Business Tips Guides

It is always interesting to view the amount of attention which is placed on workplace and cultural diversity in today’s global workplace. The reason of course is clear when you consider that companies are in the pursuit of selling their goods and services to any race, creed or colour. If a company is seen to be discriminating against a particular dimension of diversity (this is readily defined as Race, Sex, Skin Colour, Sexual Orientation and the list can go on) then the distinct possibility may come to the fore where that company may be boycotted and lose out on massive revenue generation that may be taken in by the company from a particular group.

Workplace Diversity is where we see the ugly issues of diversity come to the fore, we see individuals with great talents who are not being used within organizations due to the ignorance and prejudices of shortsighted management teams.

The point to be addressed within this short article is, where does it all start ? well all managers grow up somewhere and go through the schooling system and are ‘programmed’ by their environments, school teachers and companions. There is a worrying trend which I have seen where individuals with responsibilities for schooling children and youth come from background which do not prepare them for dealing with the wide range of background that they may be faced with during their teaching activities.

It has been seen that individuals have been seen to be expelled from various educational institutions where; upon closer inspection it may well be found that the youth are losing out from quality education and instruction and find themselves outside of educational institutions due to the fact that the individuals in charge have not been equipped with dealing with the youth under their care. Due to the structure of the organizations it is rare that the spotlight is turned on the individuals in charge but the youth under their care find themselves outside of mainstream education.

What can be done to shed more light on these sequence of events ? we can start by bringing diversity education into the schools and educational institutions so that individuals are aware of and versed in this critical topic before they enter the workplace.

Much money is being spend on Diversity Consultants because high level management understand the link between performance, diversity and the bottom revenue generating line of a given company. If you take a school with middle class teachers, middle class pupils who go through the educational system then straight on to university and then in many cases straight on into management trainee positions; you see that they are the ones who end up leading within our corporations. Often they are faced with people from various cultures and persuasions and are not equipped to deal with the mannerisms, mode of encouragement and the general skills to deal with people of a particular ethnic background.

The management may interpret they way an individual expresses himself as not being enthusiastic where in fact this may be due to the way a particular culture expresses themselves. Yes you can throw management through various cultural diversity and workplace diversity training programs which will undoubtedly help however, would it not be so much better if they believed in cultural diversity from within their heart’s which was based upon an experience of actually dealing with and ‘touching’ individuals from the different dimensions of diversity during their formative years.

Stephen C Campbell MBA, MSc Is A (Black) Business Consultant from the UK who has lived and managed in the Far East, helped to devise Diversity programs in the U.S. the Far East and Europe. He can be contacted and hired via http://www.StephenCCampbell.Com/

Balance, just as any idea or thing or person, has energy and is energy. As you become more and more attuned to energy, you recognize ideas and things and people more easily, without needing visual clues for proof. You might say that you can see more accurately with your eyes closed.

At a very early age, most people are taught to go after the things that they really want. The willingness to fight is often a primary indication that something is worthwhile. To fight, compete, and achieve are lifted up as important values. Schools, teachers, and parents usually reward those who are “better than” and shame or correct those who are “lesser than.” Managers and Employers usually promote those who provide answers, are aggressive, take risks, and solve problems.

What about you? If you have had such a cultural conditioning, it can come as a real shock to hear that what you need to do is “allow” or “be in the flow” or “let go” or “relax.” These can seem like really soft or surreal ideas if you have been successful by doing things, by charging forward, by taking risks.

In my view, it is not such a paradox. Perhaps that is because I do not advocate replacing outward action with inward reflection; I advocate a balance. I more often speak about relaxation, meditation, and being in the flow because I am most often talking with very intelligent, upbeat, tenacious persons who are very successful in their careers. If I spoke mostly to those who are depressed or lazy, I would be suggesting more active and even aggressive strategies. It is joyous balance that I advocate, a condition that is most often achieved by incorporating a pleasant opposite of what is usually experienced.

Generally, here is how I see the human condition: You come into this world eager and lively, tapped into a deep and profound awareness of your magnificence, knowing who you truly are. Then, you are taught to forget who you are by older people who have forgotten who they are. Then, you act in ways that reflect the established culture, creating false images of who you truly are. Then, you must let go of all those manifestations and forms that you have created and remember again who you truly are.

Being, allowing, letting go, being in the flow, and opening are qualities that help you to remember and provide balance for doing whatever you do. Doers already know how to do; doers need to learn how to be, in order to recognize and integrate their wholeness. If every breath is only an out-breath, there is no in-breath to provide more air to sustain the next breaths.

Balance can be elusive if you try to grab it, to take charge of it. So, too, joy can be elusive if you try to grab it, to take charge of it. Therefore, you must be in a receptive mode. Being in a receptive mode makes you more open to vision and to the power of creating from Spirit. As you allow a higher vibration of energy flow through you, you more easily let go of strongly-held human belief in limitation. This higher vibration of energy is the same as that of the new-born who exude eagerness and trust in life.

At any given moment you might feel as though you are “giving up” the familiarity of doing in order to be, or “giving up” being in order to do. The idea is to find balance over time so that you feel empowered in your actions and empowered in your moments of reflection and silence.

Do you live in the consciousness of joyous balance?

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The U.S. Government has issued 65,000 green cards this year for the purpose of allowing people of foreign birth to live and work in the United States. But what is a green card? How does it work and what is the application process?

A green card is usually issued to people who are normally permanently resident in the United States and who wish to become a US citizen. After five years that person is usually eligible to apply for citizenship and naturalization.

In practice there are two broad ways of getting a green card. These are through employment in the United States and through their immediate family.

The correct term for the former type of green card is the H1B Work Visa. This is issued by the U.S. Government and allows foreign professionals from all over the world the opportunity to live and work in the United States.

As one Fortune 500 company recently told our H1B Research Group, “International job seekers who do not take action now, will miss this narrowing opportunity to work in the US. It is crucial to find an H1B Job within the next few months, to even stand a chance of being counted towards the quota.”

These are common feelings and sentiments from many of the H1B sponsor companies.

Many of the top US sponsor companies who were shut out in the cold, due to this year’s H1B Cap being reached very early, are doing everything in their power to ensure they get their fair share of new H1B visa employees as fast as possible.

People wishing to work in the USA will:

1. Need to find a job within a company who will ’sponsor’ and H1B visa for the employee.

2. Ensure the new employer (known as the sponsor company) then files the H1B application on behalf of the employee.

3. Wait until the visa application is approved by the US Immigration Bureau.

Two special categories involving work are Labor and National Interest. In the case of Labor, an applicant may obtain a green card who shows the ability and willingness to perform a specific job in a specifically assigned region, according to a specific set of skills.

Employer sponsorship may be waived in the case of an applicant who can demonstrate that he or she has professional skills to be of national interest to the United States.

In extraordinary cases, if individuals can demonstrate skills or knowledge that are so specialized that they put them at the top of their field, those individuals can usually be granted a green card without the usual official procedures on the grounds of justified exemption.

A similar arrangement would exist for academics and researchers who are recognised internationally as being at the top of their field.

In the case of applications for a green card because of family connections, it must be through an immediate family relationship. A person may apply for a green card if a child, parent or sibling is already an American Citizen. If the parent of a child (who is a minor) is already an American citizen then the child is automatically eligible for a green card.

Also within the broad category of family relationships falls marriage to an existing American citizen. The American citizen must also reside in the United States and there must be sufficient proof to show that the marriage is legitimate.

However, in the case of the former example, through a sponsor employer, the limit this year is 65,000 applicants. Those who believe they are eligible should seek advice right away.

Gordon Goodfellow is an Internet researcher and technologist who lives and works in London, UK. Graham has several sites on the subject of US citizenship
www.inteltab.com/green-card.htm