With the increasingly multicultural workforce, companies are implementing
programs to address diversity. This paper suggests two avenues of guidance for
organizations adopting a multicultural approach. First, businesses can profit
from experiences in academia, where researchers have outlined areas of
difficulty. For example, larger issues (ones that will surface in the workplace)
revolving around sharing power and valuing difference have come to the fore
front of academic debate. The inclusion of the "other"goes beyond token repre
sentation and is more complex than assimilation, melting pot, and integration
theories suggest.
Second, industry's own team management theory, which dismantles hierar
chical structures in favor of participatory ones, suggests ways of dissolving
barriers and creating unity. Working together to reach a common goal underlies
team management theory. Successful teams in industry support the fact that
collective decision making is more productive than that of the individual. New
workplace structures should focus not on individual change but on cooperation
and team goals. Pedagogical methods of inclusivity and workplace teams can
assist companies as they prepare for the increasingly diverse workforce.
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