How to foster diversity within the organization?

Accademia Dimitri > Blog > How to foster diversity within the organization? EN

Form a team management who is sensitive to differences

Forming mixed research teams is not easy and diversity in the team becomes an engine of creativity and innovation if carefully managed. In working groups made up of people with multiple affiliations (e.g. linguistic, cultural, different professional experiences), communication misunderstandings and, in some cases, conflicts can arise. Habits, stereotypes and prejudices can make it difficult to have a mixed composition of the team, thus favouring the recruitment of similar people.

The theme is addressed thanks to an innovative course that combines theory and theatre, developed by a group of researchers that brings together, in addition to the Dimitri Theatre Academy, the SUPSI Gender and Diversity Service and the Department of Business Economics, health and social welfare DEASS (Centre for Work, Welfare and Society), the DFA (Competence Centre for Educational Needs, School and Society BESS) and, as a critical friend, the Institut für Weiterbildung und Beratung der Pädagogischen Hochschule Nordwestschweiz (Theaterpädagogik und Kunstvermittlung).

The course addresses the issue of equality and diversity management in the research team, and is aimed at supporting a working climate conducive to the well-being of female and male researchers and the best achievement of objectives. The theoretical framework of the training proposal is interdisciplinary and intertwined with the qualities and tools of theatre, which allow an experience of putting participants in a position.

During the course various concepts (such as those of stereotype and prejudice) are discussed, and the key words to talk about equality, diversity and differences, and the non-neutrality of words and gestures (their perception, the emotions they arouse). The course adopts an interdisciplinary approach that integrates theoretical references and scientific evidence from different disciplines (sociology, business economics, human resources, social psychology, anthropology, philosophy, theatre and the figurative arts). The course takes its clues from concrete examples brought by the participants and develops through improvisation and simulation experiences, in order to bring out, in an inductive way, tools and concrete indications for an inclusive working environment.

Information about the training offer:

Vittoria Calabretta, head of SUPSI Gender and Diversity Service
Tel: 058 666 61 53,
Mail: diversity@supsi.ch

http://www.supsi.ch/diversity