Cultural and social diversity. This presentation focuses on the similarities and differences that we can find in ethnicity and race issues across different countries. Managers working in different regions need to understand the cultural complexity of their social environments. For firms that are looking to explore and expand their products and services, their markets and their talent pool, this diversity dimension presents unexplored opportunities. Ethnicity and race issues manifest themselves in different ways around the world. For example, do you know how many official languages are spoken in India? How many ethnic groups are officially recognized in China? What terms exist to describe skin colour in Brazil? The answer to the first question, how many official languages are spoken in India is 122 languages. India is a highly diverse country in terms of castes and regional dialects. It is not unusual for an individual to be multilingual without ever having left home. While the Indian caste system is highly complex, lower castes are generally associated with lower economic status and few opportunities. And in order to address this, there is a quota system for lower castes to access higher education and positions in the public sector. Lower castes accounts for 69% of the population. Interestingly enough, the reservation system as an example of affirmative action was implemented in India in 1935, three decades before similar programs appeared in the US. The answer to the second question, how many ethnic groups are officially recognized in China is, in fact, 56 groups including the majority Han group. The Han ethnic group is the largest ethnicity constituting just over 91% of the population. The next five ethnic groups, the Zhuang, Manchu, Hui, Uighur and Miao make up just about 4% of the population. However, due to the sheer size of the Chinese population, this percentage translates, nonetheless, to almost 60 million people for just those 5 ethnic groups. This is almost as large as the whole population of the United Kingdom or France and almost twice the size of Canada. The one child policy that was in effect in China between 1979 and 2015 did not apply to ethnic minorities. And the numbers grew comparatively over that period. China also has a system in place to promote ethnic minority students into universities by attributing extra points. This is seen as important for the integration of minority ethnic groups that may otherwise be secluded due to stigmatization. Since education and fluency in Mandarin is the main basis for employment opportunities. Brazil's considered to be one of the most racially diverse countries in the world and the country that has the most number of people with African heritage outside the continent of Africa. On the national census, Brazilians are self-categorized into five categories, white, brown, black, Asian yellow, and indigenous. However, studies indicate that Brazilians may use up to 136 different terms to describe skin color. A comparison between how ethnicity is categorized in the US and in Brazil allows us to highlight two distinct ideologies and their impact on race relations. In the US, ethnicity and race is ancestry based, so that Americans are classified and refer to themselves as "something" American Afro American, Asian American, Native American, Hispanic with more detailed categories such as Caribbean American, Mexican American, or combinations of different origins. This categorization makes sense within an ideology of segregation and defining clearly between differences, which some claim is the foundation of race relations in the US. Despite these ideological differences, both countries have favored people of European origin throughout their history, so that like in the US, we find that in Brazil, skin color is highly correlated with economic status. Like in China and in India, in order to address social and economic inequalities, the issue of race has moved to the center stage of Brazil's social policy agenda. In order to deal with structural discrimination of ethnic minorities, countries such as the US, Brazil, India and China have official affirmative action programs or ethnic minority quotas for getting into universities. The objective is to level the playing field for ethnic and racial groups that are underrepresented in higher education in the country due to historically unequal opportunities. Often times they are controversial, as in the US or South Africa, where counterexamples of students not being accepted based on their ethnicity has hit the press. For firms in search of growth, it is important to look beyond the mainstream populations, new possibilities and potential. Understanding the diversity of ethnicity present in different countries and becoming familiar with different ideologies regarding race and ethnicity is the first step. The students of the Essec Leadership and Diversity Chair created a booklet on cultural and and social diversities in countries around the world. For more information on this diversities I mentioned, please click on the web link.
