EQUALITY GUIdE - KU Leuven

Chapter 1 ! Personnel development and organisational culture 27
function within an organization. Hence, managing diversity means organizing these
dimensions in such way that they offer continuous added value to the organization.
The American Association of Colleges and Universities 28 defined diversity as “the variety
created in any society (and within any individual) by the presence of different
points of view and ways of making meaning which generally flow from the influence of
different cultural, ethnic, and religious heritages, from the differences in how we socialize
women and men, and from the differences that emerge from class, age, sexual
orientation, gender identity, ability and other socially structured characteristics”.
Two other concepts that play an important role in this project are organizational culture
and organizational climate. Organizational climate is the measurable outworking of
organizational culture and can be described as “the shared philosophy among people
of the same organization”. This shared philosophy consists of basic assumptions, attitudes,
standards and values 29 . Consequently, organizational climate consists of the
perception people of the organization have about certain behaviours and consequences
within this culture 30 . Hofstede, Neuijen, Ohayv and Sanders 31 give a similar
definition and state that culture manifests itself in symbols, heroes, rituals and values.
These definitions lead us to conclude that organizational culture has a great influence
on processes like recruitment, promotion and dismissal and that they constantly maintain
themselves, unless they are changed by management. Co-workers confirming
those strong cultural values are accepted by their colleagues, while co-workers who
deviate from them will be repudiated 32 . Mischel 33 places a link between diversity and
the strength of the organizational culture by stating that people with different values,
standards and attitudes, will function better in an organization with a weak culture, that
is, a culture in which standards and values are not clearly defined and applied.
According to Spataro 34 , organizational culture is important in conducting a diversity
policy for several reasons. Since organizational culture determines the behaviour of
people within the organization in general, it will specifically influence the way in which
they interact with people who are similar or different from them. Organizational culture
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Association of American Colleges and Universities (1995). The Drama of Diversity and Democracy:
Higher Education and American Commitments. Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges and
Universities.
Schein, E.H. (1990). Organizational Psychology. Prentice-Hall: Englewood Cliffs (N.J.); Offers, E.H.
(1995). ‘Organisatiecultuur en emancipatiebeleid’. In: Tijdschrift voor Management en Organisatie, Vol.
49, 1.
Schein (1990), op. cit.
Hofstede, G., Neuijen, B., Ohayv, D.D. & Sanders, G. (1990). Measuring Organizational Cultures: A
Qualitative and Quantitative Study across Twenty Cases. ASQ, June.
Chatman, J.A., Spataro, S.E. (2005). ‘Using Self-categorization Theory to Understand Relational
Demography-based Variations in People’s Responsiveness to Organizational Culture’. In: Academy of
Management Journal, Vol. 48, nr. 2, 321-331.
Mischel, 1977, in: Cox, T. (1992). Cultural Diversity in Organizations. Theory, Research and Practice.
Berret-Koehler Publishers.
Spataro (2005), op. cit.