Cultural Influences in the Workplace
The United States today is a complex and often contradictory society. While America has always been a multicultural society composed of different cultures from all over the world, its peoples have always been joined as one country. Just as many states joined into one republic, people of many nationalities and ethnic groups have joined into one nation (Postmodern Times 149). These cultures were able to come together because they all believed in the universality of the American principles of freedom, equality, and self-government. Thus, this distinctly American heritage was not so much a culture as a "meta-culture," a framework that allowed diverse peoples to form a single nation (Postmodern Times 150).
Historically, America's racial issues were divided along the lines of black and white. However, the future of race relations in America will be radically different. Black and white Americans are now a declining portion of the population (Hacker 256). Since 1970 individuals of European ancestry have declined by about 10 percent, while the national total of Americans of African ancestry rose by only one percent, largely due to new arrivals from the Caribbean (Hacker 256). By the year 2000, studies estimate that Hispanics will constitute 20 percent of the population of the United States, making them America's largest minority group (Clark 339). It is also likely that cities such as San Francisco will have Asians as a majority of their citizens early in the next century (Clark 339).
This change in the American population will also mean a change in the consumer and labor markets. Experts predict the labor market will become tighter, more female, more nonwhite, and more mature. White males will make up only 15 percent of all new labor entrants in the next 10 years (Clark 338), and native nonwhite Americans will make up 20 percent (Clark 339). The largest percentage of new workers, 62 p...