Addressing Racism in an Organization

Discus about the Addressing Racism in an Organization.

Good morning and welcome to the annual gathering. To start my discourse, I took refuge to the beautiful words of the famous Robert M Hensel, an unbending soul who fought for human rights. Being a patient of “Spina bifida”, Hensel has understood the necessity of human unity and inclusion of every entity in the society. He points out the necessity of identifying human’s ability rather than pointing out at his disability.

Addressing Racism

As I was preparing for the speech, it occurred to me that racism is nothing but a disease in the society, which needs to be eradicated immediately. It is very much similar to the “Spina bifida”, which is paralyzing our society.

The history of human growth and evolution proves the fact that racism and prejudices have been persistent issues throughout the growth. Even after the hundreds and thousand years of toiling, we, the so called intellectual beings could not eradicate the paralyzing disease from our society. It is widely known, that racism and prejudices are creating hatred and ignorance amongst us. In the present context of social and political turmoil, the issue hence can be regarded as one of the most prominent problems in our society.

Now you may possibly argue about the necessity of discussing such a social issue in an organization’s annual day. Let me remind you that we, the employees of the organization, are primarily the entities of a society, before being the employees. Hence, it can easily be understood that the socio and psychological backgrounds from which we belong to, create impacts on our organizational behavior as well. At this point, I also need to inform you that during past few months, I have come across few instances in this organization that have been threatening to affect the harmony between the employees. Hence, it became very necessary  to address the matter immediately.

To proceed further with my discourse, I would like to take an example of a multinational coffeehouse chain, Starbucks. Recently the company had to close its 8000 stores to tackle the issues of growing intolerance, discrimination and hatred that were growing within the employees. The primary purpose of closing the doors of the outlets was to conduct a staff-training program, so that these issues can be addressed. Without going to the further details of the incidents, I want to focus on the fact that the matter was serious enough that it forced the company to close its doors to the customers and conduct training programs. In this scenario, it is easily understandable that in order to address the issue, the company had to suffer from a significant loss. Moreover, such incidents can affect the reputation of any organization.

In this context, it is also important to focus on the factors that influence these kinds of scenarios. It has been witnessed that the idea and notions of being the superior race and religion have affected us most. Moreover, racism or any sort of racial affinity to a particular group, society or religion can create biasness amongst the employees as well as the employers of an organization. The results of these sorts of affinity and biasness are suffered by the overall productivity of the organization. An organization can only be successful, if it has the perfect amalgamation of talent and skills. In this regard, there is no place for the racial discrimination within an organization. Moreover, to be an efficient and constructive working entity, we should take up and build the working environment where each and every employee are being respected for their knowledge and skills. This respect should be unbiased, irrespective of any cast, creed and nationality.

Coming back to the example of Starbucks, I want to argue against their decision of closing down for a day and train their employees regarding the issue. My view against this move is that how can a training program of a single day be effective enough to eradicate the problems. Thinking about the possible solution, which we can take up as an organization, to secure our future operations, I found communication to be the most effective tool in this regard. Asking the employees about their views and notions, incorporating their ideas to solve these issues seemed to be most effective way to me. These sorts of discussions can take place at any time and they should be encouraged as well as initiated by the leaders. The primary aim should be maintain the friendly harmonious environment within the organization.

Moreover, I find the role of HR to be very important in this regard. The HR should be highly cautious and prompt enough to tackle any unpleasant scenario that might have even the slightest possibility of disrupting the harmony. Saying that I also want to ensure that the motto behind these is not to punish or penalize our employees, but to create mutual trust and respect amongst them.

In addition to this, the hiring practices should also be scrutinized. It is to be ensured that the organization has a good mix of employees, coming from different cultures and backgrounds and are judged only based upon their skills. A talented and skilled person should be hired irrespective of his or her cast, religion, color. In this regard, opting for blind screening process will be helpful. In addition to this, I also propose to introduce the methods of judging personality tests while hiring employees. They should be asked to voice their ideas regarding these issues. Persons, who are respectful to other cultures and religions, can only have the ability to produce something good. As I believe, hatred cannot lead us anywhere.

To sum up, I request all of you to take a pledge of building a culture of harmony, trust and cooperation, not only within the organization, but in the society as well. By respecting and trusting others, we can achieve respect for ourselves. This in turn will help us build a beautiful and better future for the coming generation as well. Thank you.

In the discourse, “Addressing Racism in an organization” the primary focus has been given to the problem that, racism is a major issue in the process of effective functioning in an organization. In order to construct the discourse the tools of critical analysis discourse has been used.

The speech uses the theory of Dilt in order to come to a logical inference. According to Gheorghe (2013), Dilts’ logical theory, the speech has been built in order to reach to the ultimate purpose of engaging the audience in the discourse and coming to solution. Other skills that have been used in the discourse are transactional analysis tool, argumentative moves and language tools. The entire argument is constructed logically and is well explained.

Using the Dilts’ logical level, the argument can be divided into few sections. According to Halpern (2013), the process of critical thinking can be divided into six levels. At the very beginning, the speech refers to the problems that have been persistent within the social context .Hence, the primary level of environmental influence is mentioned in the speech. In the next step, the speech focuses on the behaviors and the possible reactions of the employees of the organization and their ability to overcome the situation. As opined by McCroskey (2015), an effective speech technique employs the levels of beliefs and identity that might act as effective tools of creating a favorable environment. At the end of the discourse, spirituality has been used as the final logical level to benefit the greater system.

In addition to this model, the speech also employs the Transactional analysis tool. The primary method of using this tool is to create a “win win” situation while interacting (Katan 2014). The Transactional analysis tool helped the speech to find and identify the problem, then analyzing the situations and factors that are affecting the condition and finally the possible solution of the problem. The logical levels of analysis is put forward by using the examples of the problems faced by McDonalds’ and the step that the company took in order to overcome the issues (McCroskey 2015). In addition to this, the reference of the poem at the very beginning creates a logical connection  between the social evil and the need to address the issue. In addition to this, the speech uses the method of augmenting and questioning the audience about the credibility of the steps taken by the coffeehouse chain. The argument also points out the facts that the problems of racism should be avoided by taking proper actions by the authorities. In this regard, the importance of HR and organizational recruiting policies has been pointed out.

According to Gheorghe (2013) the organizations should employ the methods of recruiting workforces belonging to various cultural backgrounds. It is mentioned that the organizations should focus more on skills rather than their cultural backgrounds. Moreover, the speech also highlights the importance of human values and respect by arguing for equal respect for all customs and religions. It has also been mentioned that the importance of the organizational screening process is to be understood in order to tackle the situation.

As opined by Dweck (2013), the usage of analytical tool is an effective way to analyze and solve the problems that are brought forward. In addition to this, the speech focuses on the importance of communication to solve the problem. Hence, it can be understood that the analytical tool has been used throughout the speech in order to understand and analyze possible solutions of the problem (Dweck 2013). The discourse then leads to the final purpose of asking the audience to take pledge of eradicating racism from the organization as well as from the society.

Method of assuring is used several times in order to strengthen the argument. The speech uses examples of other organizations and poet in order to provide evidence for the problem. According to Whitehead (2015), the evil of racism that is found across the globe has been highlighted. Moreover, the discourse also points out that the history of human evolution has also been maligned by the problem of racism. Moreover, the discourse points out that racism and biasness are one of the most prominent issues that have been persistent irrespective of time and country. Moreover, the reference of the incident that took place in McDonald’s serve the assurance tool, as it is an evidence of racism that has been witnessed. In addition to this, the speech also points out the possibilities of the organizational reputation being hampered due to racism. This serves as the logical inference of the argument.

The next important tool that has been used in the discourse is the evaluative language. Throughout the speech, language plays an important role to grab the attention of the audience (Dweck 2013). Moreover, the language has been used as an effective tool to highlight the severity of the issue. The technique of using quotations and comparing the social evil with that of a disease has been successful in creating a sense of urgency amongst the audience. In this regard, it can be said that the language has been used as an effective tool in this discourse.

Moreover, McCroskey (2015) has pointed out that the usage of language tricks such as symbolism and similes can be held as effective tools in the speech. The speech also have used repetitions throughout the discourse. This has been effective in highlighting the importance and severity of the matter. The trick of employing repetition has been proved effective in this regard.

In addition to this, the discourse has used the technique of assumption. The terms such as “widely known”, has been used in order to highlight the fact that the speaker believes that audience is in unison and shares the same value as the speaker (Halpern 2013). Moreover, at the very beginning of the discourse the narrator has used Brookfield’s narrative trick by using the personal story (Brookfield 2015). The tricks of using personal opinions have been used all over the discourse.

In the end of the discourse, Aristotle’s modes of persuasion model have been used in order to convince the audience about the ill effects of racism and the possible ways to overcome them (McCroskey 2015). The conclusion uses the assertive tone and approaches the audience directly by asking them to be involved in the process. Inclusion is hence can be regarded as another effective technique to grab the attention of the audience.

Reference:

Brookfield, S. (2015). So what exactly is critical about critical reflection?. In Researching Critical Reflection (pp. 23-34). Routledge.

Dweck, C.S., 2013. Self-theories: Their role in motivation, personality, and development. Psychology press.

Gheorghe, I. (2013). Application of NLP principles and methods in the personnel recruitment and selection process. Economic Insights-Trends & Challenges, 65(1), 159-166.

Halpern, D.F., 2013. Thought and knowledge: An introduction to critical thinking. Psychology Press.

Katan, D., 2014. Translating cultures: An introduction for translators, interpreters and mediators. Routledge.

McCroskey, J.C., 2015. An introduction to rhetorical communication. Routledge.

Whitehead, K. A. (2015). Everyday antiracism in action: Preference organization in responses to racism. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 34(4), 374-389.