FIELD METHODSCaulkins, yatt / MEASURING CULTURAL DIVERSITY Using Consensus Analysis to Measure Cultural Diversity in Organizations and Social Movements

Consensus analysis, a technique developed in cognitive anthropology for analyzing structured interview data, produces three useful results: (1) a measure of the degree of agreement among informants about a domain of knowledge, belief, or practice; (2) the “culturally correct ” information about that domain according to the pooled answers of the informants; and (3) a score for each informant representing that per-son’s knowledge of the domain. Consensus analysis is not just for high-agreement domains, however. This article explores a typology for conceptualizing diversity in low-consensus domains, including (1) weak agreement, (2) turbulent, (3) subcul-tural, and (4) contested domains, using case study examples from an English social movement, a Scottish high-technology firm, and a Scottish business support and training organization. The typology helps measure and interpret diversity and change within organizations and social movements. Consensus analysis (CA) was originally developed as a technique for dis-covering which respondents are most knowledgeable and reliable in a par-ticular cultural context. It is based on the assumption that individuals vary in their mastery of particular domains of knowledge (Romney, Weller, and Batchelder 1986; Romney, Batchelder, and Weller 1987; Boster, Johnson, and Weller 1987; Weller and Romney 1988).1 Not everyone knows the same Our thanks to two anonymous reviewers who gave us much useful guidance; we alone are responsible for any remaining errors. We are grateful for the hospitality of the Anthropology Department, University of Durham (England), which hosted us at different times. Hyatt als