Blog

Case Assignment

Read Sections 1 (Introduction) and 2 (Theoretical background) of the following article to gain insight into the complex concept of workplace diversity.

Check the Trident Online Library for the Korkmaz, van Engen, Knappert, and Schalk article listed in the background information. The article is about inclusiveness and diversity in the workplace. Companies have jumped on the bandwagon for inclusiveness and diversity, hoping that if they “have it” they will have a sustained competitive advantage over those companies not yet on board. The problem is that not everyone knows exactly what inclusiveness or diversity are. Some people think it is nothing more than making sure the same numbers of people represent each ethnicity in the workplace; however, inclusion and diversity are much more than skin color or ancestral background, even more than uniqueness and belonging, but that is a start.

Case Assignment

IMPORTANT: Note that the questions at the end of the following case in the Holmes et al. (2021) reading are different than the ones at the end of this assignment description. Do not do the questions at the end of the case in the assigned reading itself. Answer the following questions:

1. Is Dr. Hurston a diverse and inclusionary manager or leader? Based on her traits, is she effective in her position?
2. Is Dr. Westover a diverse and inclusionary manager or leader? Do his behaviors indicate that he is task-oriented or people-oriented?.
3. Is Ben Davis a diverse and inclusionary leader or manager? Is he task-oriented or people-oriented?
4. What is the leadership style of Dr. Hurston and Dr. Westover? (autocratic, participative, and laissez-faire)
5. If you were Ben, would you include a discussion of hiring a diverse workforce or focus more on hiring based on merit? Why?

Assignment Expectations

1. Your Case Assignment should be 3 –4 pages (excluding title and reference pages). This means the submission must be at least 3 full pages. It must include an introduction below the paper’s title prior to the answer to the first assignment question and a conclusion on the last page before the References list page. There should be nothing in the top left corner of the paper and only a page number in the top right corner of all pages.
2. Be sure to cite and reference (using APA Style) a minimum of 3 scholarly sourceslisted in the Course Materials and Bibliography (Module 1 Required and Optional Reading List), in the Module 1 Background Page: Required and Optional Readings, or in the Trident Online Library (peer-reviewed journal articles). Scholarly sources are peer-reviewed academic sources found in the Trident Online Library and are usually journals or textbooks.
3. Insert a heading for each question, but do not include the entire question as a heading.
4. Upload your paper to the Module 1 Case Dropbox before the assignment due date.
5. Include both a reference page and in-text citations. Citation and reference style instructions are available at Trident University’s Introduction to APA.  Another resource is the “Writing Style Guide,” which is found under “My Resources” in the TLC portal.

Case Assignment

The references found online via a tool like Google, in the Trident Online Library, or even in the courses, may not be in correct APA format. For this reason, you are expected to research how to correctly format references. Do not just copy citations and expect them to be correct. The basic format of references are:

Author, A. B. (2020, December 25). Title of the article. Title of the Academic Journal, 55(3), 23-28.

• 55 is the volume number for this fictitious example of a perfectly formatted reference of a journal article. Article titles are never typed in italics.

Author, A. B., Bolden, C., & Cheswick, D. E. (2023). The art of leadership. John Wiley and Son.

• This is the reference format for a fictitious book. Book titles never begin every word with a capital letter, but they are always typed in italics. Notice the use of an ampersand before the last listed author.

MacMillan, P. (2020). Modern paradigms of leadership [Video]. Alexander Street. Available in the Trident Online Library.

• This is the reference format for a video. The video title is always in italics.

Additional citation and reference style instructions are available at Purdue OWL (https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/10/) and Trident University’s Introduction to APA Style, 7th edition.

You will find the following useful as you critique sources:

Herring, J. E. (2011). Chapter 3: Evaluating websites, Figure 3.1, p. 38. In Improving students’ web use and information literacy: a guide for teachers and teacher librarians. Facet Publishing. Available in the Trident Online Library, EBSCO eBook Collection.

Lack, C. W., & Rousseau, J. (2016). Chapter 4: What is critical thinking? In Critical thinking, science, and pseudoscience: Why we can’t trust our brains. Springer Publishing Company. Available in the Trident Online Library, EBSCO eBook Collection.