Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion in Organization: Organizational Challenges in Globalization Era

3/13/2021 12:00:00 AM

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On Saturday, March 13, 2021, Department of Master of Psychology program along with Department of Doctor of Psychology program held a webinar:” Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Organization.” In this webinar, Prof. Dr.phil Hana Panggabean shared her expertise on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) that has been well-known in global organizations. In these past 2-3 years, there has been triple demands of training for DEI from Yale University, generating US$8 billions income per year. Examples of cases of gender, race, religion, ethnic, and physical (special needs) discrimination in organization were given in this sharing of knowledge by prof. Panggabean. It seems that unconscious bias can be the cause for this sort of discrimination. But, there are strategies that can be applied to deal with workplace discriminations.

 

Diversity in the workplace is defined as an attidue of respect and appreciation of diversity within an organization, which then is shown in the system, procedures, and management mechanism of the organization that emphasize on equity, which would lead to the workers to feel accepted and to identify with their organization (Inclusion). This would help their organization to achieve successfulness.

 

Desy Ratnasari, M.Si, M.Psi, a former member of Indonesia House of Representative (DPR RI) and a student in the Doctor of Psychology Program at the Faculty of Psychology, Atma Jaya Catholic University of Indonesia (UAJ), also shared her work experience at the House of Representative where women are still not given significant leadership positions in politics. Her experience spurred her taking a further study with women, leadership, and politics as her choice of topic for dissertation.

 

A lively and engaging discussion between participant of the webinar with the speakers ensued, being moderated by Dr. Angela Oktavia Suryani, Head of Department of Master of Psychology Program, UAJ.  Discussion among participans was also held in the meeting chat zoom. In closing, Prof. Panggabean stated that in order for the application of DEI to be continous there should be a real commitment from the leaders of the organization. Without support and commitment from the leaders of the organization, the implementation of any system and program that have been formulated for DEI will not be succesful.