ch 2

In chapter 2 it talked about diversity and how important it is in the business world. In the book diversity is described as the individual differences that make people different from and similar to each other. It’s not an issue of age, race, gender, or sexual orientation. The chapter also talked about the positive and negative effects of a diverse work environment and it said that having a diverse environment helps attract and retain the most talented employees also makes a good business sense. In an article I found it’s said "Diversity efforts can silence open and honest communication," McLaurin says. "That's bad for both the company and the individual." Misperceptions about different cultures have become stumbling blocks for communication. McLaurin explains that at times non-minority managers want to give constructive criticism but they're afraid someone will accuse them of being racist.
"Handling conflict in a diverse work environment; find the right place and time to air your differences". Black Enterprise. FindArticles.com. 07 May, 2010. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1365/is_9_36/ai_n26815075/

CH. 2

In chapter two it covers how to manage diversity. In this chapter they talked about effectively managing diversity in the work environment. I learned about the, "social categorization theory," this theory is described as, "similarity leads to liking and attraction." In this theory an employee will categorize them self and others into groups. These groups are classified as ones own "in-group" or "out-group" members. This theory talks about how people tend to like and trust "in-group" members than "out-group" members. I thought that this was very interesting and very true. People tend to do this in their everyday lives and not only in the work environment. This perspective further implies positive outcomes with "in-group" social categorization.

Diversity

Chapter 2 is all about diversity and being to able to bring people from different cultures, backgrounds, and with different attitudes, personalities, characters, and values to work together in harmony and of course to work together effectively. The company benefits greatly from such things because it gets higher quality of work but it also allows their employees to work in stress free environment, and being able to get along with their co-workers will want to make employees want to go to work every morning and do their best everyday. Elijon Fitzgerald, Paul Spoonely, and Bronwyn Watson describe "Diversity Management" as, "a broad strand of organisational management literature that was developed as a means of helping organisations respond to the growing diversity apparent in contemporary labour markets. From the 1980s, discussions of diversity management focused on managing heterogeneity in the workforce in relation to demands for "affirmative action" and "equal employment opportunities" which were intended to increase numbers of workers from "minority" groups. Therefore many laws were made demanding that corporations and businesses gave equal treatment and equal opportunity, and such laws became getting passed in the 1960s by the United States. In this new millennium diversity has been seen as having a "marketing advantage" because of the different view points and all the diversity being a positive factor. But, some say that while it has great advantages in the market it might lead to overstaffing in managerial positions, or may lead to misunderstandings and some employees might feel used or exploited. Despite that countries across the globe are beginning to implement what they call "diversity dividends" which involves investing in diversity management today and a byproduct being future diversity dividends.

Kreitner, Robert. Organizational Behavior. 7th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin, 2007.

Watson, B., P. Spoonley, and E. Fitzgerald. "Managing Diversity: A Twenty-First Century Agenda. " New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations (Online) 34.2 (2009): 61-76. ABI/INFORM Global, ProQuest. Web. 15 Mar. 2010.

Chpt 2

The importance of diversity in organizational behavior is tremendous. Diversity among people leads to diversity of ideas. In any type of organization, being accepting, appreciative, and inclusive of each person's background, characteristics, and culture will lead to more effective teamwork, and therefore higher productivity. To create diversity among their employees, companies need to enact specific policies that promote diversity and help empower those who may feel left out or disadvantaged. It is also important for companies to have support for people who feel threatened by racism or diversity issues in the workplace. In Chapter 2, there was an article which discussed the retail giant BestBuy. The company set up a Women's Leadership Forum to help empower women who worked in the company, which would hopefully, in turn, bring more female customers into the store. Female Bestbuy employees had the chance to volunteer with women in their communities. Also, on Bestbuy's website it says, "we are committed to creating and maintaining an inclusive environment that encourages and supports a diverse workforce," which is a perfect example of what any company should do to create a fair and diverse work environment.

Kreitner, Robert. Organizational Behavior. 9th ed. Vol. 1. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin, 2010.

http://www.bestbuy-jobs.com/content/diversity/

Chapter 2

According to Rob McInnes from diversityworld.com, “Generally speaking, the term “Workforce Diversity” refers to policies and practices that seek to include people within a workforce who are considered to be, in some way, different from those in the prevailing constituency.” Companies are required to include a diverse group of employees under the terms of fulfilling a social responsibility, a legal requirement, as well as the benefit of a new marketing strategy.
Social responsibility refers to diversifying the workforce so that companies can give an opportunity to others to earn a living and achieve their career dreams. By legal requirement companies are responsible to follow the law and be sure that employees respect each other. Therefore under the law it makes good business sense to utilize a diverse workforce. Furthermore, it is greatly beneficial to the company to be diverse because in today’s global economy, the market is represented by people from different places with different cultural backgrounds. So when a company employees a diverse workforce they have marketing edge with greater insight so it ensures that their products and services are designed for everyone without exclusions.

Kreitner, Robert. Organizational Behavior. 9th ed. Vol. 1. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin, 2010.

McInnes, Rob. “Workforce Diversity: Changing the Way You Do Business.” Diversityworld.com (2000).
http://www.diversityworld.com/Diversity/workforce_diversity.htm

Chapter 2

Like many, I found the subject of the glass ceiling that women in the workplace face worth putting further research into. I believed that for the most part, women had equal opportunity in the work force. While this may not be completely true, women have made a lot of progress since the early 1900's. One may assume that women are becoming increasingly prevalent in the professional aspect. However, upon further research, I found a surprising statistic. "Women have reached the apex of Washington's political landscape, but they are almost nowhere to be found in executive offices and boardrooms in the state's biggest publicly held companies"

When I read that, I realized I have never made that connection on my own. I then understood what the book was trying to convey by referring to the "glass ceiling" that all women face. "The term glass ceiling refers to situations where the advancement of a qualified person within the hierarchy of an organization is stopped at a lower level because of some form of discrimination, most commonly sexism or racism, but since the term was coined, 'glass ceiling' has also come to describe the limited advancement of the deaf, blind, disabled, and aged..." Women are being held back by their supervisors and managers. This was something that I thought was on its way out, not something that was increasing. I believe that this problem would be easily settled if managers acted more out of ethics rather than personal opinion and belief.

Sources:

Harris, Craig. "Women Still Struggling to Break Glass Ceiling.." SeattlePi (2008): n. pag. Web. 30 Jan 2010.

Break the Glass Ceiling. 2008. Break the Glass Ceiling Foundation. 30 Jan 2010

Chapter 2: Secondary Dimension of Diversity

Toward the beginning of chapter two Kreitner and kinicki introduce the four layers of diversity which help define our unique character and influence our perspective of the world. The layer that resonated with me the most was the third, external influences, also known as secondary dimensions of diversity. Even though we are brought up to believe that we should learn to understand others’ ideas and beliefs, we still make decisions based on our religious affiliation, experiences and other significant things which occurred throughout our lives. These elements influence our perceptions, behavior and attitudes toward each other and that is how we come across stereotypes.

In our last class, we were asked to look at an image of a soldier and come up with our own interpretation of this person’s stance. Every student came up with an explanation, which was for the most part influenced by his or her external influences such as their personal experiences. Breznican Anthony speaks in USA Today about a young couple that decided to marry, against their parents consent. The parents do not approve of each other because both bride and groom are people of color and have different hues. Their prejudiced fathers, though, cannot see past the differences in their cultures; each one does not want their child to succumb to the other person’s religion practices and way of life. As a result, we have to learn to adapt to others ideas, and culture in order to well among each other. Lia makes a good point when she mentions, “No culture is better than another, just different” and we have to learn to understand that.

Source: Anthony, Breznican. "Race and family head to the altar." USA Today n.d.: Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 31 Jan. 2010.

The Importance of Group Work

On the first day of class for this course, I learned how important it is to work well in groups. The excercise we did of passing the rubber balls around and trying to cut our time in half helped me to see how difficult or how long it would have taken for just one person to come to the conclusion that eventually solved our dilemma. One person would mention a certain method that would inspire another person to come up with another idea and so on. What was interesting to me was that once the rules were laid out, we initially tried to make the first method altered to meet the requirements, rather than thinking of an entirely new method that still followed the rules. With each new wave of ideas we collectively eliminated ones that either broke the rules or seemed inefficient. There were not too many people that strongly opposed to a decision we made or too set on their own idea to accept another's.

This is a really important lesson to use in the real world/work environment. Although it may sometimes seem better or prefferred to work alone, it is so much more effecient to have many minds thinking of a solution to the problem rather than just one. People's different perspectives and backgrounds can influence the way that they think or make decisions, and this plays a big role in the way that a team functions or solves problems. Overall, I would say I feel mor ecomfortable working alone, just because I can be very shy at time, but I know that I cannot always get the job done in the best way when working alone. This is why I am able to force myself to be more social or acitve in groups, because I know that it is for the benefit of the cause.

The glass ceiling

The glass ceiling (as described in chapter 2 of the visionary chronicle of our age- Organizational Behavior by Kreitner and Kinicki) is a metaphor that I heard so much during the last presidential election, but didn't understand until just now. Up until now, I thought the reference was some obscure metaphor coined specifically for Hillary Clinton's presidential bid... turns out that was pretty shortsighted of me, and I apologize...

But I found the metaphor (as described in the book) to be very true. Minorities and women do face a certain prejudice in the workforce. Regardless of one's views on the politics of such matters, I consider myself part of a logical breed of people who have this crazy world view that everyone should have an equal opportunity... something about "all men created equal..." must be the ravings of a bunch of lunatics (or, as they are actually called... THE FRAMERS!)

Prejudice isn't dead. It's obvious that women and minorities face an uphill climb toward a semblance of equality, and we need more forward-thinking managers and executives who are willing to take these groups out of positions of limited upward-mobility. It pays to promote good talent wherever it is. It doesn't matter if the person up for promotion is a woman, Portuguese, mentally challenged, homosexual, or whatever the hot-topic "don't promote" criteria is these days. It makes good business sense to promote those with good ideas, and reward those who work hard. We pride ourselves on being a progressive society, but with prejudicial issues still at the forefront of the business landscape, I think we have a long way to go before we earn that moniker.

Chapter 2

One of the most interesting topics that I found while reading Chapter
2 of the book was about the glass ceiling that women has to face in
the workplace. As a woman who will soon be getting ready to graduate
and go into the workforce, this particular part of the reading led me
to do more research about this topic.

According to an article by Nancy Lockwood in June 2004, there were two
reasons that explained the lack of advancement of women in the
workforce. The first one was lack of networking. It was true that
women have a different web of connections than men. Therefore, women
lacked the networking that men had with each other—something that
could be really vital when it came to tips, experiences, and
suggestions regarding business. The second reason was the fact that
most women were considered the primary caregivers of the family. This
meant having to juggle children, chores at home, family, and work.
Unfortunately, there were not many companies that helped women who had
additional priorities, such as perhaps building a company day care for
any working mothers or a better insurance for the woman and her
family.

Aside from this article, I also went and did some research some
statistics from the past years regarding women and the workforce. Some
interesting statistics were:
-Fortune 500 executive officer positions held by women in 2009: 13.5%,
or 697 out of 5,161.
-Fortune 500 corporate board seats held by women in 2009: 15.2%, the
same as in 2008, and just slightly higher than the 2007 percentage of
14.8% and the 2006 percentage of 14.6%.2
-In 2008, 59.5% of all women over 16 were in the labor force, compared
to 73.0% of all men.

Though we may have come a long way from where we were years ago, I do
agree with what was said in the book we read in class, which was the
fact that better understanding of those with corporate power, and
everyone in the workplace in general, will lead to better changes for
the workplace.

Sources:
Bagadi, Deepali and Marrisa Agin. Catalyst: Expanding Opportunities for Women and Business. 9 December 2009. 23 January 2010 .

Lockwood, Nancy. "The Glass Ceiling: Domestic and International Perspectives." June 2004. BNET: The to-go place for management. 23 January 2010 .

Chapter 2

Chapter 2 had a lot of interesting topics discussed. Some of them were Diversity, affirmative action, women in the workplace, and so many more but the topic that sparked an interest within me was the topic of race. It was interesting to see the data that the book provided about the statistics of how America will have changed by the year 2050 regarding race. The book states that, "Hispanics will account for 25% of the population in 2050." It also suggested that minority groups will make up 55% of the workforce in 2050. Despite these findings, minorities still have a "glass ceiling" over their heads just as women do. One of the reasons for this is because "minorities in general are advancing less in managerial and professional ranks than white."

This is no surprise to me but it did interest me so i decided to do a little more research on it.
Many minorities are owners of their own small business instead of working for a company trying to move up in the rankings. These small owned businesses are a big part of the economy. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy, in 1997 minority owned businesses made $495 billion in revenue and has since grown over 168 percent in the last decade. This is astonishing to me. This is just my opinion, but I think that minorities seem to find other ways to become successful and make it to the top when the majority try to stop them or put a "glass ceiling" over their heads. Since facts show that not many minorities advance in managerial ranks, they decide to become their own managers and own their own businesses. After reading through the Minorities and Business report from the Office of Advocacy US Small Business Administration, I've come to the conclusion that many minorities are entrepreneurs rather than workers that start at the bottom and work their way up.

www.sba.gov/advo/stats/min.pdf

Xavier Muldrow

Shortage of Talent or Unrealistic Expectations?

Chapter two was quite an informative chapter on diversity. However, the topic that still lingers in my mind is about how there is a shortage of talent around the world. The exact sentence was, "'The study found that 41% of them [37,000 employers in 17 countries] are having trouble hiring the people they need'" (Kreitner 47).

Now to put things into my own perspective. 37,000 employers is a fairly significant amount, even if it is a global figure. The fact that all these employers are having trouble finding employees with the necessary skills is hard to believe. Is the source of this problem the lack of qualified prospective candidates, or is it because the employers are just having too high of expectations? The cause of the former might just be because of the latter. The only reason that I remain unconvinced that there is a shortage of talent in the world, is because it simply doesn't make sense. Shouldn't talent be on the rise? Throughout the world, people are becoming smarter and more efficient every day. Perhaps the reason that employers are having trouble finding qualified employees is because they're looking in the wrong place. To find an answer, I turn to the internet.

In an article titled "The Myth of a Talent Shortage," Wheeler goes on to explain a few of the possible reason why all these employers have no success at finding employees they want. The one that stuck out to me the most is how companies offer low wages. This could be the biggest reason that employers are not getting candidates with the skills they want. No accountant wants to work for $20 a day. Granted this could change depending on country living costs, but the principles are the same. No one wants to work for jobs that they're overqualified for. Another reason might just be that the job market is too small. It's going to be hard to find a stock broker in Alaska. Perhaps these employers are in a small rural area, and for them to find the employees they're looking for, they might need to move or expand.


Wheeler, Kevin. "The Myth of a Talent Shortage". ERE. 1/23/2010 .

How does the sustainable development demand to manage the diversity?

Most of the Chapitre 2 is about how to manage the diversity in the world today. An other big issue of this world is the sustainable development. And they’re linked.

Nowadays big global firms are asked to do sustainable development. It’s based not only on the environmental issue as we often think but also on economics and social one. Managing the diversity appears as a huge component of the sustainable development that companies have to deal with.

As a matter of fact to improve their results and compete as equal on the globalized market, companies are encouraged to feel really involved in the sustainable development. That means they’ve to manage the diversity to face the currently goals to be the best.

Global organizations have been created in order to reinforce companies’ involvement in sustainable development like the Global compact of the United Nations. Even if there are no sanctions, companies can sign this charte which show their engagement. The global compact is a list of many principles you’ve to deal with when managing a company. Big firms can also integrate the DJSI (Dow Jones Sustainable Indexes) if they’re seen as leader in sustainable development and so in social issue. Such initiatives make the fight against injustices a current priority. Companies want to be recognized as the best one in sustainable development that is a very important value to have today, especially in the world we’re currently living in.

In other words the management of diversity is a key component of what companies want to get involved in, namely the sustainable development.

By making a good, precise and well-adapted management of the diversity companies reach the new vision of the ideal social politic which is required to reach the level of sustainable development demanded.

Women and the Glass Ceiling

The phrase "glass ceiling" refers to an invisible barrier towards higher positions in the workforce which is especially imposed upon women. The Glass Ceiling Commission was created under the Civil Rights Acts of 1991. It was made to help understand and recommend ways to eliminate the barrier between female and minority workers and male workers. Men are more likely to become promoted in businesses than women, and women are seen to be underrepresented in firms. According to "US Women: Breaking Through the Glass Ceiling" by Norma Carr-Ruffino, "40 percent of US managers are women and only 5% of top level managers are women" (Carr-Ruffino). Women are reaching career advancements in a slow pace and are given less opportunities to help their careers compared to men employees.

Discrimination among the workplace is a big issue; therefore, there are recommendations to help even out the equality. Some reasons to why women are being limited by the glass ceiling is due to managers' stereotypes especially towards women's credibility and career commitment. Also, there are questions regarding a woman's decision- making ability. In order to decrease these assumptions towards women in the workforce, sensitization programs should be included at work to help get rid of the myths regarding to a woman's lack of dedication and capabilities. In addition, management training should be open to both male and female employees; equal opportunity policies should also be present in order to help equally qualify workers and boost competition for the management positions. Women have as much capabilities as men, and women should not be limited in the workforce due to stereotypes and myths.

Managing Diversity

"In contrast to the approach being used by Goldman, Bank of America is trying to target the Hispanic market by offering credit cards to illegal immigrants (see the Real World/Real People feature above)" (Kreitner 40).

This feature and statement captured my interest the most. As a fellow Bank of America client, I was surprised to discover the Bank's current marketing tactic. Is this an ethical way to go about growing a business? The full article in which the Real World/Real People feature mentioned offered two opposing views:

On one side of the spectrum, those whom argue against this strategy say that the Bank is "knowingly making a product available to people who are violating U.S. immigration law" (Jordan, et. al.). In light of the recent attacks on September 11th, security and identity verification has tremendously increased; giving a credit card and transaction power to those without social security numbers nor little or no credit history seems to be taking a step backward.

On the other side of the spectrum, the Bank defends itself by stating that it is complying with both U.S banking laws and anti-terrorism laws. With a higher interest rate, upfront fee, and subjective review of the client, the Bank makes sure that they are providing opportunities to those who deserve "somebody to give them a chance to achieve that quality of life" (Jordan, et. al.). Furthermore, the growing number of illegal Hispanic immigrants gives the company a way to tap into the needs of a potentially profitable market.

So is this ethical? After taking into consideration both sides of the argument, I believe that it is. What dissenters fail to see is how the working demographic is constantly changing. Although I'm not saying that we should let all of the immigrants into our country, I believe that the ones that have made it through have become part of a more modern U.S culture. Like it or not, they DO impact our workplace. According to Dr. Pikay Richardson in Managing Cultural Diversity:

"diversity management must be seen as celebrating the individual similarities and differences that each person brings to the workplace. The requirement to manage diversity, therefore, reflects the need for an organisation to adapt to significant cultural and sociological changes with a view to operating successfidly in the culturally diverse global marketplace" (Richardson).

This initiative is part of what makes the Bank of America the second-largest U.S bank. This diversification is what makes this tactic successful.

SOURCES:

Jordan, Miriam, Valerie Bauerlein, and Ann Carrns. "Bank of America Casts Wider Net For Hispanics." Wall Street Journal - Eastern Edition 13 Feb. 2007: A1+. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 25 Jan. 2010.

Richardson, Pikay. "Managing cultural diversity for competitive success." Engineering Management 15.2 (2005): 24-27. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 25 Jan. 2010.

Corporations in the Classroom

Although very brief, the beginning section of Chapter 2 touches on the subject of corporations sponsoring classrooms across the country because of a concern in shortages in their field of study. For example, Deloitte Consulting LLP is not only sponsoring classes for materials and books, but even makes the step to edit the curriculum of the class. Deloitte and other corporations hope to inspire students in their field and hopefully have them apply to work at their company in the future. There is both and upside and a downside that may result from this. The benefit is giving students hands on interaction of what exactly the work field is like as discussed in the article "Lets Get Real: Students Solving Authentic Corporate Problems . The programs purpose is to "challenge secondary studnets to solve actual business problems posed by corporate co-sponsors" (Holt 243). The book discusses how at one point companies would be happy to have students become customers, such as the article "Big Macs for Big Grades" which "rewards high student achievement with fast food" (Hann 1).

This sounds like a beneficial program however there is a huge controversy with parents surrounding the issue of compromising education and educational freedom due to the sponsorship of education. This is interesting to me because the future of education may sadly become worsened by the overwhelming trend of advertisement and marketing of corporations. I never would have guessed that advertising would take place in the classroom, even if sacrificing freedom of teachers curricula.

Holt, Dan G. "Let's Get Real: Students Solving Authentic Corporate Problems." The Phi Delta Kappan, Vol. 82, No. 3 (Nov., 2000), pp. 243-246

Hann, Christopher. "Big Macs for Big Grades." District Administration, v44 n5 p40-41 Apr 2008

Affirmative Action

After doing a little more research on affirmative action, I developed a further understanding on the history behind it and why it has been such a huge movement in our American society. Our book defines affirmative action as, “an outgrowth of equal employment opportunity.” The goal of this is to proactively prevent discrimination by not allowing employers to deny applications due to sex, race, national origin etc. The goal is to have an equal balanced ratio of employees, and eliminating discrimination.

Affirmative action was first introduced by President JFK in 1961; it was made in order to enforce civil rights laws as well as constitutional guarantees. Interestingly, by the 1970s affirmative action had caused reverse discrimination; for example, a white student was denied into medical school for two years straight because they already had enough whites, even though he had exceptional grades. Because of this, “the Supreme Court outlawed inflexible quota systems in affirmative action programs, which in this case had unfairly discriminated against a white applicant.” (Affirmative). Back lashes of angry white men started to occur; no they felt like the ones being treated unfairly. Fortunately, today’s society strives to give jobs to whomever is most qualified weather it be a man, woman, black or white.

After reading chapter 2 of the text, the section discussing organizational practices used to effectively manage diversity by R Roosevelt Thomas Jr. stuck out to me the most. There are eight different options to guide a manager to handle any diversity issue in the work place. Inclusion, building relationships, and mutual adaptation are the most common choices. The least preferred of the options are excluding, deny, assimilate, suppress, isolate, tolerate, build relationships, and foster mutual adaptation.
Handling diversity is important in the workplace. Each option can be used with any collective mixture of differences and similarities. In the book Diversity in Organizations, there are collections of articles written by several different people in regard to changing perspectives on diversity in the work place. One article is called “Organizational perspectives on diversity” by R Roosevelt Thomas Jr. This article further backs up why these eight options displayed in our book are crucial for managing diversity. He believes that managing diversity is a process of responding appropriately to diversity mixtures. He states, “In this process, the manager must recognize diversity mixtures when they are present, ascertain whether a response is required, and select the appropriate response or blend of responses.” The framework will allow the managers to evolve in making decisions regularly to diversity mixtures of all kind.
Another topic in the article states how one would select an appropriate option. R Roosevelt Thomas Jr. believes it has to do with inclination, mind-set, and organizational environment. Mind-sets can often reinforce inclinations or suppress them. People also are not always able to act on their inclinations and mind-sets. Environmental factors encourage and influence a manager’s response to diversity. “These three factors can be critical determinants. Depending on the individual and organizational parameters, in a given situation either factor can assume the dominant role.” I think that the additional information on how to determine which appropriate option to use is important as you become a manager. Each individual is different and by working on developing their framework of diversity they will be able to handle a variety of issues.

Diversity in Organizations New Perspectives for a Changing Workplace (Claremont Symposium on Applied Social Psychology). Minneapolis: Sage Publications, Inc, 1995. Print.

Mixed generations

People usually think that it is too hard to mix different generations in one work team. Indeed, the parents would not work in the same team as their children and vice-versa. They do not have the same way of working because they were not educated the same way. But nowadays, nearly all the firms employ people from different generations. How can that work? Is it due to the new management, or to a change in mentalities?

Actually, we can notice that the number of  Gen Xers is growing faster than the number of Gen Ys, which means that the Ys do not replace the Xers. So they have to cohabitate in the same workplace. The youngest may be angry against the oldest, because they may think that they have less work because of them. This is the role of the manager to make them all work together. It may seem hard at the beginning, but actually, people are getting used in this new way of working.

This cohabitation is made possible thanks to the capacities of all the generations who work together. They make efforts to understand each other, and they share their competences. The oldest ones can share the experience they got from their previous works. The youngest ones are more aware of the new technologies, and are often more creative.

When we take that into consideration, work teams can be created, mixing the old and the young, the ones teaching the others.

The evolution of the demography, for the 60 past years, created a big change in the mentalities, which fostered workers of the different generation sto be inventive to work together.

Chapter 2

When reading chapter two of our textbook, the section about “Mismatch between Educational Attainment and Occupational Requirements” caught my attention. The facts presented by the authors of Tough Choice or Tough Times: The Report of the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce were alarming, claiming that many countries today surpass us in having a workforce with a high school diploma or an equivalent. In addition, they also claim that the U.S.’s population of college students have dropped from 30% to 14% and continues to fall. These statements are a surprise and an expectation of what is to come because I have noticed these trends as well. In this modern age, there are more jobs available that don’t require a college education or even a high school diploma or equivalent, such as, fast food and retail jobs. This sends a negative message to children, misleading them to think that education is no longer essential in acquiring a job or a career. Another factor in lowered number of college students and high school graduates is due to the shape of our current economy. Many students can’t afford to stay in school anymore, and therefore drop out. Because of the increase in drop outs, companies lower their educational requirements in order to hire these types of workers. Others may continue in school but may find out later that continuing their educational career didn’t help them to land the job of their choice.

According to the article, “A College Degree Might be Worth Nothing” by George Leef, students have been over-encouraged by the government to attend college only to find that they might not end up at their dream jobs. The government uses numbers to demonstrate the payoff of going to college even though there’s no guarantee that a degree will secure financial benefits. Leef (2008) also notes that most college graduates are working jobs that don’t require a degree and that attending college has only put them in debt. This article gave me a new perspective as to why some students drop out or don’t attend college. It makes a lot of sense, especially in today’s economy, that some people may find college unnecessary in obtaining a job because of the debts from student loans and lack of job opportunities. Because of this, many people now might view college as a luxury and not a necessity.

Works Cited
Leef, George. "A College Degree Might be Worth Nothing." Carolina Journal (2008).