IDS-400 Critical Analysis Portfolio And Presentation Proposal

Critical Analysis Portfolio And Presentation Proposal

Southern New Hampshire University

IDS-400 Diversity

Critical Analysis Portfolio and Presentation Proposal

Introduction

The workplace has greatly changed thanks to diversity and inclusion. Though technology has been the main drive in the change of the workplace, the demographics of the workplace has also significantly changed since the 1970’s. In today’s workplace there are more women, minorities, and older employees that have delayed retirement.

“According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the percentage of women participating in the labor force has increased from 41 percent in 1967 to 60 percent in 1999, before dropping slightly to 58.1 percent in 2011” (Browne, N.D.). Along with women having an increasing presence in the workplace, people of varying ethnic backgrounds have also increased. According to the Center for American Progress, as of June 2012 people of color made up 36 percent of the labor force (Burns, Barton, and Kerby, 2012). There has been a large increase in immigrants in the last several decades; therefore, the labor force in the United States is quickly diversifying. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics claims that over the next two decades the older age employees will make up a larger portion of the labor force thanks to the baby-boom generation. “The 55- and-older age group, which made up 13 percent of the labor force in 2000, is projected to increase to 20 percent by 2020. It is anticipated that, by 2050, the group will make up 19 percent of the labor force” (Toossi, 2002).

Diversity has influenced modern society. The workplace evolving to be more diverse has influenced and continues to influence modern society. Through the lens of history, the workplace can be clearly seen evolving. Utilizing the lens of history, we know that in the 1970’s there were significantly less women, minorities, and older employees. “Humanities include ancient and modern languages, literature, philosophy, history, human geography, law, politics, religion, and art” (Wikipedia, 2019). The workplace has obviously been impacted by humanities through diversity through the various modern languages, law, politics, religion, and more being utilized by employees. I will go out on a limb on natural science actually impacting the diversity in the workplace due to the evolution of the American Melting Pot in which people from all over the world of various ethnicities coming together and some procreate. A person that is Hispanic from Mexico of Catholic faith and a person that is a US citizen of Muslim faith would obviously create a diverse child that has exposure to both nationalities, both ethnicities, both religions, both languages, etc. The biology of the person is in itself diversity and this person will one day join the workforce. Social scientists have empirically demonstrated that diversity supports positive societal outcomes—from productive workplaces to effective educational institutions and a strong scientific enterprise (Shin, 2017).

History

History is the story of humanity’s past. Historians use materials such as books, newspapers, magazines, diaries, photographs, art, artifacts, oral testimonies and more to trace events and look at patterns. They are “concerned with causality, that is, why certain outcomes happened as they did, and how they are linked to earlier events” (History, 2017, para 1). The workplace has significantly changed since the 1970’s; there were significantly less women, minorities, and older employees. History has taught us that humans have evolved a lot since the days of slavery and segregation. Obviously, there are tons of books, newspaper articles, magazines, etc., depicting ignorant times when people were cast out of society because they were different, be it color, religion, sexual preference, etc. The United States Declaration of Independence states Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. This seemingly promises acceptance and inclusion. The United States is getting there. There has been a large increase in immigrants, a large increase of people ‘coming out of the closet’, people being able to express themselves, and largely workplaces are evolving to keep up with the times.

Humanities

The humanities are “disciplines [that] concern the study of distinctively human actions and works; for example, history, philology (language, literature, linguistics), philosophy, theology and studies of Antiquity” (Cosgrove, 2009, para. 3). The workplace has been influenced by humanities through the various modern languages, law, politics, religion, and more being utilized by employees. In Houston, TX there are language immersion schools that have a minimum of 50% to a maximum of 80% of daily instruction in the non-English languages of Mandarin Chinese, Arabic, or French. Schools also teach Social Studies with a humanities focus. Schools are implementing the thought of diversity in children through the use of humanities at an early age, these children will grow up and be part of the workplace. CEO’s of technology companies have mentioned that learning how to code is important; however, it is also important to build things people want and need. To understand these desires, you must understand the human patterns from the data (Bradley, 2018).

Natural Science

The natural sciences are best described as “a modern method of understanding the physical universe based on observation, hypothesis formation, and experimental verification” (Haught, 2011, para 1). Common disciplines within the natural sciences are: astronomy, geology, chemistry, physics, and biology, and some cross-disciplines like oceanography, environmental science, and computer science (Haught, 2011). The biology of the workplace can be described as the essence of a Melting Pot. People from all ethnicities, religions, socio-economic backgrounds can come together and have children together. These children are exposed to various parts of their parent’s cultures. Once they grow up and become part of the workforce, they expect inclusivity, and this is where diversity comes into play.

Social Science

The social science lens looks at how humans act in their social environment. Specific disciplines within the social sciences may sound familiar to you such as: political science, psychology, sociology and anthropology (Social Science, 2017). One way that social science can improve the workplace is through identifying personality types, thus ensuring employees can work successfully together. This does not look into what the person looks like, how old they are, where they are from, etc. This simply evaluates what type of personality they have to better understand the ways individuals prefer to use their perception and judgment (The Myers & Briggs Foundation, 2019). This is useful in many organizations in both private and public sector.

References

Bradley, Elizabeth H. (2018). The Practical Humanities. Retrieved from

https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2018/10/22/humanities-provide-practical-workplace-and-life-skills-opinion

Browne, Clayton. (N.D.). How Has Workplace Diversity Changed Since the 1970s?. Retrieved

from https://work.chron.com/workplace-diversity-changed-1970s-25995.html

Burns, C., Barton, K., and Kerby, S. (2012). The State of Diversity in Today’s Workforce.

Retrieved from https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/economy/reports/

2012/07/12/11938/the-state-of-diversity-in-todays-workforce/

Cosgrove, D. (2009). Humanities. In D. Gregory, The dictionary of human geography (5th ed.).

Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers.

Haught, J. F. (2011). Natural science. In I. A. McFarland, D. A. S. Fergusson, K. Kilby, & et. al.

(Eds.), Cambridge dictionary of Christian theology. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

History. (2017). In P. Lagasse, & Columbia University, The Columbia encyclopedia (7th ed.).

New York, NY: Columbia University Press.

Shin, Jean H., (2017). Why Social Science? Because Social Science Helps Us Enhance Diversity

in the Interest of Positive Societal Outcomes. Retrieved from https://www.

whysocialscience.com/blog/2017/11/7/because-social-science-helps-us-enhance-diversity-in-the-interest-of-positive-societal-outcomes

Social Science. (2017). In P. Lagasse, & Columbia University, The Columbia encyclopedia (7th

ed.). New York, NY: Columbia University Press.

The Myers & Briggs Foundation. 2019. The purpose of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.

Retrieved from https://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/home.htm?bhcp=1

Toossi, Mitra. (2002). A century of change: the U.S. labor force, 1950–2050. Retrieved from

https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2002/05/art2full.pdf

Wikipedia. (2019). Humanities. Retrieved from https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanities