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Employment status of the Civilian noninstitutionalized population by age and sex

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WOMEN’S DIVERSITY ISSUES IN THE WORKPLACE

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WOMEN’S DIVERSITY ISSUES IN THE WORKPLACE

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1.Relationship to the Objective
Another issues addressed in Chapter 10 is choices made to achiever a family-work balance.  This article not only addresses the difficulties women face in the work place with advancement but also the need for a family-work balance.
2. How does the article add to your understanding of the objective?
This article shows what most of us already know which is diversity based upon gender is one that is still being addressed.  As the article states women are paid 78.2 cents on the dollar for the same jobs that men receive.  This article shows that diversity in the workplace is hard for women to achieve because of issues such as decisions to marry and have a family.  Many companies will not promote a woman based upon her decisions to have a family.  They believe that she will place her family life above that of her work life and work will be the place it will suffer.  As the article shows companies that celebrate families and provide for advancement based upon knowledge are more diverse and more successful. This article also shows that women are still part of the “other” category when it comes to areas that are mostly occupied by men such as computing, biotech and engineering.  The article states that companies would do well to offer mentorship to women in these industries.
3. Real-life experiences
Personal experience in this area ow women in the workplace is one that, as a woman, I am familiar with.  I work in the legal field and can attest to the unequal number of female attorneys to male attorneys.

I do know of an experience that happen to my daughter where she was considered for a promotion within the company that she works for and was questioned about the travel that would be involved because she has small children.  This question would not have been asked of a male worker.  This shows that diversity is a continuing issue within the work place for women.
4. Your Most Important Takeaway
My biggest takeaway from this article is that “you come a long way baby” but we as women have a lot farther to go before there is true diversity in the workplace and where decisions are made based solely on our work experience and performance and not on our gender.

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Equal Opportunity at Work

Parenting

Other Issues

In some professions, especially male-dominated ones such as certain branches of computing, biotechnology and engineering, men far outnumber women and there often is a very small pool of talented women to recruit from. Companies would do well to build a professional pipeline through scholarships and mentorships that interest more women in these career choices.

Despite their gains in the work world, women still bear far more of the child-rearing work than do men. The most diversity-aware companies design positions to be flexible so that all parents can have work-life balance. They offer job-sharing, telecommuting and compressed schedules.

Women, particularly those in management and in academia, often fear having a baby will ruin their career. They worry they may be fired, forced to take leave, denied a promotion or have people replace them in their jobs. Diversity-conscious employers celebrate family and know that mothers bring a wealth of experience to the company.

Getting in the door is often the first hurdle a woman has to face, especially in male-dominated jobs. Although civil rights laws prohibit discrimination, women still find it difficult to overcome somewhat more covert ways companies have of discriminating against them. Diversity-conscious employers make strategic decisions when they hire and promote women, especially when it comes to innovations in product-making.

Other equality issues women face include the following.

Fair Pay--For the most part, women earn just 78.2 cents for every dollar a man earns, when holding other factors constant, according to U.S. Census data.

Access to Promotions--Even when they get the job, women have a longer climb to management and often encounter the so-called glass ceiling, a level to which they rise and then can go no further, says the Institute for Women's Policy Research.

Networks--Women have less access to mentors and people with decision-making authority within the company. This has an established effect of lowering their chances of succeeding in the organization, according to DiversityInc Magazine.

Freedom from Sexual Harassment--Although laws protect all workers from enduring a hostile work environment based on their gender, the actual work life of women is often filled with inappropriate comments, touching and being made to feel their job will be in jeopardy if they report such behavior.

A diverse workforce offers companies a strategic advantage over their less diverse competitors. Recruiting diverse employees brings greater kinds of talents, helps companies expand globally and leads to better products. Although women match men in terms of educational achievement, women employees face lower pay and a harder climb to senior management than men. Companies would be wise to learn how to better recruit, retain and promote their female employees.

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Women's Diversity Issues in the Workplace | eHow

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Women's Diversity Issues in the Workplace. A diverse workforce offers companies a strategic advantage over their less diverse competitors. Recruiting diverse employees brings greater kinds of talents, helps companies expand globally and leads to better products. Although women match men in terms of educational achievement, women employees face...

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4 TYPES OF COMMUNICATION CHALLENGES IN MULTICULTURAL ORGANIZATIONS

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4 TYPES OF COMMUNICATION CHALLENGES IN MULTICULTURAL ORGANIZATIONS

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1. Relationship to the Objective

Analyze the challenges of globalization and the solution to those challenges.

2. How  does the article add to your understanding of the objective?

This article increased our understanding of the different types of challenges that can face organizations that have many different cultures employed there. The four challenges that were given as examples were direct versus indirect communication, trouble with accents and fluency, different attitudes toward hierarchy and authority, and conflicting norms for decision making.

2. Real-life experiences

One life experience that I have had with communication challenges in the workplace would be when I was working with a women from Mexico and did not speak much English. I do not speak any Spanish so it made talking to each other a challenge, but after a while she started to pick up English and I was slowly able to learn some phrases in Spanish. The challenge with speaking two different languages is that not everyone is willing to have to learn how to speak another language, especially in their home country.

4. Your most important takeaway?A major takeaway is that wherever we are employed, we will more than likely be working in a multicultural workplace and we will be prepared to work and adapt to the challenges that come along with working with a variety of people from all over the world.

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4 Types of Communication Challenges in Multicultural Organizations

As noted in my previous blog, employees with diverse backgrounds have different interpretations of languages, signs and other forms of communication. This affects how they converse, make decisions and approach conflict. Organizational diversity should inspire teamwork on a global scale with each employee performing at their best. However, ineffective or lack of communication as a result of diversity in the workplace can lead to confusion of business and customer needs, low employee morale and division among employees.

It is easy to overlook the communication challenges that we often take for granted. This blog will address several of those challenges that can lead to a disconnected workforce.

I came across an article discussing the dialogue between employees of different cultures by Harvard Business Review. Here are four categories that can impede your team's success:

Direct versus indirect communication.

Trouble with accents and fluency.

Different attitudes toward hierarchy and authority.

Conflicting norms for decision making.

Direct versus Indirect Communication
Communication style in Western cultures are direct and the meaning is seemingly obvious. Other cultures tend to be more discrete in the way they present their message. As a result, communication between a Westerner and a non-Westerner can result in confusion within the workplace. This can occur during face-to-face interactions and when communication is virtual. Needless to say, how employees of diverse cultures respond to one another is a major determining factor towards the cohesiveness of an organization. For example, in a Western culture, the question might be, "Is option A or option B more effective?" Whereas in a non-Western culture, employees may have to imply or suggest a particular option without stating it directly. Oftentimes, in a Western culture, during a board meeting, when someone nods, we tend to think they agree with the statement. However, in other cultures, a nod doesn't necessarily mean mutual agreement, rather, just an acknowledgement.
Trouble with Accents and Fluency
A more obvious challenge within an organizationally diverse workplace is the language barrier among employees, including accents and fluency. Although English is the standard language internationally for business, many non-English speakers can feel unnoticed and unappreciated in the workplace because they have difficulty conveying what they want to say in their non-native language. Employees who may be subject matter experts, may take a backseat to contributing to the team because of their inability to get a message across in their second language. This can sometimes cause frustration and interpersonal conflict. They may become less engaged and motivated as a team player, and become an impediment to the collaborative learning process as a whole. An organization can be negatively affected and fail to see an increase in their return on investment.
Different Attitudes toward Hierarchy and Authority
In any organization, teamwork is essential to success and profitability. However, in some cultures, employees are treated different based on their rank within the organization. Diversity training in the workplace should account for negotiation tactics among different cultures. For example, multicultural employees have different ways of presenting an idea to the manager or CEO. In some organizations, employees must present to higher-level team members and up the corporate ladder before reaching the executive level. Other organizations have relatively flat hierarchical structures where employees and leaders work as a unified team. A lack of cultural awareness can result in a disconnected workforce and leave some employees feeling left out and unrecognized.
Conflicting Norms for Decision Making
It isn't surprising that individual cultures have their own way of reaching an agreement and coming to an executive decision. Cultures differ on how long the decision making process takes, what steps must be in place beforehand and how much effort should be put in. Unlike other cultures that tend to withhold information until they have performed analyses and comparisons before reaching a decision, Americans tend to be very quick at deciding, according to the Harvard Business Review article.

I read an article in the Ivey Business Journal that discussed how Americans tend to negotiate by making compromises and trade-offs; however, the French will agree on a set of basic principles to guide them throughout the negotiation process. While diversity in the workplace breeds different attitudes towards hierarchy, it is also important to be aware of the conflicting norms for decision making.

Successful organizations create a culture of awareness that inspires employees to respect one another through diversity training. This mutual understanding among managers and employees encourages new ideas, different perspectives and collaboration, making all the difference within an organization.

In my next blog, I'll discuss several strategies for effective cross-cultural communication within the workplace.
Shina Neo is an editor at Training Industry, Inc.

Guest Blogger

4 Types of Communication Challenges in Multicultural Organizations

Direct versus indirect communication.

Trouble with accents and fluency.

Different attitudes toward hierarchy and authority.

Conflicting norms for decision making.

Trouble with Accents and Fluency
About the Author

Guest Blogger

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4 Types of Communication Challenges in Multicultural Organizations

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4 Types of Communication Challenges in Multicultural Organizations As noted in my previous blog, employees with diverse backgrounds have different interpretations of languages, signs and other forms of communication. This affects how they converse, make decisions and approach conflict. Organizational diversity should inspire teamwork on a global scale with each employee performing at their best.

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Executive Branch Employment by Gender

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SEVEN WAYS TO BETTER COMMUNICATE IN TODAY'S DIVERSE WORKPLACE

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SEVEN WAYS TO BETTER COMMUNICATE IN TODAY'S DIVERSE WORKPLACE

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1. Relationship of the Objective

This article focuses on the challenges of adding diversity to your workforce and how to continue to be successful in business.

2. How  does the article add to your understanding of the objective?

This article built on the objective by explaining that there are many steps that you can take as a company to be successful when having a diverse workforce. A company can only be successful if it is willing to make changes. The seven ways to better communicate in today's workforce are: people from some cultures don't trust information that comes directly from a manager; learn how the source culture best receives communications; train international employees early and often; train the non-foreign-born, too; assign mentors and take care of the spouses; practice open-door communication—carefully; in company-wide communications, avoid jargon and slang; play by the rules and stick to business.

3. Real-life Experience

My Real-Life experience in relation to this article, unfortunately, are not successful. They did not follow any of these seven steps; we were not trained on how to work with others from a different culture. Not that we had never worked with a customer from a different culture, but we were never taught how to work with a colleague that was from a different culture. Nor, did we avoid internal jargon or slang, making it increasingly difficult for the new hires, just as much as the original employees.

4. Your most important takeaway?

My major takeaway from reading this article is that we cannot put all the responsibility of making sure your company is prepared and trained for a diverse workforce in the hands of the upper management. This is a team effort and is never a finished job.

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Seven Ways to Better Communicate in Today's Diverse Workplace - Seven Tips for Communicating In Today's Diverse Workplace

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2/3/2003 Your employees may come from nations all around the world. The challenge: Ensure that their contributions aren't buried under language and cultural differences. Here are seven tips for improving communication. by Kim Ribbink

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Lori Ditto wrote our response to the Workplaces the embrace older workers article and Women's Diversity Issues in the Workplace article. Assisted in graph creation.
Emma Garcia wrote responses to 4 Types of Communication Challenges in Multicultural Organizations and Communication & Diversity in the Workplace articles. Assisted in graph creation.
Elizabeth Davidson wrote a response to Seven Ways to Better Communicate in Today's Diverse Workplace article and set up the padlet site. Also assisted with graph creation.

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COMMUNICATION & DIVERSITY IN THE WORKPLACE

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COMMUNICATION & DIVERSITY IN THE WORKPLACE

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1. Relationship to the Objective

Analyze the challenges of globalization and the solution to those challenges.

2. How  does the article add to your understanding of the objective?

This article built on the objective by explaining that there is communication for a diverse workplace and communication from a diverse workplace. According to Ruth Mayhew, communication for a diverse workforce requires understanding how diverse employee populations perceive business communication and employers who improve their communication styles and increase the media they use should also be flexible to receiving communication from employees is a way to improve communication from a diverse workforce.

3. Real-life Experience

At a past job, we were trained on how to communicate with others who were not able to communicate easily with others and we were also trained on how to communicate with outside organizations. This was valuable to me because I think it is important to be able to communicate with all people.

4. Your most important takeaway?

The takeaway from this article is communication in a diverse workplace is a two-way street. Whether you are communicating within your organization or if your organization is communicating with another organization.

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Communication & Diversity in the Workplace

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Business communication is essential in the workplace -- it underlies productivity and the quality of workplace relationships and it forges organizational success. Yet diversity in your workplace may ...

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1. Relationship to the Objective
One of the objective of Chapter 10 is “how are “others” resisted?” and “How are “others” denied a legitimate place in an organization.  Most companies see diversity in the workplace as only race and gender.  But as our U.S. population grows older workers are become a growing part of the “other” category.  This article shows that diversity needs to include all “others” not just race and gender but also “aged”.
2. How does the article add to your understanding of the objective?
This article stresses that diversity in a work place made up of all generations offers the companies the greatest advantages.  The article shows how older workers are still a vital part of a company but offer many strengths to the work place.  They bring with them a different perspective in problem solving along with learned wisdom.  As this article states “intergenerational teams maybe the most powerful workforces of the future”.  Companies that embrace the “older” worker and mentor them and see the value of the experience they bring are the companies that will grow into to the future.
3.  Real-life experiences
I am part of that “other” group of older workers.  Yet I am not ready for a rocking chair and the front porch.  I have made three different attempts to gain employment from a company that offers wonderful benefits and pay.  All three times I felt that I was well qualified for the position.  However, all three times I was told that I was their second choice.  Through someone I knew at the company I asked what I had done wrong.  She, very shyly, said to me “you are not in the age group they are looking for”.  I was somewhat confused because I do not consider myself “old”.  She stated that the company only likes to hire those 35 and under for new positions.  I asked her what happens to the workers that are already there that reach the above 35 age group?  She stated they are allowed to stay but if their work level drops or they cannot handle the demands of the job they are let go.  While this is discriminations by anyone’s standards, proving it is impossible.  I used to feel sad about the loss I faced, but now, I feel sad for them.  I bring with me a lot of experience and drive that they simply lost out of.  Too bad for them but I am sure the company I currently work for is happy they past.
4. Your Most Important Takeaway
My most important takeaway from this article is that diversity is not just about race and gender.  Diversity must include all “others” including the aging worker who still has a lot to offer to any company.

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It took six years, but Charlene DeWindt, 58, of Newport News, Va., is now an electrician. She's also a production planner and scheduler at Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII is the largest military shipbuilding company in the United States), earning more than $50,000 a year. DeWindt honed her trade at the firm's Newport News Shipbulding Apprentice School and, in August, graduated with an Associates in Business Degree. That's when she completed the school's Production Planning Program. Even better, throughout her coursework, she continued working for the company.
Life-Changing Apprentice Program for a Midlifer
DeWindt calls the apprentice program a life-changer for her.

"I had been out of school for 40 years and suddenly there's Algebra, Calculus, Physics, I and II," DeWindt told me. "But I was persistent, and now I have a great job, benefits and a chance to excel." And, she adds, "This program has allowed me the opportunity to learn so much, keep my brain and body active and save more for retirement."

You might be thinking: Aren't apprentice programs just for recent high school grads and people in their 20s? As Nobel laureate Bob Dylan would say: the times they are a changin'.

I learned about that age-friendly apprentice program in the new report from AARP Public Policy Institute: Disrupting Aging in the Workplace: Profiles in Intergenerational Diversity Leadership. The report looked at five employers that are wisely approaching the issue of age diversity in the workplace: DeWindt's employer Huntington Ingalls Industries, UnitedHealth Group, PNC Financial Services, AT&T and Centrica PLC, parent company of British Gas, an energy and services corporation.
An Age-Diverse Workplace Is Smart Business
"Most significantly what they [the researchers] found is that moves by businesses to embrace and engage with the intergenerational workforce are not merely an exercise in good civics, they're smart business," Jo Ann Jenkins, AARP CEO wrote in her recent column on LinkedIn. "Studies have shown that the productivity of both older and younger workers is higher in companies that have mixed-age work teams than in companies that do not and that age diversity within a team heightens performance in groups that must undertake complex decision-making tasks - but what's most interesting is that these things are already happening out there in the real world."
What These Employers Are Doing Right
I'll get to some of the interesting initiatives in the report shortly and then offer suggestions about talking to your boss to make your workplace better.
Also on Forbes:
Let's start with DeWindt's apprentice program. Of Newport News Shipbuilding's 21,000 employees, about 2,900 are Apprentice School alumni. Many of them are now in leadership positions at the company.

Sixty years ago, the program's age limit was 21. "I actually applied when I was 28, but I was too old," said DeWindt.

Over time, the age ceiling was raised, and in 1996, ultimately eliminated as a result of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's determination that apprenticeship programs should be subject to the requirements of the Age Discrimination Employment Act.

Interestingly, the HII workforce (median age: 45) is currently comprised of 35% boomers, 32% Millennials, 32% Gen X'ers, and 1% Silent Generation. Also adding to the mix are Gen Z employees, the oldest of whom are just coming out of college, interning and starting their first jobs.

It's a portrait of age diversity, and to me, that's noteworthy. While there's lots of talk these days about the need for diversity in the workplace, when people talk about diversity on the job, it's usually not about age, just race and gender. The AARP report noted that only 8% of CEOs include age as a dimension of their diversity and inclusion strategy, according to the PwC 18th Annual Global CEO Survey in 2015.
Common, Mistaken Assumptions of Older Workers
As this recent Harvard Business Review article points out, common assumptions about older workers are mostly hogwash. "People of every age are reinvesting in their skills, looking after their health and thinking about options, transitions and career switches that weren't a reality for previous generations," according to authors Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott.

Speaking of reinvesting in their skills, the AARP report notes that Centrica - an international recipient of the 2011 AARP Best Employers for Workers Over 50 Award - participates in a fascinating pilot program helping workers do just that. It's called HitReturn and is targeted toward senior-level professionals (men and women) who want to return to the workforce after a career break of two years or more.

Launched with Mars and Vodafone, HitReturn offers 12-week, paid "returnships" giving people the opportunity to work on professional assignments and to receive coaching and a mentor. It's the first cross-company partnership in the U.K. Job opportunities are in areas including marketing, legal, finance operations, technology and human resources. Participation does not, however, guarantee a permanent job.
Cross-Generational Mentorship Programs
Cross-generational mentorship programs are a priority at HIII, PNC and AT&T. At PNC's Diversity and Inclusion Mentoring Program, each employee signing up makes an annual commitment; the mentee and mentor decide the frequency and activities for their meetings and what they'll work on together.

For Sue Filiczkowski, 48, a senior underwriting manager at PNC, "one of the most memorable and rewarding moments was when my mentee, who is a Millennial, presented in front of PNC's senior management team. She had explained to me during our first meeting that she did not like to present in front of large groups and felt uncomfortable. We worked very hard throughout the year, taking baby steps such as meeting with and presenting to smaller groups of managers. Eventually, my mentee felt comfortable and ready to present a topic of her choice to the senior management team, and she did a great job!"

Before the duo's regular meetings, they'd each read articles about leadership and work challenges they faced. "We would discuss what we got out of the articles and how we would have responded to similar situations at PNC," says Filiczkowski.

That's the heart of what these companies, and others like them are doing: different generations working together to solve problems. PNC also offers an Employee Business Resource Group called IGen, focusing on intergenerational issues. It "provides a natural way to transfer knowledge from older generations to younger generations," the AARP report said. AT&T's >50 Employee Resource Group focuses on professionals there who are 50 and older. It also has another focusing on young professionals, called oxyGEN, which, AARP said, "sponsored events to educate seniors about mobile technology in 26 cities in 2014."

These efforts remind me of a conversation I had with Paul Irving, chairman of the Milken Institute's Center for the Future of Aging and editor of the inspiring book The Upside of Aging. "Leaders in business are beginning to appreciate that older workers retain unique values, skills, wisdom and judgment and are recognizing, frankly, that the intergenerational teams and workforces may be the most powerful workforces of the future," Irving said.
What You Can Do
OK, so what can you do, or try to get your boss and employer to do, to foster a terrific intergenerational workplace? Here are a few ideas:

Reach out to HR or your manager to see about starting a mentoring program.

The next time you're asked to work on a project, be sure at least one younger colleague is on the team.

Raise your hand and ask to be considered for workplace education and training programs to keep your skills sharp.

Keep in mind, you might need to make a business case why a mentoring initiative, intergenerational project or training will benefit your work and, in turn, the company. When suggesting a new way of doing things on the job, it's always about how your employer or boss will ultimately shine.

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It took six years, but Charlene DeWindt, 58, of Newport News, Va., is now an electrician. She's also a production planner and scheduler at Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII is the largest military shipbuilding company in the United States), earning more than $50,000 a year.