Workplace

Unit 5: Art and Social Justice

The aim of this assignment is to identify four strategies to help promote diversity and positive change in the workplace. This can be your current workplace, the work environment that you intend to be a part of, or any workplace that you have an interest in. The four strategies should involve ways to encourage inclusion, promote equity and fairness, ensure a welcoming and productive working environment, and a greater respect and appreciation of diversity. Remember that diversity incorporates race, gender, ethnicity, religion, age, sexual orientation, disability and education level.

As you start brainstorming for strategies, start off by thinking about the problems and challenges that occur within the work environment you selected. Consider whether certain groups are being excluded or not fully represented at the company (LGBT employees, individuals with disabilities, elderly employees, workers without a college degree, etc). Think about the struggles and challenges certain groups may face trying to gain employment, have their voices heard or issues involving harassment, discrimination or wage gaps within that industry.

You'll need to identify four problems within the chosen workplace. For each of those four problems, you will need to come up with a 'Point of Pride' which is the goal that the company should be striving for in order to address the problem. It should involve best practices that the company can state with pride (empowering LGBT employees, encouraging respect for elderly workers, maintaining fairness in hiring, etc.) For each of the four, you will also need to list an action item emphasizing a specific strategy that can be implemented to achieve the goal, and a rationale of why this strategy would be useful and who would benefit from it.

Please ensure that your assignment totals at least 500 words, includes a title page and reference page, and references at least one resource, whether chosen from our unit resources or research that you find on your own. The majority of this paper however should still be in your own words, as we are looking for you to make your own points, provide your own personal reflections, and present your own ideas, rather than simply re-posting lines from your resources. Make sure to paraphrase and put the material into your own words as much as possible so that your personal voice comes through, and include your citations to give credit to any utilized sources. The assignment does not have to be written as a formal essay - use the sample template below as a guideline of how to list each item:

Identified Problem: Some female employees feel intimidated to give presentations in front of the company because it's 85% men. Female employees report that they sometimes feel that it's an “old man's club" at work, often not being invited to golf outings and other social events.

Point of Pride: Increased number of presentations given by women at both local and national conferences. Women report feeling more supported by their employer.

Action Items: Work-related social events expanded to include ideas generated by all employees. Employees were asked to put their ideas in a hat and the ideas were voted on at the monthly staff meetings. The employee whose idea was chosen received a nominal award for her contribution.

Rationale: This Point of Pride explicitly addresses a common complaint regarding workplace environments. Sometimes, it's not the equality of work that's a problem; rather, some of the extra items like social outings can lead a person to feel demoralized and not as part of the group. This specific activity helps to address this problem.

Identified Problem:

Point of Pride #1:

Action Items:

Rationale:

Identified Problem:

Point of Pride #2:

Action Items:

Rationale:

Identified Problem:

Point of Pride #3:

Action Items:

Rationale:

Identified Problem:

Point of Pride #4:

Action Items:

Rationale:

References

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