Commitment of Cultural Minorities in Organizations: Effects of Leadership and Pressure to Conform

Purpose  

In this study, we investigated the commitment of cultural minorities and majorities in organizations. We examined how contextual factors, such as pressure to conform and leadership styles, affect the commitment of minority and majority members.     

The cultural theory and model of suicide

A growing body of research has demonstrated important variations in the prevalence, nature, and correlates of suicide across ethnic and sexual minority groups. Despite these developments, existing clinical and research approaches to suicide assessment and prevention have not incorporated cultural variations in any systematic way. In addition, theoretical models of suicide have been largely devoid of cultural influence. The current report presents a comprehensive analysis of literature describing the relationship between cultural factors and suicide in three major ethnic groups (African Americans, Asian Americans, and Latinos) and LGBTQ¹ sexual minority groups. We utilized an inductive approach to synthesize this variegated body of research into four factors that account for 95% of existing culturally specific risk data: cultural sanctions, idioms of distress, minority stress, and social discord. These four cultural factors are then integrated into a theoretical framework: the Cultural Model of Suicide. Three theoretical principles emerge: (1) culture affects the types of stressors that lead to suicide; (2) cultural meanings associated with stressors and suicide affect the development of suicidal tendencies, one's threshold of tolerance for psychological pain, and subsequent suicidal acts; and (3) culture affects how suicidal thoughts, intent, plans, and attempts are expressed. The Cultural Model of Suicide provides an empirically guided cohesive approach that can inform culturally competent suicide assessment and prevention efforts in future research and clinical practice. Including both ethnic and sexual minorities in our investigations ensures advancement along a multiple identities perspective.     

A History of Violence

Sex in the Forbidden Zone: When Men in Power–Therapists, Doctors, Clergy, Teachers, and Others–Betray Women's Trust. By Peter Rutter, MD. E Los Angeles: Jeremy P. Tarcher, 1989. (Pap erback edition: Fawcett Books, a 1991)

Owning Your Own Shadow. By Robert Johnson. San Francisco: Harper, 1991.

The Long Shore, a Psychological Experience of the Wilderness. By Jane Hollister Wheelwright and Lynda Wheelwright Schmidt. Sierra Club and Natural Philosophy Library, 1991.

God's Shadow and the Novice's Stones. By Francoise O'Kane. Switzerland: Albatross, 1991.

Joy, Inspiration and Hope. By Verena Kast. College Station, Texas: Texas A &; M University Press, 1991.

Incarnation in Hinduism and Christianity: The Myth of the God-Man. By Daniel E. Bassuk. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press.

Mothers of Thyme: Customs and Rituals of Infertility and Miscarriage. By Janet L. Sha. Minneapolis, MN: Lida Rose Press, 1990.     

Film Review

Dancer in the Dark, Written and directed by Lars von Trier     

Gender,residual deviance,and social control

Focusing on gendered aspects of informal social control, we use a societal reaction approach to examine 15 years of students’ gender norm violation projects. Three predictions regarding differential reaction to women's and men's residual deviance are (a) that there will be no gender differences, (b) that those with less power and status (women) will be sanctioned more or (c) that those with more status resources (men) will be monitored and reacted to more. We discuss methodological advantages of using norm violations to study informal social control. Findings contribute to a more complete theory of how societal reactions to residual deviance are mediated by gender. There were large gender differences in what students chose to do regarding norm violations and little change over time. Male “deviants” were censured more in terms of negativity, strength of reaction, laughter, and homophobia; female “deviants” were censured more as targets of verbal and sexual remarks. We discuss the need for more attention to gender‐specific types of reaction and the role of homophobia in informal social control of men.