Constructing the Capacity for Viable Multicultural Organizations

In contrast to the epistemologies of scientific management or organizational systems, a newer constructivist paradigm treats organizations as a web of coordinating relationships. This chapter uses that meta-theoretical perspective to describe how organizations can develop the collective capacity to adapt to changing social conditions both internally and externally. That collective capacity—termed intercultural viability™—can be assessed using the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS) as the analytical frame and a new “quantum measurement” that makes co-ontological relationship the unit of analysis. Specifically, the Intercultural Viability Indicator (IVI) is designed to assess how individuals and groups interact with each other to increase the likelihood that they will create interculturally sensitive events in the future. The chapter concludes by discussing the role of leaders in this process by presenting and discussing the concept of interculturally viable leadership.