Document Type
Article
Publication Date
5-1-2004
Abstract
Academic literature on work entry and professional growth in the United States lacks studies of individuals from cultures other than the dominant culture. Given the prime importance of academic research in the development of public goods, this lacuna contributes to the sub-optimal achievements of efforts to improve employment outcomes for some of America's unemployed and under-employed population. For individuals who have historically deep roots in the United States, such as some African-Americans, psychological adaptation to the American workplace is a key obstacle to the freedom of full participation in the culture of the United States. For individuals who move to the United States in search of economic freedom through employment, psychological adaptation to the American workplace is a crucial part of the negotiated process of acculturation in the United States. While American culture is a part-fusion, part-amalgam social construct derived from numerous indigenous and imported cultural norms, the American workplace is dominated by cultures rooted in the traditions of Northern European Christians who emigrated to North America and eventually founded the United States. Given the indisputable success of the economic system of the United States, managers and other practitioners have proceeded from and been reinforced in their premise that one standard culture, with few variations, obtains within the American workplace. The American workplace, initially hostile to entrants from culturally different backgrounds, is more accommodating for entrants from cultures that are less distant from the dominant culture. For entrants from markedly different cultures, especially those who are also visible different minorities, the workplace has not been as accepting. As the participation of individuals from non-dominant cultures increases in the American workplace, a better understanding of the process used to enter and thrive in the workplace can be used to advantage by the academy, practitioners and new entrants. If differences in culture play a role in workplace entry and professional growth, could we use the knowledge of the differences to create better employment outcomes? This research proposes to extend academic literature by examining a model of psychological adaptation to the workplace for individuals from non-dominant cultures. The model is premised on the idea that individuals initially develop and deploy “provisional selves” in the workplace in reaction to a new workplace environment or a new position within an incumbent’s workplace to achieve employment success (Ibarra: 1999), then, over a period of time, make a choice on acculturation. From the cultural standpoint, acculturation is “a process which occurs as the result of first hand contact between autonomous groups leading to changes in the original cultures of either or both of the cultures...the adaptation process of diverse individuals to the dominant culture” (Redfield, Lenton and Herskovits: 1936). Assimilation is “the theory of conformity of immigrant or ethnic minority groups to the dominant group” (Appleton: 1983). This study’s model suggests that successfully deployed provisional selves may be, for individuals from non-dominant cultures, artifacts of being bicultural. Being bicultural would mean that through the process of psychological adaptation, permanent alternative self-definitions result, and the individual concerned could remain relevant in multiple cultures. From my previous studies on the subject of work entry, the inability to be bicultural appears to be responsible for sub-optimal employment outcomes among certain individuals from non-dominant cultures.
Keywords
minorities--employment--United States
Rights
© The Author(s). Kelvin Smith Library provides access for non-commercial, personal, or research use only. All other use, including but not limited to commercial or scholarly reproductions, redistribution, publication or transmission, whether by electronic means or otherwise, without prior written permission is strictly prohibited.
Department/Center
Design & Innovation
Recommended Citation
Solaru, Adekunle, "Free at Last?" (2004). Student Scholarship. 221.
https://commons.case.edu/studentworks/221