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Chapter 1 - Cultural Diversity in the Community Choir

Michael W. Kramer

Synopsis

Nathan is the director of a community choir that rehearses and performs in a local church for free to save money. Choir members tend to be older, educated, well-off, white Christians that do not proportionately represent the diversity of the community. In this setting, Nathan and the choir members seem to enjoy politically incorrect humor that makes fun of diversity issues. Before the first concert performed jointly with the church choir, the pastor of the church was allowed to offer a prayer for the group in response to his request. This received mostly positive responses but also some negative reactions. As he prepares the choir for their second concert, Nathan recalls how he has changed the culture of the choir since becoming the director just a few months ago. Now he must decide how to manage diversity.

Keywords: Community Organization, Religious Pluralism, Political Correctness, Organizational Culture, Leadership

Key Takeaways and Take a Stand Form

Key Takeaways

  1. Diversity can be defined by a wide range of demographics including gender, race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, and religious beliefs, among others.
  2. Community organizations often fail to proportionally represent their communities due to the volunteer nature of their organizations and the specific activity they support.
  3. Because changing the culture of an organization usually means changing some of the practices and rituals of the organization, change typically creates conflict often between organizational veterans and newcomers.
  4. Leaders face an increasingly difficult task in managing tensions between diverse groups because the very communication behavior that satisfies one group may offend another group.
  5. It is difficult to determine why humor and other behaviors which seem quite inappropriate in one setting (e.g., a particular work place) may be considered completely appropriate in another setting (e.g., a different work place or a volunteer setting).

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