Culture Doesn't Just Intersect With Diversity, Culture Defines Diversity

摘要

Upon reading the focal article by Ferdman and Sagiv (2012), we were relieved. Finally, someone has brought attention to the schism between cross-cultural and diversity research. In teaching courses on diversity and globalization, it has always been difficult to locate texts that effectively integrate both perspectives, and, in many cases, instructors must use two textbooks in conjunction to effectively provide a truly global lens. However, although the arguments made by Ferdman and Sagiv are certainly a step in the right direction, we believe that their arguments need to be taken a step further. That is, diversity researchers and cross-cultural researchers should be having more than simply a conversation, they should be inextricably linked. Specifically, we argue that diversity cannot even exist without some sort of cultural context in which to place it. Further, it is important to reexamine existing studies for potential biases or places for misinterpretation when culture has not been considered in studying diversity. Diversity researchers and cross-cultural researchers are both asking the same questions—in what ways does identity play a role in the design and interpretation of research? For this reason, both sets of researchers need to adopt similar strategies and take note of the various influences at play that affect identity in a particular company, state, nation, or other local or global contexts. Otherwise, we never truly know what we mean when we say "diversity," and we run the risk of making assumptions across cultures that do not hold true. It is from this vantage point that our commentary will proceed.