Global and Diversity Awareness

Global and Diversity Awareness Author’s Name: Institution: Date: Global Self-Awareness (GSA) The term global self-awareness (GSA) refers to a situation where the action taken by an individual affects every other person that surrounds them. The topic of GSA is particularly essential to learners because it teaches them how an individual’s actions affect the entire world. Additionally, GSA is concerned with the impact of local activities on the international scale and the way the actions bring together different people from diverse backgrounds. For instance, when a person starts their car, it may seem like an individual who is just trying to drive to their destination, but this has many implications on the global scale. If say the driver is globally self-aware, they will notice that the starting their car’s engine will emit carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide gases which will contribute to the climate changes which is per se a global problem. Example of GSA and lack of GSA A practical example of global self-awareness is in the article published on BusinessWeek about the Keystone XL pipeline. According to the report, the XL pipelines were supposedly meant to convey petroleum products to Gulf Coast from Albert. However, the move to install and implement this plan is faced with harsh resistance from environmentalists who claim that executing this plan will have severe implications for the environment. The article further maintains that irrespective of the decision that the United States will make, the pipeline will not transport the oil beneath the ground. The paper touches on the issue of global self-awareness when the author mentions the effects of emitting greenhouse gases during the extraction of dark, crude oil. Greenhouse gases are the infamous cause of climate change. In essence, the BusinessWeek talks about a local oil refining company whose actions have the potential to influence climate change, which a global problem. The second example of global self-awareness entails affluent from factory and runoff from sewage and farms treatment plants to the surrounding environment and into rivers. Another article on BusinessWeek that was published in August 2014 focused on this issue and tried to champion for the need to amend the Clean Water Act to factor in stringent measures to will see to it that firms implement policies to ensure proper handling of wastes. For instance, according to the article, the blossoming of algae in Lake Erie is as a result of poor management of Agricultural runoff which consists of nutrients such as phosphorus that finds its way into water supply systems. The pollution of water by agricultural wastes hampered the safety of drinking water to people in Toledo, Ohio. In this case, this article also touches on global self-awareness because it shows how a reckless action of an individual farmer leads has far-reaching implications to many villages. Cultural Diversity (CD) According to Lisa D. Belfield, culture is the aspect which influences us by shaping our behavior and identity. It entails a people’s way of being, which primarily refers to material objects, shared practices, norms, values, beliefs, and language which are inherited from parents to their offspring. Caleb Rosado (2010) maintains that multiculturalism, which is also referred to cultural diversity “is a system of beliefs and behaviors that recognizes and respects the presence of all diverse groups in an organization or society. It also acknowledges and values their socio-cultural differences, and encourages and enables their continued contribution within a general cultural context which empowers all within the organization or society” (Para. 7). Example of the effect of GSA or CD on decision making According to Jeff Grabmeier (1999), a study conducted on American and Japanese students of business indicated profound differences in the ways students from the two states undertake a decision-making process. Researchers investigated the differences in how the students from the United States and Japan used a computer application to choose one car from a fleet of vehicles that they can be interested in. The findings indicated that the cultural diversity between students from the two countries influenced the way the students used the application to make their decisions. According to the research, American students relied on careful processing of information and crunching of numbers while the Japanese dep...