What is Cultural Diversity?
Cultural diversity refers to the many ways in which people differ based on shared norms, laws, and taboos. The diversity of worldviews resulting from cultural differences contribute to innovative problem solving and creativity. The term cultural diversity is not the same as diversity. Whereas diversity can include all sorts of differences including cognitive diversity, cultural diversity refers to the ways in which culture specifically influences how people think.
There is a debate about whether cognitive or cultural diversity contributes more to an organization’s bottom line. Research by Alison Reynolds and David Lewis show that cultural and racial diversity contributes less to team problem-solving success than cognitive diversity. If cognitive diversity contributes to greater group problem-solving success, then why does cultural diversity correlate so high with return on investment? Katherine Phillips’ research shows that cultural diversity in organizations, and especially in the leadership, consistently contributes to competitiveness. A possible reason for the differences in research conclusions is that the cognitive diversity studies do not adequately identify the factors that cultural diversity contribute to team problem-solving.
Sources
Alison Reynolds & David Lewis. Teams solve problems faster when they are more cognitively diverse. Harvard Business Review, May 30, 2017. http://hbr.org/2017/03/teams-solve-problems-faster-when-theyre-more-cognitively-diverse
Katherine Phillips. How diversity makes us smarter. Scientific American. October 1, 2014. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-diversity-makes-us-smarter/