The Multicultural Mind Unleashing the Hidden Force for Innovation in Your Organization

Globalization has created a superheated competitive business environment that demands innovation to stay ahead. But it’s also created a hidden source of innovation right in your midst: the people in your organization who have deep experience in more than one culture—multiculturals. Having to integrate different cultural frameworks has enabled them to develop abilities that can contribute powerfully to building innovative organizations.

David Thomas makes a compelling business case for recognizing and cultivating a new dimension of diversity—the diversity within individuals! He looks at how to establish the organizational conditions under which multiculturals can flourish and shows how even the most monocultural among us can gain the advantages of a multicultural mind.

David C. Thomas is the Beedie Professor of International Management at Simon Fraser University. He is the author or coauthor of ten books, including the award-winning Cross-Cultural Management.

Part I: Introducing Multiculturals
1. A Resource Hiding in Plain Sight: Multiculturals and Innovation
2. Why Mexicans Speak Spanish: Sources of Cultural Identity
3. “Sometimes I Feel like a Motherless Child”: How Confronting Cultural Differences Results in a Multicultural Mind
Part II: Understanding Multiculturals
4. Neoricans, Mexican-Americans, and Catalan Spanish: The Many Ways in Which Individuals Experience and Manage Their Multiculturalism
5. “Singing Sea Chanteys Does Not Make You a Sailor”: Language and Multiculturalism in an Organizational Context
6. “Where Are You from--Really?” Observable Differences and Developing a Multicultural Mind
Part III: Leveraging the Multicultural Mind
7. “I Am Feeling Very Olympic Today, How about You?” The Influence of the Situation on Multiculturals and Innovation
8. “I Get By with a Little Help from My Friends”: Multiculturals’ Roles and Teams in Organizations
9. “The Needs of the Many Outweigh the Needs of the Few”: Leveraging the Skills of Multiculturals and Building an Innovative Organization
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the Author