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The world in which one lives in today is different than that of which our parents and grandparents lived. What is meant by cultural diversity and how will it apply to the nursing world? Cultural diversity is important because it represents the difference in ethnicity, age, sex, sexuality, political stance, ideology, religion, disability, group personality, and subcultural movement. The term absorbs a philosophy that is suitably to empower support of social personality while sharing regular goals and fairness of opportunity (Choi & Keith, 2016). A great deal can be learned from understanding cultures that exist throughout the world. To provide a culturally competent care environment, health care organizations along with its personnel must be acquainted with this matter.
Knowledge of cultural diversity is important in all levels especially in the nursing field, whether nurses are practicing in a clinical setting, education, research, or administration. This knowledge comes through communication and education among our clients, colleagues, and healthcare facilities. I will analyze a personal occurrence while connecting it to sociological concepts of power and review how it influenced my life and where I am today.
Describe your experience
I have not encountered a great deal of discrimination throughout my life, but I have observed and been witness to it in the workplace. The occurrence happened to a coworker, who was ignored for an advancement opportunity because of his age. This experience was a crucial moment for me as I considered if this organization was suitable for my career aspirations.
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At the time of the incident, I was twenty-one years of age and I just entering the field of nursing. My team members consisted of two other nurses Courtney and David; both had been employed with the organization for approximately six years. David had served in the military for over a decade before beginning his nursing career while my other teammate Courtney was in her twenties. An Associate Chief Nursing manager position became available and was posted for all internal employees to apply. I was sure that with David’s eight years of nursing experience in addition to his management experience through the military, he would be perfect for the position. While Courtney did not possess any previous management experience and had only acquired four-plus years of experience in the nursing field.
At the point when the position closed, David had expressed to me that he was awaiting a response from Human Resources to schedule a time for an interview. Several weeks passed and David still had not heard anything from HR or administration; however, Courtney was already scheduled for an interview. David spoke with our Director of Nursing who disclosed to him that she had not been notified of whether he will be scheduled for an interview. David expressed the director revealed to him that he was surely qualified; therefore, he should be received an interview.
Several weeks later, David received a rejection letter from human resources informing him; he was not selected to proceed with the application process. Dave was without authorization notified by the nursing director that he was not chosen for the application process due to the fact he was at retirement age. The department heads considered David’s age a liability which would make it impossible for him to provide a high level of continuance commitment.
Examine your experience
Deficits of retirement wealth faced with extended longevity will force many the older generation to work longer. Despite that, age discrimination or ageism may evade the older generation the opportunities to continue to work.
The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) intends to protect individuals forty (40) years or older from unconcealed forms of discrimination during recruitment, promotion, and retention (Barrington, 2015). As a youth, I was brought up in a two-parent home, which instills a hard-working ethic in me that one’s significance is based upon their commitment and strength of character. Attending college, I had faith that if I work diligently that it would open doors and that my race, age, or gender would not be a factor.
Sociological Concepts
In modern society, the image of older adults is mostly negative. Today America began to see a significant change in the market forces related to the workforce. In this modern culture, there is the nonexistence of customary acceptance of a respectful attitude of young people to the older generation. The young generation tends to fear old age or treat it with indifference respectful. Too many older Americans face age discrimination based on stereotypes and out of date hypotheses about aging and the capability to work. People tend to think of older workers as slower, mistake-prone, and generally worn out. These assumptions have cause age discrimination to become too common and accepted in today’s workplace. To solve this issue employers need to become more conscious of the potentially devastating effects of practicing even subtle discrimination based on an individual’s age.
An employer’s or the organization’s conduct can start to interfere with other workers’ performance and worst; it can destroy ideal relationships established by employers and employees. Any behavior or conduct that adversely affects the ideal functioning of teams is unprofessional. When employers are most productive and working cooperatively, they are more likely to stay on the job, reducing hiring and training costs. Thus, the entire organization benefits are more satisfied, thereby resulting in a higher net profit. Professional employers need to work together toward common goals for an organization to function well.
However, there can be roadblocks that affect workplace attitudes and behaviors, thus hindering the ability of employers and employees to work cooperatively and perform their jobs at their best levels. Some examples of these roadblocks may include the conflict between employees, the perception of organizational politics, and conflict or ambiguity of workplace roles (Hardy & Melville, 2019).
While I am optimistic that the power of the older generation will reduce some ageism in the workplace, I believe a more forceful movement is needed to change work and retirement systems and structures, and ultimately perceptions about aging employees. I hope and expect older Americans, known as the protest generation, to do much more to challenge ageism in the workplace and society.
Age Discrimination
Age discrimination or ageism is one of the worst types of unfair judgments next to racial or ethnic discrimination. The one question that keeping coming into play, “Is why do many people experience problems with finding a job after he or she is 40 years or older?” First, it is considered this generation is less flexible, and they are harder to teach changes that are involved in their current system. Furthermore, people over forty years of age will spend more time adjusting and understanding new technologies. The biggest problem is the older generation wants higher salaries; due to the fact they are rich inexperienced. All these stereotypes can stop employers from considering the candidatures of this age, which is a mistake, to my mind.
Older employees often get overlooked for promotions, even if they are the most qualified person for a management position. Promoting an employee with experience over someone who deserves it creates disengaged or disconnected employees within the organization. What is the point of working hard if someone less certified than you will get the job anyway? Disengaged or disconnected employees are the last thing a company wants to experience because they can be expensive to maintain. According to the Gallup report, detached employees can cause a company to loses an average of $450 billion to $500 billion a year (Barrington, 2015).
Age discrimination or ageism has long devastated the labor markets around the world, despite the legal prohibitions against it. Does the company worry the coronavirus crisis is about to make age discrimination far worse? Over the years, the focus on older people’s stereotypes reverses the temperament that the older generation is living longer and in better health than in past years. As people struggle to remain in jobs, is there will continue to the jeopardy of intergenerational conflict or conflict between two generations between the young and old generations. There will always be the risk that employers will become further rooted in age discrimination.
Policies
Age discrimination or ageism is so universal that people do not even recognize it is illegal. To help protect those who would be possibly singled because of ageism unfairness, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) was created with the older employees in mind. In 1967, Congress passed the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), which covers discrimination against employees who are 40 or more years old (Wiener & Famum, 2016).
In 2018, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the nation’s workforce regulator, issued a special report on age discrimination against older Americans stating, “age discrimination remains a significant and costly problem for workers, their families and our economy (Wiener & Famum, 2016).” The real issue at hand is that companies are not willing to look beyond their aging workforce but choose to force them out of the technological sphere rather than attempting to incorporate them as valuable assets.
Rather than talking to older employees about retirement, companies should encourage discussions about “pretirement”, which could entail individuals to work fewer days or job sharing. Pretirement is a practice that can take place over the years as opposed to a single decision to retire. This reflects the thinking of many organizations adopting flexible approaches to all ages in their workforce. The current widespread working from home provides clear suggestions that old office-based approaches are not always necessary.
Reflect on your experience
David’s age being the justification behind intentionally not getting any interview for a position that he was more than qualified for unquestionably caused me to reevaluate my employment within the organization. I did not comprehend how something that was not in his control should have prevented him from obtaining an advancement. I attempted to keep an unprejudiced state of mind when the reasoning was revealed to me. I could see David was disappointed that he was not given a fair opportunity to interview for the position.
In the wake of this incident, I began to question my further employment and my motivation to stay with the organization. I start to seek other employment opportunities along with inquiring about transferring to other departments to distance myself from management that causes this unfair treatment. Not only did I question myself about whether to stay with the company, but I also wondered if I did stay would they prevent me from promoting when I reached an age they considered “too old”.
References
- Barrington, L. (2015). Ageism and bias in the American workplace. Generations, 39(3), 34–38.
- Choi, E., & Keith, L. J. (2016). Cultural Diversity. Music Educators Journal, 103(2), 35–40.https://doi-org.library.capella.edu/10.1177/0027432116670459
- Hardy, I. J., & Melville, W. (2019). Professional learning as policy enactment: The primacy ofProfessionalism. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 27(90–92), 1–23.https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.27.4401Wiener, R. L., &
- Famum, K. S. (2016). How old Is old in allegations of age discrimination? Thelimitations of existing law. Law & Human Behavior (American PsychologicalAssociation), 40(5), 536–550. https://doi-org.library.capella.edu/10.1037/lhb0000199
