Lori Cepa

OGL 350
Professor Hirshorn
Module 1: Paper
3/12/2021

Part I
Going into this class, my knowledge and understanding of diversity management were

limited. In reading these articles, I learned how complicated and nuanced diversity

management is within an organization. While I feel that I have walked away with a decent

understanding, I get the sense that this is just the tip of the iceberg. What interests me the

most is the bias involved and how complicated it can be to remove our prejudices, whether we

can acknowledge them or whether they are unconscious. In reading the Hayes, T., Oltman, K.,

Kaylor, L., & Belgudri, A. (2020) paper, I learned that diversity management is a process, not an

end goal, which shifted my thought process. Additionally, as stated by Mor Burak, M. E., Lizano,

E. L., Kim, A., Duan, L., Rhee, M., Hsiao, H., & Brimhall, K. C. (2016), creating an organizational

climate of inclusion can influence positive outcomes, including job satisfaction, creativity, and

retention.

A preconceived notion I had coming into this class was that diversity management

mainly was a human resources and executive leadership practice and that it didn't really trickle

down to the line managers. Now I see that HR and upper leadership might be on the

'frontlines,' so to speak, of diversity management; it does also fall to managers through

employee involvement, accountability, etc. While, according to Galvin, T., & Allen, C. (2021), the
results of the current studies surrounding diversity management within organizations show

numerical representations of the effects, I would be interested in learning how employee

satisfaction is affected in a diverse organization.

In reading the Tatum piece about identity, I found the classroom exercise to be very

interesting. I actually stopped reading and tried it myself. As stated, I identified myself as

female, friendly, assertive, etc., but not that I am white. While the author describes that most

students of color noted their race, white people typically do not. Just as men usually do not

mention their gender. Noting that if you are in a 'dominant' group, you usually don't

acknowledge it. It's interesting to reflect on my own identity. Yes, I am female, white, a middle

child, but I am also hardworking, motivated, and persistent. The apparent identity, to me, is

those features that which we are born. I prefer to focus on the deeper traits of my personality,

which make me unique.

Unsurprisingly, my pie chart's most significant piece was my career. Having been laid off

last year due to the pandemic, I realized how much of my identity is based on my career and

what I do for work. I was utterly devastated when I lost my job (and career, really), and I still

struggle with it since my industry still hasn't rebounded. Conversely, my smallest pie piece was

that of a student. I have harbored lots of shame because I never finished my degree, and when I

lost my job, I decided it was time to make that right. At 35 years old, I still feel shame and

embarrassment even though I know I am doing a hard thing in returning after so long. I have

always dealt with imposter syndrome, and I feel it every day as a returning student like I don't

belong. This has been an emotionally challenging exercise looking inwardly and identifying who

I am and what is important to me. With so much change throughout this pandemic, I have felt
so much loss within myself, as I am now writing with tears in my eyes. Even simple identifying

factors that I would have called out previously, like being a runner, daughter, or sister. Much of

that has diminished with not seeing my family as much or running as much due to injury. While

those factors are included in my pie chart, they are much smaller pieces now than they would

have been two years ago.

On the cultural intelligence pre-test, I scored a 107. I hope I took the right approach to

this. A little background: I was previously in a role where I had to travel a lot (roughly 50% of

the year), and much of that travel was international. I went to many new countries and spent a

lot of time learning about the different cultures that I was going to be immersed in. My first trip

was to Singapore, so I learned all about the culture, what non-verbal and verbal cues I should

avoid or use in specific scenarios, and how to communicate with the locals. While I definitely

don't know all there is to know about other cultures, I try my best to learn and be receptive to

different learning and thinking ways. I feel that my background in travel has made me more

open-minded and willing to adapt. As noted, I think my strength is in adapting to other cultures

and their behaviors. My weakness falls in knowing and recognizing what I don't know. While I

try to learn all that I can to integrate seamlessly, I know that I have made missteps in terms of

language.

Part II

In relating my family to Hofstede's cultural values model as outlined in A/V Lesson 5, I

would say that we are more individualistic than collectivist. Personally, I am more of a 'lone

wolf' type, being the middle child. As individual family members, we tend to make decisions for
ourselves and not as a group. My Mom would definitely identify as vertical individualistic; she

was always the exception to the rules because she's the "Mom," and because of her station as

the parent, she put herself above us kids. I would say that in our family, there was a pretty great

power distance. Growing up in the Midwest, it felt that the parents were put on a pedestal, and

the kids were to be quiet and take a back seat role. As noted previously, my Mom emphasized

her role as our Mother and held that over us.

Within my family, we exhibited high uncertainty avoidance. Rules were extensive in my

house when we were kids, and my parents were comprehensive planners. There was no room

for ambiguity, and we were to follow the rules without question. In my personal life now, I

definitely fall more towards low uncertainty avoidance as I like to consider challenges on their

own and not have a rigid plan as much. Our household was also very masculine. My parents

followed clear gender roles, and as kids, we were driven to achieve, and a lot of value was

placed on school and work performance. Accomplishments were touted to other family

members to gloat and compare.

Finally, my family organization was highly long-term orientation-focused. My Dad was

also focused on planning for the future financially while ensuring that the family would be well

cared for in the long term.