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In this article, we examine the demographic changes in the American population and look at communication and culture to make cross‐cultural communications more effective by resolving the problems that occur when communicating between co‐cultures. Therefore, for comparison purposes, we will look at the three major co‐cultures (African American, Asian American, and Hispanic American) as they relate to communication and what is considered the majority culture, European American, and their respective communication patterns. Finally, the authors present guidelines for training programs.

Based on literature providing evidence that Afrocentric hairstyles (e.g. afros, braids, dreadlocks) of Black women working in professional settings are often associated with negative stereotypes and biases regarding competency and professionalism, this chapter examines the extent to which these biases may be influencing the hairstyle choices of Black women employed in higher education. While academic workplaces tend to be more flexible and informal than non-academic settings, we found many Black women in higher education are, nonetheless, choosing to wear Eurocentric hairstyles. However, choice of hairstyle was influenced by academic discipline, type of institution and level in the university hierarchy.

Al though we have legislation that, at least in theory, protects employees from discrimination, discrimination still occurs. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination in all areas of employment on the basis of race, colour, religion, sex or national origin. This includes sexual harassment, a form of discrimination which involves “unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favours, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitutes sexual harassment when submission to or rejection of this conduct explicitly or implicitly affects an individual’s employment, unreasonably interferes with an individual’s work performance, or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment’ (www.eeoc.gov). However, it does not specifically protect against other forms of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

Diversity has increasingly become a “hot‐button” issue in corporate, political, and legal arenas. While many organizations have embraced diversity, others still consider it merely an issue of compliance with legal requirements. Effective diversity management has historically been used to provide a legally defensive position; that is, a firm with a diverse workforce could argue that they were not guilty of discrimination because of the prima facie case based on their workforce demographics representing the demographics of the local community. However, in more recent years, the view of diversity has dramatically changed to a more proactive concept.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between employee perceptions of diversity within the senior management, management and non‐management levels of their organizations and their perceptions of organizational performance.

Surveys were administered to 391 managers or professionals in 130 organizations located in the southeastern United States to determine their perceptions of diversity and performance within their organizations.

Regression analysis found strong support for the hypothesis that employee perceptions of diversity at the senior management level of an organization is positively related to perceptions of organizational performance. Likewise, there was support for the hypothesis that employee perceptions of diversity at the non‐manager level were positively related to perceptions of organizational performance.

The current study was based strictly on perceptual measures. Future research could also consider the use of more objective measures of diversity to gauge any potential differences between perception and reality. Considering that the sample was drawn strictly from the southeastern US, the conclusions may not be applicable to other cultures in other parts of the world.

Organizations need to be sure that they focus on initiatives that have a positive influence on employee perceptions of diversity within the ranks of senior management and non‐management.

This research sheds new light on the importance of employee perceptions of diversity within the various levels of employees in their organizations and organizational performance.

More than 40 years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, African Americans experienced partial inclusion in corporate America and to a certain extent have had to maintain a bicultural identity to function. This article aims to provide insight into the lived experience of African Americans in corporate America to illustrate the experience and effect of partial inclusion and biculturalism.

The paper explores the lived experience of partial inclusion and biculturalism, phenomenological interviews were conducted with a small number of African Americans who work or worked in corporate America.

As a result of partial inclusion, the participants often did not engage in social interaction to the same extent as their colleagues which resulted in them having less information, less access to social networks, and less of a sense of belonging in the organization. Consequently, they often felt less connected to the organization and had to work harder to compensate for the deficit this created. This coupled with the absence of a sense of belonging may have decreased their level of satisfaction and increased the need to keep their two worlds separate. This made life more difficult for them

This study examined the careers and experiences of a small number of African Americans who worked in corporate America during the 1960s and 1970s. Future research should include examining the careers and experiences of African Americans and other minorities who have entered corporate America more recently.

Creating an inclusive workplace will foster and environment where employees feel more of a connection to their organizations and their coworkers and allow them to focus more of their efforts on meeting organizational goals rather than on overcoming deficits created by lack of information and balancing between two worlds.

This article explores the lived experience of partial inclusion and biculturalism noting that in some cases African Americans consciously chose not to participate in social events. The concept of double partial inclusion in which African Americans did not feel that they were fully included in the corporate culture or the African American culture was introduced.

The purpose of this paper is to review the literature on the factors related to women’s ability to achieve and maintain abstinence from alcohol.

A rapid evidence assessment was carried out in four stages: definitions and research questions were agreed, search and selection were completed, data were extracted, quality of studies was assessed, and findings were synthesised and presented.

Medline, PsycINFO, CINAHL and ASSIA were searched for cohort studies published in English during January 2000–February 2015. Expanded search terms for Women, Alcohol and Abstinence, and Cohort were used to identify relevant studies for inclusion, resulting in 1,040 records. Of these, 32 manuscripts from 31 studies were eligible for inclusion in the review. Alcohol-related factors such as increased quantity and frequency of alcohol consumption were related to lower likelihood of achieving and maintaining abstinence; treatment factors such as type of treatment and number of treatment episodes were related to higher and lower likelihood; demographic factors such as financial problems and poor housing status were related to lower likelihood; and psychological factors such as craving, other drug use and comorbid health problems were linked to lower likelihood.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first time the factors related to the specific outcome of abstinence in women have been synthesised. Many of the factors found are also known to contribute to vulnerability for developing alcohol problems. The review revealed the paucity of studies with female only samples, or where results for women were reported separately.