Abstract
Diversity and change are key concepts facing the world, today. In the 21st century, organizational leaders recognize the importance of diverse perspectives and adaptations to changes. Globally, cultures have many definitions and difference as nations collectively strive to communicate with one another. Organizational leaders must understand the importance of cross-cultural communications in establishing trust and respect in business relationships. Doris E. Cross is an educator and researcher on diversity issues influence on organizational cultures competitive advantage. This chapter identifies factors, such as changing demographics, tumultuous economies, and workforce dynamics and effects on individual perceptions of organizational cultures.
TopGlobal Perspectives On Race And Ethnicity
Globally, definitions of race and ethnicity are based on varying factors such as heredity, genetics, and socio-economic statuses. In the United States and other nations, the issue of race and ethnicity heightens the interest of demographic realities. The two concepts remain vague, wide-ranging, and misused by many. In the literature, the concept of race is ascribed to a person’s group based on their biological and physical appearances. These characteristics are considered inherent, heritable, persistent, or predictive in nature. Yet, this notion is considered unverifiable based on scientific conjectures on pure phenotype origins and social and cultural traits. Biological blending among groups with different prototypes makes it difficult to substantiate this premise. In some countries, social and cultural traits are often used to classify race among groups with identical phenotypes (Chang & Dodd, 2001; Perez & Hirschman, 2009). For example, Brazil’s racial classifications based on skin shades vary from South Africa’s black-white-colored paradigms (Deng, 1996, 1997; Stam, 1997). Koreans and Japanese who are classified in the same racial category are considered two different “races” primarily by Japanese’s notion of blood affinities (Dikkster, 1997; Min, 1992). Racial classifications are often influenced by a group’s socio-economic status. Brazilians social-economic statuses affect racial identifications or assignments. Also, research scholars state that in the Mexican society it is difficult to distinguish between Indians and Mestizos phenotypes. However, both groups are identified by their social and cultural traits (Hanchard, 1994; Reichmann, 1999; Twine, 1998). Nutini (1997) confirms that Indians “become” Mestizos by the acquisition of social and cultural traits irrelevant to phenotypes.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Culture: The body of knowledge of and manners acquired by an individual; the shared customs, values, and beliefs which characterize a given social group, and which characterize a given social group, and passed down from generation to generation.
Ethnicity: Defines people’s membership in a group, its centrality to the human experience and identity; and a sense of oneness that incorporates languages, religion, and demarcations.
Leadership: A person or number of people responsible for leading a team or group of people, usually in some sort of organized body or company, or the direction of a smaller team in a specific project or situation.
Adaptation: The process of absorption of people from different countries and different cultures brought together as the consequences of the migration process.
Diversity: In the context of work/organizations, diversity is a business/employment term originating in the late 1900s, referring to the quality of a workforce (and potentially a group of users/customers or audience) as defined by its mixture of people according to ethnicity, race, religion, disability, gender, sexuality, age, etc.
Race: A person's physical appearance, such as skin color, eye color, hair color, bone/jaw structure etc. linked to the scientific notion of a phenotype.
Innovation: The introduction of new ideas, goods, etc., or new methods of production - a new way of doing something. To be called an innovation, an idea must be replicable at an economical cost and must satisfy a specific need.
Performance: A scheme set up in the workplace in which the organization obtains revenue according to how well its members perform in their job.
Organizational Culture: Organizations that has its unique language, artifacts, values, celebrations, heroes, history and norms.
Equality: The need to insure that the interests and desires of all have equal rights and opportunities.
Organization: An established place of business whose products or services are developed for profit for the organization.
Enculturation: The assimilation of the contents, practices, and values of the cultural traditions of a group by the individual belonging to the group.
Cross-Cultural Communication: Is not limited to learning other languages, but includes understanding how cultural patterns and core values impact the communication process—even when everyone is speaking English.