Multiculturalism in the workplace: Model and test

Abstract

Orientation: This article addresses the role of multiculturalism in employee attitudes.Research purpose: It proposes a model of positive features of multiculturalism in organisations and tests it in South Africa. The model postulates three levels in multiculturalism: antecedent conditions, such as multiculturalism practices and norms that define the diversity climate; mediators, such as diversity-enhancing employee attitudes; and positive work outcomes.Motivation for the study: South Africans from diverse backgrounds hardly meet in their private spaces. Given this forced contact in the workplace and the calls for national unity and social cohesion, we propose that a workplace that is characterised by mutual respect, accommodation and tolerance for difference could have a positive impact on employee work attitudes.Research approach/design and method: A quantitative approach was adopted using survey questionnaires that were distributed to employees selected on the basis of convenience sampling (N = 299) in various workplaces.Main findings: A multi-group path analysis confirmed the validity of the model for the white, black and mixed race ethnic groups. Although the differences were negligible to medium, white groups seemed to experience a slightly more favourable multicultural environment compared to black and mixed race groups.Practical/managerial implications: All dimension scores were well above the mid-point of the scale, which suggests that psychometrically speaking, the multicultural climate, ethnic integration orientations and employee attitudes are experienced by these employees as favourable.Contribution/value-add: From a conceptual perspective, the model implies that the more distal variable of a multicultural climate influences employee attitudes through a set of more proximal integration attitudes and practices. From a practical perspective, an inclusive climate has more distal characteristics such as the general multiculturalism climate and more proximal characteristics such as ethnic vitality.

The validation of a diversity climate measurement instrument for the South African environment

“…Background and orientation for the study South Africa is considered as an intriguing environment for studying diversity, yet there is no validated instrument available to assess diversity climate. This is due especially to South Africa's history of legalised segregation and recent legislative attempts to improve diversity (Jackson & Van de Vijver, 2018). An emerging area within the diversity management domain is on how employees form opinions with regard to diversity -also known as diversity climate.…”

Cooperation of enterprises in the sphere of human resources in logistics

“…The education and skills of employees from different countries can vary widely. Moreover, these employees perform tasks in accordance with their value system in the perception of work related to the culture of the region of origin [Jackson, de Vijver 2018].…”

Improving the quality of Portuguese SMEs through competence evaluation

“…In short, the relevance of the elaboration and execution of training programs in the area of foreign languages and diversity in the business context boils down to its effective management, valuing the uniqueness of the employees while, at the same time, working on their sense of belonging and identification with the company [7].…”