Developing the multi‐cultural organisation: managing diversity or understanding differences?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the different approaches to managing a multi‐cultural team within an organisation and ways to identify which approach an organisation has adopted. The paper also investigates the result of the different methods and evaluates which is the most effective. Design/methodology/approach – The paper takes a discursive approach in order to explore fully and survey the different styles and their consequences. In order to verify which of the methods is most effective the paper compares and contrasts the two to identify the benefits. Findings – The paper reveals that there are two approaches for managing a multi‐cultural team: developmental and defensive. It discovers what the symptoms of the techniques are and why an organisation might adopt a certain method. The paper finds that the developmental approach is the most effective for organisations and uncovers how an organisation can follow a developmental route on managing cultural differences for the most positive effect. Originality/value – The paper is a valuable resource to any organisation currently employing a multi‐cultural team or looking to conduct an overseas assignment or re‐locate the whole or part of the company abroad.