Ethnicity at work - Report on a quasi-experiment

One ultimate goal of a multicultural society like the Netherlands is the enthusiastic endorsement of difference (Waltzer, 1997) Integration in the organisation occurs if the ethnic minority members as well as the ethnic majority members maintain their own culture and also have contact with members of the other group (Berry, 1980). We argue that thoughts about integration are not common in the labour organisation. The goal of the research was to establish positive thought processes about multicultural teamwork. We speculated about the possibility of stimulating positive thoughts and actions that would develop into this kind of teamwork in a local government organisation. Workers and management were asked to write down possible measures for the improvement of the co-operation between Dutch and ethnic minority workers. Two weeks later they were asked by the director to participate in a workshop. The workshop integrated the research results and the employees' experience into recommendations for multicultural teamwork. The results were both striking and marginal. The results of our research show that contrary to integration thoughts, segregation and assimilation are still important frames of reference for managers and workers. The main hypotheses has been confirmed although it was a marginal interaction. Respondents who cite measures to improve multicultural teamwork were more apt to participate in the workshop.