Blackwell Reference Online

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Cultural diversity is an increasingly salient issue for organizations due to greater geographic mobility among potential members (including migration; → Migration and Immigration ) and a decrease in legal and cultural barriers to participation in many countries. “Cultural diversity” is defined as the presence of members with different systems of understanding based on cultural or group affiliation ( Cox 1993 ; → Diversity in the Workplace ). These systems of understanding may be based on identities of gender, age, race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, sexual orientation, religion, educational background, or other identity groups (→ Culture: Definitions and Concepts ). Loden and Rosner (1991) divide dimensions of diversity into those that are relatively fixed as primary (e.g., age, ethnicity, gender, physical abilities, race, and sexual orientation) and those that are more mutable as secondary (e.g., educational background, geographic location, income, marital status, etc.). Although demographic differences in a group often reflect differences in experiences and patterns of behavior, it is the differences in worldview, values, and ways of understanding based on cultural differences that often prove challenging in interacting and understanding diversity in organizations. When members of a work, social, or educational organization come from different cultural backgrounds, there ... log in or subscribe to read full text