In addressing diversity, we often immediately hone in on the more common forms of diversity (race, ethnicity, and gender are among the more commonly thought of forms of diversity). If you come away from this topic with nothing else, it is my hope that you at least recognize the vastness of different forms of diversity, especially those that we rarely ever encounter, have little personal experience with ourselves, and/or may particularly have strong views against. A team of diversity experts identified four layers of diversity to help distinguish the important ways in which people differ. View the file Layers of Diversity under the Assignments section for a visual representation of their Diversity Wheel.

Assess and comment on whether you believe their delineation of the multiple levels and what is contained within each of the levels to be valid. Be sure to justify your position.

To honor this view of the less discussed types of diversity, please refer to Internal Dimensions of the Diversity Wheel. Of the Internal Dimensions identified, there is only one which still remains a federally unprotected class; Sexual Orientation. As a manager with the task of managing a variety of employees with differing sexual orientations, explain how you would handle this form of diversity in the workplace in order to help those employees who are considered or consider themselves different feel more included, as well as avoid having the other employees feel uncomfortable by this difference. Please be clear in outlining what you would DO precisely.