Group Work Exercise #3 (Week 7):

Leadership, Diversity & Cultural Competence in Organizations

Break into your groups. Pick a leader and someone to keep track of time. The leader can facilitate a discussion focused on the following case vignette. As a group answer the questions that are listed below taking into consideration the leadership and cultural considerations in working with diverse groups in social work practice.

Group Case Study:

Joe has been the executive director of a North Philadelphia non-profit organization for the last 16 years. Many changes have occurred in this time: More young people come to work expecting to leave right at 5:00. He also has 2 fathers out on paternity leave, a retired army major working for him on a flex schedule, three employees who have started a Bible study group that meets over lunch once a month in the break room, and more and more clients, community members, and staff coming from international backgrounds. In addition, he is about to hire a Muslim woman who will be starting work next month. And, let’s not forget… The bi-weekly and monthly staff are still experiencing occasional friction over scheduling…. Staff, as well as clients, are responding to this diversity in many different ways. Some people are excited and seem eager to learn about the differences in the organization, while others appear apprehensive and seem to feel concerned about the degree of miscommunication. Joe sees the importance of enhancing cultural sensitivity of the people in his organization. How can he go about creating a more sensitive and respectful environment among his staff? How can he help them see the connections between customer service, communication, respect and the diverse expectations and needs of each individual?

Joe presents the idea at his manager meeting to implement diversity working group. As staff of Joe’s organization you all have decided to organize the group with the following three goals in mind:

1. To integrate diversity and equity concerns into workplace practices & to provide leadership for changing the work culture.

2. To sustain and support work culture changes that are consistent with evolving business goals.

3. To maximize organizational opportunities for motivating and rewarding employees and managers to think about diversity and equity in the work environment.

Questions:

3.Discuss and provide examples of how you plan to address the three aforementioned goals (identified in the case above).