Values Cannot Be Ignored

摘要

We agree with Ferdman and Sagiv (2012) that the disciplines of workplace diversity and cross-cultural work psychology can and should learn from one another. However, we think it is important to consider the implications of a "value-free" cross-cultural work psychology. Although cross-cultural work psychology scholars may attempt to describe culture without systematic preferences, as Ferdman and Sagiv suggest, culture inherently imposes a set of values on individuals that affect their interper-sonal and intergroup interactions. Cultural values affect reactions to diversity in the United States and the ability to generalize and export U.S. diversity concepts to other countries. Moreover, value-free approaches to cross-cultural work psychology have had the unintended consequence of discounting value-laden cross-cultural interactions and thus have sometimes inhibited diversity work.