Multiculturalism and Performance 1 Diversity in Organizations: Tangible Impacts of Multiculturalism on Aspects of Organizational Performance

Multiculturalism and Performance 2 The following research investigates the question, if multiculturalism and diversity benefits often presumed to increase organizational creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving capabilities can be unanimously substantiated and quantified within the context of typical business-oriented organizational performance indicators, such as sales-to-goal achievement, new customer acquisition, diversification, and return on capital. The article first outlines the psychological underpinnings of multicultural diversity integration, and then discusses the prevalent conflict of positions in current scientific literature on its positive and negative effects on organizational performance. Only one study was found to indirectly relate quantifiable economic outcomes to positive or negative effects of multiculturalism and diversity. It is therefore concluded that, any performance effects predominantly consist in an organization's improved cognitive and psychological functioning, and that the qualitative direction of both positive and negative effects greatly depends on the organizational and industrial contexts, strategy, corporate culture, and resultant human resource policies.