Designing a Professional Workshop on Promoting Diversity and Inclusion

This assignment details the design of a professional workshop aimed at promoting diversity and inclusion within a corporate environment. The workshop, intended for employees, particularly those recently inducted or working in large teams, focuses on fostering emotional and cultural intelligence. The workshop is structured into two main parts: activity-oriented icebreakers and lecture-oriented group discussions. Activities include introductory exercises, group tasks, and games designed to facilitate interaction, understanding, and the recognition of biases. The lecture-oriented part involves group presentations and discussions about the benefits of diversity, drawing on real-world examples and personal experiences. The ultimate goal is to enhance leadership qualities, promote conflict resolution, and build a more inclusive and understanding work environment, emphasizing the importance of emotional intelligence and the value of diverse perspectives in decision-making and overall organizational success. The assignment also addresses potential challenges, such as time constraints and resistance to change, and outlines the long-term objectives of the workshop in developing leadership and motivation among the trainees.

RUNNING HEAD: PREPARING WORKSHOP
Title: Designing Workshop
Name of Student:
Name of University:
Author Note:

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Part A:
WORKSHOP LAY OUT
WORKSHOP ON PROMOTION AND EVALUATION OF DIVERSITY IN CORPORATE
CULTURE
Conductor- Please insert your name
Date 20th February 2020
Place Office auditorium hall
Time 2:30 pm to 5:30 pm
Target individuals Interested employees, particularly those who have just completed their
induction.
Objective  Promoting the diversity in the workforce
 Understanding the necessity of integration of diversity in
the global business
 Development of emotional intelligence
 Diversity Management within organisation
Part 1- activity oriented Ice breakers
Workshop activity will include the performances of tasks and games like
cutting the deck or first impression or circle the circle
Part 2- lecture oriented Group discussion and group learning
The workshop that I will be conducting will be based on the objective of the promotion of
the cultural diversities within the workforce. The cultural diversity is an essential factor in any

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global as well as the domestic organisations since a diverse company has the opportunity of
having a better competitive edge. This leads the company in gaining a higher share of market and
a greater possibility of entering the new market (Alcázar, Fernández and Gardey 2013).
Moreover, the inclusion of a diverse culture helps the company to gain ideas and notions about
the various preferences and the choices of the global market. This will help the organisation in
connecting and serving to a larger base. A report by McKinsey & Company also found that a
10% increase in racial and ethnic diversity on the senior executive team resulted in a 0.8% rise in
earnings in the US, while a 10% increase in gender diversity resulted in a 3.5% rise in earnings
in the UK. Moreover, the racial and ethnic inclusion within the workforce helps in the pooling of
a large number of talents (Martin, 2014). It has been reported from various organisations that the
racially or ethnically marginalised people within an organisation tends to leave job because of
discrimination or feeling a sense of being secluded. Thus, an effective diversity management and
the promotion of equality policies and attitude is important for the organisations. The employees
need to know about the organisational policy regarding the diversity management and needs to
asses by themselves about the need of the diversity and wide cultural range without any kind of
biases.
Keeping the context in mind, the workshop was designed to promote the cultural
diversity within the organisation and the inclusion of the diversities as well. The main purpose of
the workshop is to make the employees understand the need of this diversity management and
making the employees learn various aspects that will help them in coping up with the diverse
culture. One of the major requirements for the matured co-operation is the emotional
intelligence. Emotional intelligence includes the moral and ethical values, motivation,
personality and commitment that develops the idea of the state of understanding the necessity of

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the diverse work culture (Sabharwal 2014). I have made the workshop timing in the second half
so that the executives can easily attend it after clearing the task for the day. This will help them
in concentrating more on the workshop without any kind of worry. My target trainee would be
12-15 employees of the organisations who are a part of a large team or are new in the company
and have recently completed their induction process. The reason for choosing this category is to
ensure that the people who have recently joined can easily integrate in the organisational culture
effectively and know about the tactics and means of creating a co-operative work culture. The
reason for choosing the senior employees working in a large team is that these employees had to
accommodate a newer and a wide workforce that are racially diversified as well as of variable
age group.
The workshop will include two phase in the three hours duration. The first part will
incorporate activities that relate to the creation of understanding and knowing each other and at
the same time realising the fact that how much they are competent and compatible enough to
work in a diverse work culture. I have planned to initiate an ice breaker round at the beginning
that will enable the employees to know each other. The ice breaking round will be constituted of
the self introduction and they will be allowed to tell whatever they will feel about themselves.
once the knowing of each other is done, the next activity will include a second round of ice
breaker that will require the formation of two to three separate teams where they will discuss
about their expectations and feelings about the organisation and one member from each team will
stand up and reflect upon the discussion of the whole team. Having finished the process, some
game like activities will be given to the trainees. They may be asked to tell about the first
impression they had about any one of the members. This session can also be made a fun activity
by asking any one member to tell three things about themselves, two right and one wrong. The

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others will be asked to detect based on their impression of which one is wrong. This will help the
individuals in understanding whether they have any pre assumed bias or ethnocentrism regarding
their colleagues. In the process they will learn to come out of the practice of stereotyping.
Cutting the deck game will eventually help them in performing a task together in groups that will
help them to understand that the point of view of various people is necessary in the process of
organisational decision taking.
The second one and half hour shall be dedicated to the group presentation and group
discussion. In this process, I will be showing the examples of the benefits of the diversity
inclusion of various companies that have achieved success. Linking directly to the daily practices
of the organisation that they face daily will help the trainees to gain a practical knowledge of the
benefits of the integration. Group discussion can include the reflection of the trainees personal
experiences regarding the cultural diversity and how they overcame the situations. This will
motivate the new employees and give confidence as well.
In the process of the workshop, i can face the barriers like the constraint of time. Cultural
inclusion and promotion of diversity is a complex issue that varies from organisation to
organisation depending on the structure and practices. People coming from other organisation or
have a rigid mindset can raise questions against the promotion or can reflect on any bitter past
occurrences that can de motivate the other trainees. The discussion needs wide range of time and
understanding and thus, a workshop for just three hours may not be sufficient enough.
Part B:
The main purpose of the workshop is to develop and promote the idea of cultural
diversity and the inclusion of diverse workforce within the organisation. By means of the

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different activities and the group discussion, the idea of the benefits of the inclusion strategy
must be incorporated among the trainees. However, though, this is the immediate objective, the
long term objective of the workshop is to promote and build the traits of leadership and
motivation among the trainees. Management of the organisation depends largely upon the
leadership technique and qualities of a leader who will motivate the employees and make them
competent in taking up new responsibilities (Özbilgin, Jonsen, Tatli, Vassilopoulou and Surgevil
2015.). An employee who will have the qualities of good interpersonal skill and the
communicating power to persuade the team members will have the traits of becoming an
effective leader. Thus, the workshop will help the individuals in gaining an insight of
understanding their compatibility in working with a wide range of people. Moreover, this will
help them to understand the situation and position of their colleagues and the emotional
intelligence of understanding their point of view. This will generate a conflict resolving attitude
in them.

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Reference List:
Alcázar, F.M., Fernández, P.M.R. and Gardey, G.S., 2013. Workforce diversity in strategic h
Crowne, K.A., 2013. Cultural exposure, emotional intelligence, and cultural intelligence: An
exploratory study. International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, 13(1), pp.5-22.
Martin, G.C., 2014. The effects of cultural diversity in the workplace. Journal of Diversity
Management (JDM), 9(2), pp.89-92.
Özbilgin, M., Jonsen, K., Tatli, A., Vassilopoulou, J. and Surgevil, O., 2015. Global diversity
management. London, United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan.
Sabharwal, M., 2014. Is diversity management sufficient? Organizational inclusion to further
performance. Public Personnel Management, 43(2), pp.197-217.
uman resource management models. Cross Cultural Management: An International Journal