COMMUNICATING ACROSS CULTURES AT WORK 3RD EDITION COMPANION WEBSITE CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION This chapter is significantly different

from the first chapters of the first or second editions. While it still argues the importance of the subject and introduces basic understanding of diversity and cultural difference, instead of enlarging on this (because the ideas and facts are now much more widely understood), it introduces key concepts about culture and disposes of some counter-arguments that students might make. In Section 1.6, it links the topic of culture back to work and organizational behaviour. All this groundwork prepares for Section 1.7, which argues the importance of intercultural communication at work. The material previously included in Chapter 1 on prejudice and discrimination is now, I think more appropriately, moved to Chapter 5, where it is related to barriers to intercultural communication. ANSWERS TO THE CH.1 QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS ON THE EXERCISES Q.1 This gives a chance to ensure that students are not thinking mainly of functional diversity, as employees embedded in their organizations may be. The further intention here is to get students to go well beyond the basic idea of difference to explore their own attitudes. This is likely to work best in a small group. The question is posed where it is because of the relation of the questions to the text, but it might work better after the class has been formed for a while. Alternatively, it can be used at an early stage and then later to show change and (hopefully) development. Q.2 The expectation is that communication will emerge as king. Other possibilities may emerge decision-making and strategy have occurred in my classes and been argued for on the grounds that critical errors in these activities can destroy organizations while poor communication only erodes them. It comes back then to your criteria for importance. Q.3 The first order cause in both cases is increased diversity of workforces and markets. Secondary order causes are internationalization, equal opportunities legislation, concerns with diversity and its effects on performance, team working, organizational strategies, research showing that cultural differences are profound and persistent, etc. The text does not answer the question on their relative importance; this is for debate. Q.4 The benefits given are those of generating and assessing creative ideas and dealing with the inescapable diversity in the environment. Others might be moral giving the organisation an opportunity of doing the right thing by having and supporting a diverse workforce; similarly, giving the organisation an opportunity of helping to build civil society, with multiple stakeholders, which is now considered the healthiest social environment, both economically and more broadly. Q.5 This could really be quite a big project as it involves defining and operationalizing the aspects of creativity to measure and similarly the types of diversity that are relevant. The teacher/facilitator might wish to narrow its scope by stipulating the types of diversity and focus the question by inserting some constraint on the work setting as in in the field of social work. Q.6 This question and the next are intended to bring out emotionally loaded beliefs and values that may prevent students studying the subject objectively. They are not intended to reflect cultural values. Descent is not the main issue in ethnicity; in one definition belief in a common descent is part of the definition, but belief in a common heritage and culture are more important. Q.7 I do not ascribe more than a minor role in communication behaviour to genetics (descent). Q.8 The Economist argument was that the legal and political problems it creates are insoluble.

The article argued that size matters, but the smallest may most need protection; history does not help all peoples migrated at some point, so when do you draw the line; language differences from the host population dont work vide Irish and English. The whole idea of ethnicity is a spurious hangover from the past anyway. If it depends on DNA, then what about intermarriage and adoption? If it depends on ancestry, get out that copy of the Nuremberg laws. Cultural or linguistic definitions also fail: how many Roma speak Romani, for instance? URL: http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displaystory.cfm?story_id=E1_TQGRGGPG Q.9 This is intended to lead to a discussion of the underlying factors influencing wage and other differentials. In different societies and industries different economic and structural factors apply though in the end it comes down to prejudice and culture. Q.10 In the interest of science, it would be desirable to know this information, but the data are not available; in terms of the books objectives, it is less important. Individual readers may be more concerned with one category or another (for instance, a man who works in a predominantly female environment may be most concerned with gender) but not likely to need to know the overall picture on this one. Q.11 In many developed countries retirement ages are being increased. This could mean that it will take longer on average for younger workers to achieve senior positions and/or that they will find themselves managing larger numbers of people who are older and more experienced than they are. Face issues become more important and should be carefully attended to. An unbiased attitude to the abilities of older workers really helps. Q.12 Given a reasonable level of environmental adaptation, many people who are treated as disabled can function as well as or better than others who are not so defined. Beliefs about disability difference and their effects on inter-ability communication are described in Chapters 4 and 5; the purpose here is to expose and dispel prejudice. Q.13 Hofstedes argument was that a peoples culture pre-exists and largely determines the nature of their religion; Huntingtons that the religion in turn strongly influences their culture. Q.14 In the West, the degree to which women are seen as different inferior and unable to compete for most jobs has shifted; on the other hand, young children are now regarded as entitled to a work-free childhood, unlike previously. Q.15 Preferences, shopping practices, family decision-making practices. Preferences: acceptable and unacceptable foods not only on religious grounds, but also, e.g. eating horse meat in France (acceptable) and the UK (widely unacceptable). Shopping practices: in many Islamic countries, men do most of the regular shopping. Family decision-making practices: children have a particularly strong influence in Japan. Q.16 Banking: in cosmopolitan cities, bank tellers and their customers are often from different cultures; in the USA and UK, the offshoring of bank call centres to India introduces a systematic intercultural situation. Tourism: in international tourism intercultural contact is pervasive. Healthcare: As well as the young caring for the old and women nurses caring for men, it is common for eg Philippino carers to look after people with disabilities in the West. Q.17 Surface culture: there are dozens of examples on popular intercultural communication websites; self-introduction practices handshaking styles and bows apply. Deep culture: see Chapter 4! Q.18 Legal, pop music, cooking. Q.19 An example would be I am British, my colleague is Indian. We both try not to make the other feel bad about the colonial past! Q.20 As a class exercise, this could produce an interesting list of criteria for deciding whether diversity is valued in an organization. Q.21 This is only part of the reason, as the rest of the book shows. Stereotypes, emotional differences and emotions (e.g. interethnic communication apprehension) are two of many other factors. Q.22 Value of international trade, change in stocks of foreign population, change in stocks of ethnic minorities in the population, labour market participation and employment rates for different demographic subgroups, percentages of different demographic subgroups working in

industries with higher and lower levels of face-to-face contact both internally and externally (service versus manufacturing is a poor indicator here). EXTRA QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 1. Using the example of an organization known to you, identify aspects of the enterprise that are affected by culture and others that are not. Explain the reasons for the difference. 2. The text gives reasons why workforce diversity is increasingly significant in Europe. Compare this with the situation in another continent or country (such as South East Asia, Japan, America, Australia). ADDITIONAL MATERIAL AND COMMENTS ON THE TEXT 1.1 THE IMPORTANCE OF WORK COMMUNICATION p.7 it is likely that communication is the most important work activity, especially in modern, service-oriented, team-based organisations. a. I have not introduced the concept of social capital in the book, although I have referred to it where necessary; some teachers may wish to use it with their students. It is described in my Interactive Behaviour at Work (3rd edn.) pp.401: Social capital is broadly defined as an asset that inheres in social relations and networks. It is jointly owned, not controlled by any one individual or entity, not marketable, and not knowledge itself. It is an asset that must be managed appropriately if its value is to be realised. It changes as relationships and rewards change over time and disappears when the relations cease to exist. It is a moral resource, the supply of which increases with use. More is better than less.24 The concept of social capital originated in criticisms of economic theories that assume fragile, dyadic exchanges. These provide an "under-socialised model of human action that does not take into account how actors are embedded in social systems."25 Systems with strong social capital are characterised by generalised trust, which rests on norms and behaviours that are shared with others in the social unit as a whole. "Ironically strong interpersonal ties (like kinship and intimate friendship) are less important than weak ties (like acquaintanceship and shared membership in secondary associations) in sustaining community cohesion and collective action." A society that has established patterns of trust, co-operation and social interaction generally is known as civil society that will result in a more vigorous economy, more democratic and effective government and fewer social problems. Organizations strong in social capital will exhibit resilient trust, even among individuals connected generally rather than personally.26 An atmosphere of trust is often a boon to organizational efficiency but such an atmosphere is easily jeopardized by poor institutional design. In the modern workplace, for example, close monitoring of workers can be counterproductive. If workers feel they are not trusted, they may have no qualms about shirking whenever the supervisor's back is turned. On the other hand, workers who are trusted to do their jobs with minimal supervision may be more likely to repay that trust by working conscientiously. Some further points: The term refers to relational resources, embedded in cross-cutting personal ties within and between organizations. It is a productive resource, facilitating actions that range from an individuals occupational attainment to a firms business operation. Some definitions include the norms and values associated with social relationships. (Tsai and Ghoshal, 1998) Hermann-Pillath (2009) considered that Chinese social capital represents a culturally specific mix of weak and strong ties, resulting in a special strength in coping with uncertainty, a special capacity to mobilize social relations in entrepreneurship and a special form of networking among political and economic elites. Civic culture theory (Almond and Verba 1963) and its derivatives (Inglehart 1990) tie social capital, interpersonal trust, or both to participation and a civic culture and this, in turn, to democracy.

Tsai, W. and Ghoshal, S. (1998) Social capital and value creation: the role of intra-firm networks, Academy of Management Journal, 41(4): 46476. Hermann-Pillath, C. (2009) Social capital, Chinese-style: individualism, relational collectivism and the cultural embeddedness of the institutions-performance link The China Economic Journal, 2(3 ): 325 - 50

Almond, G.A., Verba, S. (1963) The Civic Culture. Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Company. Inglehart, R. (1990) Culture Shift in Advanced Industrial Society, Princeton University Press.

p.7 The new recognition that in order to compete modern organisations need to tap the creativity, expertise and know-how of all their employees places a premium on interpersonal communication. The first edition of this book put forward another line of argument at this point: Tompkins and Cheney (1985), for instance, argued that concertive control is more effective than the other three kinds simple control, technical control or bureaucratic control. Concertive control means using interpersonal relationships and teamwork to achieve a shared reality and shared values, thus leading to higher identification of employees with the organisations assumptions and an increased likelihood that the decisions they will make will be consistent with the organisations objectives and mission. Rosabeth Moss Kanter in The Changemasters (1983) depicted high-performing organisations in her study as highly participative and able to manage high levels of complexity successfully through effective communication. She argued, to produce innovation, more complexity is essential: more relationships, more sources of information, more angles on the problem, more ways to pull in human and material resources, more ways to walk around and across the organisation. Communicating Across Cultures 1st edn My recent book, Culture and Business in Asia, noted the Japanese preference for cultural control, which similarly requires effective interpersonal communication.
Tompkins, P.K. and Cheney, G. (1985) Communication and unobtrusive control in contemporary organisations in McPhee R.D. and Tompkins, P.K. (eds) Organisational Communication: Traditional Themes and New Directions, Beverly Hills, CA: Sage. Kanter, R.M. (1983) The Changemasters: Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the American Corporation, New York: Simon & Schuster.

1.2 THE GROWTH IN CONTACT WITH DIFFERENT OTHERS AT WORK pp.8-9 The meaning of diversity According to Pelled et al (1999) The term demographic diversity refers to the degree to which a unit (e.g., a work group or organization) is heterogeneous with respect to demographic attributes. Attributes classified as demographic are generally immutable characteristics such as age, gender, and ethnicity; attributes that describe individuals' relationships with organizations, such as organizational tenure or functional area; and attributes that identify individuals' positions within society, such as marital status.
Pelled, L.H., Eisenhardt, K.M. and Xin, K.R. (1999) Exploring the black box: an analysis of work group diversity, conflict and performance, Administrative Science Quarterly, 44: 128.

p.10 definition of ethnic identity Unfortunately, definitions of ethnicity are controversial and may in themselves be racist. 'Ethnic', may refer to those who are different from some indigenous norm; ethnicity is seen as an attribute of others not of the dominant group: the English, for instance, see themselves as individuals, others as members of groups. Responsibility for disadvantage is laid at the door of those who 'fail' to change, i.e. adopt 'our ways'.a Mason (1995) pointed out that in Britain ethnic minority is widely understood to denote a category of people whose recent origins lie in the countries of the New Commonwealth and Pakistan. It is not so often used of people of Polish origin, for instance, but is treated as referring to skin colour. As a result, the term ethnic minorities is applied to members of the long-established black communities in, for example, Liverpool and Cardiff, who are culturally indistinguishable from their white

neighbours. This terminology is even used in official statistics: the UK Labour Force Survey, whose statistics will be used in this chapter, include European minorities in with the White majority, so that ethnic minorities refers to Black ethnicity. The terminological challenges, Mason contends, are to: avoid assimilist assumptions that is assuming that minorities 'should' assimilate to the culture of the majority in the way implied by terms such as immigrant; avoid racist biological determinism assumptions; recognise diversity; focus on culture.b
Communicating Across Cultures, 1st Edn. Wallman, S. (1986) Ethnicity at Work, London: Macmillan. Mason, D. (1995) Race and Ethnicity in Modern Britain, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

p.10 A box from the 2nd edition: Officially, Britain has five main ethnic categories: white, mixed, black, Asian and other. It is all voluntary; you can describe yourself as you like. At one of Britains main black information outfits, Blink, the editor, Don de Silva, is of Sri Lankan origin. Black is a generic term and includes all ethnic minorities, he says. That includes Jews. The muddle reflects history: now outnumbered, blacks were once the biggest immigrant grouping. some groups campaigning against prejudice come under it [the label Black], others march beside it. And other categories are just as tricky: if you think it is hard defining what black means, just try pinning down the meaning of European.
Source: The Economist, 20 September 2003, p. 37

p.10 The significance of national and ethnic differences for communication at work is affected by labour market participation and employment rates In 2004, the UKs Labour Force Survey reported the following: Unemployment rates for people from non-White ethnic groups were generally higher than those from White ethnic groups. However, Indian men had a similar level of unemployment to Other White men, at 7 per cent and 6 per cent respectively. In 2004 Pakistani women had the highest unemployment rates in Great Britain, at 20 per cent. The next highest female rates were among women from the Black African or Mixed ethnic groups (each 12 per cent). These rates were around three times the rates for White British and White Irish women (4 per cent each). The unemployment rates for Black Caribbean (9 per cent), Indian (8 per cent) and Chinese (7 per cent) women were around twice the rates for White British and White Irish women. Among men, those from Black Caribbean, Black African, Bangladeshi and Mixed ethnic groups had the highest unemployment rates (between 13 and 14 per cent). These rates were around three times the rates for White British and White Irish men (5 per cent in each case). The unemployment rates for Pakistani and Chinese men, 11 and 10 per cent, were around twice the rates for White British men or White Irish men. The unemployment rate for Indian men (7 per cent) was similar to those for White British or White Irish men. There is evidence that unemployment among people from minority ethnic groups is 'hypercyclical': in times of recession, the rate rises faster than that of White people, while in times of recovery it falls more rapidly - thus showing that some employers treat minority groups as a residual labour force.b

Communicating Across Cultures, 1st Edn. Government Statistical Office (2005) Labour Force Survey London: Her Majestys Stationery Office. Jones, T. (1983) Britains Ethnic Minorities London: Policy Studies Institute.

b. In addition to the UK and Holland, covered in the text, I have these data for Germany. Obviously, they could also be relevant to Discrimination. In Germany, at about 6 % of top managers and 8% of middle managers, the proportion of women in management is far lower than their representation in the workforce (of just below 40% in 1987). In both former East and West Germany the labour market is highly segmented by gender. Almost 70 percent of working women in West Germany are concentrated in ten (out of 400) occupational categories. Women account for 85.7 percent of people employed in the health services (excluding medical doctors and pharmacists), 79 percent of people in the social services, 62.2 percent of people employed in retail, and 48.2 percent of teachers. In East Germany women represented 91.8 percent of people employed in the social services, 83.1 percent of those in health-related occupations, 77 percent in education, 72 percent in retailing, and 68.9 percent in postal and telephone services. They remained a minority in industry, the trades, construction, agriculture and forestry, and the transportation sector. In both East and West Germany, women earn about onethird less than men do, partly for structural reasons and partly because of lower pay for the same work; this applies even to women top managers, who earn 20% less than their male equivalents. Measures to implement equal opportunities were introduced at various levels of government and business during the early 1990s. Equal opportunity officers and action plans, both voluntary and mandatory, were put into place. However, there is agreement that the legislation is not strong enough and that significant hurdles remain. Since no effective sanctions exist, current equal opportunity legislation is not even strong enough to ensure nonsexist advertising for job openings, which might ensure a higher number of women applicants.
Antal, A.B. and Kresback-Gnath, C. (1993) Women in management in Germany: East, West, and Reunited, International Studies of Management & Organization, 23. URL: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst;jsessionid=C2BnKWYn3QnWYn9M5JQ91njh7CnJXRfsFLZTljQmLGDnVFBYf msJ!29863975?a=o&d=5000222060

c. The Prime Minister of Norway told a newspaper yesterday that there was no justification for Ikea showing only men assembling furniture in its instruction manuals. They should change the illustrations, he said, to promote attitudes for sexual equality. There were, in fact, at least two illustrations in more than 2,000 manuals, showing women hard at work building furniture. Or there were if you included the one where a woman holds a cupboard door so that her man does the difficult hinge-screwing bit. There are women in the assembly instructions, but Ikea will review them in order to achieve a more even distribution of men and women, a company spokeswoman said.
Ben Hoyle, The Times, 11 March 2005 p. 11 Ikea stands up for womens rights to spend hours assembling furniture.

d. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences is fully committed to supporting and advancing the careers of our women faculty, and to encouraging our female students to pursue careers in every discipline. . The FAS is similar to its peer institutions. We share, and not to our glory, records of less than stellar achievement in recruiting, supporting and promoting women faculty. Academia has its own long history of discrimination, complacency and even well-meaning, but insufficiently effective efforts at genuine change. The institutional temptation for self-reproduction in faculty hiring is strong.
Email message to Harvard Alumni from Dean Willian C. Kirby, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University, 1.3.2005

p.10 women face harsh realities Two boxes from the 2nd edition: Hymowitz and Weissman (1997), who originated the term glass ceiling, wrote, the biggest obstacle women face is also the most intangible: men at the top feel uncomfortable beside them.a Talking about the glass ceiling and the maternal wall irritates me. Theyre gone. Its a womans world now. Its a time of great change and were faster at, and better at, dealing with that.b
Sources: (a) Hymowitz, C. and Weissman, M. (1997) A History of Women in America, London: Bantam Books (b) Sunita Gloster, head of worldwide business development at Lowe and Partners advertising agency, quoted in The Observer magazine, 14 December 2003, p. 21

My boss is a woman; shes terrifically good at the job, but she would never have got it, because a long career break to raise her family meant she didnt have the same length of experience as a man. However, the corporation had a jobs quota for women, so she got the job, and shes shown that shes fully competent. Of course, she has to work about sixty hours a week but so do I.
Based on: Interview with a UK broadcaster, authors research

p.11 Younger and older people The proportion of old persons (those aged 65 or more) is between 12 and 17 percent in the majority of European countries. Outliers are Italy (18.2%), Greece (17.3%), Sweden (17.2%) and Spain (17.1%) at the top end, and Turkey (5.4%), Albania (5.6%), Azerbaijan (6.3%) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (6.7%) at the bottom.
Communicating Across Cultures, 1st Edn.

A study provides evidence to suggest that young managers in India emphasize different managerial values and practices, and that managerial values have a significant impact on managerial practices.
Mellahi, K. and Guermat, C. (2004) Does age matter? An empirical examination of the effect of age on managerial values and practices in India Journal of World Business, 39(2): 199-215.

p.11 It is clear that gender plays a significant role in salary determination. In the UK in December 2010 it was announced as significant progress that womens average earnings had reached only 15% less than mens. 1.3 THE GROWING IMPORTANCE OF (SUB)CULTURAL DIVERSITY AT WORK p.15 Overall, the findings suggested that advertising appeals in global markets reflect the dominant cultural values in each country Another study, of Thai advertisements, found the opposite: that they did not reflect known Thai values.
Punyapiroje, C. and Morrison, M.A. (2007) Behind the smile: reading cultural values in Thai advertising Asian Journal of Communication, 17(3): 318 36.

p.16 In service businesses, success depends on effective interactions and communications between people Snyder (2001), writing about the practices of Alumni Consulting Group (ACG), reported: Of course problems can crop up. What matters is how you handle them. If theres a cultural difference between the customer and the salesperson or recruiter, ACG will put a new person on the account.

There could be a class discussion of whether this is the right way to handle intercultural communication problems in consultancy.
Snyder, A. (2001) Keeping in touch, Purple Squirrel, October.

p.16 Organisations may better understand and meet customers' needs in ethnic and international markets if they not only have a diverse workforce but also listen to its diverse contributions. An interesting example: British society as a whole has become more ethnically integrated over the past three decades, while business has expanded its global reach. But nowhere have these changes been embraced more enthusiastically than among organised criminals. This is especially true of drug traffickers. Heroin may be brought in to the country by West African drug mules or English lorry drivers working for Turkish or South Asian contractors; it is then distributed to middlemen and street dealers from Albania, Jamaica, Pakistan and Scotland. As Dave King, a national Crime Squad adviser, says, these people will deal with anybody. They take very little account of ethnic differences. As the networks become more complex, the prisons become more mixed: 12% of all convicts (and 36% of non-white ones) are now foreigners up from 8% in the mid1990s. a gang that is reluctant to deal with outsiders will be unable to diversify its operations, or secure a broad market for its products. Most organised crime groups become more accepting of outsiders as they grow in size and ambition. The benefits that accrue from networking and increased openness more than compensate for the extra dangers.
Colourblind Crooks: Organised crime is a model of ethnic harmony, The Economist, 22.9.03, p.37.

p.16 A more recent trend has been towards valuing diversity, which means viewing people as having equal rights while being different. a. Another definition of valuing diversity is being responsive to a wide range of people unlike oneself, according to any number of distinctions: race, gender, class, native language, national origin, physical ability, age, sexual orientation, religion, professional experience, personal preferences and work style. b. International business has been one of the pioneer fields in valuing diversity. Diversity, in this case, has emerged as a need for survival and success. Multinational corporations are forced to develop and implement strategies that could lead them to capture and retain diverse customer bases not only nationally but also throughout the world. They are also required to recruit and retain a diverse workforce that mirrors its market. Diplomacy is another area that requires valuing diversity. Employees in diplomatic posts need not only to be aware of diversity issues but also to develop skills to face the challenge of dealing with other cultures. Religious organisations, too, have seen how important it is to value and manage diversity to adapt their messages to other cultural identities. They are probably the ones that have been in the forefront of documenting, studying and learning to manage cultural differences.
Adler, N.J. (1991) International Dimensions of Organizational Behavior, (2nd edn) Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

c. Work and family, while a well established area of scholarly inquiry in sociology and psychology, has received much more limited attention from an explicitly communication perspective. A communication perspective, however, holds great promise for uncovering new insights into managing work and family. Traditional work and family research has been outcome oriented: workplace accommodations as an organizational response to work-family conflict, individual role conflict and strain, household division of labor, work-to-home and home-to-work spillover. In contrast, a communication perspective emphasizes process,

interaction, and meaning. As demonstrated by the articles in this issue, a rich new variety of work and family concerns come into focus through the lens of communication: the communicative maintenance and breaching of boundaries between work and family that takes place in the context of the workplace the interpretive dance that employees and their supervisors engage in to manage conflicts between official and unofficial messages about the proper relationship between work and family the positive and negative interpretations of the role of new information and communication technologies in managing work and personal life the characteristics of computer mediated communication that contribute to the impact of full-time teleworking on workers and the organizations that employ them the reflexive relationship between gender and communicative practices in the workplace that construct the relationship between work and family the ideology of individualism reflected in the discourse of working parents and its potential conflict with workplace accommodations designed to resolve to work-family conflict A communication perspective foregrounds the contested nature of the meanings that we attach to integrating family into the workplace and bringing work into the home space. Accordingly, the articles that follow reflect the diversity of interpretive frameworks available in our culture for understanding work, family, and how they relate.
Golden, A.G. (2000) Communication perspectives on work and family: Editor's introduction, Electronic Journal of Communication, 10(3 &4) URL: http://www.cios.org/www/ejcrec2.htm.

d. The following quotation shows the emphasis that auditors place on adapting for difference: If you go by one approach across the board for all industries, I think it's going to be very tough. Tough because of different cultures, different sets of people they react differently. Different kinds of industry, different inherent problems with the company. The worse thing is the management is different, because the management plays a very important part. So there are many factors involved. Then perhaps through trial and error, you will pick up on that (Auditor #3).
Cheuk, B.W-Y. (1999) A qualitative sense-making study of the information seeking situations faced by professionals in three workplace contexts, Electronic Journal of Communication, 9(2): URL: http://www.cios.org/www/ejc/v9n23499.htm.

p.16 Heightened concern with diversity Pelled et al (1999) considered, One of the most significant bodies of research to arise from this trend is a stream of field studies linking group composition to cognitive task performance i.e., performance on tasks that involve generating plans or creative ideas, solving problems, or making decisions. The impact of diversity on cognitive task performance has been examined in studies of management teams and lower-level work groups. It is these studies which lead to the conclusion that the effects on performance are still unclear.
Pelled, L.H., Eisenhardt, K.M. and Xin, K.R. (1999) Exploring the black box: an analysis of work group diversity, conflict and performance, Administrative Science Quarterly, 44: 128.

p.16 Diversity in domestic organizations became a growing concern In the 2nd edition, a box illustrated the internationalism of this trend: The departmental managers of Motorola in Malaysia looked like a visionarys ideal of multicultural co-operation. Chinese, Malay, Indian, black, yellow, pale brown Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu. The racial diversity was the result of being advised by the Malaysia government to play an active role in restructuring the ethnic composition of the company. We were told to hire a number of Malay people. Chinese, Indians, just like your

affirmative action in the U.S., one of them said.

Greider, W. (1997) One World, Ready or Not: The Manic Logic of Global Capitalism, New York: Simon and Schuster.

p.18 Because these assumptions of managerial responsiveness were false, many organisations were incapable of carrying out the sophisticated strategies they developed. In the 2nd edition, the following box illustrated this point: We (the Human Resource Department) have done an audit of the top 250 staff, and found, much as we expected, that the company does not have the capabilities it needs. We found that, even if all the other factors like marketing and finance were in place, we would still trip up because there is no way we could resource the strategies that the company is dreaming up. For instance, theres a target for 50 per cent of our business to come from international markets. You could count on the fingers of one hand the number of people in this company who could carry out an international assignment. And we dont have the lead time to buy in the expertise, even if it were out there, which it isnt because this is an industrywide problem the few people who have the experience are highly marketable and volatile more likely to set themselves up in competition than stay with us. Another example theyve planned to do international telemarketing (we already do some domestically). Theres been no real thought about how to resource this. Most of them think that if we recruit some school leavers with GCSE [elementary] French, well be able to telemarket in France! a
Source: Interview with a UK Human Resource Manager in an insurance company; authors research.

1.4 WHAT IS CULTURE? p.18 Definitions of culture a. Brown and Starkey (1994) contended, On the one hand, culture is a product of social interaction mediated through communicative acts, and on the other, communication is a cultural artefact through which organisational actors come to understand their organisation and their role within it.
Brown A.D. and Starkey, K. (1994) 'The effect of organisational culture on communication and information' Journal of Management Studies, 31(6): 80728.

b. Johansson (1994) described culture as the underlying framework which guides an individuals perceptions of observed events and personal interactions and the selection of appropriate responses in social situations. The framework consists of objective reality, as manifested in terms of societal institutions, and also subjective reality as socialized in terms of predispositions and beliefs.
Johansson, J.K. (1994) Cultural understanding as managerial skill: Japan, North America and Europe, Presentation made at the David See-Chai Lam Centre for International Communication Pacific Region Forum on Business and Management Communication, Simon Fraser University at Harbour Centre. URL: http://www.cic.sfu.ca/forum/

c. La culture, cest ce qui reste quand on a tout oubli.

Herriot, quoted in Patrick Leigh Fermor Words of Mercury p.12

Communication as the basis of culture p.20 For scholars in the cultural studies tradition, etc. a. Stuart Hall (1997) was being more sophisticated than the text reveals! Thus, although Culture is about shared meanings, for communication this is not enough we also need a

shared system of signs which allow us to represent or exchange meanings or concepts i.e. a language, which is an organized set of signs. One way of thinking about culture, then, is in terms of these shared conceptual maps, shared language systems and the codes which govern the relationships between them. To belong to a culture is to belong to roughly the same conceptual and linguistic universe, to know how concepts and ideas translate into different languages, and how language can be interpreted to refer to or reference the world. Drawing on the constructionists, he argued: meaning inheres in the relation between a sign and a concept which is fixed by a code; cultures differ from one another in their codes the ways they carve up, classify and assign meaning to the world. what signifies (carries meaning) is not the sign nor the concept but the difference between the signs; Saussure signs are members of a system and are defined in relation to the other members of the system. Langue socially determined rules for expression and interpretation; parole individual what I want to say. meanings will always change, from one culture or period to another.
Hall, S. (1997) Chapter 1 The Work of Representation Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices, Milton Keynes, UK: Open University, pp1564.

b. Thompson (2003) argued that the cultural studies scholars criticised an over-emphasis on structural factors in, for instance, Marxist thought, because individuals function within a context of cultural assumptions as well as a network of social, political and economic factors. Within cultural studies, ideology and discourses are key concepts. Ideology is used to mean ideas which serve as weapons of social interest (Berger and Luckmann, 1967), thus it includes, for instance, the particular roles of men and women in society. Discourses, while literally meaning conversations or portions of text, have been developed to refer as described on p.46 of the text.
Thompson, N. (2003) Communication and Language: A Handbook of Theory and Practice, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

c. Kendall and Wickham (2001), also discussing the cultural studies approach, defined culture as referring to the way of life of a group (including, possibly, a society) including the meanings, the transmission, communication and alteration of those meanings, and the circuits of power by which the meanings are valorised or derogated. (p.14) Some meanings are given more significance than others and power is the reason.
Kendall, G and Wickham, G. (2001) Understanding Culture: Cultural Studies, Order, Ordering, Beverly Hills, CA: Sage

d. De Munck (2001) criticized two theories of culture which he argued were dominant in the social sciences. One is the discrete entity (homogenized) view, which reifies culture and employs a reflexive ethnocentric yardstick that we inevitably use in evaluating the other. The other, the hybridized view of culture is in no way different [from the discrete entity view] except that it directly seeks to eradicate the. To evaluate, along a good and bad continuum and to make moral judgments has become not only politically incorrect, but is sanctioned against. He continued that researchers, in lieu of a theory of culture, rely on our personal experiences to construct an intuitive, commonsensical, ad hoc and vague theory of culture (scare quotes intended). Homogeneity, hybridization and cultural relativity are the key conceptual elements of these ad hoc constructions. They fit together because (1) we experience and understand culture as a shared phenomenon especially during fieldwork; (2) by living in urban contemporary settings in the first world, academics also experience the world as hybridized; and (3) anthropologists in particular are trained to adopt a view of moral and cultural relativism during fieldwork and in their scholarly productions.
De Munck, V.C. (2001) In the Belly of the Beast: two incomplete theories of culture and why they dominate the social sciences (Part 1) Cross-Cultural Psychology Bulletin 35(2): 517.

e. A new approach is outlined in the following extract:

In negotiation and conflict management situations, understanding cultural patterns and tendencies is critical to whether a negotiation will accomplish the goals of the involved parties. While differences in cultural norms have been identified in the current literature, what is needed is a more fine-grained approach that examines differences below the level of behavioral norms. Drawing on recent social neuroscience approaches, we argue that differing negotiating styles may not only be related to differing cultural norms, but to differences in underlying language processing strategies in the brain, suggesting that cultural difference may influence neuropsychological processes. If this is the case, we expect that individuals from different cultures will exhibit different neuropsychological tendencies. Consistent with our hypothesis, using EEG measured responses, native German-speaking German participants took significantly more time to indicate when they understood a sentence than did native English-speaking American participants. This result is consistent with the theory that individuals from different cultures develop unique language processing strategies that affect behavior. A deliberative cognitive style used by Germans could account for this difference in comprehension reaction time. This study demonstrates that social neuroscience may provide a new way of understanding micro-processes in cross-cultural negotiations and conflict resolution.
McCarthy, J.F., Scheraga, C.A. and Gibson, D.E. (2008) Culture, cognition and conflict: how neuroscience can help to explain cultural differences in negotiation and conflict management. IACM 21st Annual Conference Paper. November 9, 2008. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1298588

1.5 OTHER CONCEPTUAL ISSUES p.25 How broadly can concepts of culture be applied? This discussion was previously illustrated by the following box:
A guide published by the UK National Housing Federation and the Home Housing Trust in August 1998 recommended that architects and designers should take cultural, religious and social needs into account when creating housing for minority communities. The reports advice included the following: A private, sheltered outdoor space will be needed in some Bangladeshi, Indian and Pakistani households for sun-drying foods such as poppadums. A space for barbecueing should be provided in housing for Turks and Cypriots, for whom it is a popular social ritual. Orthodox Jewish people need the edge of the property clearly marked by, for instance, a high fence, as they are prohibited by their religion from carrying any object beyond the homes boundaries on the Sabbath. For some Vietnamese people it is important to have a pond, or, better still, a stream with a bridge, as water symbolises happiness. Bedroom design for Chinese people should take into account that some cannot have a bed facing any door, including that of a wardrobe; the colour white should be avoided in their homes. Niches and shelves are needed in homes for Buddhists, Confucians and Taoists who use them for shrines. In homes for Greek Orthodox people they are used for icons and candles.

p.28 Are cultures converging? a. Cooper (1998) argued that it is global demographic, economic, and political changes and growing economic disparities between rich and poor [that] have disrupted views of cultures as static and/or stable. Shome and Hegde (2002) considered that globalisation challenges our understanding of culture and identity. Differences among people are unsettled and re-staged in the process of globalisation, as transnational flows of images and capital produce changes in cultural practices.

Cooper, C.R. (1998) Theories linking culture and psychology: universal and community-specific processes, Annual Review of Psychology, 53: 13360. Shome, R. and Hegde, R.S. (2002) Culture, communication, and the challenge of globalization, Critical Studies in Media Communication, 19(2): 72189.

b. The 2nd edition had the following box here: Andrew Dalby, author of A Dictionary of Languages estimated that in 200 years the 5,000 languages that currently exist would be reduced to a mere 200. But only one would count. Unlike other, earlier world languages, English will never split off into distinct parallel forms, as the Romance languages evolved from Latin. For a new language to emerge requires a degree of cultural isolation, or at least independence, that has become impossible. The world is simply too interconnected, by global technology and a global economy, to think in new words. Intrusive, restless English has made cultural privacy a thing of the past.
Source: Macintyre, B. (2003) A world of language, destroyed by vulgar Inglishe, The Times of London, 31 May, p. 26

p.28 Li and Karakowsky (2002) argued that national culture and cultural influences on businesses are not necessarily stable, enduring characteristics. They can be altered, for instance, by consistent government policies. The following content from Edition 2 has been removed: Single government policies may not lead to cultural change, however. For instance, the Singaporean government has been trying to encourage creativity and entrepreneurship, including export activity, for years, but uncertainty avoidance is actually increasing there. This is probably because the Singapore governments other policies are paternalistic, seeking to control many aspects of social life. Several comparative studies of values in different European countries carried out over an extended period show evidence of both convergence and continuing difference. i (There appears to be little evidence of divergence.) The case for convergence is that all European countries show the following: The significance of religion as a source of moral obligation is decreasing. Attitudes in favour of democratic political systems are stable. People increasingly value having multiple social relations with partners, friends and voluntary groups, instead of the old workfamily axis. People are coming to value work as much as leisure. (The educational explosion and the changing technological character of work are making it intrinsically valued, not just for the money it earns.) General achievement orientation is growing; levels of individualisation are increasing. Social justice norms are becoming more important. Values like peace, human rights protection of the natural environment and fighting poverty which can be summarised as quality of life values, are increasingly accepted, although in some countries there is also a backlash. The case for continuing difference is based on the following: Values are not converging in Western Europe. Although the trends point in the same direction in most countries, changes in values start from different bases and do not all take place at the same rate. There is a north/south (Sweden, Denmark and UK / France, Italy and Spain) divide over cultural needs in work, organisations and society. For instance, in the south there is lower tolerance for uncertainty and therefore greater liking for hierarchy and bureaucracy; there is also less individualism and more collectivism. There are culture clusters. These include an Anglo cluster (the UK and Netherlands); a Nordic cluster (Sweden, Denmark and Norway) marked by more feminine values, such as a preference for caring for others and a clean environment

over careers; a German cluster; and, finally, a Latin cluster where managers, for instance, are more likely to be seen as having a public role in the larger society and to be a business elite. ii If studies which focus on an area like Europe show evidence of both convergence and persisting difference, but not of divergence, what about the broader global picture? 1.6 CULTURES, WORK AND ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR p.30 Lee and Peterson (2000) argued that a society's propensity to generate independent, risk-taking, innovative, competitively aggressive and proactive entrepreneurs and firms depends on its cultural foundation. a. The following extract from my interview with the personnel manager of an insurance company illustrates a divergence of organisational culture from the cultural foundation of Britain, which is individualist, while the organisational culture described is collectivist: For over a hundred years, with occasional intervals, the industry grew, without anyone having to try very hard and the game was played by agreed rules which kept competition to a minimum. This meant, among other things that people overwhelmingly men could have full-time, life-time employment. Our last MD, who retired a year ago, had been with the company for 44 years; our new one has never worked for anyone else. About a year before he retired, the old one sent round a memo in which he wrote, I had hoped to retire without ever having learnt how to spell the word redundancy. When I first came here eleven years ago, it was like an extended family hierarchical but very paternalistic.
Authors research, interview with the personnel manager of a UK insurance company.

b. Conflicting with this idea is the suggestion that the society best known for entrepreneurialism, the North American, may be highly risk averse. Experts seem to agree that Americans find it harder than most people to evaluate risks accurately. Lawsuits, labels on coffee cups (Warning; the beverage you are about to enjoy is extremely hot), even political pronouncements, all often suggest it is possible to avoid danger altogether. iii
The Economist 19 October 2002, p. 55.

c. The obvious comment is that there are different kinds of risk and people are differentially averse to them. The following suggests this is universal: The reaction to the shooting by a sniper of ten people in the suburbs of Washington, DC, in terms of curtailment of outdoor activities by schools, sports clubs and so on, greatly exceeded that caused by the September 11th which caused the death of 3,000 people. In the first case people are exaggerating the risk. Why? Beyond thatpeople generally (i.e. in all countries) exaggerate spectacular but low-probability risks, such as murder or natural disaster, just as they underestimate more common risks, such as accidents in the home.
The Economist 19.10.02 p.55 The logic of irrational fear.

d. Im right to be scared, argue several letter writers in the wake of the bombings and the would-be bombings. No, you see, youre not. If you look at the facts, calculate the risk properly, youll understand that your chances of being exploded are very, very slight. No one who smokes, for instance, could possibly mount a good argument for leaving London rather than packing in the fags. High blood pressure? Much worse prognosis than being blown up, but will you cut out the salt?
Aaraonovitch, D. (2005) A city under siege? Rubbish. Its more dangerous crossing a road in Naples, The Times of London, 26.7.05, p. 18. (Written following a suicide bomb attack on London transport on 7th July that killed 52 victims.)

p.32 National cultural differences have been linked to a range of economic, business and organizational concerns a. In previous editions, this concept was illustrated by a the following box:: The idea of social equality is still as central for Germans as, say, personal liberty is for Americans. The Economist, 18 October 2003, p. 41 They may no longer lead in most areas, but Germans are world class in one: seeing the glass as half-empty, not half-full. In the small hours of December 15th, the Social Democrat-led government and the Christian Democratic opposition at last agreed to reforms that may be the most ambitious seen in post-war Germany. Yet the media were full of phrases such as reformlet, half-baked and a small step. The Economist, 20 December 2003, p. 55 The Governor of the Bank of England began an address to an assembly of bankers with these words: There are three kinds of economists, those who can count and those who cant. A joke of this kind would be met with incomprehension by French listeners. It is not logical.
The Economist, 20 December 2003, p. 60

b. Hickson (1993) argued that Europe, though genetically more homogeneous that the USA, is culturally more heterogeneous.
Hickson, D.J. (1993) Management in Western Europe: Society, Culture and Organisations in Twelve Nations, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.

p.32 1.7 THE GROWING IMPORTANCE OF INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION AT WORK Chua and Morris (2009) argued as follows: Innovative solutions to pressing global problems require effective inter-cultural communication. We propose that a barrier to the sharing of ideas pertinent to innovation in inter-cultural relationships is low affect-based trust, which arise from individuals deficits in inter-cultural capability. Results from a study of sample of executives professional networks indicate that individuals lower in inter-cultural capability are less likely to share new ideas in inter-cultural ties but not intra-cultural ties. This effect is mediated by tie-level affect-based trust but not cognition-based trust. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.
Chua, R.Y.J. and Morris, M,W. (2009) Innovation communication in multicultural networks: deficits in intercultural capability and affect-based trust as barriers to new idea sharing in inter-cultural relationships. Harvard Business School Organizational Behavior Unit Working Paper No. 09-130, May 13, 2009.Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1403944.

p.32 It is simply not enough for us to know how and why people differ culturally etc. Adamopoulos (2002) took an extreme view on the links between culture and interactions: In fact, we can safely assume that culture and interpersonal behavior constitute each other in that it is hard to think of one without referring to the other.
Adamopoulos, J. (2002) The perception of interpersonal behaviors across cultures, in Lonner, W. J. Dinnel, D. L. Hayes, S. A. & Sattler, D. N. (eds.), Online Readings in Psychology and Culture (Unit 15, Chapter 2), URL: http://www.wwu.edu/~culture.

p.33 Though diversity is an asset to be valued rather than a problem to be solved, communication can be seen to work best when people are similar, or at least on a similar wavelength;27 An aspect of this that is not discussed in the text is the idea that communicators do not start with a level playing field. (This is also implied by the discussion of discourses in Chapter 4.) This goes back to Bourdieus concept of habitus, or ways of doing and being which social

subjects acquire during their socialization. Their habitus is not a matter of conscious learning or of ideological imposition but is acquired through practice. Bourdieus sociology rests on an account of lived practice and what he terms the practical sense the ability to function effectively within a given social field . It is indicated in deeply ingrained habits of behaviour, feeling and thought. (p.27) Habitus incorporates a set of power relations, relations based on dominance and submission. Ideas are not presented to us through our culture in an objective or impartial way; rather they represent the interests of dominant groups. For example, in a male-dominated society, the dominant ideas within habitus reflect and reinforce the interests of men. Domination is not merely power over a particular group, it is also a relationship of meaning between individuals in which recognition of legitimacy ensures the persistence of power. These ideas give rise to the notion of cultural capital dominant groups have greater resources to draw on in order to influence others.
Kendall, G and Wickham, G. (2001) Understanding Culture: Cultural Studies, Order, Ordering, Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

p.33 Grimes and Richard (2003) even argued that whether cultural diversity is advantageous or detrimental for organisations depends on how organisation members communicate. They distinguished ethnocentric, modernistic and cosmopolitan communicators and argued that the first two may be harmful for diversity management, while the last is helpful. Ethnocentric communicators treat people they consider to be in their own group (termed natives) as those they values and understand, others as outsiders (non-natives). Another feature is that their ways of understanding are not open to change. Ethnocentric communicators may put limits on what non-natives can contribute. For example, if these communicators draw on stereotypes to assume Asians are only good at math and computers, they may overlook insights that Asian organization members have into communication issues. Modernistic communicators, on the other hand, see everyone as non-native and they always open their want of understanding to change because they attempt to fit in through following the latest trend. They do not expect to be able to communicate well with all the non-natives in their organization. Such beliefs can impede organizational effectiveness because the expectation becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Another difficulty is that modernistic communication is based on Western assumptions about progress. This orientation supports an attitude of out with the old; in with the new, about which modernistic communicators are not fully aware because of their immersion in contemporary times. Cosmopolitan communicators weave together useful elements from each of the other types. Others are treated as simultaneously native and non-native. This applies to everyone, whether they would be considered part of their group or not. In treating others as non-native, they have appreciation for differences among groups, but do not assume that different means inferior. In treating others as native, they consider them as fundamentally similar to themselves. By not ignoring differences, but recognising, appreciating and collaborating across them, cosmopolitan communicators can make important contributions to diverse organisations. They are well prepared to deal with issues directly related to diversity such as hiring, retaining and promoting under-represented groups. Their everyday interactions at work are also improved. Unfortunately, Grimes and Richard had no clear answer to how organisations can encourage cosmopolitan and discourage ethnocentric or modernistic communication. The concept that communicators have expectations about which other people they will be able to communicate with successfully (or not) and that these expectations are self-fulfilling prophecies is an interesting one worth discussion.

Grimes, D.S. and Richard, O.C. (2003) Could communication form impact organizations experience with diversity? The Journal of Business Communication, 40(1): 727.

I have omitted from this edition almost the entire section (1.6) of previous editions on corporate goals, policies, cultures and climates and their effects on diversity and so intercultural communication (something had to go). For those who would regret this, I include the omitted subsections of it here, together with the Teachers Manual comments from the 2nd edition.
1.6 ORGANISATIONAL GOALS, POLICIES, CULTURES AND CLIMATES

Organisations and their managers are generally highly conscious of the disadvantages of diversity. They are aware of the difficulties involved in reaching agreement, standardising procedures and working in parallel on aspects of a project when individuals from a range of cultural or subcultural backgrounds are involved. For many organisations the cost of diversity is highly visible. It includes obeying equal opportunities law and the negative reactions to diversity in the workplace by some employees. Indeed, the main diversity goal of many organisations might be described as to minimise the costs diversity entails. In other companies, Diversity programs are not usually seen as critical to the survival of the company, even though statements are made about markets and bottom lines. No one in the organisation is likely to lose his or her job if they dont value diversity the way they could if the production of goods and the selling of goods and services are not improved. Thus, diversity can be seen as a discretionary activity to be postponed when more pressing situations are faced.70 Organisations often omit to notice the benefits of diversity. These benefits are of two kinds: the first kind has been defined as affecting divergent activities. These are those activities where creativity is required, which range from generating strategies to writing advertising copy, from developing new products to improving systems. When people of different ethnic, national, gender, religious, sexual orientation, social class and specialist backgrounds share perspectives and approaches, it helps ferment ideas, while the tests applied by such a cross-section help filter out the good ideas from the bad. Diversity also helps guard against the dangers of over-conformity and groupthink, which are real perils in organisations. The second kind of benefits of diversity in organisations is that it gives them an increased capacity for dealing with the inescapable diversity that exists in the environment, for domestic and international organisations alike, in markets, user groups and publics, and, for international organisations, in governments. A study of the success of nine organisations confirms that companies benefit from valuing diverse cultural modes of being and interacting, where all cultural voices participate fully in setting goals and making decisions. Managers in these companies have assessed cultural biases and devised new ways for people to work together. These include extensive cultural awareness training at all levels, from entry employees to senior staff; analysis of interpersonal communication and interactive styles; active support groups to share issues and to mentor all employees; increased assistance to parents in the form of daycare and flexible leave; and bias-free hiring, evaluating, and promoting. Historically, organisational theory has emphasised hierarchical structure, competition, division of labour, and leadership. Yet in the long run, such organisations curb productivity because workers who assimilate are denied the ability to express their genuine selves in the workplace. People who must spend significant amounts of energy coping with an alien environment have less energy left to do their job.71 Thus, marginalised groups are destined to failure and productivity decreases. Corporate goals and policies in managing diversity These can include obeying the law, ethical conduct, the business case, building learning communities, meeting the needs of diverse user populations and attaining global competitive advantage. Obeying the law As this chapter has shown, there is in Europe an extensive legal framework governing the treatment of minorities, and those laws have teeth. Despite that, the position of minorities in regard to work in many of those same countries is by no means acceptable, pointing to the fact that organisations in many cases are evading the law.

However, for the majority of organisations, obeying the law is a basic rule. The legal prohibitions of discrimination against minorities have therefore undoubtedly been a major influence on the improving position of minorities in employment. It has often been argued that ending discrimination will only come with a change of attitudes, not by legal means, but there are numerous examples of legal changes ultimately affecting peoples attitudes. This happens particularly in democracies, where matters are publicly debated and receive considerable media exposure before they become law, and where people recognise that principles embodied in law usually have majority support. Ethical conduct A growing number of organisations are actively committed to operating ethically. For example, Duke Energy claims that its commitment to business integrity is constant, links this to a supplier diversity policy and to requiring ethical business practices from its suppliers.72 Not all organisations share this commitment. For example, until its actions provoked an outcry, Shell International had a statement of principles drafted in the 1970s that ran: Shell shall not be influenced by those pressure groups that would have corporations make or withhold investment not on commercial criteria but in order to influence the course or pattern of political society. The latter is the role of citizens and governments, not business organizations. However, there is undoubtedly a marked trend towards organisations adopting ethical principles, which are often embodied in mission statements. It has been described as an ethical boom. Organisations adopting such principles are likely to make active support for equal opportunities a platform of their ethical conduct. Even in these organisations, however, the hidden presumption often is that the moral values of the social majority will prevail, and that individuals who adhere to other values will adjust. For example, most UK organisations would make no commitment to supplying food prepared in ways that are acceptable to people of Jewish or Islamic faith. These minorities among employees are simply expected to make their own arrangements for eating according to their religion. The business case Many organisations need more tangible reasons than ethical principles for embracing diversity, as the following extract from a letter published in a newspaper shows: The moral imperative is hardly foremost in the minds of those companies struggling to survive and there is legislation in place to deal with that issue. Therefore the working group set up to improve equal opportunities in the [construction] industry has focused on the business case, because it is the most persuasive and constructive argument for change To survive, the construction industry must change to attract and retain the best people for the job. The benefits will be for men, women, the industry and the clients it serves.73 For many organisations, a strong business case argument for actively supporting equal opportunities is that it positively affects the motivations of staff. This applies both to existing staff and to potential staff. Many organisations believe that developing appropriate multicultural provision will affect how far employees identify with the organisation and feel loyal to it, with all the accompanying advantages of improved attendance, motivation and self-discipline. Research shows that diversity does improve productivity, probably because, when people have social rights, they feel valued, which makes them try harder. Job advertisements that carry the statement, X is an equal opportunities employer generally attract a greater number and higher calibre of applicants than those that do not. This is particularly true of younger staff, whom many companies are especially eager to attract. A second business case argument is that existing staff, who represent a major fixed cost for most organisations, constitute a resource or capacity. Increasingly, organisations are recognising that under-using that capacity because of discriminatory barriers is inefficient, just as under-using any other resource is. Some companies are very conscious of the need to be diverse, have strong programmes supporting diversity and reflect that diversity in their public face. A Human Resources Manager for a television company, interviewed by the author, said, We believe that it is in the best interests of the company to recruit, select, promote and train on merit. We aim to operate within the spirit as well as the letter of the law on Equal Opportunities. We have numerous positive action schemes, which we do not see as positive discrimination; they are designed to create a level playing field. We have a commitment to creating a comfortable culture/atmosphere for workers in this organisation. The community we serve (our viewers) contains a high level of ethnic minorities. We have both to have a work force that reflects that and to reflect it in our programmes.74

Two other companies also supply examples of initiatives that promote diversity. Procter and Gambles initiative includes: Addressing important advancement issues for women on a yearly planning basis, Making managers accountable for working with and managing diversity and incorporating it in their performance reviews, Ensuring ongoing communication between managers and staff about the goals and initiatives of the programme, and Emphasising measuring, reporting and following up on outcomes in terms of retention, job satisfaction and perceptions of organisational support. Chevron Corporations business plans at all levels include diversity programmes such as discussions on: Perceiving cultural differences, Understanding the unspoken rules of the organization, Creating an environment in which individuals can fully utilise their talents to benefit the company, and Smoothing over cultural and professional differences. Effective diversity training reflects the values of the organisation and the individuals in that organisation. Therefore, it is not surprising to find diversity training initiatives differing, sometimes significantly, from organisation to organisation.75 Building learning communities Some organisations now aim to become learning organizations.76 This means that they try to ensure that learning from organisational experience and that learning about environmental change are embedded in the structures, processes and culture of the organisation. The goal is a continuous transfer of understanding and knowledge from individuals to groups, openness to the outside world and a capacity for renewing the organisation. Within the context of the goal of being a learning organisation, diversity acquires an intrinsic value; people from different backgrounds, whether those are technical, educational, social, ethnic or gender-based, are attuned to different aspects of the environment. By providing the mechanisms for them to pool and transfer the information they gain through this attuning, the organisation can tap into a much larger and wider range of environmental information. Meeting the needs of diverse user populations and attaining global competitive advantage In earlier sections of this chapter, the diversity of the population of the UK, EU and Europe were briefly described. All these people of differing nationalities, ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, levels of physical and mental ability, religions and age groups are potential users of services or are in the market for products. From libraries to confectionery manufacturers, hospitals to house builders, the users and consumers of services and products are highly diverse. With diversity comes diversity of needs and wants. Public service providers such as libraries, hospitals, schools, government and local authority agencies and many charities can only fulfill their role properly if they meet the needs of these diverse user groups. Marketing, for commercial organisations, implies meeting consumer needs profitably. Some companies target their products at niche markets (such as hair detensioners), while more than half the market for many universal products come from minority groups. In some cases, the main form of adaptation for market diversity is in the product advertising: confectionery count lines may appeal to individuals from many cultures. For other companies, a more fundamental adaptation is needed for diverse markets: media, for instance, is an industry with a particular need to understand and reflect its market (audience), because its product is so visible and explicit that it can easily offend large sections of its market. In many organisations, however, diversity is treated as the province of the human resources department; the marketing department is not involved. This can result in neglecting the diversity of their users and consumers with adverse effects on profits or consumer satisfaction. A spokesperson for the UK charity Disability Action said, I dont think businesses realise the buying power of people with disabilities, which is about 50 million.77 Marketing campaigns can offend customers from particular groups, by, for instance, depicting women car buyers as interested only in colour and style. Equally offensive to some user groups, such as ethnic minorities, is their invisibility in advertisements.
70. Muir, C. (1996) Workplace readiness for communicating diversity, The Journal of Business Communication, 33: 47584. 71. Schreiber, E.J. (1996) Muddles and huddles: facilitating a multicultural workforce through team management theory, The Journal of Business

Communication, 33: 45973. 72. Minority suppliers must adopt proactive strategies to overcome tough economic times, Black Enterprise, 32, November 2001. 73. From a letter to The Independent, 16 November 1995, from Sandi Rhys Jones, Chairwoman, Construction Industry Board. 74. Interview at Thames Television: authors research. 75. Arai, M., Wanca-Thibault, M. and Shockley-Zalabak, P. (2001) Communication theory and training approaches for multiculturally diverse organisations: have academics and practitioners missed the connection? Public Personnel Management, 30(4): 44556. 76. Argyris, C. (1990) Overcoming Organizational Defenses. New York: Prentice Hall. 77. Channel 4 News, UK 3 October 2003.

A further note: In this edition I decided in the end to omit the sub-section on Corporate goals and policies in managing diversity, although it contained some interesting new material. Here it is, with the new material in red ink: Despite the points made in Chapter 5 about the limitations of law in the area of diversity management, for the majority of organizations, obeying the law is a basic rule. The legal prohibitions of discrimination against minorities have therefore undoubtedly been a major influence on the improving position of minorities in employment. (A study of the transport industry found that there was a correlation between the equal opportunity approach used and numbers of women in management.) It has often been argued that ending discrimination will only come with a change of attitudes, not by legal means, but there are numerous examples of legal changes ultimately affecting peoples attitudes. This happens particularly in democracies, where matters are publicly debated and receive considerable media exposure before they become law, and where people recognize that principles embodied in law usually have majority support.
French, E. and Strachan, G. (2009) The impact of EEO: Women in management in the transport industry, Women in Management Review, 9(2): 317

A growing number of organizations are actively committed to operating ethically. For example, Duke Energy claims that its commitment to business integrity is constant, links this to a supplier diversity policy and to requiring ethical business practices from its suppliers. Not all organizations share this commitment. A 1996 survey of 299 UK firms stratified by industry found that attention to ethical issues is a function of factors in the firms operating environment (rather than a principle), especially of how concerned the public appears to be about the ethical conduct of management and staff, and about the social and environmental consequences of products and services. Again, some companies go no further than to express concern over ethical issues, in others it influences internal and external communications, and in others leads to the formulation of new policies. However, there is undoubtedly a marked trend towards organizations adopting ethical principles, which are often embodied in mission statements. It has been described as an ethical boom. Organizations adopting such principles are likely to make active support for equal opportunities a platform of their ethical conduct. Even in these organizations, however, the hidden presumption often is that the moral values of the social majority will prevail, and that individuals who adhere to other values will adjust. For example, most UK organizations would make no commitment to supplying food prepared in ways that are acceptable to people of Jewish or Islamic faith. These minorities among employees are simply expected to make their own arrangements for eating according to their religion.
Minority suppliers must adopt proactive strategies to overcome tough economic times, Black Enterprise, 32, November 2001 Nicholson, N. And Robertson, D.C. (1996) The ethical issue emphasis of companies: Content, patterning, and influences, Human Relations, 49(11): 1367-1393

Many organizations need more tangible reasons than ethical principles for embracing diversity, as the following extract from a letter published in a newspaper shows: The moral imperative is hardly foremost in the minds of those companies struggling to survive and there is legislation in place to deal with that issue. Therefore the working group set up to improve equal opportunities in the [construction] industry has focused on the business case, because it is the most persuasive and constructive argument for change To survive, the

construction industry must change to attract and retain the best people for the job. The benefits will be for men, women, the industry and the clients it serves. (a) For many organizations, a strong business case argument for actively supporting equal opportunities is that it positively affects the motivations of staff. This applies both to existing staff and to potential staff. Many organizations believe that developing appropriate multicultural provision will affect how far employees identify with the organization and feel loyal to it, with all the accompanying advantages of improved attendance, motivation and self-discipline. Research shows that diversity does improve productivity, probably because, when people have social rights, they feel valued, which makes them try harder. Job advertisements that carry the statement, X is an equal opportunities employer generally attract a greater number and higher calibre of applicants than those that do not. This is particularly true of younger staff, whom many companies are especially eager to attract. A second business case argument is that existing staff, who represent a major fixed cost for most organizations, constitute a resource or capacity. Increasingly, organizations are recognising that under-using that capacity because of discriminatory barriers is inefficient, just as underusing any other resource is. (There is a view, however, that in the case of gender inequality the business case has only reproduced unequal gendered relationships in the workplace. Perriton (2009) rejected the claim that using a business case discourse is an effective strategy in improving the recognition, promotion, and rewarding of women in organizations, arguing that women have been persuaded it is not "businesslike" to complain.) (b)
a. From a letter to The Independent, 16 November 1995, from Sandi Rhys Jones, Chairwoman, Construction Industry Board. b Perriton, L. (2009) "We dont want complaining women!" A critical analysis of the business case for diversity, Management Communication Quarterly, 23(2): 21843.

Some companies are very conscious of the need to be diverse, to have strong programmes supporting diversity and to reflect that diversity in their public face. A Human Resources Manager for a television company, interviewed by the author, said, We believe that it is in the best interests of the company to recruit, select, promote and train on merit. We aim to operate within the spirit as well as the letter of the law on Equal Opportunities. We have numerous positive action schemes, which we do not see as positive discrimination; they are designed to create a level playing field. We have a commitment to creating a comfortable culture/atmosphere for workers in this organization. The community we serve (our viewers) contains a high level of ethnic minorities. We have both to have a work force that reflects that and to reflect it in our programmes. c Effective diversity training reflects the values of the organization and the individuals in that organization. Therefore, it is not surprising to find diversity training initiatives differing, sometimes significantly, from organization to organization. (d)
c. Interview at Thames Television: authors research. d. Arai, M., Wanca-Thibault, M. and Shockley-Zalabak, P. (2001) Communication theory and training approaches for multiculturally diverse organizations: have academics and practitioners missed the connection? Public Personnel Management, 30(4): 44556.

Some organizations now aim to become learning organizations. (e) This means that they try to ensure that learning from organizational experience and learning about environmental change are embedded in the structures, processes and culture of the organization. The goal is a continuous transfer of understanding and knowledge from individuals to groups, openness to the outside world and a capacity for renewing the organization. Within the context of the goal of being a learning organization, diversity acquires an intrinsic value; people from different backgrounds, whether those are technical, educational, social, ethnic or genderbased, are attuned to different aspects of the environment. By providing the mechanisms for them to pool and transfer the information they gain through this attuning, the organization can tap into a much larger and wider range of environmental information.
e. Argyris, C. (1990) Overcoming Organizational Defenses. New York: Prentice Hall.

People of differing nationalities, ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, levels of physical and mental ability, religions and age groups are potential users of services or are in the market

for products. From libraries to confectionery manufacturers, hospitals to house builders, the users and consumers of services and products are highly diverse. With diversity comes diversity of needs and wants. Public service providers such as libraries, hospitals, schools, government and local authority agencies and many charities can only fulfill their role properly if they meet the needs of these diverse user groups. Marketing, for commercial organizations, implies meeting consumer needs profitably. Some companies target their products at niche markets (such as hair detensioners), while more than half the market for some universal products come from minority groups. In some cases, the main form of adaptation for market diversity is in the product advertising: confectionery count lines may appeal to individuals from many cultures. For other companies, a more fundamental adaptation is needed for diverse markets: media, for instance, is an industry with a particular need to understand and reflect its market (audience), because its product is so visible and explicit that it can easily offend large sections of its market. In many organizations, however, diversity is treated as the province of the human resources department; the marketing department is not involved. This can result in neglecting the diversity of their users and consumers with adverse effects on profits or consumer satisfaction. A spokesperson for the UK charity Disability Action said, I dont think businesses realize the buying power of people with disabilities, which is about 50 million. Marketing campaigns can offend customers from particular groups, by, for instance, depicting women car buyers as interested only in colour and style. Equally offensive to some user groups, such as ethnic minorities, is their invisibility in advertisements.
Channel 4 News, UK 3 October 2003

Duke Energy, ethical business practices and supplier diversity The company claims to proactively seek diversified suppliers. Through Supplier Diversity, we build relationships with businesses owned by people of color, women, Vietnam vets and persons with disabilities capable of providing commodities and services at competitive prices. Criteria for suppliers include: E-business capabilities, global reach or ability to service global needs and alignment with our philosophy and commitment to ethical business practices and standards. Note that the article referring to this argues that minority businesses must adopt proactive strategies, especially in tough economic times. Although some companies do practise diversity in supplier selection for ethical reasons, the onus is on minority businesses to win business like any other.
Minority suppliers must adopt proactive strategies to overcome tough economic times, Black Enterprise, 32, November 2001.

Some companies are very conscious of the need to be diverse, have strong programmes supporting diversity and reflect that diversity .. Valuing diversity can be defined as being responsive to a wide range of people unlike oneself, according to any number of distinctions: race, gender, class, native language, national origin, physical ability, age, sexual orientation, religion, professional experience, personal preferences, and work style. Gary P. Ferraro, an anthropologist, has pointed out that organisations have many social components that come from different backgrounds, hold contrasting values and attitudes and have conflicting loyalties. This is particularly true today as more and more minorities are brought into domestic work forces under equal opportunity employment laws. A number of writers predict impending strains in organisations as a result of increasing workforce diversity and emphasise the need for communication behaviours that advance equity in the workplace. Communicating Across Cultures, 1st Edn. Ferraro, G.P. (1994) The Cultural Dimension of International Business (2nd edn) Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall. Effective diversity training reflects the values of the organization ..

The following findings suggest that there may be a downside to diversity initiatives that reflect the values of the organization: Networks of women and minorities differ from those of white males in organizations that are mostly white differences usually presented as resulting from a universal preference for homophily but in fact also resulting from contextual factors such as number of women and minorities in the organization, their hierarchical distribution, their relative rates of turnover and mobility and the degree of subunit segregation by sex or race. This study suggests that in some organizations administrative personnel actions regardless of whether initiated by the organization or by individual employees may serve to reinforce rather than constrain identity-based homophily. Ibarra, H. (1993) Personal networks of women and minorities in management, a conceptual framework, Academy of Management Review, 18:5687. Marketing campaigns can offend customers from particular groups. a. The text gives as an example of marketing campaigns that can offend customers from particular groups depicting women car buyers as interested only in colour and style. This refers to the following: A UK survey of women car drivers by Cond Nast, published in February 1996, showed that more than half the women polled felt they were patronised by the car industry. Portrayal of women drivers as spoilt children who drive cars bought by their indulgent fathers (Renault Clio), or women with hair blowing through the sun roof (Ford Fiesta) were particularly offensive. They also disliked commercials that showed macho images of cars speeding or going over cliffs because these contained little practical information about safety features or prices. Most of the 700 women surveyed said that safety, service contracts and power were their criteria in choosing a car.
Frean, A. The Times of London, 9.2.1996.

A discussion of this survey can bring out hidden prejudices! b. Although the text in this area is largely descriptive, there are, of course, important normative aspects. Here is the abstract of one article that discusses this. Some of the most difficult problems arising among diverse workforces occur because groups are unequal in power. Intergroup inequality results in stigmatization, prejudice, discrimination, and pressures on less powerful groups to assimilate to the norms of the powerful group. Members of less powerful groups may respond to unjust treatment with resentment and emotional exhaustion. For the organization, these personal reactions can reduce organizational commitment and productivity and, eventually, even increase turnover. As such, intergroup power relationships constitute a fundamental issue that diversity initiatives must engage to be effective.
Harris, H. (2001) The perceived influence of culture and ethnicity on the communicative dynamics of the United Nations Secretariat, Business Communication Quarterly, URL: 64http://nccrest.edreform.net/resource/8198.

van Dijk, J. (1990) Transnational management in an evolving European context, European Management Journal, 8(4): 4749. ii European Values Survey. URL: www.ucd.ie/issda/dataset-info/evs.htm