However, the lawyer in me (which is a big part of me, obviously) tends to cringe when I hear people talk about “culture” in connection with hiring decisions. I know there is such a thing as a concept of organizational culture that is neutral as to gender, race, national-origin, and age.

But it is awful easy for that concept to shade over into a concept of a culture that is homogeneous rather than diverse.

I’d hate to be defending a national origin discrimination case, for example, in which it came out that the applicant’s low score on “cultural fit” was the reason they were not hired.

Just makes me nervous . . .