Diversity Praxis

Diversity Praxis: A Journal of Organizational Vitality and Individual Autonomy

A quarterly journal providing an ongoing blend of theory and practice for dedicated practitioners to dialogue with and learn from one another. Articles and features relevant to the following core topics will regularly appear. Click on the link (in Blue) for each topic area. In this edition we explore the context of the Constitutional Project as the foundation for an open, inclusive workplace. We also look in depth at diversity as it manifests in two very different ways at different organizational system levels: as a lynchpin in the service of stakeholder interests across embedded organizational system levels, and as the expression of fluctuating identities at the individual level. CORE CONTENT TOPICS: Click on the words in Blue to link to that topic. WELCOME: AN INTRODUCTION TO DIVERSITY PRAXIS Model for Diversity Praxis: Diverse representation - Values system - Ethical behaviors - Optimizing Diversity - Workplace Enchantment - Vitality and Growth Model Explanation Constitutional Project for Organizational Vitality Work-World (Context) Focus on Corporate Workplaces & Globalization, Healthcare, Education Deconstruct Case Histories, Issues, Stories for lessons learned Work-Place (Culture) Diversity's Role in Emergence, Vitality, and Balancing Stakeholder Interest (EXCERPT) Diversity of agents is recognized as a primary property of complex adaptive systems. Diverse agents are an important element to adaptation because they allow a broad range of perspectives and interpretation of the information being exchanged within and across systems. In the case of organizations, those which, for the sake of economy and efficiency, tend to acquire and retain employees with very similar backgrounds, credentials, experiences, and/or perspectives, make themselves vulnerable to the inevitable stagnation of equilibrium that would result. More diverse agents within an organizational system can provide knowledgeable links to related information sources, both proactively seeking relevant information outside the routine or status quo, and being efficient filters to determine what new or unfamiliar information is relevant or important... Ethical Pluralism - acculturation, the grammar of conduct, values driven multicultural collaboration, champions and improvement agents, accountability; the constitutional project Complex Adaptive organizations, communications competencies and dialogue - the safe space criteria, workplace vitality and re-enchantment Work-Force (People) Diversity and Identity (EXCERPT) People are made up of fluctuating identities, we cannot be reduced or stereotyped into a sole label such as race or gender, etc. Paradoxically, people simultaneously need recognition for their many identities such as the racial, the sexual, or the ethnic. This need for recognition demands that workplace cultures provide for a platform of mutuality, of mutual respect and accommodation if pluralism is to work on behalf of the 'just workplace' as well as on behalf of the innovative workplace. Innovation is the child of creativity, and creativity is the product of safe spaces of social justice and empowerment.... Diverse Identities and horizons - hybridity, multiculturalism, constitutional citizenship, autonomy, respect, dignity, responsibility, creativity Recent Diversity & Organizational Literature / Books: A Useful Synthesis and Reader's Guide A synopsis and Review of Affiliation in the Workplace by Ron Elsdon Praeger, 2003 (From the Dustjacket) To succeed in this emerging work world, organizational leaders must create new relationships with individuals built around the concept of affiliation. This will mean changed roles and behaviours that respect mutual interests, and will require a culture of inclusion expressed internally through workplace diversity, externally through workforce partnerships, at a community level through philanthropy, and globally through the pursuit of a greater good... A synopsis and Review of Anatomy of Prejudices by Elisabeth Young-Bruehl Harvard University Press, 1996 (From the Prologue) After its extended reflection on how the way in which we talk about prejudices has become an obstacle, the book offers an alternative, a theory which is, at once, a claim that different prejudices are characteristic of different psychic or character types and a claim that different social conditions promote different character types and their corresponding prejudices.... The theory developed here is multilayered, antireductionist (and thus sound bite proof), structurally very complex -- complex, I hope, to the degree required by the vast web of phenomena it tries to explore...

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