Question

At what stage of personal diversity awareness are you? Describe examples of your own behavior that support your assessment.

I chose acceptance can you please develop

Answer 1

There are five stages of personal diversity awareness which includes defense, minimizing differences, acceptance, adaptation and integration. In the defense stage we assume our own culture as superior and view other cultures as a threat to our comfort level. In the next level minimizing differences, we try to find similarities among the cultures and hide our differences. Acceptance is the third stage where we understand the requirement to think in other ways. We would start accepting the differences in values and behaviors in other cultures. Next stage is the adaptation stage where we are able to adapt to other cultures and start thinking from their perspective. Integration is the last stage where the person integrates the differences and completely adapts with the other culture.

I am in the acceptance stage of personal diversity awareness. I faced many issues when I joined my new job because I was reluctant in interacting with people from other cultures and felt uncomfortable in their presence. Later I tried to interact by hiding the differences in behavior and language. Now I am comfortable while interacting with them and I accept the difference in our language and behavior. Whenever any issues occur I recognize the fact that I should analyze the issue from both sides. In our office, the people from Asian countries do not keep eye contact while speaking. I was very much uncomfortable in the beginning but now I understand the same as the part of their culture and accept the behavior. The facial expressions also made me angry in the beginning and later started ignoring the expressions while talking. I accept those differences and understand that it is right while seeing things from their cultural viewpoint.