Diversity

You are culturally competent when you know that people are different and you can appreciate the ways they are different. People are different in many ways, such as:

·         Age

·         Gender

·         Race

·         Religion

·         Political beliefs

·         Sexual orientation

Employers know that all workers need to work together well. It is important, but it is not always easy. Everyone has values and traditions that affect how they think, act, and make decisions.

You must respect others to work well with them. It may be hard to do this when their beliefs are different from yours. You can see what makes others on your team different. You should try to think of ways that the differences can make your team stronger.

Explore Lessons

Interpret Body Language
Recognize Cultural Bias
Respect Differences

Practice

You may work with people who are different from you. It will be easier to work with them if you understand your culture. Your culture affects what you believe. You can understand other beliefs if you understand your own. You can respect other beliefs when you understand them better.

Answer these questions.  Find someone from a different culture.  You may look for someone from a different region of your country. They will probably be different from you in some ways.

Share your answers with each other.  Which answers do you have that are the same as your partner’s? What differences do you have?

1.       Where did you grow up?

2.       Describe how your culture thinks about teachers.

3.       How does your culture think about supervisors?

4.       What did you hear about people who were different from you? Think about messages from your family, media, and others in your community.

5.       How does your culture affect what you think about people you meet who are different?

Explore for more

You must show respect to all types of people when you work with the public. For example, a bank teller meets people from different backgrounds every day. Bank tellers help bank customers with accounts at the bank.   To learn more click here.