Handbook for Strategic HR

CHAPTER 16

Reflections on a Cross-Cultural Partnership in Multicultural Organizational Development Efforts

Maria C. Ramos and Mark A. Chesler

THERE IS CERTAIN NEATNESS to theories and models that seek to explain human interaction and organizational behavior. The practice of organizational development (OD) and multicultural organizational development (MCOD) is, however, not very neat. We address these issues in the context of our long-term partnership as activist practitioners and generators of scholarship in OD and MCOD. In so doing we discuss: (1) the development and dynamics of our own cross-cultural partnership, particularly our race, gender, and professional orientation as scholar-practitioners, (2) how we used our partnership as an intervention ...