Cultural Masks: Giving Voice to the Margins

The tendency of theorists to generalize drives "others" into the margins. This paper emphasizes the importance of refocusing theorists on facilitating voice for those sub-cultures that are marginalized within organizations. We do this by describing the role of theorists in facilitating voice, explaining the impact of dominant and minority cultures on voice, and introducing the metaphor of cultural masks as a means to assist theorists in understanding the complexity of voice in organizations.