Book Title: eTextbook: Organizational Communication: Approaches and
Processes
The Multicultural Organization
The Multicultural Organization
Moving beyond the stereotyping and discrimination found in many of today’s
organizations is a difficult task. To illustrate this, Morrison and Von Glinow
(1990) have described three phases of workplace development in the area of
cultural and gender diversity by describing three stages of .
In the first stage—first-generation affirmative action—the organization is
concerned with meeting legally mandated requirements for gender and ethnic
diversity. These programs, typically associated with the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission (EEOC), are designed to remedy historical
discrimination and provide for increased representation of women and ethnic
minorities in the workplace. Unfortunately, “simply responding to legislative
mandates does not seem to automatically result in greater minority inclusion”
(Gilbert & Ivancevich, 2000, p. 93). Indeed, the focus on numbers and quotas in
these firms can lead to intergroup conflict, distrust, and hostility. In the second
stage of development, organizations reach second-generation affirmative action.
At this stage, the firm has met affirmative action goals in terms of numbers,
and the emphasis shifts to supporting female and minority employees. Finally,
a multicultural organization moves beyond the concept of support for minority
members to the institution of policies that deliberately capitalize on cultural
and gender diversity. As Gilbert and Ivancevich (2000) contend, “[R]ather than
simply making a commitment to valuing diversity, creating an atmosphere of
inclusion requires change on many fronts, including fairness, empowerment,
and openness”.
More than twenty years ago, Cox (1991) provided a detailed description of a
multicultural organization that is still helpful today. He identified six critical
dimensions: acculturation, structural integration, informal integration, cultural
affirmative action
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bias, organizational identification, and intergroup conflict. These dimensions
are defined in Table 12.1.
Dimension Definition
1. Acculturation Modes by which two groups adapt to each
other and resolve cultural differences
2. Structural
integration
Cultural profiles of organization
members, including hiring, job placement,
and job status profiles
3. Informal integration Inclusion of minority-culture members in
informal networks and activities outside
of normal working hours
4. Cultural bias Prejudice and discrimination
5. Organizational
identification
Feelings of belonging, loyalty, and
commitment to the organization
6. Intergroup conflict Friction, tension, and power struggles
between cultural groups
From Cox, T. H. (1991). The multicultural organization. Academy of Management
Executive, 5(2), 34–47. Reproduced with permission of the Academy of Management
(New York).
Table 12.1 Dimensions for Describing a Multicultural
Organization
According to Cox (1991), a multicultural organization is marked by the full
structural integration of women and people of color. Women and minorities—
and other co-cultural groups—are proportionally represented at all levels of an
organization and in all workgroups. A multicultural organization is also
marked by full informal integration. That is, co-cultural group members are not
excluded from social activities or from mentoring and other developmental
processes. A multicultural organization is also marked by an absence of
discrimination, low levels of intergroup conflict, and high levels of
organizational identification for all organizational members, regardless of
gender, ethnicity, culture, age, sexual orientation, or disability status.
It should be noted, however, that developing this kind of diversity does not
necessarily mean that members of the diverse organization will always agree
with each other. Hafen (2003), for example, talks about how the dominant
metaphor of pluralistic diversity involves having a wide range of voices singing
together in a single organizational chorus. However, Hafen believes that this
chorus might not always be harmonious, and she argues for “letting all voices
on and (arguably) off key, into the choir, without flinching at discordant notes,
without wishing that they would just be silent” (Hafen, 2003). In other words, a
diverse organization provides both opportunities and challenges, some of
which will be considered in the following sections.
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