Class Assignment

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) requires an employer to provide “reasonable accommodation” to qualified individuals with disabilities who are employees or applicants for employment, unless to do so would cause undue hardship. Please refer to the “Understanding Your Employment Rights Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA): A Guide for Veterans ” publication and the America’s Heroes at Work  video to help you answer the questions below. 

·        What specific physical and emotional challenges do the increasing number of disabled veterans face in the workplace?

·        What reasonable accommodations could disabled veterans legally request to address these challenges?

·        There are other groups that are also protected by the ADA. Does the law protect each of the groups listed below? What types of accommodations might be requested for each group? 

o   The aging workforce

o   Blind and/or deaf workers

o   New mothers

Your initial post should be at least 250 words in length. Support your claims with examples from required material(s) and/or other scholarly resources, and properly cite any references. Respond to at least two of your classmates’ posts by Day 7.

The American workplace can be very diverse, composed of people of different genders, races, ethnicities, and religions all working together. In fact, the United States is oftentimes considered to have some of the most culturally diverse workplaces. To help you with this discussion, review the National Culture webpage to read about Professor Geert Hofstede’s research into the six dimensions of national cultures. Next, visit the Countries webpage to look at how the dimensions of national culture in the United States compare to those of other countries.

The multi-cultural workplace provides a lot of benefits through diverse viewpoints and experiences that are brought to the table. However, it can also present us with unique workplace challenges, particularly in regard to cross-cultural communication. In order to understand more about how miscommunications can happen in cross-cultural interactions, please also watch the Intercultural Communication Adventure with Little Pilot video and read “Cultural Communication Barriers in the Workplace.”

Based on the websites, video, and article, please address the following:

·        On Hofstede’s Courtries webpage, select a country of your choice and compare it to the United States on three of the six dimensions of national cultures. For each of those three dimensions chosen, answer the following questions:

o   How is the dimension defined?

o   Why is this dimension useful to understanding the country’s culture?

o   How does your country compare to the U.S. on this dimension?

·        Describe an experience you have had involving cross-cultural communication. What tools did you use to navigate your cross-cultural interaction? Did you confront any misunderstandings due to the cross-cultural nature of the communication?  If so, what where they? If not, how were you able to avoid any misunderstandings?

·        What two techniques or skills do you think would help reduce cross-cultural communication misunderstandings in the workplace?

Your initial post should be at least 250 words in length. Support your claims with examples from required material(s) and/or other scholarly resources, and properly cite any references. Respond to at least two of your classmates’ posts by Day 7.