S. employers. While the results of Hewitt’s 1998 survey demonstrated that work-life benefits (flexible scheduling, child-care benefits, etc.) are on the rise, inclusion, acceptance of diversity, and overcoming cultural barriers remain failed goals of corporate America:
Nine out of ten Human Resource professionals believe women face barriers to career advancement, and more than seven out of 10 believe minorities encounter similar obstacles.
The same survey revealed that the biggest barriers for minorities within the organization stem from stereotypes and preconceptions based on race and ethnicity (Salopek 12). So, too, minorities often feel excluded from informal networks, find few role models within the corporate environment, and many continue to perceive the corporate culture as one that favors non-minorities.
At the same time corporations are not achieving goals with respect to intercultural management, study after study continues to reinforce the crucial nature of intercultural management. This body of research contends that the three P’s – People, Productivity, and Profits – are enhanced through successful intercultural communication that fosters a diverse and inclusive corporate culture. As Dr. Weaver (2) notes “If we believe we carry our cultures into the workplace and those cultures are valued by the organization, then we look forward to coming to work everyday. This, in turn, increases retention and productivity”. So, too, in today’s global market creating such an environment helps a company retain competitive advantage because a happy, more committed and productive workforce adds value to a company’s goods, services, and public image. The combined knowledge of these facts makes it even more imperative that management effectively communicates across different cultures while moving toward a cohesive whole.
Adding to this pressure is the fact that intercultural factors and trends continue to ...