PSY FPX 6710 Assessment 4 Intervention Proposal to Address

Abstract

The saying, “Seek first to understand, then be understood” by Anna Pavlova resonates with me on a few different levels. Seeking to understand someone instead of listening to reply can have a profound impact on relationships and communication. When we listen to respond, rather than understand the person we are having a conversation with, we are not really listening to them or it can make them feel as if their feelings or point of view are being dismissed. This may result in the person speaking feeling not validated and/or frustrated. When we communicate with someone else the goal is to understand where they are coming from and then you communicate to them about your needs and expectations, hopefully, finding a resolution where you meet in the middle. “Seek first to understand, then be understood” is one of the ways I communicate with my associates in order to show them that their voice matters. It establishes a layer of respect and allows both parties to be open and honest with each other. This can also be applied in Industrial and Organizational psychology as a way to establish a working relationship with associates and management within a company you are working with.

Intervention Proposal

Introduction

According to Workforce Diversity and Organizational Performance- A Review, the term diversity is defined as “a broad mix of people from different backgrounds, cultures etc. working together in the same organization” (Nika, 2018). It has been proven that a diverse or multi-cultural organization creates a balanced environment and allows for more creative thinking amongst peers. In current times employers are striving to make their companies more diverse for ethical, legal, and the satisfaction of economical outputs (Nika, 2018). Overall, there are many positives to establishing a more diverse culture within an organization, however, the effect can have a negative impact on an organization if not managed correctly or delicately.

In this paper I am going to propose a diversity intervention to address performance and job satisfaction for Company G. Company G is an American company who also operates in East Asia and Europe. The company consists of 5,000 employees who are predominantly male, however, are currently starting to employ more female associates. The demographics for the company consist mainly of Caucasian, African-American, and Hispanic associates, while Eastern Asian and Indian make up a small portion of management. Generational gaps include Baby Boomer, Gen-X, Millennials, and traditionals.

Recently, Company G employed roughly 800 workers who are new immigrants from Serbia who work within the same proximity with each other. Company G’s objective is to increase overall job performance and efficiency by assessing the health of the company’s diversity. The proposal below will include the suggested interview questions: type of intervention: the methodology for data collection: examination of the data: professional standards: the anticipated results: and the strategy to evaluate the value of the intervention.

Interview

Intervention Proposal

The first step in creating an effective proposal to increase overall performance and job satisfaction as a result of the diversity intervention I developed is to analyze the data. The data I need to analyze is the current health conditions of Company G’s culture and overall satisfaction. In order to gather this information, I will need leadership and their subordinates to be completely transparent. In order to execute gathering this information, as a practitioner-scholar of my field, I would iterate at the beginning of the conversation that all information given to me is strictly confidential.

According to authors Conte and Landy, in 1939 Lewin, Lippitt and White introduced the word “climate” to describe the organizational culture. “Climate is the shared perception of employees about their work entity: an organization, division, department, or work group” (Conte & Landy, 2018, p.550). Also listed was four dimensions for which an organizational climate exists in. They are listed as role stress and lack of harmony, job challenge and autonomy, leadership facilitation and support work group cooperation, friendliness, and warmth (Conte & Landy, 2018, p.550).

PSY FPX 6710 Assessment 4 Intervention Proposal to Address According to James and McIntyre, all four of these are best suited for a diverse organizational environment. In the article, Diversity Impact on Organizational Performance: Moderating and Mediating Role of Diversity Beliefs and Leadership Expertise, the authors notated that if diversity is not managed well within the organization, it could have negative impacts such as “emotional conflicts; perceived organizational politics; miscommunication; power struggle; and higher employee turnover” (Jamshid Ali Turi, 2022). Furthermore, it was also stated within the article that diversity is needed within organizations to assist with decision making and plays a crucial role in the overall effectiveness of an organization. With this information in mind, I have developed these key questions below.

PSY FPX 6710 Assessment 4 Intervention Proposal to Address

Intervention Proposal Questions

1. What current policies does Company G have in place to support diversity and inclusivity?
2. How does Company G follow up to policy communication to associates?
3. How do you feel about Company G’s overall atmosphere?
4. What approaches or methods have been used to establish a more diverse culture here at Company G in the past?
5. Have any of those methods been proven successful?
6. Does upper management or leadership support diversity? If so, how do they help foster a diverse environment?
7. Does Company G offer any programs that support a diverse or multicultural environment?
8. How does Company G support intersectionality in its diversity programs, if they have any?
9. How often are associates distributed surveys or other methods of surveys for feedback?
10. What leadership obstacles prevent a diverse organizational environment?
11. What metrics is Company G using to track diversity?
12. How often are these metrics tracked and updated?

Intervention Proposal

1. In what ways has leadership been dedicated to creating a diverse work environment?
2. Do current Employee Resource Groups support diversity within the organization?
3. What are the most major diversity, equity, inclusion, and/or belonging issues within Company G?
4. In your opinion, how does Company G address diversity currently?
5. Is there a limited amount to spend on implementing diversity for Company G?
6. What is the target date for implementing this proposal?
7. Do you feel that your culture is respected at Company G?
8. In your opinion, what can Company G do better at?

Intervention

As I stated in the introduction, Company G is a rather large company consisting of 5,000 employees, which may result in more due to their expansion in East Asia. To implement this intervention seamlessly and strategically into Company G, I am going to propose do it one step at a time. This approach may be best suited to break down a company of this size into groups to ensure leadership and associates are trained properly. The interventions I am going to use will help establish and maintain an inclusive multi-cultural environment.

The first method of intervention used will be to hold a conference with all upper leadership. I will present a PowerPoint presentation with handouts of the information from the questions asked to the associates, listed in the questions section above. This will give upper leadership an outline of what is expected and all the information for when training will start. According to Developing Culturally Diverse Organizations: Participative and Empowerment-Based Method, there are four phases for training specifically for cultural training in an organization. They are “providing information, impacting attitudes, behaviors organization and targeted at minority, majority, or both in a broader organizational and societal context” (Sippola, 2007

).

PSY FPX 6710 Assessment 4 Intervention Proposal to Address

The second step will be to train all upper leadership and human resources for an in-depth inclusive and diversity leadership training. Training intervention should establish a strong foundation of interpersonal diversity and effective training practices. This in-depth training will consist of “cultural competence, handling difficult and uncomfortable situations, creating awareness of and reducing bias, discrimination, and prejudice, and enhancing overall skills and motivation to interact with other social groups” (Bezrukova et al., 2016).

The third step will be to empower upper leadership to cascade the information from the training to their respective teams and human resources to teach new associates during the onboarding process. This will also include a revamp of the employee resource groups that support a diverse dynamic for all associates to join.

Lastly, following up to the training within a 3-month period to ensure that training is consistent and being executed. Measuring the results after training is crucial to ensure that no further training is needed, and it has benefited the overall climate and efficiency of the company’s desired results.

Methodology

Based on research, I believe the Kirkpatrick methodology is best for this proposal. There are currently four different levels to the Kirkpatrick methodology that include reaction, learning, behavior, and results. I believe all four of these are applied in this intervention. However, I believe level 3, behavior is best suited methodology for this intervention. The reason is that the goal of the intervention is to address cultural competence within Company G in order to increase efficiency.

We can not do this without a change in behavior from leadership and the company’s climate within itself. This type of follow up consist of a 20-25 question survey that is administered to the employees of all levels for evaluation and is centered around diversity and inclusion. What drew me to this particular methodology is that it consists of both qualitative and quantitative data. Quantitative data includes a rating scale to quantify behaviors and inclusion, that produces numerical results. At the same time, the qualitative aspect is centered around workplace reasoning and motivations (Conte & Landy, 2018).

Professional Standards

Professional Standards are constantly evolving to accommodate the current workforce. They are set in place to make organizations more effective, inclusive, and reduce employee turnover. The intervention for diversity and inclusion will foster a safe place for a multi-cultural or multi-organizational organization to thrive where associates have a sense of belonging and well-being. Policies will also cohere to fostering a culture of belonging, inclusivity, and a diverse environment by holding associates accountable who do not abide by the rules. This can include racism, micro-aggressions, harassment, and many other ways of bullying an associate not only due to their culture, but in general.

Evaluation and Anticipated Results

After reviewing all of the information I researched, it is clear that establishing a more cultural competence and a diverse environment in an organization generates successful results. The data also gives the roadmap for which steps to take next to ensure the training is yielding results. Training will have to be done every so often to make sure leadership within Company G maintains its inclusive and diverse environment. This can include updated training and surveys administered to the employees every three to 6 months to follow up on results and outcomes. It will also give insight into how well Company G is fostering this culture with measurable data.

I anticipate with this intervention that Company G will continue to stay on the right track by achieving its goal to increase efficiency with a more diverse workforce. The ability to implement an environment that is culture competent, diverse, and inclusive with adhere to training and policy development, Company G will see an upward trend in multi-cultural hiring and economical growth.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Company G is a fast-growing organization that will benefit from a more inclusive cultural environment, especially since they are beginning to expand overseas. Leadership should lead by example and execute the training they received in all areas of the business in order to keep the momentum going and practicing by example. Overall, Company G’s objective is to increase overall job performance and efficiency by assessing the health of the company’s diversity by using the intervention I thought would be best suited to do so.

References

Conte, J. M. (2019). Work in the 21st Century: An Introduction to Industrial and Organizational Psychology (6th ed.). Hoboken: Wiley Global Education U.S. Jamshid Ali Turi, S. K. (2022). Diversity impact on organizational performance: Moderating and mediating role of diversity beliefs and leadership expertise. Emory, 1-15. Kirkpatrick, J. D. (2013). Creating a Post-Training Evaluation Plan. Hoboken: Wiley Global US. Nika, U. M. (2018). Workforce Diversity and Organizational Performance- A Review. Research Gate, 571- 576. Sippola, A. (2007). Developing culturally diverse organizations: a participative and empowerment-based method. Emerald, 253-273.