Work and Diversity: Understanding Personal Cultural Competence and the Importance of Diversity in the Workplace

Running head: WORK AND DIVERSITY 1
Name
Course
Lecturer
Date

WORK AND DIVERSITY
2
Personal cultural competence
Diversity
Question 1
The concept of diversity is very crucial element when it comes to the workplace. It encompasses
acceptance and respects as well. This concept means the acceptance of the uniqueness that exists
between different people and communities as well as appreciating and recognizing these
individual differences. Diversity can range from race, gender, sexual orientation, age, religious
beliefs to social economic status. The acceptance and respect to diversity mean acknowledging
one another way of living and celebrating them. Diversity includes some other important aspects
like cultural awareness, cultural safety and cultural competence. Cultural awareness enables one
to understand the cultural values, beliefs and perceptions they have been brought up in together
with acknowledging other peoples culture too.
According to (william, 1999) “an environment that is spiritual, socially and emotionally safe, as
well as physically safe for people; where there is no assault challenge or denial of their identity,
of who they are and what they need. It is about shared respect, shared meaning, shared
knowledge and experience of learning together.” On the other cultural competences in respect to
diversity is the ability to respect and respond to health-related beliefs and practices of other
people. It’s applicable to workplace diversity in that an employee is equipped with skills to work
within an environment with different values and customs different from personal ones. A good
example of the type of workplace diversity that is common in the dental profession is the
diversification in terms of religion, race, priory, disability, age and gender. As a practitioner, I
can attribute respect to workplace diversity by acknowledging that religion and race is part of

WORK AND DIVERSITY
3
diversity and every religion and race should be respected in equal measures. No religion should
be better than the other nor should I favour some patients belonging to a certain race while
neglecting other from a different race.
Biases and stereotypes perception is very common in diversity topic and background. The
stereotype is a bad perception or a wrong idea that people have generated about what something
or someone is like. Biases mean unfair inclination for or against an individual or group. A good
example of a personal stereotype that is linked with my profession is that I used to think that a
scientist and a good health care practitioner are old aged with white air. This made me feel
uncomfortable while being attended to by a young dentist or nurse at to some extent made me
lack confidence when seeking for job opportunities at my young age. This stereotype originated
from the stories that we used to be told on how wisdom and knowledge are linked to old age.
(Murnaghan , 2017)
Question 2
People in my community
I am a dental assistant working in mod bury southern Australia. This means that southern
Australia is my current workplace community. It’s a city located at the end of Adelaide Oban. Its
main activities are the agricultural production of tea, trading evidence by structures like tea tree
plaza shopping complex and social amenities like a hospital where I work in to cater for the
larger population residing here. Southern Australia is a region comprising of people from over
200 culturally, linguistically and religiously diverse backgrounds. According to (Government of
southern australia, 2011), data from a census conducted indicated that most people within this
regions speak other languages apart from English, for instance, aboriginal language and a good