Employment and Socialization Problems of Minority Communities in the Labor Force

Ethnic minority populations are among the most marginalized groups in Colombia and they are reported to suffer from challenges including exclusion, inequality, poverty, discrimination, and displacement, among others. Probably one of the most important aspects that can be examined in order to find ways for improving the lives of minority populations is to understand their integration in the workforce. Do they have equal opportunities in gaining access into the labor force? How do communities find room in the workforce for themselves? How do they adjust? Do they struggle with unique problems? If yes, what are they and how can we better address those problems? Are there organizational strategies that could help them to adjust better? Can organizational leaders do anything for their better adaptation in their workplaces? How can we increase institutional capacities of state institutions, and private-sector organizations to modify their practices to be more inclusive?Our goal to invite a Fulbright specialist is to design a comprehensive research study that could shed light onto these questions. Our purpose is to invite an expert who is world-wide recognized in employee socialization and the receive her support in designing a research study that focuses on the socialization of minority communities in the workforce. We have been putting the effort to gain the support of the Ministerio del Trabajo to execute a large scale data collection in Colombia. This way, we are hoping to have a dataset that is representative enough of the Colombian laborforce where we could analyze the differences of minority community members from the mainstream population.With such a large-scale research study, we are hoping to contribute to the Colombian labor economy by strengthening the capacity of key Colombian institutions to develop and implement pro-minority public policies, guide them in how to better use their organizational resources to improve the integration of the minorities in the workforce. We are willing to shed light onto how Colombia can increase minority populations¿ access to work (and thus economic) opportunities. We are also hoping to systematically examine how organizations, institutions, leaders, and coworkers can support minority community members to enhance their employability. Since the expertise of our suggested guest is related to workplace adjustment and socialization, we are also planning to receive her support in enhancing our internship program at the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences. By taking a closer look into the onboarding process of our last year students, we will work on improving the quality of this educational process both to provide better outcomes for private and public organizations that are hosting our students in the rotation period and to enhance the learning experiences of our students.The field of Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management is developing rapidly. Publication in top tier journals is becoming more difficult each day challenging all scholars around the world. The unwritten rules and norms of the field is changing from year to year. With this reality in mind, our department is willing to invite a world-wide recognized expert with the major purpose of enhancing the research culture at the faculty and to promote international collaborations in research activities. Our students have to do an internship in their last year for graduating. Some students do not adjust fast to the high demands of the work and this also affect the image of our university since students¿ success or failure is naturally attributed to the quality of education at our school. The designed study will focus on the onboarding process in the internship program to examine how student adjustment can be improved. While shedding light onto an educational problem of our faculty, the study will also benefit Colombian organizations to understand how to better handle newcomers in their new work environments.In addition to mentoring these two large-scale studies, the invitee will give a presentation, where she will enlighten the participants about the research topics emerging in the field of human resource management. The presentation will be open to public and scholars from a variety of universities of Colombia. We will extend the invitation to Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Universidad de Los Andes, Universidad Externado, and ICECI University, among others. The PhD students and professors working in the field of management and industrial and organizational psychology will be invited to the presentation. The objective of the presentation will be to promote a space for analysis, reflection and sharing of knowledge and research practices of managing people, around the needs, challenges and labor challenges companies face today with the promotion and dissemination of global trends. This presentation will guide attendees in strengthening their research. It will also provide an insight on the most recent trends in the field. Last but not the least, the planned visit of the Fulbright Specialist will contribute to the enhancement of high quality research culture in the field of human management in Colombia. The invitee is a world-wide known researcher and a great role model for young and even experienced university scholars and researchers.