Toward a Theory of Communicative Interactions in Culturally Diverse Workgroups

This article develops a set of predictions for interactions in culturally diverse workgroups. A typology of organizations and corresponding workgroups is detailed, adapted from Cox's (1991) model of monolithic, plural, and multicultural organizational types, followed by a discussion of how organization and workgroup conditions influence workgroup members to emphasize either categorization or specification in cognitive processing. Next, a series of positive and negative communicative interaction types is predicted based on type of processing. Finally, a discussion of the implications for further research and potential application is presented.