moving beyond mobility

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Moving Beyond Mobility–Leveraging Cultural Training for Everyone By Katarina Holm-DiDio, KHD Consulting International, Lisa Ploeg, , Mary Kay, Inc. and Laura Hagmann, Bloomberg BNA

As globalization and workforce mobility increases, the workplace becomes ever more diverse. We now not only work with people of varying races, ages and genders, but increasingly work with people from different cultures and countries of origin and with different educational backgrounds and life experiences.1 Historically, companies have addressed the challenges of diverse workforces through diversity training. Diversity training ranges from basic online training courses aimed at avoiding discrimination lawsuits to programs designed to improve the skills, knowledge and motivation of employees working in a diverse workplace. Although the main driver of diversity training is often targeted at reducing discrimination charges and settlements, increasingly employers are looking to diversity training to improve worker interactions with an eye toward improving organizational efficiency, competitive advantage and creativity that can arise from heterogeneous work teams.

Intercultural training focuses on how individuals from one cultural group interact with individuals from another cultural group. This type of training concentrates on how groups interact and communicate with each other, as well as the role individuals play in promoting effective communication with a cultural group different from their own.2 Intercultural training consists of understanding one’s own culture, understanding other cultures, and then creating frameworks for intercultural understanding and interaction. This type of training results in changed behaviors as individuals become more skilled at recognizing and addressing cultural differences.

Diversity training at best creates an environment where people who are different are tolerated, but does little to harness those differences and improve efficiency and creativity. We argue that intercultural training is needed to create an organizational culture that goes beyond training employees to recognize and tolerate differences, and instead creates an environment where differences are respected and leveraged to improve organizational performance.

Defining Diversity Training and Intercultural Training

Diversity training emerged in the latter half of the last century as a way to prevent workplace discrimination on the basis of age, race, gender, and other factors. Diversity training typically encompasses programs designed to reduce prejudice and discrimination and facilitate positive interactions among people of diverse backgrounds. Typically, diversity training is offered to employees at all levels of U.S.-based organizations, but it often is delivered separately to 1 Ernst & Young (2010). The New Global Mindset: Driving Innovation Through Diverse Perspectives.

2 Ploeg, L.; Merrick, G., Sibley, A. and Hagmann, L. (2015). Optimizing Global Work Teams Through Cultural Training. Bloomberg BNA Strategic White Paper.


management staff and nonmanagement. The goals of diversity training range from reducing discrimination claims and litigation to enhanced interpersonal communications and interactions to greater productivity and creativity.

When reducing discrimination charges and improving company outcomes in discrimination lawsuits are the main drivers for diversity training, often the training fails to have any effect on the broader goals of increased workplace diversity and productivity improvements. Researchers have speculated on the reasons for this, but the lack of effect may be due to the training not being designed to change behaviors.

Over the past few decades, as globalization has increased, more companies have invested in intercultural training for global teams. This type of training focuses on improving team efficiency and results through improved cross cultural understanding, communications, and interactions. Trainees learn how to recognize cultural differences and develop frameworks for working with people with different cultural backgrounds. Intercultural training is geared toward changing employee behavior both in how employees perceives themselves and others and how they interact with the others.

Typically, international assignees are the audience for intercultural training in an effort to ease their assimilation into the new culture and enable them to become productive and successful staff members sooner, but increasingly companies are providing intercultural training to those who work with colleagues in other countries or regions. A great number of employees in global organizations support operations across borders, and should also receive this type of training. Addressing this global business need could be key in improving efficiency and collaboration throughout the organization.

Expanding diversity training from topics of race, ethnicity and minority definitions and interactions to cultural dimensions will bring the discussion from focusing on the differences between minority and majority groups toward identifying and developing an understanding of cultural differences and creating a framework to harness those differences. The emphasis shifts from a focus on the majority-minority relationship. The result is a more inclusive and collaborative corporate culture which should also address the issues of diversity training.

The goal, then, is to move beyond the narrow scope of diversity training to fulfill a legal requirement and instead take the next step toward the more strategic purpose of fostering a broader and deeper intercultural competence and cross-cultural understanding among staff so that creativity and collaboration will be enhanced.

Sharpening Competitive Advantage through Cultural Training

Diversity in the workplace is associated with several business benefits including greater levels of creativity and innovation and productivity. However, for this to happen, employees must embody and embrace the power of differences – not just in national culture, but also in racial, gender, and other differences. Intercultural training is designed to do just that. In this section we discuss some of the benefits of capitalizing on an increased diverse workforce.


The biggest threat to the creative process is stagnation, status quo and a closed-in world view. Innovation thrives where the seeds of knowledge and know-how can grow in a fertile ground of tolerance, ability to think outside of the box, and where differences in worldviews and needs can be embraced. Creativity through cultural diversity and a global, intercultural mindset can be both the driver and the nurturer of innovation.3

Increased intercultural understanding and cross-cultural competence among all staff can create a culture that fosters collaborative conflict. In collaborative conflicts, different points of view and positive disagreement are encouraged and not seen as threatening. A global and culturally diverse team of staff with conflicting views, needs, and ideas, if managed properly, can become a fertile ground for innovation, out-of-the-box thinking and creativity. 4

Increased inter -and cross-cultural skills allow for a deeper understanding of world views, of the needs and values of others and one’s own culture and value platform. An organization that fosters global interpersonal skills and knowledge of its staff through international assignment, global teams and training programs for all staff has an advantage in trade and business over those who do not.

Intercultural knowledge is more than merely the dos and don’ts of culture etiquette and greetings. It impacts how trust is developed in interpersonal relations and business, how power and influence is shared in an organization and how communication flows among staff, management and clients. It is a core factor in client service as communication styles and expectations are culturally derived. Those involved in negotiations know that knowledge of cultural differences and an ability to adjust and use cultural knowledge and understanding as an advantage can be the difference between a successful and failed negotiation process.

During the recent 2016 EuRA Conference in Malta, Steve Cryne, President of CERC, introduced the results of a meta-survey carried out by CERC and EuRA which studied the future of mobility.5 The study summarized results from 57 separate global employee mobility studies published from 2011 to 2016. The results included the following main factors that influence the global mobility industry and talent mobility:

• the shift of economic power from west to east; • the retirement of large groups of older generations; • the arrival of younger generations; • increased individualism resulting in a more knowledgeable workforce that expects to

have the power of choice; • the continuous growth of knowledge-based economies and

3 Forbes Insights (2011, July). Global Diversity and Inclusion: Fostering Innovation Through a Diverse Workforce. 4 Ernst & Young (2010). The New Global Mindset: Driving Innovation Through Diverse Perspectives.

5 Cryne, S. (2016) Presentation at EuRa Conference in Malta, May 2016 and from a draft article for Perspectives Magazine, with permission.


• increased technology.

These five factors result in a need for employees that have skillsets that enable them to work across the globe in different cultures and markets. According to this study there is an expected skills gap in the global workforce for employees with intercultural competence. This gap makes intercultural competence training a central aspect of talent development.

According to World Economic Forum’s The Future of Work report:

Talent diversity—no more excuses: As study after study demonstrates the business benefits of workforce diversity and companies expect finding talent for many key specialist roles to become much more difficult by 2020, it is time for a fundamental change in how talent diversity issues—whether in the realm of gender, age, ethnicity or sexual orientation—are perceived and well-known barriers tackled. In this area, too, technology and data analytics may become a useful tool for advancing workforce parity, whether by facilitating objective assessment, understanding typical careers paths and cliffs, identifying unconscious biases in job ads and recruitment processes or even by using wearable technologies to understand workplace behaviours and encourage systemic change.” 6

The same report by WEF identified the following ten competencies as essential for the future of work:

• complex problem solving skills, • critical thinking, • creativity, • people management, • coordinating with others, • emotional intelligence, • judgement and decision making, • service orientation, • negotiation and • cognitive flexibility.

Being culturally competent encompasses most of these and a culturally diverse staff who have the skills to work collaboratively will excel in everything from complex problem solving to working with emotional intelligence and showing cognitive flexibility.

John Bennet in his work speaks about creating a third organizational culture which he defines as a culture that is made up of multi-cultural people with skills that allow them to adapt to each

6 World Economic Forum. Executive Summary. The Future of Jobs. Employment, Skills and Workforce Strategy for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, http://reports.weforum.org/future-of-jobs-2016/


other. This third culture then becomes the culture of that particular group. To clarify, a third organizational culture entails having an intercultural mindset, being self-aware and encouraging staff to share their cultural backgrounds at work and finally including cultural competency into the norms and values of the organization. 7 8

Enhancing the cultural competency of an organization through cultural training focusing on communication styles, cultural norms and some country specific training for all staff is one step in the quest towards creating a third organizational culture that embraces learning, reduces judgement, welcomes difference and fosters innovation.

Delivering Intercultural Training

Cultural competency training aims to create a framework of understanding to be used when relating to others both at work and in the world. Most organizations have a multitude of cultures that go mainly unacknowledged. Culture tends to be addressed when it is “corporate culture” or when there is a specific project team. However, there is a need to look closer at our own cultural diversity and address it through cross cultural training as a way to improve collaboration and performance.

On a given day in any company, one could encounter a finance person from Bulgaria, a marketing specialist from Argentina, a programmer from Nepal and an HR specialist from the Netherlands all working together with a diverse domestic workforce.

Nearly everyone operates from a cultural baseline, or normal way of doing things. For instance, a person who has grown up and worked in a culture that values individualism and places value on punctuality will need to develop new skills to work effectively with people who are group-focused and view time as fluid. Imagine the multiple cultural faux pas that can occur when these two cultures meet: one person is seeking quick commitment and resolution of business problems (“time is money”), while the other needs to develop a relationship and trust regardless of the clock. The perceptions on both sides may be that “the other guy” lacks an understanding of how things work, and this can impact the success of business.9

To reach higher levels of cultural collaboration, team members should have a basic understanding of the following skills:

• Cross-cultural communication skills– how to work along the spectrum of communication, from high-context (where non-verbal communication is key) to low-context (where words are most important). Global teams who use phone calls and video

7 http://www.diversitybestpractices.com/news-articles/cultural-competency-and-third-organizational-culture

8 Intercultural Competence for Global Leadership Milton J. Bennett, Ph.D. http://www.idrinstitute.org/allegati/IDRI_t_Pubblicazioni/4/FILE_Documento.pdf

9 A Short Course in International Business Culture: Building your international business through cultural awareness, Charles Mitchell, World Trade press, 2000.


conferencing struggle the most with this element. When we cannot “see” the communication, words are easily misinterpreted, particularly when speakers of multiple languages are involved. The tone of communication and choice of words which may be correct in one setting can be offensive in another. Knowing when to use written and verbal communications to the best effect requires a cultural understanding of the individual participants.

• Relationship building skills- understanding the importance of building a relationship in the business as a key to success. This is akin to networking, but with the intention of knowing the other person beyond just the job as a prerequisite for doing business successfully. Highly transactional cultures tend to skip this element and view small talk and chatter as sufficient. Knowing when and where it is appropriate to talk business is a culturally-linked skill. Conversely, for those coming from relationship-based cultures, it is necessary to alter their approach to business when they are working with transactional cultures. Bringing gifts to a meeting, planning long dinners where business talk is avoided and taking considerable time to get down to business is frustrating and considered inefficient for the transactional culture. A person with cross-cultural competencies will adjust the approach to the culture, and thereby meet with greater success.

• Cultural comprehension skills: having a basic understanding of the decision-making structure (hierarchical or highly structured as opposed to egalitarian or less structured) helps teams make decisions more efficiently. In regions like Asia and Latin America where there is more emphasis on hierarchy, decisions are ultimately made at the top. Trying to push for quick decisions with the wrong players is inefficient and frustrating. Compounding the problem, team members may not disclose the entire decision-making structure to others because it is natural and intuitive for them. What feels like indecision or an inability to make decisions for one culture is quite normal for others who understand the process.

Culture Clash Averted At one global company a monthly virtual business meeting involving the Latin American region became emblematic of just such a cultural clash. Setting the time and day of the regular, monthly meeting became challenging, with frequent requests for changes in time or date due to national holidays, local celebrations, and other meetings that conflicted. Why? Time is viewed as fluid in most Latin countries. Changes to meetings and appointments are not considered rude nor do they demonstrate a lack of commitment to the team, changing times are just a normal part of doing business. From the U.S. perspective, however, a monthly meeting time should be adhered to once it is on the calendar and attendees are expected to be on time. Making an agreement with the team that takes culture into account could help strengthen the collaboration for this work team. Reconfirming meetings, stressing the importance of staying on schedule and checking for agreement can help global teams like this one to work more cohesively.


Additionally understanding a culture’s tolerance for change can help to structure change management programs. Cultures that are change resistant, many due to historical factors, will need much more convincing of the benefits and necessity of new programs, while cultures that embrace change and new ideas will need less convincing and will be more easily become change champions.

How do you enhance these skills through intercultural training and coaching? We propose three steps.

Cultural Self-Assessment

First, it is important the trainees understand their own cultural dimensions through self-assessment. Everyone has a unique cultural perspective that is a combination of their country of origin, family, religion, economics, educational systems, language and experiences. As we grow, learn, travel and work this becomes more complex, and many times we are not even aware of the impact of culture on our behaviors at work and home. Behaviors and beliefs are implicitly learned and reflect our values systems.

These values and behaviors may clash with others, especially in a global environment, yet the reason for the clash may not always be apparent. Knowing one’s own cultural dimensions gives insight into why some factors are more self-important than others, and how one’s own set of rules, values and beliefs determine one’s reactions. A good example of this is group orientation.10 Those who score high on this factor, value the connection to a group and tend to make decisions in terms of what is good for the group or organization. Highly individualistic people will be more concerned about the impact of decisions on themselves or their projects. Employees who know and understand their own dimensional profile typically work better with others.

Organizations can provide employees with access to some excellent online cultural assessments at low cost. These assessments require employees to answer a series of questions or react to situations in order to determine their personal cultural framework.

Understanding the Cultural Framework

The second step in the cultural competency training is developing an understanding of the cultural framework. We refer to the cultural dimensions developed by Geert Hofstede and refined by other social scientists to form a framework of understanding. 11 Hofstede’s comprehensive studies of workplace values formed the six dimensions of culture, which are generally recognized as the backbone of most cultural competency frameworks. These are:

• Power Distance Index - The degree to which less powerful members of society accept and expect an unequal distribution of power.

10 Hofstede, G., Hofstede, G.J. and Minkov, M. (2010) Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind, 3rd Ed. New York: McGraw-Hill. 11 Ibid.


• Individualism vs Collectivism - The degree to which society prefers, supports, and rewards individual contributions and actions versus group contributions and actions.

• Masculinity vs Femininity - The degree to which society prefers achievement, heroism, assertiveness, and material rewards versus cooperation, modesty, caring for the weak, and quality of life.

• Uncertainty Avoidance Index - The degree to which members of society feel uncomfortable with uncertainty and ambiguity.

• Long-term vs. Short-term Orientation - The degree to which society is oriented toward future rewards versus a short-term orientation focused on the past or present.

• Indulgence vs Restraint - The degree to which society allows for the relatively free gratification of human desires versus a suppression of gratification.

Countries fall along a spectrum on the dimensions of this framework. One’s country of origin plays a role in where an individual scores, and this is made more complex by factors such as education, parental origin (the cultures of your parents), where one is educated, and whether one travels or lives abroad. The recent phenomena of “third culture kids,” who grow up in a country or countries different from that of their parents’ origin country and form cultural links to these other cultures, is a good example of the impact of that framework. An American kid who spends several years in Southeast Asia and attends a French school will have a different cultural orientation than an American kid who grows up in California and attends public school. Although on the surface they may appear similar, and one could assume that they are both American, their beliefs and values systems will likely be very different as a result of their experiences.

Understanding the cultural framework helps both individuals and groups to identify the many ways humans react to situations and challenges in the workplace and in life.

Leveraging Cultural Understanding to Maximize Results and Make Agreements

Having made the effort to understand one’s own cultural dimensions and apply that to the framework gives us a way to improve how we work with others. With the rise of global and virtual work teams this becomes even more critical. Teams can and should understand one another as individuals, make an attempt to understand the country cultures involved, and then

Cultural Training Success A recent billing implementation project piloting in Europe used cultural training as part of the team orientation to identify potential sources of misunderstanding. The team of specialists from a number of different countries met for a half day cultural training session which began with a self-assessment, a discussion of the cultural framework, and then moved into country specific cultural competencies Several months into project, team leaders reported that this session set the tone for better understanding of team goals and helped lead to successful implementation in countries with very different cultural orientations


strive to make decisions on how they will work together. Developing the understanding that cultural diversity is a source of strength is key for global work teams and helps them to identify sources of dysfunctional conflict. Making agreements on how decisions will be made, who the decision makers are, what the decision making timeframes are and what success looks like can be done proactively and incorporated into the project management process.

Equally, having an understanding that collaborative conflict can result in new ideas and ways of working is essential. Far too many group projects struggle due to the issues that arise when cultures collide. By considering culture and addressing it as part of the planning process teams can set a better path for success. Providing employees outside the scope of global teams with some level of intercultural awareness allows them to better support teams and the business as

a whole and creates a more inclusive workplace. This enables the organization to think in terms of collaborative success factors, rather than navigating differences to accommodate individual goals. Creating cultural awareness organization-wide provides a path to improved collaboration and creativity.

Conclusion

Upskilling all employees in cross-cultural competencies can only improve overall collaboration and increase the effectiveness of teams and support groups. The method and depth of training can vary as needed, and per budget, but there is a basic level of training that could benefit all employees, whether or not a company operates in a global arena. Domestic companies are also working with culturally diverse groups, regardless of national origin, and the assumption has traditionally been that most employees adapt to the corporate culture, and are therefore homogenous. Diversity training has focused on specific and visible groups, while culture is typically invisible. To encourage innovation and out-of-the-box thinking organizations should recognize that each employee has a unique cultural perspective which can be tapped into as a way to view things another way. Creating an environment of cultural creativity can be done by

All training and development departments, by now, should have a global leadership curriculum. In addition to other skills, global leaders need to be able to create personal and organizational action plans for effective intercultural leadership in the multicultural/global/virtual workplace. This includes not only an understanding of globalization, diversity, and cross-cultural differences, but also an intuitive grasp of the areas in which misunderstandings are likely to occur, so they can proactively forecast and develop appropriate strategies in advance.

By Neal Goodman (2011). Cultivating Cultural Intelligence, Training, March/April 2011, Vol. 48, Issue 2


providing cultural assessments and self-reflection, using the framework to understand and build collaboration, and valuing those cultural differences as a source of creativity.

About the Authors

Katarina Holm-DiDio is the founder of KHD Consulting International and an inspiring trainer and coach with a passion to help people and organizations navigate the world of work & global living across borders and cultures. Before launching her own successful consulting and training practice she worked in global HR for the U.N. and with Columbia University in career development. She grew up in Finland but today calls the USA her adopted home country where she is raising her family in beautiful New Jersey. Today, she consults with the U.N. and as a coach and trainer leads global career management, and intercultural training programs for individuals, corporate staff and their families.

Lisa Ploeg is the Sr. International Learning & Development Specialist at Mary Kay, Inc. in Dallas, Texas, responsible for Latin America and the Europe, as well as global learning initiatives. Lisa worked in Europe for two decades, during which she spent a decade in the academic world as an Adjunct Professor of Marketing at Maastricht University. She was awarded Professor of the Year in 2006. Lisa has worked with diverse, multi-cultural groups in Europe, Asia and Latin America in academia and the corporate sector. She is a guest speaker and consultant on cross-cultural topics and international business. Lisa has an MIM from Thunderbird School of Global Management and speaks English and Dutch fluently.

Laura Hagmann is the Managing Editor of Bloomberg BNA’s International Human Resource Decision Support Network. She has lived and worked in five different countries and taught in universities in both Europe and the U.S. Laura has an MBA from the American University and speaks English and German fluently.

http://www.khdinternationa.com/

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