Diversity Issues In Communication Essay Examples

Diversity is defined in the dictionary as a ''state of unlikeness'' or ''the condition of being different''. Since we all are different one can say that we are all part of the concept. Diversity covers all individual, group and cultural differences and is much wider concept than thought before. With the development of technologies, particularly the Internet, the whole world has become our social environment. This means that our environment now is very diverse and the diversity awareness and knowledge is extremely important. Now we all have more chances for witnessing and participating in diversity illustrations, due to globalization and the society change. At present we have older people and women in workplace; we have wide intercultural groups of students and growing population of people from foreign countries living in the US. This means that we are surrounded by diversity in our everyday life.
As stated in the book ''diversity dimensions are the specific traits to distinguish one person or group from another''. The dimensions are many and they themselves are diverse too. Some are visible and by them one can distinguish the person or the group without having the need to interact with him/them. Others are hidden and one cannot notice those dimensions from the first glance.
For example race is a visible dimension, since through skin color, hair texture and facial features one can make relatively educated guess about the person's racial belonging. On the other hand we can have the ethnicity dimension, which is not visible, since it represents the cautiousness of cultural heritage. For example, if the person is representing the white Caucasian race it will be difficult to know, which ethnic group he represents just by looking at him. Besides that there are various people representing a nationality, which they not necessarily think they belong to. With globalization and assimilation processes in the world quite many people started considering themselves ''cosmopolitan'' and don't want to be associated with any particular nation.
Another visible dimension may be the social class. The marital status may be visible with the help of marriage ring. Religion, on the other hand may be visible only if it has visible attributes used by the person, such as Muslim head cover, etc.
There is a wide spread confusion concerning gender. Many mix it up with sex. But in reality this diversity dimension is about the cultural differences that distinguish males from female. That dimension too, needs some examination before it gets noticed.
Only 10% of the diversity dimensions are visible. The remaining majority is hidden. Some, but not all of the hidden dimensions are: sexual orientation, personality, communication style, personal and corporate background, leadership style, military background and lifestyle.
Jenna said ''..Shortly after attaining my master's I worked for a large company as a graphic specialist'' and ''While working on my master's degree I lost my mom to cancer. Soon after I struggled to find myself experimenting with drugs''. The characteristics, which are differentiating here, are the creative nature of her work, her painful experience with the loss of her mum and the courage of drug addict, who managed to quit.
Zach said ''Out of all of the jobs I've ever had, though, the one I have right now is the best of all. I am a stay-at-home-dad: I spend my time with my daughter, Nina, who will be 2 years old in August''. Being a young man looking after a small daughter is very differentiating characteristics these days.
Karina said ''I am originally from Brazil and have been living in the United States for 9 years''. This statement shows her diverse ethnicity, which I am sure also influences her personality, mentality and behavior.
Most of people, including me, judge people by their superficial characteristics in everyday life. Those characteristics create publicly spear stereotypes, which make people judge others and believe that they are what those characteristics tell about them.
Before, I thought that noticing visible dimensions are enough to determine who the person is. But with the time I understood that it is not always the case. Judging people by their visible characteristics only may lead to different misunderstandings and inconvenient situations.