Toward a Civic Culture for Multicultural Organizations

Abstract

As workplaces become more demographically diverse, there is an increased need for an overarching civic culture that explicitly addresses relations and interactions among various identity groups within an organization. Despite differences in the level of analysis and the standpoints of organization versus subgroup, both the integration and differentiation perspectives on organizational culture are inadequate to address cultural conflicts associated with demographic diversity. Based on a literature review of works by philosophers, political scientists, and educators, the authors suggest that civic culture, which focuses on relational values such as equality and a respect for differences rather than on substantive values such as product quality and timeliness, is an appropriate framework for multicultural organizations. An empirical study found preliminary evidence that people in demographically diverse organizations are more likely to emphasize relational over substantive values and that values proposed for diverse organizations emphasize both differentiation and integration.

Antecedents and outcomes of workplace incivility: Implications for human resource development research and practice

“…The hierarchical regression results present evidence that select demographic variables, affect, and workplace adaptation are antecedents to instigation of both interpersonal and organizational incivility (Chen & Eastman, 1997). Our study revealed that young men were more likely to engage in interpersonal and organizational incivility than were women.…”

Bullying in the 21st Century Global Organization: An Ethical Perspective

“…As organizations evolve into global organizations, one could expect that there could be an increase in the frequency and severity of bullying behavior in the organization for a number of reasons (Berkowitz, 1993;Chen and St. Eastman, 1997). First, there can be an increase in the diversity of employees in the organization (Lin, 1999).…”

Aging Workers and the Employee-Employer Relationship

“…Moreover, at the collective level of analysis, various scholars have assessed and described shared cognitions about diversity, expressed as diversity mindsets, climates, cultures, or perspectives (Chen & Eastman, 1997 ;Ely & Thomas, 2001 ;Van Knippenberg & Schippers, 2007 ). Dating back to the original work of Reichers and Schneider ( 1990 , p. 22), organizational climates are assumed to evolve as part of a sensemaking process and are defi ned as "shared perceptions of the way things are around here."…”