The Increasing Cultural Diversity of the American Workforce: Management's Challenge for the 21st Century

Abstract

"This paper is an experiential exercise that has been successfully used in principles of management classes to expose students to not only the issue of cultural diversity in today's workforce, but also projections for diversity in the Mum. The paper that follows is divided into two major sections. The first, for lack of a better title, is called "THE EXERCISE". This section, the actual experiential exercise, has five parts. The "Introduction to the Exercise" emphasizes that many college graduates at some point in their careers will become managers and that one of their greatest challenges will be managing a diverse workforce. "Exercise 1"asks participants to identify what they believe various diverse groups want from work and personal relationships at work. "Exercise 2" asks participants to evaluate their degree of success in predicting these wants, to make generalizations regarding the usual lack of accuracy in predicting wants, to group with 4 or 5 other students to assess why many participants do so poorly in predicting what diverse groups want, and then to identify the terminology reflecting the technical definitions for this lack of accuracy. "Exercise 3" asks participants to develop strategies to overcome their lack of predictive accuracy. Finally, "Exercise 4" involves participants in self-assessment regarding the exercise they have just been through. The second major section of the paper, entitled "INSTRUCTOR'S NOTES," is further divided into "Purpose of the Experience" (objectives of the exercise), "How This Experience Can Be Used" (tips on how to successfully and effectively utilize the exercise), and "Sample Results" (the kinds of responses/answers to the various parts of the exercise that might be expected from exercise participants). "