Thesis advisor: Deborah Piatelli / This study contributes to the growing literature on the effectiveness of diversity and inclusion efforts in organizations. Previous studies focus on D&I efforts for full-time staff and employees. This qualitative and intersectional study examined first-generation black students in corporatized organizations that are predominantly white through interviews where they could share their experiences with organizational structures and cultures to determine the impact that it has on the performance and identity of black interns. This study assessed organizational cultures of three kinds: exclusive, transitional, and inclusive. Using these organizational cultures, the study determined the way that racism and whiteness culture affects the intern experience. The participants had various relationships with recruitment strategies, diversity discussions, navigating professional and personal networking, negotiating working identity and imposter syndrome, stereotype threat, microaggressions, and professional development. Overall, organizations are engaging in practices that alienate and suppress black student interns while encouraging assimilation. In inclusive organizations, black interns feel like they can be their authentic selves and progress more successfully because of the acceptance of their identity and their ability to share their experiences with that identity. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2020. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: . / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: Sociology.

The history of the United States is rooted in differences and actions that has culminated in the current reality of culturally incompetent behaviors with a lack of diversity, equity, and inclusion prevailing in organizations and society. Through a cultural competence conceptual framework, this research highlighted an action-oriented approach for organizations seeking to engage in efforts to support and integrate diversity, equity, and inclusion. To conduct this research, I developed a cultural competence conceptual framework with eight types of initiatives derived from the scholarly literature on diversity, equity, inclusion, and cultural competence. The types of initiatives point to organizational efforts to engage in developmental and action-oriented strategies that: facilitate leadership engagement, sensitivity, and responsiveness to diversity, equity, and inclusion; specify strategic and operational goals; incorporate cultural awareness and sensitivity in policies, practices, programs, and procedures; integrate diversity, equity, and inclusion into human resource management to build a diverse and representative workforce; cultivate a supportive, inclusive, and equitable organizational culture/climate; reinforce and sustain a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion; employ sensitive and inclusive communications; and implement targeted training and professional development on diversity, equity, and inclusion. The cultural competence framework presented ways for organizations to actively engage in setting action-oriented goals targeting ingrained, systemic, and institutionalized disparities. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2020. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

The study focus on socio-legal dimension of medical data surveillance in the workplace on the example of the South African workplace response to HIV/AIDS. The strating point is the problem of growing data gathering and monitoring as an institutional feature of the information/surveillance society. Studying the problem in the context of workplace aims at indicating possibilities for social partners to respond to the new developments in the area of workplace surveillance and HIV/AIDS management in particular. The empirical data has been drawn from document analysis and interviews with trade union and business representatives from South Africa, involved in developing workplace response to HIV/AIDS. Particularly, the study is interested in identifying ways in which trade unions can make personal data treatment a trade union issue.

ABSTRACT Introduction: As the impact of HIV/AIDS on the business sector has become more visible, businesses have increasingly seen the advantages of creating HIV/AIDS management programmes for their workplaces – and some even beyond the workplace, to their surrounding communities. The aim of the study was to determine the effect and benefit of a large company’s HIV/AIDS workplace wellness programme. Study objectives were to a) describe the effect of the wellness programme as measured by differences in CD4 counts and percentages, weight, episodes of diarrhoea and sick leave; and b) to explore the perceptions and views of the occupational health nursing practitioners (OHNPs) regarding what they observe the benefit of the wellness programme to be on the general sense of health and well-being of the HIV-positive employees. Materials and methods: The study was performed at 10 of the Gauteng factories of a large multi-national packaging company. Quantitative data was collected by means of a confidential retrospective review of 36 HIV-positive employees’ occupational health records. Mostly descriptive and some inferential data analysis was performed. Qualitative measurement was done through semi-structured interviews with nine OHNPs to gain information about their perceptions and opinions regarding the benefit of the wellness programme. Thematic analysis of qualitative data was carried out. Results: The benefit of the HIV workplace wellness programme was not seen when considering CD4 counts and CD4 percentages. Episodes of diarrhoea over time and absenteeism data also did not show any benefit. However, changes in weight were observed (participants gained an average of 1.5kg over the study period) although this was not statistically significant. The qualitative data showed that employees benefit from the wellness programme, particularly in terms of their physical and mental well-being. Emerging themes related to fear of loosing one’s job and denial of the reality of HIV/AIDS; stigma and discrimination in the workplace and in the community at large; trust versus mistrust of the Company’s HIV management system; acceptance of the condition; the acceptability of nutritional supplements; and the general benefit of the wellness programme. Other related themes that emerged included issues regarding VCT, peer education, the provision of anti-retroviral therapy (ART), the role of trade unions, barriers in the public health care system and OHNPs’ frustrations with the wellness programme. Discussion: The most beneficial aspect of the wellness programme appeared to be the trust relationship that employees on the wellness programme have with the OHNPs. Because of this, employees experience a sense of support and are more likely to accept their HIV-positive condition. This contributes to a sense of mental well-being. Early intervention and better management of the condition also occur and there is better compliance to treatment and disease management protocols. There was also a general sentiment that there were benefits in the use of nutritional supplements. Employees reported feeling healthier (e.g. having more energy when using nutritional supplements) and this contributed to a sense of physical well-being. A big challenge is to overcome mistrust amongst the general employee population who have not joined the wellness programme and to deal with the ever-present issues relating to the fear of loosing their job if found to be HIV-positive as well as denial of the condition. This fear and denial perpetuates the reality of discrimination and stigmatisation, which inevitably negatively affects the social well-being of HIV-positive employees. Limitations of the study included a small sample size; inconsistent data collection methods by the OHNPs in the various clinics; the complicated nature of nutritional supplementation, which makes it difficult to study superficially; and that HIV-positive employees could not be interviewed directly as they were not willing to be interviewed. Recommendations: Further research should be performed in the area of workplace wellness programmes. More efficient data collection systems should be put in place to measure the impact of HIV/AIDS and the effectiveness of workplace interventions. HIV-positive employees who have disclosed their status could be used as positive role models in HIV/AIDS programmes. Confidentiality protocols should continue to be strictly adhered to as this promotes the trust relationship. An HIV/AIDS nutritional expert should be involved in advising about the use of optimal supplements in the wellness programmes as OHNPs have differing opinions. Other health professionals could be involved in HIV wellness programmes, e.g. occupational therapists, social workers, etc. Companies should investigate how they can get involved in HIV/AIDS-related activities and partnerships in the communities where their employees live as many employees struggle with issues of poverty over-and-above being HIV-positive.

Discrimination in hiring contexts has received a lot of attention from researchers in Industrial Organizational Psychology. However, discrimination against Arabs and Muslims in hiring contexts has been overlooked in the literature. The current study explores discrimination targeting Arabs and Muslims in the workplace. The theory of multiple categorization (Crisp & Hewstone, 1999) was applied to Arabs and Muslims in order to determine the relative effect of national origin and religious affiliation. Perceived job fit (Heilman, 1983) was also examined using an airport security position and a shipping and receiving clerk position. Participants rated mock resumes on several measures of hireability and ranked the applicants in the order in which they would hire them. The results show that the Muslim applicants were rated lower than the Christian applicants and the Arab applicants were rated lower than the Caucasian applicants. Furthermore, the Caucasian Christian applicant was rated significantly higher than the Caucasian Muslim applicant, the Arab Christian applicant, and the Arab Muslim applicant. This study shows that Arabs and Muslims were rated lower than their equally qualified counterparts, providing evidence of discrimination of Arabs and Muslims.

Employees who have had a traumatic life experience (TLE) and are returning to the workplace face a difficult road to recovery. The workplace as it exists today is not well equipped to handle such individuals. Managers and co-workers lack knowledge of a recovery framework to facilitate and support the survivor-employee's re-entry. This research addressed the development of a cost-free short-term adult educational intervention called Study Circles to assist both managers and co-workers in understanding the dynamics of recovery for individuals after a traumatic life experience (TLE). Herman's (1992) three stage recovery process is used as a model for the Study Circle intervention: (1) Establishing a safety net, (2) Telling the trauma story and (3) Reconnecting the individual back to the work community. As an educational intervention, this Study Circle is designed to complement any individual or psychotherapeutic intervention for TLE survivors. This research considered these questions: (1) How can Study Circles be designed and used to engage managers in a discussion of the problems of returning TLEs? (2) How can Study Circles be designed for and used by managers and co-workers to facilitate the TLEs re-entry? (3) Does a manager having previous experience with a TLE in the workplace engage more easily and intensively in a dialogue with a TLE than managers without such experience? (4) What examples of group-participation dynamics are likely to occur during such a Study Circle? (5) How open are managers to dialogue with a TLE in the workplace? (6) Does the environment and setting of a government agency have relevance for Study Circles in assisting managers to help returning TLEs? The research clearly showed that Study Circles can and do work successfully in the workplace especially in a government agency. Two groups of Study Circles (Group A and Group B), conducted during the lunch hour, attracted both managers and employees. The lunch hour served as an excellent time for Study Circle sessions since it did not interrupt the work schedule of the participants. Each Study Circle program consisted of three sessions where participants, managers and returning TLEs, engaged in open dialogue and discussed questions pertaining to creating a "safety net", "telling the trauma story" and "reconnecting the employee to the workplace." Each session provided insights to the participants on the issues and concerns managers may have in "welcoming" a returning TLE to the workplace, along with feedback from returning TLEs on the expectations they have of managers and the organization. These sessions provided an opportunity to explore uncharted territory in the organization, that of bringing a sensitive topic to the workplace and openly talking about its effect on management and its employees. Both Study Circle groups were different. Group A was homogeneous and shared more feelings and suggested that the organization needed";guidelines to assist managers" in their task. On the other hand, group B managers did not share their stories or experiences with the group, but encouraged the organization to focus on training its managers to "communicate" better and learn "active listening skills." Although Group B managers were not as open as group A managers, the employees in both groups were equally open and eager to share their stories with the other participants. Both groups created their own group culture engaging not only in the session's topic but other pertinent issues relative to manager/employee concerns such as acknowledging differences (each TLE will be different), communicating more openly, and recognizing performance issues when the TLE returns to the workplace. It was concluded that to appropriately welcome a returning TLE employee, managers did not need to have previous experience in dealing with a returning TLE. Their success in this depended on the individual and his/her career experience, how comfortable they felt in engaging the returning TLE, and the managers own personal experience with trauma. Although the Study Circle format has been extensively used in community meetings, church groups and home study groups, it has only rarely been tried in workplace settings. These Study Circles proved that this adult educational process applied in business and corporate settings with business and corporate settings with excellent results. / Ph. D.

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