Why is "Diversity" so important?
"Diversity" means "variety."
However, one should never bring this concept to only national and ethnic parameters as variety covers a much wider space.
The most common parameters of variety are given in the "Diversity circle", where we can see:
- "internal parameters" such as gender, age, the already mentioned ethnicity, psychological differences, etc;
- "external parameters" such as marital status, religion, education, etc; and
- "organizational parameters" such as position, department, professional interests and the like.
• Based on multiple observations of the performance of different teams, we can draw the conclusion that the performance of "diverse" teams is either far lower than that of "homogeneous" teams or far above that of the latter. It was noticed that diverse teams are much superior in creativity but their success is only achieved through adequate cultural integration of team members.
• Therefore, it is not enough just to maintain "diversity". We should assume that a multicultural society or multicultural collective bodies, where each group exists as if in parallel to another, can yield to those with well-developed internal "intercultural" ties. Since "multiculturalism» by itself implies a fairly low level of cultural integration of different groups of the same society you can hardly expect a high level of intercultural trust within them.
• In the past, the basic principles of "internationalism" were equality of all nations, preservation of ethnic diversity on a regional basis, gradual integration based on the unity of values and goals. However, integration practically never occurs smoothly due to differences in the level of scientific, technological and cultural development, which leads to isolation of dominant groups. This inevitably leads to an increase in ethnocentrism in both groups, which, in the end, was expressed in the growth of "national self-consciousness" and division by ethnicity.
• The human Ego as a property inherent in nature, makes a human to identify the self in the world and regard the self as a subject through which he survives and evolves in a competitive environment of "natural selection", but the same property builds barriers in the mind that prevent him from objective perception of reality. Our ego, like glasses distorting the vicinity, gives us a picture of the objective world, interpreted by our own perception and lying far beyond objective reality.
• In other words, we sometimes use a concept like "female viewpoint" of things or vice versa a "male viewpoint" to things that reflects the differences in gender parameters. Or "teenager viewpoint" and "a view from the height of the lived years", reflecting age differences in perception of the same. It must be assumed that “viewpoints" of representatives of different psychotypes, professions, ethnical groups, etc. will differ by far from each other, interpreting facts, events and circumstances in their own way, not to mention the very goals of certain actions and the consequences of these or those actions.
For example, professional interests of a financial controlling department and a sales department may be in opposition to each other, and we often find that the view of the builder opposes that of the designer ...
Therefore, the ability to more correctly interpret the perception of another member of the team, and thus adapt one’s perception in a proper way, will help to establish mutual understanding, respect and harmony in the team. This can significantly help to avoid the situation described in the well-known Krylov's fable "The Swan, the Crawfish, and the Pike" and to relieve tension and antagonism in the team and society as a whole.
• Nevertheless, an individual with his/her unique "ego" identifier tends to unite in groups and communities. Presumably, this can be attributed to safety factor and the need for an "egocentric" individual to socialize. An individual is included into the social scale whereon he/she develops, raises and self-affirms.
And it is precisely the "objective logic" of social relations, perception of reality and its evaluation rather than “subjective logic” of any individual taken alone that dictates the individual one behavior or the other. Thus, various cultural groups are formed: national-ethnic, professional and others. I believe that through socialization of the "ego", there appears such a phenomenon as "ethnocentrism".
• Cultural identification stems from socialization in the society. Socialization means a process whereby any child learns the rules of communication, behavior and nonverbal communication in the society. Socialization is a physical and moral sense of relevance and "germane". Physical relevance implies physical preferences associated with sensations such as smell, culinary preferences, clothing style, ability to distinguish between beautiful and ugly, etc. Moral relevance implies a sense of morality, an understanding of "fair" and "justice" or, in other words, "good" and "evil." Thus, cultural identification implies a wide range of categories through which an individual formulates his perception of reality.
• It should also be noted that social scientists have identified the fact that each group seeks to dissociate itself as much as possible from others, thus ensuring the maximum difference between them. And on the basis of cultural differences of different groups separated from each other, an ethnos is formed. Maximizing the differences of ethnocentric groups is a quality given by nature.
It is my opinion that that ethnocentrism is conceptually masculine. This can be attributed to nature, which cares about the survival of each individual gender just to preserve the differences of a particular ethnos. In a patriarchal society, women before marriage probably have a less pronounced instinct for "ethnocentrism," since nature requires them to determine their ethnicity more in terms of the ethnicity of the husband and children respectively than in the fact of birth. This contributes to the genetic "diversity" within one patriarchal ethnogroup, without having a significant impact on its cultural values. Then we can assume that nature is more interested in preserving and expanding diversity within different species, rather than in their complete and final integration.
With the advent of quantum theory, we realized the relativity of not only knowledge gained, but the laws of nature as a whole. Therefore, it is worth to get acquainted with the "relativistic" ethnosociological theory, i.e. the model of assimilating a different culture ("intercultural sensitivity" or "intercultural perception" according to Milton Bennett’s “A Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity").
Initially, ethnocentricity gifted to us by nature contributes to the total denial of other cultural groups. Our own culture is experienced as central to reality and the only true. However, in the modern world, in the context of growing interaction of cultures, the world is faced with the complex dilemma: how to impart the experience of intercultural communication to the people to enable them to perceive and understand other cultures or other people’s views, not by distorting their "cultural eyeglasses", but with the eyes of another person, representing a different culture.
M. Bennett cites the stages of cultural competence from ethnocentrism to ethnorelativism: the ability to perceive different cultures exclusively with respect to each other rather than a "things-in-itself". For the purpose, however, you should acquire certain skills of intercultural perception and interaction. In my opinion, the cornerstone of success in this matter is the need for all cultural groups to seek for such interaction, rather than for individual ones.
• According to M. Bennett, the first stage is Denial of other cultures given to us by nature. At this stage, it is possible to avoid conflicts only by keeping away from each other at a certain distance, minimizing the intersections. At this stage, it is proposed to organize activities for intercultural exchange, where there will be an opportunity to get acquainted with another culture: clothes, dances, cuisine ... without going into details of these differences.
• The next stage in the development of "intercultural interaction" according to M. Bennett is Defense when a person acknowledges cultural differences but feels threatened by them and builds a system of protection. At this stage, demonization of other cultures takes place, attributing to them exclusively negative qualities. What we see in the modern world in relation to cultures that do not fit into the standard representations of a particular public opinion.
• A good illustration of this phenomenon is a study of how passers-by reacted to the same conduct of different people, namely a white man, a black man and a white woman. They each tried to break the lock on a parked bike. As a result of the same actions, a woman was more often asked if she needed help, the white man was mostly ignored, while a call to the police was a reaction to the actions of the black man. This experiment clearly shows the fundamental differences in the construction of the reality of each person.
• A variation of this stage is the phenomenon of "Ethno-reversion" ("Reversal") where representatives of one or other ethnogroup deny their ethnicity, and treat the adopted culture as superior to their native culture. Most often it happens, according to M. Bennett, among people who have lived abroad for a long time, and I will add that this also applies to some people living in the territory of cultures that yield to "dominant" world cultures by "economic" criteria. From this "psychological viewpoint", this craving for dominants, in my opinion, is instinctively "feminine" as the "male character" does not tend to dominate, but tends to become dominant himself. Usually, the negation of their previous ethnic group, in this case, is much more pronounced. "Ethno-reversible" personalities are often highly ethnocentric.
So, in the ethnocentric phase, at the stage of Defense, M. Bennet proposes to focus on those cultural moments that are common for all and uniting. This is necessary to smoothly pass to the next stage, which is called Minimization by the author of this theory.
• At the Minimization stage, characterized by minimizing various cultural differences: ethnic, gender, and other groups, people tend to believe that there are no differences at all, or they are completely insignificant and not worthy of attention. This stage of "cultural perception" may seem to be cultural integration, however, a person at this stage of development is still in the domain of "Ethnocentrism", according to M. Bennett, because, while arguing that "everyone is the same", he denies the very existence of other cultures.
At this stage, individuals universalize other cultural groups, still remaining in the "blinders" of their own values, only perceiving and interpreting other cultures in their own way, as similar to their own. While accepting that “everyone in the world around is like you", an individual practically never accepts the option "I am like them". He ignores cultural differences of others, mistakenly believing that he has reached the integration peak. He clearly does not realize that, in this case, there is «egalitarian cultural discrimination". To illustrate this situation, let us recall Krylov's fable "The Fox and the Crane".
• Acceptance of literal equivalence of cultures, race, and gender is the most common trend in the construction of a "multicultural society". Say, no matter what gender, orientation, profession, skin color, what ethnic group we belong to, who we work for, what food we cook, we are all the same people and we share the same desires and the same values, opportunities and goals. There is a plausible pretext for everything: equality. This stage of development of "intercultural perception" is an important step for shifting to a new stage!
• A new stage, for transition to the domain of "Ethnorelativism", i.e. the domain of cultural perception of different cultures not individually, and not through some kind of prism, but only relative to each other. To do this, it is necessary to accept the very fact of existence of cultural differences: ethnic, gender, physiological, etc. It must be recognized that there are no good or bad cultures, right and wrong. There are simply different cultural values based on different physiological, gender, national-ethnic, religious, historical, geographical, psychological, professional, and other features.
• Thus by recognizing the very existence of cultural differences, we can move to the stage of Recognition in the domain of "ethnorelativism".
At this stage, a person first feels himself in the domain of ethnorelativism, leaving behind the domain of ethnocentrism given by the wild nature.
• M. Bennett suggests, if desired, we can move along the path of the «development of intercultural perception" to successive level of Adaptation, and then to Integration. Here, first, "interculture" is formed, and in the future, "transculture" can also form.
• Being aware of the general principles of "development of intercultural perception", one can extract life-affirming goals and achieve more. The experience and ability to adapt to different cultural groups, without minimizing their values, is an important quality of any successful person. One can cite the most vivid historical example of a person who is in the domain of "ethnorelativism" with a developed level of "intercultural perception". This is Alcibiades, a politician and general in Ancient Greece, 450-404 B.C.
In ancient times the name Alcibiades was very popular. His contemporaries admired that he easily adapted to new cultural conditions and even found pleasure in the process. Whereas in Athens, he boasted of his wealth and made ardent speeches, in Sparta he led a strict way of life, was gloomy and silent. After visiting the Thracians known of their hard drinking, he surpassed them in the vice. Once among the Persians, who enjoyed hunting and luxurious life, and surprised them with his capabilities. Contemporaries were amazed that he gained first in any culture, everywhere and in every sphere. By the way, the turbulent life of Alcibiades was reflected in Shakespearean drama "Timon of Athens".
• Conclusion, in relation to our reality: it is both interesting and exciting to work in a multi-cultural group. Our differences: ethnic, religious, gender, professional and others - make us more diverse, and, in the case of developed "intercultural perception", adaptation and integration - stronger and more successful. These abilities are not given to us by nature primordially, but they stem from our humanitarian development and upbringing. And they testify to the level of our evolutionary development. Our own Ego is the main barrier that sifts out what we consider unnecessary or alien, thereby distorting our perception of reality. It is not so easy to master the skills of intercultural communication, it is much more difficult than reading a book or even learning a new foreign language, but it is much easier than remedying the effects of committed intercultural errors and conflicts. Knowledge and skills of intercultural communication, "development of intercultural perception" can help to better understand each other and achieve more ambitious goals in cooperation!