Learning Team Diversity

Diversity is what our country is made of so of course it is reflected in our work force. Demographic differences shape what each us become and affects our working environment. We will be discussing how gender and age affect behavior in an organization. In the demographic aspect, we will explore the urban verses suburban world and well as the differences between skills and abilities.

Gender can have a major affect on behavior in an organization. There are not many differences in job performance between men and women. Both have about the same problem-solving abilities, analytical skill, competitive drive, motivation, learning ability, and sociability (Schermerhorn, J., Hunt, J., Osborn, R. 2005). One difference is that absenteeism for women is higher than men which can be credited to men not having as much of an active role in raising children. Although men are starting to step up in raising children, looking at your work situation, it is all too common for women to take off to tend to their children's needs. Karen Hughes, the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy, U.S. Department of State, balanced work and raising her family but was criticized for doing so. She explained that she would try and take a "midweek moment" where she would leave the office early one day a week. This could be a problem to men who could feel she is abusing the system because she is a mother. That is where negative behavior due to gender would factor in. Another reason behavior is affected by gender is leadership behavior. Media Entrepreneur Oprah Winfrey stated that women leaders she has encountered have a greater sense of intuition than men. She continues by stating that she is almost completely intuitive ("How Women Lead", 2005). That alone can cause friction between men and women in leadership position because men run on a different emotional level.

There are many factors that play a role in the aging process that impacts the changes in the behavior progression as we age. One of the factors is the changing environment and technology around us. How we live life by working and playing hard and choices in lifestyle such as smoking, drinking and bad eating habits along with lack of exercise and sleep demonstrates bad behavior and will leave you prone to bad health and serious diseases such as cancer. The key to longevity is to understand how important it is to change the bad behavior and the ability to adapt to the changes occurring in the environment such as computers, intranet, and cell phones. Eating, exercising, getting plenty of rest is important with the advancement of age to having a healthy quality of life throughout old age. Social and cultural environment plays a critical role in the behavior process the impact is felt throughout life. It is healthy behavior to keep active by socializing with friends and people in the community. The face of the workplace is changing more employees are opting to retire later in life. New technologies demand for quick learners, long hours, poor organizational environment has made it difficult for the aging to stay employed. Opting not to provide training to upgrade the older workers has caused them to take pay-cuts or lower paying jobs. The behavior is one of worry, anger and frustration. Through the years there are people of different shapes, sizes, age and race all with different employable skills and ideas it is the young who are selected first. Most value a mature person for their worldly values and knowledge advice they can give.

The comparisons of urban verses suburban are quite clear. From the rules and regulations to environment, income, education and behavior the differences are vast. The suburban life is not a geographically isolated, but physically removed from the larger populated areas of urban life. Geography is has different meaning in different parts of the country. Moving from the east part of the country to the west the countries are larger in square miles. This has an effect on the number of police and the courts the behavior in enforcing the law in suburban and urban. The behavior and attributes of suburban life is one of intimacy and informality, a close knit community of social aware and caring people. The urban file is more aware of widespread crime and dependence on the police