Diversity is a set of conscious practices that involve understanding and appreciating interdependence of humanity, cultures, and the natural environment; practicing mutual respect for qualities and experiences that are different from our own (Patrick & Kumar, 2012).

A globalizing society has to accommodate and function with diversity, giving birth to diversity management as a corporate leadership tool (Hays- Thomas, 2004), with the following definition: Diversity management are the organizational actions designed to create greater inclusion of employees from various backgrounds into the formal and informal organizational structures through deliberate policies and programs.

Today diversity management is being learnt and applied across -

• Governments that need to manage a diverse immigrant population, while taking advantage of the human capital they bring.
• Companies that hire people from across the world, exploiting the best cost effective talents available.
• Education providers who recruit students from across the world, with the promise of global education and experience.

Malaysia has always been a place of diverse peoples living in harmony, and where large multi-nationals and small enterprises co-exist mutually benefitting one another.

There are many large multi-nationals in Malaysia that hire people from across the world and develop a strong corporate culture that drowns communal culture.

There are also small industries in Malaysia, where the owners bring their own communal culture into the company, that also hire a diverse group of people from within Malaysia and abroad, all of whom also work in harmony.

What is their secret? How do they do it?  A study of these industries shows that many different techniques and methods go into building harmony and inclusivity among a diverse work-force or people.

However, there are also many organizations that struggle to operate smoothly and productively in a diverse employee environment.

• Directors, Managers & Supervisors find it difficult to manage or deal with their people from different cultural backgrounds.
• Faculties find it difficult to teach students from different cultures.
• Policy makers find it difficult to develop inclusive policies that will manage and assimilate a diverse population mass.

This program brings to the delegates to discuss and learn to manage diverse groups of people from across the world. It will further enrich and enlarge the cultural diversity management capabilities. The program offers solutions to strained work environments overcoming diversity constraints.

Upon completion of this program, the participants will be able to:

• Learn how the main cultures developed, their uniqueness, and the expectations of its practitioners.
• Understand their personal diversity constraints, its origins and influence.
• Learn, practice, demonstrate and take-away the tools and techniques to discard diversity disablers, and develop diversity enablers.
• Be in a more positive and pro-active position when handling abrasive cultural interactions.
• Be able to better handle and relate with students from diverse cultures.
• Be able to manage conflicts between people of different cultures.

Any professionals who work in a culturally diverse environment

Day 1
WHAT IS DIVERSITY AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT

• key concepts
• sharing experiences
• diversity in the news
• benefits of a diverse workforce

GENDER DIVERSITY
• “Women are from Mars, Men are from Venus”
• challenges faced by women at the workplace
• ways to increase gender inclusivity

CULTURAL DIMENSIONS
• power distance
• group dynamics vs individuality
• “tough” and “tender” cultures
• uncertainty and ambiguity

DIVERSITY WITHIN ORGANISATIONS
• case study: “OK, Boomer”
• why does diversity lead to conflict?
• types of diversity conflict within the workplace
• steps for building a more inclusive workplace

Day 2

ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE CONT.
• symbols rituals and values
• case study: culture shock

FURTHER TYPES OF DIVERSITY
• political diversity, informational diversity, class diversity, experiential diversity, diversity of opinion, diversity of sexual orientation
• creating a diversity-positive workplace culture
• applying sensitivity to cultural issues

CULTURAL DIVERSITY – CONFLICT OR COOPERATION?
• The mechanism of diversity conflict
• Case study: JP Morgan Chase
• Empathizing & embracing cultural diversity
• Managing cultural diversity
• Communications & interactions in diverse environments

GROUP/INDIVIDUAL TASK: D & I ACTION PLAN

PROGRAM STRATEGY

Diversity management has very much to do with discarding its disablers and enabling the embracing emotions and mindset of the global professional, one who can work with, manage and control people from diverse cultures.

This program therefore explores and develops the tools that each person will uniquely need to tune themselves to become an internationalist. It has a substantial amount of self-exploration in the context of diversity challenges, with numerous self-coaching tools to apply and take away for continuous improvement and development.

A diligent practitioner of these methods should find the journey to becoming a global professional made easy.

The following tools and techniques will be used:

• Facilitator led Online Training
• Individual and Group work in breakout rooms
• Case studies/ Peer group sharing session
• Videos
• Facilitator’s coaching

BARRAK ADAMS (Dr)
Phd, Author-Trainer-Business & Technical Consultant, Trade Negotiator, Change Agent

Barrak specialises in training leaders world class negotiations around the Globe. He has been actively developing customised trainings and conducted them in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, the UAE, Sudan, Mauritania and Turkmenistan.

Senior Negotiator, Lead trainer, he has a clear and comprehensive understanding of what competencies are to be developed to be a successful negotiation. His abundant knowledge and experience address every situation in our fast pace business world and everyone is guaranteed to take home valuable learnings useful for their next deal.

Barrak comes to you with more than 40 years of enriched, result-oriented experience in many positions among SMEs, government agencies, multinational and businesses. Equipped with solid experience and a wide range of state-of-art resources and latest development, his training programs are geared towards competency development.

With only the minimum amount of necessary theory (he says the participants can read his notes later) his training/ speaking sessions are filled with mindset, behavioural and capability change activities. There is always excitement, A-Hah moments in every session at his programs.

Barrak had worked with the Audio-Visual, Automotive, Printing, Property Development, Construction, Timber and Food industries, in capacities ranging from Group Engineer, Manager, Plant Manager, Senior Negotiator, Project Director and Managing Director.

Being a Management Consultant, Management System Auditor, Trainer and Counselor, he had consulted for an even wider range of industries that includes Medical services, Financial institutions, Petroleum industries, Metal, Plastics, Cellulose and Electronic components manufacturers, and the Civil service around the world.

He graduated in Engineering from the Singapore Polytechnic in 1973 and continued with post graduate and continuing studies in Engineering, Social Science, Rubber and Plastics Technology, Training and Development, Radiation Protection, and Quality Management, with a PhD in Organizational Management from Iowa State (US).

Since 2004, he has since been training and consulting for organizations such as PETRONAS, the National Electricity Board, the National Bank, various government ministries and agencies including Parliament House, and large corporations, further to training in Mauritania, Turkmenistan, Abu Dhabi, Sudan, Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and Australia.

Currently, he is a senior resource faculty member for iTrainingExpert.com, continuously design and conduct customised trainings and consultancy for multi-national companies around the world.

Author
As an author, he has recently published his second book via Seaburn Publishing, New York, titled ‘Pre-Emptive Thinking – Managing Problems and Threats,’ that identifies why organizations continue to have problems at their middle management and operational levels in spite of all the systems and what has to be done to resolve this. Being the first book on this thinking, its reviewers expect it to have an international impact similar to creative and critical thinking. He is now writing his third book on Insights of International Strategic Negotiation.

To contact Barrak for any speaking, training and consultancy engagements, please contact us at +603 8074 9056 | Mobile +6012 6869  628 | +6018 2735 123 or email: info@iTrainingExpert.com  

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For training and advisory services, feel free to contact us at info@itrainingexpert.com or call us at +603 8082 3707 | +603 8074 9056 | +6012 6869 628 | +6018 2175 123