their effects on both the organization and the individual. Chapter two follows with an in-depth review of the literature, which pointed out some of the significant developments in the study. It also allowed the researcher to identify existing knowledge the gap. Chapter three discusses the methodology and the procedures for data collection. The results of the analysis are provided for in chapter 4 while the final chapter provides a conclusion as well as recommendations and suggestions for future studies.

Bell, D. (2018). Faces at the bottom of the well: The permanence of racism. Hachette UK.

Carter, S., Mwaura, S., Ram, M., Trehan, K., & Jones, T. (2015). Barriers to ethnic minority and women’s enterprise: Existing evidence, policy tensions and unsettled questions. International Small Business Journal, 33(1), 49-69.

Jayaraman, S., & Ness, I. (2015). The New Urban Immigrant Workforce: Innovative Models for Labor Organizing: Innovative Models for Labor Organizing. Routledge.

Small, S. (2014). Racialized barriers: The black experience in the United States and England in the 1980's. Routledge.

Waters, M. (1999). West Indian immigrant dreams and American realities. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.