MANAGING-CONFLICT - BUILDING A MULTICULTURAL COLLABORATIVE

When President Clinton called for the nation to enter into a dialogue on the position of race in the matters of America it echoed the strugg le in which Los Angelenos have been engaged for the past 10-15 years, As the City and State have become more ethnically and culturally diver se, intergroup relations have come to play a major role in defining st atus. Until recently, the relations between African Americans and Kore an Americans have been defined largely by negative encounters between African American consumers and Korean merchants. Attempts to develop m ulti-cultural collaboratives between members of the two communities, w hile not enjoying great success, have provided some insights which sho uld produce more positive benefits. This paper discusses the socio-cul tural framework in which the two groups find themselves and suggests a formula for renegotiating the relationships based on a collaboration involving dialogue to action planning, (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.