Management 12th Edition by Richard Daft

Exercise 10

Personal Diversity
Each of us feels different in many ways from the averagebehavior or expectations that other people seem to value. This reflects our own feelings of diversity. The differences you feel compared to others could be about your physical characteristics (height, age, skin color), or they could reflect a difference in your thinking style, feelings, personality, or behavior, especially when you feel different from what other people expect or what you perceive are the socialnorms. Make a list of six ways that you feel different fromothers:
1._________________________________________________________________________
2. _________________________________________________________________________
3. _________________________________________________________________________
4. _________________________________________________________________________
5. _________________________________________________________________________
6. _________________________________________________________________________
Now answer the following questions with respect to your perceived diversity.
What are your feelings about being different?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Which elements of diversity are you proud of? Why? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
What element would you like to change so you would be less different? Why? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
How do your differences contribute to a student team or work organization? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
In a group of three to five students sitting in a circle, each person takes a turn describing the answers to these questions. Then other students take turns providing feedback to the person about what perceived differences mean to them. Each student takes a turn reporting answers to the previous questions and then receiving feedback from other group members on the perceptions and impacts of those differences.
Here are additional questions to discuss in the group: What did you learn about perceived diversity and interpersonal relations? What does it mean when our differences appear larger to ourselves than they appear to others? How does personal diversity affect team or organizational performance? (Answers can be written on the board.)