'You are the key (to performance)': A comparison of Asian and Euro-American expatriate/native employees' perceptions of their organizational culture

Through integrating theories developed in organizational culture, intercultural communication and diversity in the workplace, this study examines Asian and Euroamerican native/expatriate employees' perceptions of their organizational culture. The study investigates cultural diversity in the workplace across three different types of organizations, i.e., high-technology industries, health care settings, and universities. The study sketches the zeitgeist of the emerging transcultural and global social phenomena that exist in Taiwanese and U.S. (post)modern societies. Based on a polyphonic perspective, the complexity of diversity and culture related issues within an organization at macrocultural (e.g., ethnicity) and microcultural (e.g., a specific organizational context) levels was exemplified. Specifically, a phenomenological research method is adopted to gain verstehen of Asian and Euroamerican native/expatriate participants' lived experiences and multifaceted lifeworld.; The thematization of ethnographic field notes, 51 in-depth interviews, and 39 open-ended questionnaires were phenomenologically reduced to three supra-themes. First, general themes subsuming underneath organizational culture include family metaphor, profit driven, service, in-groupness, network, tradition, bureaucracy, etc. Organizational culture and values at deep and superficial levels were explicated through the (re)presentation of emerging themes.; Second, the general themes associated with intercultural communication (e.g., cultural adaptation, cultural identity, ethnolinguistic identity, institutional bias, subtle discrimination, personal traits versus cultural differences, stereotype and type-casting, etc.) were identified. Themes concerning expatriates' double consciousness, transformational cultural adaptation processes, (dis)placement of cultural identity, and rejection of essentialized ethnic/cultural identities were discussed.; With regard to cultural communication and diversity in the workplace, the analysis of the capta yielded general themes including promotion of diversity, obstacles, and criticisms and suggestions of programs focusing on diversity in the workplace. Participants' concerns such as gender/sex diversity, inclusivity or lack thereof, lip service, and limitations on certain racial groups were presented.; The study found that the essentialized cultural differences previously suggested in intercultural communication literature might not hold true. Respondents' criticisms of diversity and multiculturalism due to political ideology constraints, trainers' questionable qualifications, the superficiality of diversity training, and the motivation of implementing diversity because of organizational profitability or government regulation were scrutinized.