Scenario : DEI You have been hired as an external consultant to increase the productivity and reduce the conflict among a team of 20 professionals. The company’s HR team has facilitated many exercises and interventions to improve the cohesiveness of the team whose cultural differences are leading to a great deal of the friction and discord.  Each of the team members has an important expertise that fits the needs of the organization, making it nearly impossible to remove any of them. To complete specialized tasks, the team breaks into small groups of 2-4 members.  The team has three months remaining to create a product that is of national importance. The initial deadline was six months, but the first three months were largely lost due to the cultural conflict.  Your analysis should begin with a cultural self-analysis. You will have an opportunity to think through strategies to support the diversity in the community and improve feelings of inclusivity as you evaluate culturally diverse communication and strategies to support cultural empathy to help differentiate and create equality, equity, and justice in the work environment. After a thorough HR investigation, it has been determined the common theme among most of the complaints and grievances that have led to the productivity issues are centered around the following:  A perceived lack of understanding and acceptance of some team members’ diversity and differences in how they approach the task,  A perception among some inequities are not addressed by the company, and   Some not feeling included when working alongside others  Due to the highly confidential nature of the project, team members are required to live in a compound together for six months; however, they all have personal rooms. They are permitted the same number of hours to contact friends and family electronically (all conversations are knowingly recorded) but they are not allowed to leave. Outsiders are not allowed within the compound. Team members have agreed to work 10 hours per day, six days per week. Some elements of some of the characteristics of the 20 members are as follows: Gender Identity 8 people that identify as male 8 people that identify as female  4 people that do not identify as either male or female Ethnicity and Race 6 people that self-report as Caucasian 4 people that self-report as multi-racial (two or more races) 4 that self-report as African American and/or Black 1 person that self-reports as Asian 1 person that self-reports as Pacific Islander 1 person that self-reports as American Indian 3 people that self-report as Hispanic or Latino Age 10 members of the team are between the ages of 25 and 40 10 members of the team are between the ages of 41 and 66 Ability Status 6 members of the team have reported disabilities that are protected under the ADA.  Religion 16 of them report being part of a specific religion, including denominations of Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, Hinduism and Taoism.  4 of them do not report being associated with any religion and/or report being atheist. Sexual Orientation 11 report being heterosexual 8 report as being lesbian, gay, bisexual, or another sexual preference other than heterosexual  1 reports as not having a sexuality at all BMI 10 of them have a BMI that places them in the normal weight range.  2 of them have a BMI that places them in the underweight category.  6 of them have a BMI that places them in the overweight category.  2 of them have a BMI that places them in the obese category.  Language All 20 of them speak English fluently.  13 of them speak at least one other language fluently.  9 of them do not identify English as their first language. Marital Status 10  report “married” as their legal marital status 6  report “single” as their legal marital status.  1  reports “widowed” as their legal marital status. 2  report “divorced” as their legal marital status. 1 reports “separated” as their legal marital status. *(Since domestic partnership is not legal in all US states, this was not an option to report) Parental Status 10 of them report a parental status of at least 1 minor child 6 of them report a parental status of children over the age of 18 4 of them report that they are not legal parents of any children (minor or adult) 1. Question: Equity and Equality Team Member Three filed a grievance stating that although the team seemed very inclusive on the outside, they felt hidden disabilities were not acknowledged or respected on the same level as visible disabilities. The specifics of the grievance were that Team Member Three needed to take ADHD and anxiety medicine at a certain time every day for it to be effective.  Their partner in the project, Team Member Four, had Parkinson’s Disease and needed to take their medication at the same time to avoid tremors that made it difficult to perform. Since someone had to always be at the station, Team Member Three, who was diagnosed with ADHD and anxiety, was expected to “wait” because their needs were not seen as physical needs, and they needed to give priority to Team Member Four because they were the “person with the ‘real’ medical disability.” Due to the security of the worksite, the doors are opened to let people in or out only once every hour.In an attempt to develop an empathetic strategy to benefit everyone, the proposed solution was deemed equal because both team members had an opportunity to leave to take their medication within an hour. Although not at the same time, both were given the resource/allowance to take a break.   Question: Explain how allowing the person that was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease to take their medication at the exact time that was needed while expecting the person that was diagnosed with ADHD/anxiety to wait until the next available time is considered an equal solution and not an equitable solution through your evaluation?  2. Question: Elements of Inclusivity Description:  Team Member Five does not identify as their gender assigned at birth and identifies as a transgender female. They expressed concerns that they had been placed in a portion of the building that only had a male bathroom, and they do not identify as male, but all of their teammates identify as male. The female bathroom is in another part of the building, and it takes 15 minutes to get through security clearances to get to that part of the building and then 15 minutes to get back to their worksite. Team Member Five expressed concerns about access to the bathrooms of their gender identity. Without any input from Team Member Five on their desires, the proposed solution offered was that they brought a portable restroom into the work area solely for team member 5 to utilize. Question: Based on the actions of the company, explain 4 ways that the plan lacked elements of inclusivity for Team Member Five, which support diversity within the community? Feedback: Let us help you out. Could you tell us more about how they felt excluded, and why it was discriminatory? 3. Question: Importance of Diversity Description:  One suggestion to address the worksite grievances is this:  Make the team less diverse and utilize local people with similar backgrounds because they can work more cohesively. From a diversity perspective, this would not be the best decision. This suggestion fails to use cultural self-awareness to see the benefits of a diverse team and the importance of culturally diverse communication to support feelings of inclusivity.Question: What are five reasons why the team could benefit from not implementing this suggestion and continuing with its current diverse team?  Feedback: You are getting there. Could you tell us more about productivity, and global impact? 4. Question: Cultural Self-Awareness Description:  When you, the external consultant, came into the facility and applied your cultural empathetic strategies to facilitate problem solving and make suggestions for the worksite, you recognized your affinity for the people that seem to lack the most power and privilege because this feels relatable for you. This feeling is part of cultural self-awareness. Question: Explain cultural self-awareness and why this connection exists. 5. Question: Cultural Empathy Strategies Description:  You conduct individual interviews of team members at the worksite to help determine strategies that may best support the employees and their culture-related grievances. During these interviews, you made sure to acknowledge team members’ emotions about how they were feeling and shared gratitude for opening up about what was going on with them. You showed genuine interest in their proposed solutions and were very encouraging that the company was invested in finding supportive solutions for all. The interviews were supposed to last 15 – 20 minutes each, and some lasted up to an hour. You allowed space for each to be heard. You wanted to make sure you asked as many questions as you could to understand the cultural differences and allow the person to share elements of their cultural affiliations with you. Question: Explain how you exemplified empathy in your interviews.   6. Question: Justice Description:  One of the many concerns when the project began was the lack of opportunities for the parents to “parent” their minor children, even if it was from a distance. The employees with minor children wanted to have priority to choose the times to use the video conferencing room first so that they could connect with their children. The decision was made to allow everyone to enter a lottery for the time slots without any allowances for bedtimes for the people that had minor children.Question: How did the solution exemplify equality but not justice?   7. Question: Culturally Diverse Communication Description:  The preferred communication for the company to their employees is through an app on their company phones to alert them of important daily updates, tasks, and expectations.  Some team members reported feeling as though this should not be the only form of communication because they did not like being required to have a phone with them at all times, and the app was challenging to understand. They wanted multiple types of communication include written letters. According to those with grievances, the  strategy was doing the following: Creating barriers biased toward team members who were technologically savvy and maybe from a younger generation  Not taking into consideration nonnative English speakers  Not taking into account visual disabilities that made relying on the app a challenge; and  Forcing employees to have more screen time than they were comfortable with causing physical discomfort among some The decision was made to offer communication in multiple forms, including text messages, app-based direct messaging, printed communication, and voicemails. Each team member had to opt into one type of communication. Each person could also choose their language of choice for the communication. Question: How does this decision support the importance of culturally diverse communication?   8. Question: Inclusive Elements Click the 'scenario' button below to review the topic and then answer the following question: Description:  The design of the project requires six days of work and one day of vacation. The decision was made for Sunday to be the weekly day of vacation since many religions observe Sunday as a day of sabbath. Several grievances were received because some team members felt that they wanted another day of observance for their religious beliefs. There were limited options because the project cannot work with multiple people out on any given day. The decision was made to offer two options for a day of vacation, Sunday or Saturday, but not both, and an equal number of people (10) had to be off on either day. Question: Explain how this decision is mostly aligned with either the concept of equity, equality or justice with support for your choice.  

Identify and describe basic themes common to both disciplines. Analyze the theoretical underpinnings of each approach by: Describing the theory behind each approach. Comparing and contrasting the theories with one another. Considering the relationship to basic behavior analytic concepts. Locate four recent evidence-based studies in the literature that share common themes, two demonstrating OBM approaches and two demonstrating I/O psychology approaches. Consider the research questions, design, methods, and results of the studies, and analyze how they are consistent with the approach taken. Assess if the approach taken by each study was the best approach. Explain your response. State if I/O psychology and OBM are best seen as distinct fields or if one is more clearly a subset of the other, based on your analysis. Synthesize your analysis to justify your conclusions