Diversity Advantage

Management consultants Fernandez and Barr view heterogeneity as an American business advantage. Success in the global marketplace, they argue, hinges on a country's ability to utilize ``all of its people regardless of their diversity'' in the work force. The authors weave a brilliant analysis of race, gender, discrimination, immigration and religion in the U.S., Japan and the Common Market, but some conclusions will be controversial: although Americans ``have not resolved all of the gender, racial, ethnic, and religious problems . . . we have the experience . . . to accommodate, if not accept, differences,'' while Japan and European countries ``take pride in and are staunchly attempting to protect their homogeneity.'' Fernandez and Barr's discussion of Japan's aging population, history of racism, wretched treatment of women, strained post-1945 relations with Asian nations and closed markets is revealing, as is material on Germany's nascent neo-Nazi movements. This is among the best business books of the year. (Sept.)