This article was written by Eileen Sakai, Vice President of Pacific Dreams, Inc.
In this time of greater globalization, building bridges in a culturally diverse workplace has become a key priority for businesses large and small. It isn’t unusual for a company to have suppliers, customers or employees who have been born and raised in various cultures, and/or continue to be based abroad. Employees are experiencing being on international teams or work groups, with team meetings held via Skype or video/phone conferencing.
An important consideration is the role that culture may play in all areas of business. Culture can impact how decisions are made and how people are managed or given feedback, whether positive or constructive. A myriad of other behaviors are impacted by culture, including the values that inform how a person works and perceives his/her colleagues, supervisor and boss.
There is also the aspect of relativity of culture that impacts relationships. Relativity is how one person of a certain culture relates to another person of another culture, and their perceptions and values through their cultural lens.
For example, say you have an employee who was born and raised in Mexico, we’ll call her Juanita. Another employee was born and raised in Russia, we’ll call her Olga. They are going to have very different styles of communicating and accepting or giving constructive feedback.
Olga has been taught that you communicate directly to your subordinate when there is a concern. When constructive feedback is needed you give it directly, honestly and frankly without cushioning it with positive comments. However, to a superior, an employee is very judicious about her corrective comments. Employees of Russian heritage may be culturally accustomed to direct constructive feedback, even in front of a group. Sometimes this kind of feedback can feel extremely harsh and de-motivating to someone like Juanita.
Juanita, an employee raised in Mexico may be offended by this kind of harsh feedback and would be more accustomed to indirect constructive feedback. She may expect constructive feedback to only be given in private and cushioned with positive messages. Her relationship with her supervisor is important to her and, after this kind of interaction with a manager, she may feel that the relationship is so badly damaged that there isn’t a way to repair it. She may feel that if this feedback is given in front of a group, it is grounds for a resignation on her part. Thus if Olga is Juanita’s supervisor, the company may need to become more aware of the cultural relativity that exists in order to create a more productive workplace. This is true especially if a problem arises that is Human Resources related, such as a hostile work environment or a concern about insubordination.
So what is a company to do? Here are a few tips to consider:
- First become more aware of the underlying cultural issues that may surround a problem in your company. Performance issues may have deeper underlying messages. In the above example we need only to look to history to understand the cultural differences. In Russia, under Communism, a person didn’t know whom they could trust. If the person was a stranger, then you needed to watch your back as you could never be certain if the stranger was friend or foe. It is also customary that a Russian may criticize an employee, especially a subordinate, very directly and openly.
- Second, talk with both employees to discover their cultural perceptions of how to give and receive constructive feedback. Come to a mutual understanding of their underlying perceptions, possibly including how they were raised to receive constructive or negative feedback.
- Third, agree on some ground rules that will allow both employees to feel more comfortable in the workplace; doing this will assist with creating a more productive and friendly workplace.
This is just one small example of how to build bridges in a culturally diverse workplace. Embracing and applying new ideas and methods to spark improvement in personal relationships in the workplace can concurrently improve productivity in your workplace.
