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Gandhi Heryanto Management Consultant, Indonesia
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From Universalism to Poly-Culturalism
There used to be 2 paradigms of organizational culture: - The first is UNIVERSALISM, a belief in colorblindness and uniformity in the treatment of all people, by suppressing any individual cultural characteristics.
- As the world became more globalized, this evolved to a secondly paradigm, MULTICULTURALISM, which sort of acknowledges other cultures, preserves them, and does not demand that people subordinate themselves to one type of code or behaviour. Note that when we say or use the word 'multicultural', what we are effectively doing is segregating the cultures, even the cultures within ourselves. Multicultural implies that cultures are fixed, discrete entities that exist side by side - a kind of zoological approach to culture.
With many companies operating in a more global world than ever before, the idea of encouraging cultural fluency is taking hold. More people want to work abroad and workers are constantly comparing not just companies but countries to see what’s best for them. In turn, companies are looking hard at their diversity (or lack thereof) and what it means for themselves.
Due to the above, a 3rd paradigm can be distinguished:
- POLYCULTURALISM implies that all cultures can coexist at the same time to create a whole—it is possible and even probable that a person, group, organization or country has multiple cultures living within it/him/her at any given time.
Polyculturalism is a team effort, it can not exist if only one individual practices it. Everyone must be sympathetic with everyone else, everyone must be on board, everyone must be united for polyculturalism to be a reality. Do you think that polyculturalism may be a sound approach for today’s global businesses?
Source: Blog on "Polycultural Me" by Robin D.G. Kelley.
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Welcome to the Cultural Dimensions (Cross Cultural Management) forum. The topic being discussed here is: "From Universalism to Poly-Culturalism".
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Amarnath Krishnaswamy Professor, India
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Polyculturalism
Polyculturalism is just a stepping stone… It would lead to a new "culture" within the organization....
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CLAUDIUS RWODZI HR Consultant, Zimbabwe
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Instilling Polyculturalism in Organizations
The reality in the global business today is subordination of individual cultures and precedence is given to commonly acc...
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Jaap de Jonge Editor, Netherlands
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Moving from Organizational Multiculturalism to Polyculturalism
Thanks Gandhi for your most interesting post to our Cultural Dimensions SIG.
Indeed there is a big difference if your o...
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Andrew Blaine Business Consultant, South Africa
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Mutual Respect
I have read, and tried to absorb, the blog spot and have come to the conclusion that, with respect, the missing term in ...
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CLAUDIUS RWODZI HR Consultant, Zimbabwe
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Multiculturalism to Poly-culturalism
Culture change will always be a challenge to deal with, so once organizations understand that we are now living in a glo...
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Andre-Ambrosio ABRAMCZUK Teacher, Brazil
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Multi- and Poly-Uniculturalism
From my early years I was taught that "si fueris Rōmae, Rōmānō vīvitō mōre; si fueris...
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bill kinlough Lecturer
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Behaviour and Culture
I think when we say polyculturalism and then start talking about behaviour, we could get our wires crossed; if we acknow...
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Borje Vickberg, Sweden
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Polyculturalism in Sweden
There are, at least, two dimensions on this subject; The company you manage and the country you live in. My personal exp...
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Francis Joseph United Kingdom
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Diversity in Culturism is Rich
This debate is not about culture change, culture change cannot be initiated or coerced, therefore perish the thought. Mu...
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Cruijff Manager, China
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Cultural Sensitivity as a Skill
Nice first post and interesting idea, Gandhi.
When reading this, I felt that Polyculturalism implies a skill within peo...
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Sonny Vicente Coach, Philippines
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Value-based Sensitivity to Cultural Differences
I tend to subscribe to your proposed 3rd paradigm, Polyculturalism, Ghandi and totally agree with Andrew Blaine's introd...
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K.Narayana Moorthy HR Consultant, India
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From Universalism to Poly-Culturalism
Whether you are an executive or an entrepreneur, the ability to bridge the cultural gaps and leverage foreign ideas and ...
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Gian Singh Lecturer, Malaysia
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Forget Poly Culturalism
Since immemorial times, this theme of poly culturalism did not work and biased racism is built in the human being. Remem...
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kenji hachiya Business Consultant, Viet Nam
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The Matter is How to Influence Majority
As a Japanese consultant who is supporting Japanese companies operating in Vietnam, the difficulty is how to blend Japan...
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Pieter Erasmus Management Consultant, South Africa
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Establishing and Merging New Cultures in South Africa
Then there is a group that migrated from the Northern African continent to the Southern African continent. These guys to...
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eddie m Interim Manager, Kenya
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We Need to Embrace Polyculturalism
Can’t agree more, indeed as somebody said 'the world is a small village' we need this to not only to co-exist but to add...
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Hardtmann Entrepreneur, Germany
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Polyculturalism is a Must if we Want to Leverage our Differences
Giving everyone the chance to remain unique, and contribute in their own way is key to our success in future - it's the ...
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Johannes Vandeweijer Entrepreneur, Germany
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Coexisting Reaching Project Goals
Finally, if there was an invasion from Mars, all cultures would stand side by side fighting for the same (project) goal....
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Gandhi Heryanto Management Consultant, Indonesia
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From Multiculturalism to Poly-culturalism
Thanks for all great reactions. I just would like to add further about traditional model and polyculturalism.
The tradi...
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K.Narayana Moorthy HR Consultant, India
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From Multiculturalism to Poly-culturalism
Thanks Mr Gandhi Heryanto, Totally I agree with your views. Yes, I agree Poly-colturalism offers a better lens of unders...
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Ashwini Saxena Operations Officer, India
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Poly Culturism is Just the Outcome!
Coming from the Hindu philosophy of "Vasudheva Kutumbukam" meaning that the whole world is a family, to me poly culturis...
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Brad Altemeyer, United States
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Beyond Polly and Her Cultures
I just wrote a short article for our new faculty publication here at South Texas College (great place for international ...
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K.Narayana Moorthy HR Consultant, India
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Co-existing Reaching Project Goals: Mutual Respect
Yes, Mr. Johannes Vandeweijer, I agree with your views. In fact, during my early service years, when I was in charge of ...
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Borje Vickberg, Sweden
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Polyculturalism
@Gian Singh: Extremely pessimistic and cynical attitude. We have in contrast to the Neandertals, many options of communi...
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