The good and the bad: the impact of diversity management on co-operative relationships

Abstract

This paper explores the consequences of cultural diversity on co-operative relationships. It postulates two different modes of co-operation: ‘community based co-operation’, based on the need to belong, and ‘complementary co-operation’, which seeks to harness strategic resources. These modes are combined with six dimensions of cultural diversity to create a cross-analysis framework. This framework forms the basis of our analysis of the interaction between cultural diversity and co-operation. Counter-intuitively, the study of France Telecom Mobile and Orange UK's integration team suggests that cultural diversity has little influence on issues of identity involved in co-operation. However, it reveals a strong link between cultural diversity and strategic rationale. The findings suggest that cultural diversity should not be understood as differences between stable sets of values and norms, but rather as a way to explain inter-individual difficulties. We then propose factors that are likely to influence the impact of cultural diversity.