Cultural Identity Analysis

The degree to which one personally identifies with one's cultural identities and the value one places on them vary across cultural groups and across members within cultural groups (Cox, 1993; Thomas, 1993; Ely, 1995; Ragins, 1997). Moreover, a person may vary in the degree to which he or she identifies with, values, or expresses a particular cultural identity at any given time, depending on the salience and meaning of that identity in the context within which he or she is operating (Ely, 1995; Larkey, 1996). Hence, cultural identity, as we understand it, is socially constructed, complex, and dynamic. In addition, cultural identities are associated in the larger society with certain power positions, such that some cultural identity groups have …show more content…
There is much theoretical and empirical support for the notion that paying attention to differences in power and status is critical for understanding diversity in organizations. In Alderfer's (1987) theory of intergroup relations, for example, the distribution of power among cultural identity groups, both inside the organization and in the larger society, is key to how people think, feel, and behave at work. Similarly, proponents of status characteristics theory (Ridgeway, 1988; 1991) argue that much of what we think of as the effects of membership in particular identity groups, such as race or sex, are in fact produced by the status value our society ascribes to those groups. In organizations, status differentials are reinforced when higher-status identity groups are disproportionately represented in positions of organizational authority and are challenged when they are not (Alderfer, 1987; Lau and Murnighan,