Who Am I?Presenting Cultural Identities

Olivier Serrat

2017

On Diversity in Organizations

According to Ferdman (1995) "… diversity in organizations is typically seen to be composed of variations in race, gender, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, physical abilities, social class, age, and other socially meaningful categorizations, together with the additional differences caused by or signified by these markers."

Somewhat darkly—if with an elegant "wheel of life" graphic depicting the beginning, first socialization, institutional and cultural socialization, enforcements, results, direction for change, and actions—Harro (2000) sees these differences as a long cycle of socialization that forces us to play certain roles.

On Diversity in Organizations

Reading both Ferdman (1995) and Harro (2000), those who know Schein & Schein's (2017) work on organizational culture may wonder what to make of the evident diversity that the operator, engineering, and executive subcultures embody, display, and encourage. God forbid they should have anything to do with Ferdman's and Harro's categorizations. Might they?

A saving grace is Ferdman's clarification that even if related descriptions focus on groups they include values, norms, and behaviors that individuals express. "Within group" differences mean that every individual can and does belong to multiple groups. These are vital insights if we are to bridge the gap between group differences and individual uniqueness.

On Cultural Diversity & Identity

Cox (1993), much cited by Ferdman (1995), qualified cultural diversity as "… the representation, in one social system, of people with distinctly different group affiliations of cultural significance." Within that, borrowing in turn from Ferdman, cultural identity is "… one's individual image of the behaviors, beliefs, values, and norms—that is, the cultural features—that characterize one's group(s), together with one's feeling about those features and one's understanding of how they are (or not) reflected in oneself."

On Cultural Diversity & Identity

The last piece of the cultural framework, the cultural identity structure, was defined by Cox (1993) also as "an individual's particular configuration of membership in cultural groups." From this unique vantage point, he argued, individuals may both view themselves in terms of their membership in many different groups at once and yet vary in the weight that they perceive each group as having in their self-concept. Thus, the core of "Who Am I?" is based on characteristics that that belong exclusively to a person and that distinguish him or her from others (rather than drawing from what features make him or her similar to others and connect with them).

Culture Identity Structure

Global Citizen

Male

Well-Traveled

Polyglot

Multidisciplinary Competencies

Interested in Organization 4.0

Keen on Organizational

Leadership

Figure 1. Culture Identity Structure—Olivier Serrat

Culture Identity Structure

Based on Cox (1993), Figure 1 is a simple representation of this presenter's cultural identity structure. Instead of a pie chart, he would have preferred to use a Venn diagram or interconnected rings with overlapping circles, all nested inside the "Global Citizen" group; hence, the lack of weight ascribed to any "slice" of the pie is intentional.

Fundamentally, Cox's use of "slices" of various sizes may be unjustifiable: each underscores a characteristic or attribute (and so depreciates or at least underplays others). More questionably, each "slice" stands alone in its bearing. In opposition, this presenter reckons that the features of an existence are the sum total of continuingly co-evolving experiences.

Culture Identity Structure

Another aside is warranted: none of the four examples of cultural identity structure that Cox (1993) showcases departs from the standard typologies of diversity, viz., race, gender, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, physical abilities, social class, age, etc., this in a globalizing, multicultural world. (Millennials might bridle at such reductionism.) Were the students, perhaps, enticed to use these?

Contrary to Cox's apparent assumption, would overlap of groups where it is found necessarily mean that the students ascribe the same meaning, for example, to being male?

Culture Identity

Figure 2. Culture Identity—Olivier Serrat Reference

Group

(Other Reference

Group)

(Other Reference

Group)

"Me"

Culture Identity

Unless one lives in a tightly circumscribed environment—who does, these days?—there is every chance that a person considering dissimilar reference groups will respond differently to such questions as: What is the group like? How do I feel about it? What relationship is there between me and the group?

Given an unspecified Reference Group and two equally unspecified Other Reference Groups, this presenter's appreciation of the interconnectedness of things in life would have "Me" in Figure 2 as a subset of nested Other Reference Groups within the Reference Group. But, he could construct sundry diagrams to show à la Ferdman (1995) numberless conjunctions with different content (cultural features) and boundaries (categories).

Implications for Diversity in Organizations

In this Who Am I? presentation, which referenced the diagrams contained in Ferdman (1995), the process of signifying graphically this presenter's identity in two different ways reinforced recognition of the sheer diversity of individuals and their groups. Strikingly, even where cultural identity structures are similar, cultural identity mapping can (and usually does) reveal different individual interpretations of where, how, and to what degree a group's culture is represented in the self.

Implications for Diversity in Organizations

There are two sides to a coin. "The Japanese are, to the highest degree, both aggressive and unaggressive, both militaristic and aesthetic, both insolent and polite, rigid and adaptable, submissive and resentful of being pushed around, loyal and treacherous, brave and timid, conservative and hospitable to new ways," wrote Ruth Benedict, a pioneering American anthropologist, in 1946.

Quite early, this presenter's evolving cultural identity structure shaped his understanding of a multiplicity many would want to do away with. But, "if we cannot now end our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity", said John F. Kennedy. This presenter avers there is a need for awareness raising and more effort to build intergroup understanding in organizations.

References

Benedict, R. (1947). The chrysanthemum and the sword: Patterns of Japanese culture. Houghton Mifflin.

Cox, T., Jr. (1993). Cultural diversity in organizations: Theory, research, and practice. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.

Ferdman, B. M. (1995). Cultural identity and diversity in organizations: Bridging the gap between group differences and individual uniqueness. In Martin M. Chemers, Stuart Oskamp, and Mark A. Constanzo, (Eds.) Diversity in Organizations: New Perspectives for a Changing Workplace. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. (Chapter 2, pp. 37–61)

References

Harro, B. (2000). The cycle of socialization. In M. Adams, W. J. Blumenfeld, R. Castaneda, H. W. Hackman, M. L. Peters, & X. Zuniga (Eds.), Readings for diversity and social justice(pp.15–21). New York: Routledge.

Schein, E. with Schein P. (2017). Organizational culture and leadership (5th edition). Wiley.

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