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Learning Team Diversity

Diversity is what our country is made of so of course it is reflected in our work force. Demographic differences shape what each us become and affects our working environment. We will be discussing how gender and age affect behavior in an organization. In the demographic aspect, we will explore the urban verses suburban world and well as the differences between skills and abilities.
Gender can have a major affect on behavior in an organization. There are not many differences in job performance between men and women. Both have about the same problem-solving abilities, analytical skill, competitive drive, motivation, learning ability, and sociability (Schermerhorn, J., Hunt, J., Osborn, R. 2005). One difference is that absenteeism for women is higher than men which can be credited to men not having as much of an active role in raising children. Although men are starting to step up in raising children, looking at your work situation, it is all too common for women to take off to tend to their children's needs. Karen Hughes, the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy, U.S. Department of State, balanced work and raising her family but was criticized for doing so. She explained that she would try and take a "midweek moment" where she would leave the office early one day a week. This could be a problem to men who could feel she is abusing the system because she is a mother. That is where negative behavior due to gender would factor in. Another reason behavior is affected by gender is leadership behavior. Media Entrepreneur Oprah Winfrey stated that women leaders she has encountered have a greater sense of intuition than men. She continues by stating that she is almost completely intuitive ("How Women Lead", 2005). That alone can cause friction between men and women in leadership position because men run on a different emotional level.
There are many factors that play a role in the aging process that impacts the changes in the behavior progression as we...