The book “Diversity in Organizations” by Myrtle Bell provides a thorough outlook on how to build healthy relationships within an organization despite the diversity existing in its collective body. There is a practical piece of advice on how to understand people with other mentalities, religions, and origins. In the following paper, I will focus on Chapter 10 of this book. This chapter discusses the matters related to religious diversity within an organization. Overall, the information from this chapter had a great impact on my belief system helping me show a due level of respect to the representatives of all religions, and their religious concepts.
While reading the chapter under consideration, I was able to reveal numerous unknown details to myself. I learned many facts about the history of religious diversity in the United States. One of the facts that appeared to be very important to me was the information that the country of the United States had been initially formed as a country of religious diversity and religious contrasts. Because religious diversity was assumed during the process of the formation of the new country and the formation of its legislation, it is important to respect it nowadays as one of the main pillars of American society (Bell, 2006). This fact helped me have more respect for the democratic foundations of the United States including its religious diversity, and, therefore, to have more respect for people representing other religions. Reading the account of the history of the development of religious diversity in the United States, I also thought about the abundance of labor invested in this process. Without that great work, so many achievements of the American nation could not be possible. The achievements made due to respecting religious diversity are remarkable in the United States. This should be a great motivating factor for the management and the other members of the collective body at any organization.
In addition, the chapter provides a lot of practical information regarding religious diversity including the legislative norms existing in the United States, and the examples of the situations when these legislative norms were applied to solve serious conflicts occurring in organizations on the reason of religious contradictions. I also appreciated the sections of the chapter discussing the problems that may take place in organizations on the reason of religious discrimination, and the possible ways to solve such problems in practice.
Critically reflecting on the value of the chapter under consideration, I should say that I benefited a lot from this reading experience. In particular, I was able to assess and improve my current way of thinking regarding solving religious contradictions in organizations. I also found much interesting historical information describing the experience of successful doers who managed to achieve a great progress in forming a democratic point of view on religious diversity in the United States.
The connection between the information from the chapter under consideration and the information regarding religious diversity studied during the lectures is very close. Both during the lections and during reading this chapter, I was able to benefit from studying valuable examples of successful people who managed to make their great contribution into solving religious contradictions. Besides, both the lectures and the book offered me an opportunity to gain knowledge regarding the legislative regulations for the matters related to religious diversity in the United States.
Reference
Bell, M. (2006). Diversity in Organizations. The United Sates: South-Western College Pub.