There is a growing knowledge base in research exploring the “why?” questions relating to DEI and Belonging: Why should organizations invest in recruiting, hiring, and promoting marginalized and underrepresented team members? Why does a diverse workforce make a workplace more competitive, creative, and innovative? Why would a heterogeneous leadership team give a clear advantage to inclusive environments? Research provides the quantitative and qualitative answers to these questions and provides evidence (rather than conjectural anecdotes) as to why DEI and Belong are the lifeblood of innovative companies.
In this discussion, we will begin the process of challenging and strategically evaluating the organization of our choosing. We will use research in the first “D” in the D2PA approach, which is Description, to better understand DEI and Belonging concepts and theories. Just like a physician that examines a patient and listens to her complaints, we will look at printed and electronic media and describe the organization’s perspective of how they see and present themselves concerning DEI matters. The focus at this time is to accurately describe the DEI and Belonging workplace conditions and start the process. The goal would be to uncover as many possible deficiencies within the organization.
Select an organization that you can research measuring key factors of DEI & Belonging. For the organization, use board reports, white papers, websites, pictures of executives, and any other data that will corroborate your findings. Using the video recording tool, audio response, or writing option in the discussion post, discuss the strengths and areas of improvement regarding DEI & Belonging activities in the organization under consideration by addressing the following:
What DEI and Belonging issues did the organization do well (according to the print and electronic media)?
What were the areas of improvement?
Share your findings with your group. What were their thoughts? Record their findings electronically or by hardcopy notes.
Requirements
Initial posts:
Word count: 300 minimum
APA formatted scholarly sources: 2 required