s. The Equal Opportunity Management Institute defines diversity as "A composite of racial, gender, ethnic, national origin, cultural, attitudinal, socio-economic, and personal differences." (EOMI: 4300-2) Webster's dictionary defines diversity as "The state or fact of being diverse [different]." (Webster; 191) So, diversity simply means differences, and there are many factors that make us different.
             Who we are and how we approach a given situation depends on many factors. There are many factors that make us different. The primary factors are composed of those genetic characteristics of which we have no control, such as age, ethnicity, race, gender, and physical abilities and qualities. These characteristics are generally absolute and shape our basic self-image as well as our fundamental worldview. In contrast, the other factors of diversity are acquired, discarded or modified throughout our lives. They include such things as our educational background, income, marital and parental status, religious beliefs and work experience. Together, the influences of these factors shape how we perceive and interact with each other. Kay Dupont, author of the book Handling Diversity in the Work place, discusses additional factors that create even more diversity in our environments. She states that there are 43 million people with disabilities in the United States and many of the!
             m are in the work place. These differently abled individuals have as many valid ideas and leadership abilities as the non-disabled, however many people are unable to look beyond the disability. (Dupont: 26-40) She goes on to say that people are also made up of differing personality styles, learning styles and assertiveness levels. Personality styles are about the differing behavioral tendencies of people while learning styles are about the differing ways people process new information. Assertiveness levels describe the differing way...