The Cultural Mosaic: A Metatheory for Understanding the Complexity of Culture.

TLDR

Workforce diversity has increased the prevalence of culturally diverse employees, prompting researchers to examine culture beyond traditional nation-state values and view individuals as collages of multiple identities within a complex system of localized cultural structures. The paper proposes a cultural mosaic framework that identifies demographic, geographic, and associative features of culture and outlines research propositions for studying multiple cultural identities at individual and group levels. The framework is grounded in chaos and complexity theories for individual-level analysis and network theory for group-level cultural research.

Abstract

Workforce population trends have increased the numbers and kinds of culturally diverse people who work together. Researchers in organizational behavior have often examined culture through values; however, cultural values can be based on collections of people other than traditional nation states. A cultural mosaic is presented as a framework to identify demographic, geographic, and associative features underlying culture. An individual's unique collage of multiple cultural identities yields a complex picture of the cultural influences on that person. Developments in chaos and complexity theories are proposed as a theoretical base for study on the complexity of culture at the individual level. Additional developments in network theory serve as a theoretical base for cultural research at the group level. The cultural mosaic is described as a complex system with localized structures, linking cultural tiles in ordered and chaotic ways. Research propositions examining multiple cultural identities at individual and group levels are discussed.