Workplace Diversity Paper

Words: 1740
Pages: 7

Introduction
Advocates of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) inclusive community are now more prominent in organizations. With laws put in place that protect LGBT individuals from discrimination and harassment in the workplace there is less risk for people who identify as LGBT to be overlooked when applying for a career. While the first section of the article discusses how President Obama is an advocate for LGBT individuals and the input that popular media now has characters that also range in diversity in the LGBT community; there is still progress to be made. In Canada same-sex couples were allowed to be legally married in 2005. The United States this year just passed nation wide acceptance of same-sex marriage ten years after
…show more content…
From an organizational perspective there are known to be positives and negatives of diversity. Even though more and more organizations changed with society views of LGBT individuals, organizational cultures can sometimes be built up and it can be difficult to change the shared values and assumptions they carry (McShane, 2015). Organizational culture is explained as “what is important and unimportant in a company, and, consequently, directs everyone in the organization to the ‘right way’ of doing things” (McShane, 2015, p. …show more content…
The three strategies from organizational behaviour are assimilation, deculturation, integration and separation. Assimilation is applied when the new employee joins the culture and values that the organization has, deculturation is when individuals will bring their values and culture but it is not welcome, integration is when there is a merge of cultures and separation is when the two opposing or different set of values merge but do not communicate. Organizations have used all of these to manage LGBT issues in the workplace.
For example, with the Boy Scouts and Chick-Fil-A, LGBT individuals would need to assimilate or lose their jobs. Until recently there was also the army statement of “don’t ask, don’t tell” which was more of a separation or assimilation process, separation in that people were aware that LGBT were in the army but assimilation because the LGBT individuals had to emerge in the culture without communicating their values. Gender Identity & Transgender