The impact of organisational culture as a context of interpersonal meaning on the management of organisational diversity

Abstract

Changes in the South African business environment is placing South African business
organisations under increasing pressure to move toward democratic, non-racial and
fully representative organisational structures. In an attempt to accelerate this process,
companies are embarking on affirmative action and black empowerment programmes in
order to develop previously disadvantaged groups and to assimilate these groups into
existing organisation cultures. The results of these efforts are viewed with interest and
scepticism. This article explores the link between organisational communication and
successful diversity management. An overview of existing literature indicates that
successful diversity management is facilitated by communication processes through
which sufficient shared or negotiated meaning and agreed upon language and behaviours
appropriate to the workplace are constructed. This article explores the importance of
interpersonal communication in organisational sensemaking through the framework of
the Schemata Model of Interpersonal Communication in Organisational Contexts. The
results of the empirical research indicate that individuals’ experiences of the
organisational culture as a context for the construction of meaning, are more important
to diversity management than individual value differences as a result of diversity in
terms of age, gender or race.