"If we cannot now end our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity", said John F. Kennedy. Presenting one's cultural identity reinforces 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. Awareness raising and more effort can build intergroup understanding in organizations.

1. Who Am I?
Presenting Cultural Identities
Olivier Serrat
2017

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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."

5. 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).

6. 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

7. 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.

8. 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?

9. Culture Identity
Figure 2. Culture
Identity—Olivier Serrat Reference
Group
(Other
Reference
Group)
(Other
Reference
Group)
"Me"

10. 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).

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. 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)

14. 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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