If You Can't Beat 'em, Join 'em.

Integrating Global Diversity
As businesses continue to invest overseas, more and more Human Resource professionals are integrating global diversity training into their HR strategies. HR professionals are aware that to compete in today’s global economy, a "culturally competent" staff is no longer a "nice to have," - it's a "need to have."

Without a "culturally competent" staff, communications will be unclear, daily decision-making will be in jeopardy and project executions will be put at risk of failing.

Like most skills, whether it is staff management, effective negotiations or technology skills, intercultural skills come more naturally to some employees than others. Cultural competence is quite different than traditional business skills. Based on "people skills," it requires an understanding, empathy and open-minded approach to everything from religion, morals and tolerance to fashion, food and art. These are personal beliefs, not business behaviors. But in reality, these personal beliefs are the actual elements that dictate the behaviors of people working together in a business environment.

Multiple Cultural Influences
Many years ago, it was primarily the organization's corporate culture that would drive employee's behavior. The corporate culture, which could be influenced by top management, combined with personal values, offered enough complexity that relationship-based training courses were conducted. Today, there's an added level of complexity. As companies are now working with people from other countries, some of the basic "rules of behavior" and "acceptable norms" are no longer acceptable.

To add to the complexity, consider the multicultural staff that is now working together in the home office. Until recently, the expectation has been that the foreign staff would simply have to adapt to their new office culture. That may still be the case but as the number of foreign employees increase, their culture will have more influence on the organization. Their country's cultural norms and their personal views will impact the organization and eventually be integrated into the corporate culture.

During any day to day communication, any given cultural exchange, all of these factors will mesh and create a completely new and unique cultural situation. The goal is to mesh those cultural exchanges into a smooth set of cultural communications and nurture them into a globally competitive organization.

"The Only World They Know"
One of the primary goals of intercultural training is helping the staff to behave more sensitively to a different cultural environment. A person with little to no experience working outside of their own culture will begin their journey in "denial." It will be quite difficult for them to even see a difference and understand why the people around them are behaving differently than they are accustomed to. Basically "their world is the only world they know." They are likely to ignore the differences and continue to work the way they always have.

After a while, this individual will begin to recognize the cultural differences but will act "defensively," and still feel that their cultural norms take precedence. They will see the differences but react to them negatively. "Minimization" is the next stage, where they will place less importance on the differences. They’ll begin to justify the cultural differences as very minor indeed and downplay their importance.

At this stage, their inability to recognize cultural differences and their attitude of superiority may lead to combativeness. This behavior can damage interpersonal relationships and valuable international partnerships. Their ineffective communication and leadership styles may be disruptive to the global team. With so much emphasis on non-conformity, they will begin to project their own cultural values, norms and beliefs onto others. This could have a trickle down effect on their subordinates, which would cause multiple levels of cultural confusion and a lack of effectiveness.

These behaviors may also prevent the managers from using global diversity to their advantage, as a way to achieve their objectives. A Westerner for example, may not take advantage of the power of teamwork that is more prevalent in Eastern societies. Or, may use a goal-oriented management approach with a subordinate who is accustomed to a very direct approach.

"If You Can't Beat 'em, Join 'em."
The HR Professional's goal will be to help the employee move into a less centric world view and evolve into a more global mindset, which will help them understand that cultures may be different but they are equally sophisticated. The employee will start to think about how they can understand and work better within the culture. They will start to say to themselves, "If you can't beat 'em, join em."

The next stage is to help them get out of their comfort zone. The HR Professional needs to help the employee put aside many of the "Management 101" principles they learned earlier in their careers and start thinking differently. They will need to learn how to shift their mode of thinking and established code of behaviors in order to be more effective.

The ultimate goal for the employee is pure integration. This is where the employee understands the norms and cultural differences of their new environment, is able to recall and behave with different frames of reference at any given time and has the ability to switch cultural perspectives freely. They are able to maintain their own sense of self identity yet still merge the various cultural influences, whether it's their own environment or a different geographic location. They are also able to integrate the corporate culture with their own personal beliefs. True integration is the ability to adapt to the unique cultural mix of the moment while preserving their own sense of values and beliefs.

Like other formal training programs, organizations that actively invest in intercultural training will be more effective, drive higher performance and gain a competitive advantage.

For more information about Crown's Intercultural Training Services, please click here.