“The Way it Was” – Age-based Diversity Interview and Report Learning Objective

Develop a greater understanding and appreciation of the “Traditional View” of workplace culture. Directions: This assignment has three unique parts: Developing interview questions, Interviewing a Senior Worker, Writing a summary report of your finding. STEP 1: Identify a person who is approximately 60-70 years or older and ask their permission to be interviewed for this activity. Let them know that you desire to learn about the way it was when they began their career. The person you choose can be male or female, have worked in any field or job, and could have worked in the USA or abroad. It is preferable that they began working in their 20s, as that is the era that we are interested in considering (approx 40-50 years earlier). This person can be anyone that you know, including a person in your own family. STEP 2: Schedule a time to interview this person. It is strongly encouraged that you meet them in person. However, if this is not possible a phone or video interview is allowable. STEP 3: Use the discussion board “The Way it Was” to develop a list of interview questions The Way it Was This step is done collaboratively with inputs from the whole class via “The Way it Was” discussion board. Your job is to post some suggestions for good interview questions on the board and then consider the suggestions of others. Ultimately the choice is yours as to what questions you want to use in your interview, but the idea is to get as many ideas as possible from others using the discussion board suggestions. When you have decided upon the questions that you would like answered, type and print out at least five or more of the questions. The questions should demonstrate a “learner’s perspective” which shows interest in the senior worker’s unique perspective. * Hint: Be sure to leave enough room to take notes after each question before printing them out. STEP 4: Conduct the Interview Remember to be on time. Be sure to listen and take good notes. Ask for permission when using direct quotes. Thank them for their time and if appropriate, offer to share your report after it is written. STEP 5: Type responses onto the interview questions document and upload to Canvas After the interview is done, and while still fresh in your memory, transcribe your notes. You should type the main points of each response after the corresponding question. This should all be on the same document. You do not need to type every word, but your notes should make sense to a third party reader (me!). Once complete, upload the single document onto Canvas for credit. STEP 5: Compare responses with other team members during our in-class activity STEP 6: Write a one page single-spaced report summarizing your findings. The summary report is written to provide your overarching reflections on the experience and to document any insights that you may have gathered. It does not need to reiterate the entirety of the interview, but rather is a reflection on the process and findings. What did you learn about age-based diversity? About the way it was? When reflecting on the activity as a whole, you might also consider how well the communication process went for you. Consider how well executed the process of developing the questions, recording the responses, listening to the answers, discussing the findings in the classroom, etc. went for you. What did you learn about communication strategy and process? What, if anything, would you do differently than you have done in the past knowing what you now know. Lastly, to demonstrate that you can leverage what you have learned, identify and make three solid behavioral recommendations for a younger employee when he/she is working with an older worker. How would you mentor their behavior if you were their manager?