ABSTRACT
Like Sondra Thiederman, Tom Kochman is a business-oriented, pragmatic Ph.D. whose stated mission is to "promote multicultural flexibility." A child of German-Jewish parents, Kochman claims lifelong sensitivity on issues of discrimination and prejudice. Kochman was also among the very few writer-consultants who pointed out sociological findings that ethnically based cultural differences have usually been most distinct for poor and newly arrived groups. According to Kochman, middle-class blacks may have two cultures: a more Anglicized one at work and a more African one in their private worlds. Kochman agreed with several other consultants that public sector employees are often more amenable to cross-cultural training because, in part, there is less mobility and employees have known one another longer. Despite his careful explanations and repeated qualifications about archetypes, Kochman was using a culture-specific approach that was becoming increasingly controversial, even among diversity consultants.
