A tower building contest using the famous wood blocks gave CESEM students a chance to discover what their future professional relationships could well look like…. diversity of personalities, cultures, objectives, roles.

How can students learn to respect and take into account differences when working with their future colleagues? Can prejudice and stereotyping be avoided? How can the know-how to engage with different cultures be developed? These are the issues addressed in the Diversity Management course for CESEM students at the start of their first year.

The course focuses on company situations through films or interviews with company staff carried out by the students; theoretical background, an analysis of the filmed situations or interviews using the theories learned to bring to light the issues raised by the actors in the situations and for each student. What kind of relationship do they feel most comfortable in? Can they broaden their repertoir?

We felt that such situations could not be addressed using an abstract and purely theoretical approach. So, throughout the course, the students are involved by carrying out interviews in companies, taking part in role play activities where they are asked to think about their behaviour within a group and with different people.  The course begins with a competition between different teams, each team having different functions with different objectives. They have to build the best possible Kapla tower following a range of pre-defined specifications.” Carine Chemin-Bouzir, Professor with the Department of People and Organisations and course coordinator, explains.