CHCDIV001 Work with diverse people

Knowledge Questions v1.0 (2016/10/27)

CHCDIV001 Work with diverse people

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Assessment
Knowledge questions
Carefully read through each question posed. Reflect on your learning unit and your own research.
In your response, you should use terms and phrases that you defined in your previous
assessment. In order to fully demonstrate your knowledge in this area of study, you should aim to
present 180 words for each response. A minimum of 150 words for each response is required.
Please note: Where the word count is not met, your submission will be returned to you for re-
working.

1. Your practice has just employed a dental assistant who is profoundly deaf. As you are the
senior assistant at the practice, your manager has asked that you mentor this person to
ensure their smooth transition into the business. While you have mentored other new
employees in the past, you have never experienced working with a deaf person. What
strategies will you use in order to reflect on your own beliefs and values and ensure that the
new person receives all the assistance they need?
To properly assist this person, first is I have to learn the culture and the techniques used
in communication with a deaf individual. In this way, I can avoid to offend the person and
I will be able to offer help in a manner that he will most understand. Writing notes is also
one of the effective ways that I can use. Providing him notes with important reminders
can be an essential method to teach him. Also, allowing him to slowly perform the actual
task will surely be beneficial for his knowledge. I will also let him unleashed his potential
by allowing him to make his own decisions with a bit of my guidance. Aside from that, I
will be open to carefully understand his queries and help him to slowly adjust with the
environment and to the type of job. It is also important to not let him feel different so he
will continue show confidence in what he does. I will be his support system instead of
someone who criticize his outputs.

2. Your practice has made a commitment to embrace diversity, and management is eager to
demonstrate how they are promoting and acknowledging difference. Your supervisor has
asked you to attend a diversity meeting with other team leaders and would like your input
about what to include in a diversity policy. Outline the types of inclusions that should be in
that policy.
I will encourage the company to include different types of people in the workplace.
People in different cultures, different color, lesbian, gays, transgender, people with
disabilities, veterans, or people from different demographic groups are useful to build a
culture where everyone are motivated to share their knowledge and talent. Giving equal
opportunity to everyone regardless of their race and personal characteristics will give
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highest performances in the business. By having diverse employees in the company, we

3. Imagine that you have been transported to a place in the world where the culture, language,
traditions, values, beliefs and practices, food, dress, gender roles, religious beliefs, individual
rights, family roles, and child rearing practices are completely different to your own. You are
required to live in this place for six months without any contact with your home or family.
Describe how you might feel and what would you miss most. What assistance would you like
from your new community to help you settle in and feel safe? Describe how you might
translate this self-reflection to your work with customers and colleagues from a culture other
than your own.
As an ordinary person who is used to live in a comfort of my family, I will surely find it
hard to adjust with the environment and the culture. I will miss everything I’m
experiencing in my own place. However, I also treat this as an opportunity to discover the
new version of myself. If this happen, I will first ask the new community to help me learn
their ways and language so I can properly communicate with them. I will use most of my
time in appreciating their cultures and traditions so I will eventually feel safe with the
new setting.
I will use this reflection as a guide when facing new customers and colleagues. I will
adjust based on their needs and wants. I will make ways to address what they need and
also offer the best that I can give to them satisfaction even we came from a different
culture. At the end, I still believe that differences are nothing if we try to at least
understand the up bringing of one another.

4. A new trainee has begun working at your practice. He has only recently arrived in Australia
from a country that expects women to behave very differently to the way women behave
here. He holds those attitudes, and this has resulted in a number of incidents where there
has been friction between him, other staff, and customers. When his manager has a
discussion with him, he responds positively and understands that he needs to modify his
behaviour in order to continue working at the centre. Outline at least six qualities that the
trainee could embrace in order to achieve success.
First, the trainee needs to understand the concept of acceptance. When he learned to
accept the differences of each cultures, I will eventually learn to appreciate others.
Second, he should be appreciative. He should appreciate the things that that other
people do even if it is different from what he was used to. Third, he should be more
understanding. As he tries to understand other people’s behaviour, he will learn to lessen
his frustrations with other’s attitude. Fourth, he should adapt being respectful. When he
starts to show respect to people, he will also get it from the people that surrounds him.
Fifth quality is being patient. He can’t change things instantly so he should be patient
with the process. Finally, I should be someone who is careful with words, actions, and

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other’s feelings. Keeping these in mind while working with completely different
environment will lead him to success of embracing different behaviours.

5. Your manager recognises the value of inclusion and mentoring and has asked you to become
a mentor to the new trainee from the scenario in Q.4. The manager believes that you are a
hard worker with excellent interpersonal skills. What are the positive effects that the
manager believes will result from this pairing, and how will you go about mentoring the
trainee?
The manager maybe saw that I can contribute to the development of the trainee given
that I have leadership skills. Maybe he saw that I can handle people well as long as it
comes with cooperation with the other person. I will wholeheartedly accept the
challenge to mentor someone. I will take it as a big responsibility wherein I will also gain
valuable experience and additional knowledge while I improve more of my skills and
capabilities. I will be helpful in providing information that he might need. I will also make
the trainee understand that I am not superior to him and that I am just mentoring him for
his growth and for the company’s success as well. I will serve as an inspiration by being a
good example in the workplace, in the way I treat others, and by being someone that
others can rely on in whatever situations.

6. Allira is a Murri woman. She enjoys sharing her culture with customers and colleagues and
feels proud that she has contributed to a better understanding of her people. She is an
active member of her community and both contributes to and participates in a range of
social and cultural activities. Allira has been granted a week of special leave to assist in
planning activities for Sorry Day. The practice manager becomes extremely concerned when
he hears two employees discussing the unfairness of Allira being granted special leave for
Sorry Day. “I don’t know why they have Sorry Day anyway. It’s time they moved on!”
Why should the practice manager be concerned about this discussion from a business, legal,
and ethical perspective? What would be a more positive and worthwhile response to Allira
attending Sorry Day activities? What information could the practice manager provide?
The manager should be concerned because the conversation will somehow create a
negative environment. It may also start gossips and might become a bigger issue if not
properly addressed. In a legal way, Allira being chosen to take a special leave should
come from a due process, and if not, it will really create an issue within the employees as
it can really prove unfairness. Before the manager decide to grant the leave to Allira, he
should have informed well the other employees on why she is qualified and also seek for
others suggestions to also make them feel valued and to avoid the issue of favouritism in
the business.

7. Describe in your own words the meaning of ‘marginalised’ when it applies to groups of
people. What do you see as potential needs of these groups?
As the word “marginalised” is defined, insignificant or disregarded. I would describe it as
the group of people in a certain community who are unheard and unappreciated. These
people might have a lot to offer but are not given the chance to perform simply because of
the fact that they are not being heard enough and they are not even being given the
chance to speak at all. I would say that as we are in the topic of diversity, we should be
more open to different kinds of ideas regardless of the race, culture, sexuality, gender, or
tradition it is coming from. The mere fact that a person has an idea and wants to share it

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shows that that person is willing to open his or herself to the community just to be able to
contribute. And that alone should be enough reason for that person to be heard and to be
allowed to perform.

8. Q.1 looked at the scenario of a practice employing a dental assistant who happens to be
profoundly deaf. What types of resources are available for this person to ensure that their
needs are met, and what is available for all employees of the practice to ensure that they
have an awareness of those needs?
The company should ensure that there are visual aids, flip charts and manuals to be
provided for the deaf employee. It is also important to install proper lights or flash lights
that will word as substitute with auditory alarms in case of emergency. A buddy system
that can serve as assistant to the deaf person will also be necessary to alert him in times
of emergency situations. After ensuring that these resources are available, it will also
help if the employees will be well informed of this so they are also aware of what to do
and how to properly assist the person.

9. What can you see as some of the influences and changing practices in Australia and their
impact on Australian society’s diverse communities?
A survey conducted in 2015 showed that 86% of Australians agreed that multiculturalism
has been good for the country. (”Speech to the Sydney Institute”, March 2016) Indeed, I
agree with that fact as well. What good will it bring if we won’t embrace the fact that we all
come from different upbringing, culture, sexuality, gender, tradition, religion, etc. If we don’t
accept that fact, we’ll just argue non stop and won’t get anything done. With this practice
going on in Australia, I believe it has driven their communities to be far more productive
and obviously, in harmony. Being able to embrace each other’s differences in ideas,
opinions, beliefs and ways of doing things is just like being able to learn different kinds of
strategies you can apply to your daily challenges. By this, people learn how to be versatile
and flexible in terms of dealing with people, dealing with problems, and even being more
creative.