Hey, where did my job go? Employee terminations in a brave new world

Marie Gervais, Global Leadership Associates www.global-leadership.ca

What happened to my job?

It has become standard practice in industry and most organizations, regardless of the size, to layoff or terminate employees as quickly as possible. An engineer friend of mine was worrying out loud about job security the other day. She works at a large construction company with a team of 15 engineers on at site that will be active for the next three years. Two weeks ago eight of their team were called into a meeting and given 20 minutes to clear out their workspaces and leave the building escorted by security guards. Last week the same thing happened to five of the remaining team members. There are now only two engineers left from the original team and she has been spending her evenings redoing her resume and looking for her next gig.

Most news-worthy manufacturing stories in Canada over the past two years have involved employees arriving at work to a lock out and being handed termination letters at the door. Six months ago, an HR manager I know was given no notice about a plant closure and came to work one morning to deal with 300 employees who were told they could transfer to another part of the province or lose their jobs, and 500 who were simply met at the door with termination notes. She told me that for the first half hour she feared for her life, and if it were not for the fact that the employees held her in high esteem, she might not have left that situation in the same health as when she had arrived that morning.

A couple of people I know who work in health care administration experienced the same fate when someone they did not know met them at the office with a termination note and supervised them packing up their offices. Computers had all been confiscated and phones disconnected the night before. Same story for a couple more people I know who worked for small not for profit organizations.

I asked a few of the people who told me these stories why this “instant termination without notice” procedure seems to have become standard. The answer was, “Companies need to be protected from angry employees who sabotage, sue and vandalize when they are terminated.” I can understand that.

But somewhere in another universe there is a host of leadership and managerial best selling material that tells managers to give people as much notice as possible for change, to engage employees in decision making regarding team needs and to motivate workers with the knowledge that their jobs will be protected because the company has their best interests in mind. I have a nephew with a disability who works with a window manufacturing company. Last week the HR department called his work team into a meeting to tell them that there was bad news and good news.  The company was losing profit but they had a plan. Employees would sign up for and qualify for one day of unemployment insurance a week, they would work four days and have a three-day weekend but receive most of their original salary. The change involved losing 25% of their wages for one day a week, and getting a day off with pay versus having several employees lose their jobs entirely. HR told them this was considered a temporary measure that would change if the company profits rose but that they should be realistic and understand that if the market got worse, things might go in another direction.  Even though the news brought a sense of foreboding, my nephew was relieved about this arrangement and told me that he thinks he is working for a “great” company. He asked if we need any window work done that he could set up for us because he really wanted the company to make a profit.

I’m confused about all these conflicting messages. Is the situation really such that employees need to be treated as disposable? This instant dismissal with (or without) security guards seems devastating and heartless to me. How do we reconcile this so-called standard practice with all the leadership literature recommendations for a democratic and humane work environment? Can somebody explain this to me?

Culturally “Awesome” Reflections #1: New York

Marie Gervais, PhD. Director www.global-leadership.ca

Business People Walking on Sidewalk, New York City

In reflecting on the past year’s work, some very wonderful intercultural experiences that have happened over the years came unbidden to my mind. I thought they might inspire others as much as they have me, so I decided to share them in a few posts. Here is the first one about cross-cultural exchanges in New York.

Not so long ago I was in New York for a conference at Columbia University and regularly took the subway to get back and forth. Almost every day I was touched by the kindness of New Yorkers who went out of their way to be helpful to others. One day in particular stands out in my mind. It started with me buying tickets for the subway in the early morning. One man bought his tickets and then turned to a homeless man who was sitting on the curb near the ticket dispenser and handed him a day pass for the train. “You might like to have some mobility today brother, here you go”, said the man as he casually handed over the ticket, smiled and kept on walking towards his destination. It struck me that New York had really changed since 9/11 and that perhaps disaster has some positive after effects.

In the afternoon when I was coming back from the conference events, a group of three Mexican musicians with guitars got on and began playing a most engaging song as the train lurched to a start. I was not only impressed with their playing, singing, outfits and initiative, I couldn’t believe they never once lost a beat or their footing with all the jerking of the train.  I was so entranced by these musicians that when they passed around a hat for a silver collection, I immediately looked into my wallet to see what I had to give in thanks for this mini-concert. Alas I had no change and there was only one bill left of my conference money – $100 – a bit too big for a three-minute concert! A large black man who was standing next to me and saw my dismay immediately pulled out a five dollar bill from his own wallet, and put it into the hat, patting my shoulder with his other hand as he did. His comment to the musicians was, “This is for the little lady over here. She really likes your songs but she doesn’t have anything small at the moment.” I was so touched and thanked this generous man profusely telling him how impressed I was with New Yorker kindness. When I looked back towards the car, everyone was filling the musician’s hat, smiling and enjoying this exchange as they watched us.

Then that night I was with a cousin from Germany who was attending a different conference in New York at the same time as I was. We decided to take the train to visit my Haitian daughter-in-law’s father who lived in the Jamaica section of the city. The relationship is a bit complex because he is her biological father who didn’t know my daughter-in-law existed until a little while ago, but he and his other daughter were very happy to see us. He suggested we head to a local mall to pick up some food since we had not yet eaten. Once inside the mall, he hitched himself between my German cousin Stephie and me, and told his other daughter to hold on to one of us as well so we could be “matched”. As we walked through the mall, my daughter-in-law’s father seemed to know everyone there. He spoke to them in Creole and told them that his “international family” had come to visit because of his “surprise daughter”. Not my usual “mall” experience!

Later on when my cousin and I took the train back to the YMCA where we were staying, a group of laughing Hispanic and Black male youth sitting across from us began conversing – entirely in sign language – and telling each other jokes, but without a single sound. We realized they were deaf and watched them in wonder as they touched each other’s shoulders and motioned to get attention. Each youth told jokes with hands flying expressively through the air at lightning speed, and the whole group was reeling with laughter at each new punch line. A few stops later when they got off, my cousin looked at me and we both said at the same time, “I wish they could have stayed longer!” Later Stephie said to me when we got to our stop, “ In Germany we would never see this, I feel so fortunate to be here.” Hats off to New Yorkers for showing the world how to better live together!

Kijiji cultural adventures

Marie Gervais, PhD. www.global-leadership.ca

Buying and selling on Kijiji can be a cross cultural adventure!

If you are interested in meeting people from a variety of cultures and don’t want to leave the comfort of your home, I have a solution for you: Kijiji. Sell anything on the online free web service and a variety of interesting people with very interesting stories about why they want to buy your stuff will contribute to your intercultural education. Let me tell you how I got started on this adventure myself.

My sister was closing her spa in Fort McMurray and figured she would have a better chance selling all her equipment if I sold it for her in Edmonton. I agreed even though I had no idea what most of the spa equipment was and was unlikely to be able to answer anyone’s questions about it. People started to email, text and phone about the spa equipment and within a day or so I met a Filipina woman who had a spa with three friends and they came looking for waxing pots. We had a great chat about their business, their families, the people they had already met in their Kijiji adventures while looking for low cost spa equipment and their relatives back home.

Next came an East Indian family with two brothers, an aunt, a grandmother and a young lady recently arrived in Canada as a new bride and who was the latest addition to a spa run by the extended family. I learned about the wedding and what traditional wedding customs they observed and did not and from what regions of India. And I learned about the way an Indian family business was run as well as a couple of Indian aesthetics practices that have been used for centuries. This group bought all the boxes of scented wax.

Then a very touching story when an instructor in an aesthetics school wanted to help one of her students; a single immigrant mother who was just starting her own spa business. The instructor was quietly colleting a few things this student would need and intended to surprise her with them the day of her graduation, but very discretely. She came back a couple of times to look at the spa chair and finally decided it would do the trick since it fit into the color scheme her student had already described. This generous instructor described the quiet way she would present the items to her student at her home. I practically wept when the woman gave me the cash for the chair.

Then I met a most endearing woman from Columbia who was an architect back home and was rebuilding her career here as a spa owner. After a couple of “getting to know you” conversations, we have become good friends and I go to her spa as a customer.

Once the spa equipment was gone, I decided to try my luck at selling a desk. The Russian couple that came to buy it told me that just a couple of neighborhoods away from me was what they called “the Russian district” and that they had their son on the waiting list of a Russian daycare close to my home. The mother told me the daycare waiting list was two years long and another daycare and a Russian immersion kindergarten in the area were in the works. I had heard lots of people speaking Russian while grocery shopping, but did not know there was such a demand for Russian language programs for children.

I have never seen Kijiji advertised for anything but buy and sell online, but the amazing thing is that I discovered the people in my neighborhood, and area, cultural groups living here, buying patterns of different cultures, and the ways people think of business from several cultural perspectives…while making a little cash on the side. I don’t think I will ever get rich from my Kijiji sales; people are looking for cheap or free after all – but I am certainly richer in understanding, and I even have a couple of new friends from my Kijiji adventures!

Checking the cultural pulse: is it healthy?
Marie Gervais, PhD., Global Leadership Associates Inc. www.global-leadership.ca mgervais@global-leadership.ca

Checking the cultural pulse

Last week I was conducting a workshop on (surprise) the topic of intercultural competency. I used a vignette I have used several times previously with the intention of bringing out the link between values and cultural context. Here is the vignette:
Imagine that you and a friend are driving in a car together and your friend is going too fast. At one point he stops suddenly, causing an accident. As the police are on their way to the car your friend asks you to say that the car was not driving too fast because he does not want to be in trouble with the law. What would you do?
My intent was to point out that if this situation were happening in a country where it is known that the police torture anyone they arrest, the cultural context may trump the value of honesty and respect for authority. The second point was to be that culture of a necessity creates values and norms, and that cultural values and moral values are linked. Third, cultures have been “normed” to show a preference in moral decision-making that tends to be more strongly relational or more strongly principle-based. This is also true of the moral decision-making differences between women and men. Women tend to make their decisions based on the strength of the relationship and the desire to keep things harmonious, whereas men tend to make moral decisions based on principles, rules and regulations. The caveat of course is that we, as infinitely complex human beings, are not summed up in the constraints of either our culture or our gender and that balanced, mature adults tend to weigh both principle and relationship in their moral decision-making.
But this is what happened instead. One participant after another said that he or she would lie for the friend, no questions asked. Only a couple of people raised a concern about whether lying was the right thing to do or not. One asked if the friend was really a true friend if he was so quick to lie to try to save his own skin. When pressed further, those who so readily said they would lie for the friend no questions asked, agreed that if someone had died, then maybe they would reconsider. Even so they did not seem particularly troubled by the idea of possible damage, injury or death as a result of the friend’s actions.
Here’s another story: one of my sons is a teacher in a junior high school. A student who was disgruntled with another teacher in the school vandalized my son’s car, thinking it belonged to the teacher he wanted to “get back at”. When the student found out he had vandalized the “wrong” car, he and his father tried to argue that they should not pay for the damage done to the car because the student had intended to target another teacher’s car, so it was a mistake. After much frustrating dialogue between the school and the parents, the father finally consented to paying $400 of the $1,200 worth of damage to the car – no consequences to the kid who did the damage.
Cultural norms do shift both negatively and positively. At this point in time, a shift in one place can drastically shift the entire world. It has been heartening to note that for example human slavery is now considered morally reprehensible on an international scale. According to trafficking expert Kevin Bates, this means that it is much easier to find and stop slavers because the public opinion on slavery is that it is wrong and must be stopped. The same moral shift has happened with regard to protecting the environment and taking a stance of stewartship rather than exploitation of the earth’s resources. And it also has appeared to be affecting whether or not a people accepts to be oppressed by a dictator. This does not mean there won’t be infractions or that we have solved either problem, but it does mean we are more likely to come to some kinds of agreement because we have a common moral stance that has become locally, nationally and internationally normed and which is more likely to motivate us to act justly.
This is why there is not much point in having a human rights commission to administer penalties to organizations if there is no grass roots support for human rights. The ground swell of support for human rights in the workplace allows the laws and policies intended to deal with infractions to be effective. When that public support is absent, no amount of law making will deal with the problem.
On the other hand, the very existence of the law reminds people that there is a standard that is higher than our individual wants and needs and to which we must strive. The principle urges individuals to act in the best interests of the common good and the cultural support of that principle gives the group safety. Once the group is upholding a norm that is unsafe, we are in trouble. What kind of a world are we moving towards if everyone lies, takes no consequences for their actions and has no respect for the institutions that are there to protect and uphold the laws? Every action each of us takes contributes to the pool of cultural norming. The more individuals shrug off their moral responsibilities and turn away from facing the consequences of their actions, the more unsafe the society becomes for everyone.
Studies by sociologist Zyg Bauman show that if the group believes an individual action will have the desired benefit for the group, that individual is more likely to make the choice that is in the best interests of the group and to delay or sacrifice his/her own needs in support of that greater good from which everyone will benefit. For example in countries where the majority of people believe that their taxes are used for roads, schools and hospitals, the majority of people will pay their taxes and are more likely to be honest in their tax filing. In places where people believe that their tax dollars simply serve to line the pockets of government officials, they resist, avoid, lie about or simply do not pay their taxes. This is the delicate balance between individual actions and the group, and between the group and society.
But in my workshop example we have a case where a majority of the individuals in a group are making a decision to support a friends’ misdeed, even when there is no likely danger to the friend, and “the devil take” the consequences. When enough people adhere to this “who cares” moral stance, we are all in serious danger. I hit you with my car, so what? You break into my house, who cares? Your colleague steals from her boss, what’s the point? There are traffic lights, so who follows them? It means we are in a dog eat dog world with no standards to protect any of us.
I recently read a study about ethical behavior in not-for-profit sector by the USA Ethics Resource Centre (2007). You may be surprised to know that unethical behavior in not-for-profit is higher than both the public and private sector statistics. You may not be so surprised to know that unethical behavior is on the rise generally in all organizations and that when confronted, individuals shrug and say it was a gamble to see if they would be caught or not.
We have to think this one through, because the effects will be hard to undo. Benjamin Franklin apparently said, “Just because an idea is popular, doesn’t make it right.” Maybe we should be quoting Benjamin Franklin more often before the cultural shift in moral values takes us farther down the slope towards societal chaos.

English Language and Locale Protocols for Business

Information compiled by Mithun Dutt, Solution Developper, Calgary, Alberta

Knowing how to speak English alone is not enough to save you from language and protocol issues when you move from one English speaking country to another. What is the difference between British English and Canadian English words and phrases when doing business? What spellings do you use in thank you cards or on websites? Is it Favour or Favor? Colour or Color?

Most people use MS Word for their word processing documents. You can change language and locale when creating or editing a document in MS Word. (In computing, locale is a set of parameters that defines the user’s language, country and any special variant preferences that the user wants to see in their user interface. Usually a locale identifier consists of at least a language identifier and a region identifier. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locale)

If you are interested in the locales, here is a link to all the standard locales: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/goglobal/bb964664

If you want to change the default language in Word 2003 here is the link http://www.lizjamieson.co.uk/32/how-to-set-the-uk-dictionary-as-default-spellchecker-in-microsoft-word-2003/.

For Word 2007: http://www.lizjamieson.co.uk/45/how-to-set-the-default-language-dictionary-on-microsoft-word-2007/

For Word 2010: http://smalltech-tips.blogspot.com/2011/01/how-to-change-default-dictionary-in.html

Globalization and localization of websites is another story. If you want to read more you can Google “Globalization and localization of websites”.

Mexican Mennonites and schools in Brooks Alberta

Marie Gervais, PhD, Director, Global Leadership Associates Inc. www.global-leadership.ca

Fall landscape Alberta

I had a very interesting week in Brooks, Southern Alberta, training teachers on intercultural competency and English language learning for newcomers. Many of the problems teachers face in Brooks are similar to teachers in other areas in the province; a steady stream of newcomer students requiring help with English as an additional language, parents’ and teachers’ unrealistic expectations about achievement levels before academic language in each subject reaches proficiency (it takes between 5-7 years for academic English to parallel conversational English for newcomer students), problems of family adjustment and culture shock. Just when teachers get used to working with newcomers from one country, say Sudan, a wave of newcomers from Columbia and Vietnam bring new baffling behaviors to consider and teachers are not sure what to do.

We had an excellent time together, and these dedicated educators, administrators and support staff were quite adept at finding and identifying cultural cues and practicing strategies to support literacy and English language proficiency learning in a variety of subject matters. But what I learned in the process was just as significant. It was an introduction to the phenomenon of Mexican Mennonites in Southern Alberta. Apparently some 100 years ago Mennonites fleeing persecution in Germany and Eastern European countries came to settle here and also in Mexico. Canadian Mennonites went to Mexico as well. For many years there has been an ongoing Mennonite migration and back and forth travel between Mexico and Southern Alberta with Mennonites of orthodox communities leaving Canada for Mexico for months at a time, with or without their children. Children are registered in so-called home schooling programs so that they can be taken out of school after grade 5 without reprisal. The home schooling does not actually exist so these children miss out entirely on their education. The children work on farms, or they wait for their parents to come back from extended visits to Mexico with very little to do. Social problems are more and more common, but they are kept quiet within the cloistered Mennonite colonies.

Imagine teaching a class where your Mennonite students are absent for three to six months of the year, your Chinese students are sent home every second year to stay with relatives and keep up their Chinese and your East Indian students go for three months of holidays to visit their relatives. As African families become re-united you receive children from the same family, but  all kinds of interrupted schooling, no school experience and/or war torn traumas to overcome; even speaking languages at home that other family members cannot understand because they have all been separated in different countries or refugee camps. At any given moment you can be missing a third to half of your students, and new students come all the time with all these extremes of experience and more. Somehow you have to get them all ready to write diploma exams upon which your school is ranked against other schools in the province with schools who have more stable student populations or who may be speaking English as their first language.

Then to top it all off, your Mennonite students whose parents are off in Mexico decide to come to school anyway because they are bored and miss their friends, but they refuse to learn because “technically” they aren’t registered! Oh and did I say that a number of these same Mennonite travellers are part of drug rings that bring so many illegal drugs into the area that the Medicine Hat police have to spend over half their time and resources in Brooks dealing with the repercussions? I conduct workshops for schools all around the province and there is very little I haven’t hear of or seen. But the Mexican Mennonite situation sounded so fantastic I had some trouble believing it.

When I returned home I went straight to google and discovered literally hundreds of documented and researched pieces about the Brooks area, Manitoba and Ontario Mexican Mennonites. I decided to do a proper research piece and post it once I have digested everything.  But I had to write a about it now while it is all still so fresh in my mind. When I think about how hard it was for the first pioneers to get schools up and running and to have all children registered in school, it seems incredible to me that the Alberta Ministry of Education and the School Boards in this day and age would allow this kind of educational evasion. I’m also incredulous that there has not been a more dedicated effort to pin down and clean up the drug traffic problems connected to this transmigration phenomenon. Several of the documents I found online were from Mennonite newsletters deploring the drug issues in the community.

One of the skills I teach in the intercultural competency workshops is how to distinguish between healthy and unhealthy cultural behaviors. In this case there are unhealthy behaviors on many sides; those perpetrating the problems, those tolerating them and those who in a position of authority, chose to ignore the consequences of doing nothing to solve them.

Canadian Immigration: A historical overview

Marie Gervais, PhD. Director Global Leadership Associates Inc

www.global-leadership.ca

immigration has always been tied to economics

The history of Canadian immigration can be divided into 9 parts:

1. Pre-European Settlement;

2. 1600 to the Conquest of New France;

3. 1760 to the War of 1812;

4. 1815 to the “Opening of the West”;

5. 1880 to World War I;

6. Between the Wars;

7. End of World War II to 1967;

8. Since 1968: The “Merit Point System” and

9. Since 2009: Beyond the point system.

Each of these time periods had both an emphasis on economic development through immigration and a restriction on immigration as majority groups perceived various groups as threatening. Whether opportunity or threat was the motivating factor in immigration policy and practice, was largely dependent upon both the international climate of war/peace and national economic boom/bust/growth cycles. Generally it can be stated that until 1963, Canada restricted immigration to British and American groups either as a primary modus operandi or as default. Even so larger numbers of first European, then Eastern European, Asian, South Asian and finally African and South American ethnic groups gradually entered the country as it became necessary to widen the on-ramp to meet economic goals. Religious groups fleeing persecution and refugees were admitted into the country off and on in various periods of relative openness or when Canada submitted to international pressure by the United Nations for humanitarian relief.

From 1962-1967, it became Canada’s official policy to eliminate racial and ethnic discrimination in immigration policy and gradually non-European and visible minority immigrants have become the mainstay of immigration to Canada. Canada’s Multiculturalism Policy in 1971 was a historic move away from discrimination, and several years later in an unprecedented expression of goodwill, the Canadian public rushed to sponsor Vietnamese “boat people” refugees at the request of the Canadian government in 1979. These two events are benchmarks in a national shift from suspicion to desire for integration that, although not consistently advanced, showed the beginnings of attitudinal change towards immigrants in Canada.

From 1974 onwards it became obvious that most immigrant entry and settlement into Canada were to the cities of Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver and this became a new immigration concern. By 1993 there were more female than male immigrants and the addition of the “point system” into immigration criteria has created a dynamic whereby the immigrant population in Canada today is by and large significantly more educated and skilled than native-born Canadians.

It can be said that the history of immigration has always been based on the idea that immigrants are a “necessary” commodity-like tool for economic growth. Immigrants are expected to assume a position of subordination to the majority society as an expression of gratitude at being allowed into the country and given the opportunity to start a new life in the “best country”. This belief has contributed to a number of issues facing immigrants, often rooted in receiving population attitudes of suspicion, hostility and racism. When economic conditions are hard, immigrants can become scapegoats. Even in the best of economic climates, majority sense of threat keeps significant numbers of immigrants at low-level jobs where their skills are underutilized and frustration is high. A number of studies measuring educational achievement and economic attainment have consistently shown that visible minorities, even the 2^nd and 3^rd generation after immigration have consistently lower economic attainment than their light-skinned counterparts. This is counter-intuitive since culture shock, English or French language proficiency and educational opportunity and attainment are no longer barriers to those born in Canada – discrimination, however, appears to continue to play an ongoing role in keeping visible minorities from achieving their full career and economic potential.

Other issues facing immigrants are the long period of cultural adjustment and adaptation, finding work, finding work that matches education and skill, promotion and advancement, making mainstream social and economic connections, and disruption of family roles. Many immigrant families live in poverty, some never rise above the poverty line. Males in particular experience serious loss of status and this has lead to a number of immigrant family issues such as increase in separation and divorce and family violence. Additionally, immigrant parents have idealistic expectations of their children and expect them to master both the new language and achieve academic excellence in short periods of time. Most do not know or believe that the normal attainment of academic English/French parity is between 5-7 years after conversational English/French proficiency. This results in undue pressure put on children and lack of sensitivity to the problems and frustrations they face in gaining both language and cultural proficiency in Canada.

The parent/child relationship is altered in the immigration experience because children usually adapt and gain language proficiency more quickly than their parents and are asked to perform tasks that parents normally do for their children. Some of these might include translating for parents in interactions with school officials, in stores, and in medical situations, making appointments for parents and negotiating conflicts between older family members. This switch in roles can cause problems of authority between children and their parents. Families lose their community support systems and may succumb to depression and illness. Grandparents lose their entire social network and are relegated to babysitting while parents work long hours at several jobs. Sometimes children are ashamed of their parents and blame them for things that are entirely out of their control. This can become an ongoing tension when children reach their teen years.

As a result of these difficulties and the lack of appreciation of this experience by the society around them, it is not unusual for ethnic groups to draw more tightly together and to form their own organizational networks, supports and social realities. Partly this helps to alleviate the pain of immigration and increases the sense of identity and in-group belonging, but it also creates suspicion and barriers between minority groups and mainstream society, and in inter-ethnic relations. Part of the solution to this dilemma is for both immigrants and dominant groups to understand more deeply the social, emotional, spiritual, and economic realities of immigrants. Increased empathy can help bring increased desire to create joint solutions. There is no country in the world where immigration is easy and painless. But in Canada we have the opportunity to facilitate the process in ways that countries with a longer history of ethnic conflict cannot even begin to imagine.

The Difference Between Cultural and Intercultural Comptence

Marie Gervais, PhD., Global Leadership Associates Inc. www.global-leadership.ca

Intercultural competency

What is the difference between cultural and intercultural  competency?

Cultural competency means you know your own group and you are a good connector within your own group. You can know lots about your own culture and be very good with interpersonal skills in your cultural setting and still not be inter-culturally competent. You are culturally competent when you are aware of and know how to use the cultural information about your own group that others may not be aware of. Culturally competent people are good bonders.

 Inter-cultural competency means you can stand on the edge between your own group and someone else’s group and become a bridge to connect between the groups. To develop intercultural competence you need to practice understanding and working with people who are culturally different from you. Interculturally competent people are good bridgers.

What does it take to become interculturally competent?

You do not need to be gregarious and friendly, enjoy being with other people who are not like you, want to hang out in groups, be extroverted, like new experiences and foods, learn another language, or be comfortable with newness to become inter-culturally competent. You do need to be open, interested, curious, care about people and social inequities, see the world as a place to learn from, can accept being uncomfortable, and be willing to ask questions and suspend judgment to become inter-culturally competent. If you are convinced you are right and others are wrong, if you find yourself saying “those people”, if you have a list of things you don’t like about various groups but can’t think of anything you do like, and if you are not willing to be uncomfortable at any point in your relationships with others, you cannot gain intercultural competency.

Intercultural competency does not mean you never make an evaluation or a judgment. It just means you wait longer and consider more options until you do. It means you can see the person in the culture and the culture in the person. You can see how cultural norms have both helped and harmed the development of human potential. Inter-culturally competent individuals are not naïve about culture. They do not cheer for multiculturalism as if there were no problems involved in people living and working and playing together. But they see the project of learning to live together as being so important they want to learn how to do it.

No one can know all cultures, we can’t even know our own. But we can learn to pay closer attention and ask better questions to know people on their own terms instead of our ideas of who they should be. Because it is an ongoing project, no one can become truly inter-culturally competent and say they have nothing left to learn. Intercultural competency is a process that goes on as long as there is life and people to interact with.

What is the difference between a cultural norm and a stereotype?

Stereotypes are proactive in that they assume that people will all act a certain way or have certain motivations if they belong to a given cultural group. Stereotypes assume people to be something they are not. The reason stereotypes stay alive, however, is because there is a grain of truth to them. Some cultural norm has given birth to a stereotype and this keeps the stereotype intact.

Cultural norms are reactive in that they do not assume a person will act within a limited set of cultural behaviors. However if a person does act within a given norm, one can attribute it to a cultural tendency based on general knowledge of cultural behaviors within given groups. A cultural norm can only be assumed if it is first observed, and even then within the understanding that individuals vary greatly in their adherence to cultural norms. A stereotype assumes that individuals are limited to cultural behaviors, a cultural norm describes generalized behaviors that may or may not apply in varying degrees dependent upon the context. For example, it is a cultural norm for East Indians to eat spicy food. However not all Indian food is equally spicy and individuals may have varying degrees of preference for spicy food within East Indian populations.

How do I know if a behavior is cultural or not?

Cultural norms are group behaviors and so any group behavior that becomes the norm, is cultural. There are international, national, regional, geographical, political, religious, ethnic, linguistic, gender, age, professional, city or town, urban/rural or interest-based cultural groups with their own cultural norms. Cultural norms can be healthy or unhealthy. It may be “normal” for people to drink themselves under the table after work in Japan, but it may not be healthy. Women may be “normally” denied education and opportunities to be active members of a given society but it may not be healthy either for the women or for the economy of that country to keep this norm active. Some cultural norms are simply preferences or behaviors that are innocuous. It doesn’t affect people negatively or positively to celebrate the New Year in January or March or to either take a bath in orange peels or have a night out with the family before the wedding night. If your culture dances with bells and bare feet or red boots and swords, there is nothing good or bad that will come out of either type of dance. What becomes problematic is when individuals use culture as a screen for behaviors that hurt them, others or the environment. Culture cannot be used as an excuse for harmful behavior, neither should harmful behavior or intent be implicated in other people’s cultural behaviors simply because they are not common in my culture.

Does culture change? And how do we belong?

Culture is dynamic and changing. One only has to leave home for a few months to notice that upon returning home has changed and the person who left changed too. The reason culture changes, is because life changes and circumstances change. Norms that may have been applicable in the past may no longer work and so they either gradually change or they are forced to change rapidly because the conditions that held them in place no longer exist.

One thing that does stay the same in culture is that people need to belong and people need to be unique. To belong we have to modify our behavior and tendencies to be a part of the group. To be recognized as the unique individuals we are, we have to stand apart from the group and remove ourselves from belonging. Interestingly, those very things that make us unique also qualify us to belong to certain groups and it is our belonging to various groups that makes us unique.

I may be unique because I am an older woman in business or because I am a visible minority married to someone outside my race and ethnic group. But those characteristics also allow me to belong to groups of people who are like me and our belonging to those groups reinforces both our uniqueness and our qualifications to belong to other groups. An older woman in business automatically belongs to several groups: women, business owners and older people. She may also belong to a women in business group or an older business owner group. She may belong to other groups if she has family, children or is married, divorced or single, if she plays hockey or violin or if she likes to write poetry or travel. All those qualities make her the unique person she is but also connect her to others that allow her to belong to those many groups of people. It is a very important paradox in intercultural competency to realize that the more people are recognized as the unique people they are, they more likely they are to feel they belong. If we have nothing in common and are so completely different, there is no point in trying to get together, and if there is nothing unique about us, what would be the attraction or the interest? This is why we need both uniqueness and belonging to work in tension with each other to really grow.

In group and out group behavior as key to understanding where to begin

Every cultural group has a sense of who is “in” the group and who is “out”. There is some evidence that children as young as two years of age can perceive and respond appropriately to in and out group cultural clues. Watching a given group’s in-group behavior can give you clues to how they see each other and how they see you. A given cultural group could have any or combinations of the following cultural worldviews with regard to in-group/out-group relationships and dynamics:

Table 1

Adapted  from: Piontkowski, Ursula; Florack, Arnd; Hoelker, Paul; Obdrzalek, Peter. (2000)

Of the four possibilities in the above table, the least healthy is the last one. People who exhibit weak in and out group identification tend to turn to crime, gangs, addictions and suicide because they do not feel they belong anywhere and are likely to try to get back at the groups they perceive of as having the power to reject them.

The category that can result in either assimilation or integration is the group with weak in-group identification and strong out-group identification. People in this group who are negative about their own culture tend to assimilate into the dominant culture, or if they are in the dominant culture, to increase their association with minority groups even to the exclusion of association with the in-group. Those who are simply ambivalent about their own culture are able to learn from and adopt aspects of various groups that are appealing to them but their lack of primary cultural attachment makes them feel rootless and always on the outside. People with this cultural world view sometimes describe themselves as third-culture, “half” or global citizens.

The category with strong in and out group identification is the healthiest since they can welcome newcomers without feeling threatened and find ways to appreciate and incorporate aspects of various cultures that they are attracted to, while maintaining a strong sense of in-group cultural belonging. A wonderful description of this is cultural worldview is Mahatma Gandhi’s famous statement that he wanted the windows of his home open to all cultural influences but he did not want to be blown away by any of them.

The top category describes individuals who feel their group is the best and that others are either wrong, bad or misguided. In this cultural world view, the in-group does not allow other groups to actually join them, even though they say others need to assimilate in order to belong. There is no access to the in-group in the top category; outsiders cannot do anything to belong, and they will not be accepted by the in-group even if they try to make themselves look and act the same.

Dominant and minority culture characteristics

Culture is not neutral. Everyone has culture by virtue of belonging to any group and all groups have norms of behavior that are acceptable or not. Dominant cultures may perceive themselves to be neutral or culture-less but this attitude is an indication of perceiving one’s group as keeper of the social norms. Being “without culture” gives the dominant group permission to name reality and relegate culture to the “other” as if it were optional or deficient. Until the dominant group sees its reality as cultural, it has difficulty knowing, learning from or learning with minority groups. Until minority groups see themselves as having reality, they have no negotiating power with the dominant group with regard to cultural norms or may use culture as a screen for harmful behaviors.

Conclusions

In summary, intercultural competency can be distinguished from cultural competency in that the former requires bridging across difference where the latter is a question of bonding within the group. Cultural norms are the standard behaviors within a given group that will have variance depending upon the individuals and their circumstances. All groups develop normed behaviors and this is called cultural because it varies from group to group. Cultural behavior is different from social behavior or human behavior but is related to both. It could be said that cultural behavior is a type of human social behavior. Cultural norms can be healthy or unhealthy or innocuous, but they are not neutral and people have strong feelings about them.

Although culture is dynamic, changing and hard to pin down, there is one constant: we all want to be recognized for the unique people we are and to belong to groups. This is the paradox of culture because to belong you have to conform to the group norms and to be unique you have to step outside of group norms. The other paradox is that the more we are unique, the more groups we can potentially be a part of, and the more we belong to various groups, the more we are unique.

The healthiest cultural groups encourage individuals to be themselves, to blossom and to grow while allowing them to belong. However there is always a limit to the range of behavior that cannot be accepted if one wants to continue to belong to the group. For example people who believe in negotiating a peaceful agreement for the best possible solution for all and people who believe in fighting to stake territory cannot belong to each others’ groups; one attitude is the antithesis of the other, they cannot co-exist.

Cultural norms are reactive in that one does not expect people to act within a cultural norm until they actually do. Stereotypes are proactive in that they box people into a cultural behavior whether or not it applies.

Two other themes in understanding cultural behaviors, adapting one’s own behavior in response and thus gaining in intercultural competence are:

a)    in and out group clues

b)    dominant and minority attitudes with regard to what is “reality” and what is “culture”.

Cultural groups have various responses to each other depending on the strength of their attachment to their own group and their identification with the in-group, out-groups or both.

Watching for clues in behaviors, words and body language can help understand which of these cultural tendencies are predominant allowing a more complete assessment of the situation and increasing the likelihood of a positive experience. It is important to watch for these dynamics to make sure we are not confusing culture with personality or wellness issues.

Intercultural competency is the development of awareness of self and others in culture and willingness to learn together. But it will not solve all problems between people. Human behaviors always involve a judgment as to whether a given behavior is more or less good or bad for self, others and the environment. People need to reflect upon better and worse ways of living and view both short and long term consequences of their behaviors as both individuals and members of cultural groups. When this happens, cultures are able to move forward in healthier ways. Cultural knowledge and intercultural competency are parts of the human relations puzzle, the other part being moral competency. The inter-relationship between cultural and moral behavior is touched upon in Table 2, but requires more development.

To conclude, culture is complex and dynamic and we can never fully understand it although we can make things easier for all of us to live and work together through continuous learning. As we grow in intercultural competency we change our response to individuals and groups outside of our own cultural backgrounds, and this in turn affects the development of other groups. To help understand this process more practically, consider the following table as a way to begin developing intercultural knowledge, skill and values bearing in mind that the table’s linear quality is deceptive. The headings make it look as if one begins with awareness, practices a bit and then reaches a level of competency where one stays. It is true that one’s repertoire increases, but the process of developing intercultural competency is more circular than can be shown in table format; as has been already stated many times, with real learning, the beginning is in the ending and the ending is in the beginning.

References

Bennett, Milton J. (2004). Handbook of Intercultural Training. (Dan Landis; Janet M. Bennett; Milton J. Bennett. Eds.) Embodied ethnocentrism and the feeling of culture: A key to training for intercultural competence, p. 249-265.

Bissoondath, Neil. (1994). Selling illusions: The cult of multiculturalism in Canada. Toronto: Penguin Books.

Caligiuri, Paula, M.; Jacobs, Rick, R.; Farr, James, L. (1999). The Attitudinal and Behavioral Openness Scale: scale development and construct validation. International Journal of Intercultural Relations 24(1): 27-46.

Calzada, Esther, J.; Brotman, Laurie Miller; Huang, Keng-yen; Bat-Chava, Yael; Kinston, Sharon. (2008). Parent cultural adaptation and child functionin in culturally diverse, urban families of preschoolers. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology 30(4): 515-524.

Cleveland, Mark; Laroche, Michel; Pons, Fran; Kastoun, Rony.(2009). Acculturation and consumption: Textures of cultural adaptation. International Journal of Intercultural Relations 33(3):196-212.

Dikeç, Mustafa; Clark, Nigel; Barnett, Clive. (2009). Extending hospitality; Giving space, taking time. Paragraph, 21(1):1-14.

Piontkowski, Ursula; Florack, Arnd; Hoelker, Paul; Obdrzalek, Peter. (2000). Predicting acculturation attitudes of dominant and non-dominant groups. International Journal of Intercultural Relations 24(2000): 1-26.

Rogers, E.M.; Steinfatt, T.M. (1999). Intercultural communication. Illinois: Waveland Press.

First Impressions in Business for Immigrant Entrepreneurs: What Canadians are Looking For

Marie Gervais, Global Leadership Associates Inc. www.global-leadership.ca

Canadian business protocol

There are some expected cultural business norms in Canada with regard to informal meetings, phone manners, email, social media and follow up. If you want to succeed in business in Canada, it is best to follow these norms to give the best first impression possible. Of course when you know someone well, the relationship will be less formal.

Phone: answering

Answering the phone is an area where most immigrant businesses need to pay more attention to Canadian norms. It is VERY important to answer the phone in a friendly, clear, relaxed and interested manner. People judge your business harshly if the first person they talk to does not answer the phone in a way that makes them feel welcome. “Good morning, ABC Machining, Jamal speaking. How may I help you? (or how may I direct your call?)” gives the impression of professionalism. Some immigrants answer the phone in a defensive manner sounding like they are suspicious of the caller. Others do not answer until the other person starts speaking. I have called businesses where the person answering the phone grunted, yelled, called out loudly several times to employees while on the phone with me, asked me several times who I was, or could not remember my name after I called many times. If I get the impression that my business is not welcome, or that I am not welcome unless I belong the culture of the business owner, I will take my business elsewhere, and I will not be referring the business to anyone else. Make sure that everyone in your business answers the phone in the same professional way. Call in to make sure they are. This cannot be stressed enough.

Voice mail

Your voice mail should be clear, welcoming and provide the necessary information in a short period of time. Some immigrant businesses ask a native speaking Canadian to leave a voice message for their business. This does not leave a good impression because it looks like false advertising. On the other hand if three out of three people cannot understand your voice message, you need to ask someone else to record it.

Leaving a message

When you leave a message state your full name, clearly and slowly, remembering that the phone distorts voices and if someone has to listen to your message several times to get the information, they may not go to the trouble. Make sure you leave your contact information and repeat it slowly; don’t assume the other person has caller ID on their phone or that they will know who you are. Do leave a message. It makes people suspicious if you call several times and don’t leave a message.

Calling back

The biggest mistake made by immigrants is not calling back. If someone contacts you and you do not call back you have lost credibility and business. It doesn’t matter to the person who called you if your English is perfect; it does matter that you show you want to communicate. Always return calls. If the other person is not there, leave a message.

Email

Most business connections are done by email. You should be looking at your email several times a day and responding within 48 hours. If you can’t give an answer respond and say you will get back to the person in a couple of days and then make sure you do. Make sure you have a business email that looks professional. A name like Hotcheeks4U@yahoo.com is not professional and neither is an email that does not have your name in it. Jamal@ABCmachining.net is a better email than jyt@ABCm.net because the second email does not show your name or your business name.

Linked In

A great way to connect with business and to keep records of your contacts is to tell them you will connect with them through Linked In. This has quickly become the most important business connecting tool in North American.

Facebook

It is not considered good taste to try to connect with a business connection on facebook, unless it is through a business facebook page.

Text messaging

Only use text messages if you have confirmed with a business contact that they do use texting. When sending a text always identify yourself, it is not always clear where a text is coming from.

Meetings

Come on time to the meeting and if you are going to be late, call to say how much longer you will be. It is never a good idea to come with a friend to a meeting or an interview unless that friend is part of your business and necessary to the meeting. Additionally trying to bring along a Canadian friend or phoning a Canadian friend from a meeting to try to give your self more status or credibility will not work in Canada. Pointing out or naming friends of yours who you think will give you more status by association will not be effective. Your business contact will think you are incompetent or that you are acting in a suspicious manner. In Canada you must present yourself on your own merits and the merits of your products or services, people are not interested in who you know or how highly regarded you are. They are also suspicious of people who flaunt their titles or their accomplishments.

Meeting for coffee

Usually for a first meeting whoever asks for the meeting to take place pays for the coffee/tea. If a Canadian host does not offer to pay for you however, don’t be offended, not everyone follows the same protocol. But if you ask for the meeting or if your meeting partner has to go out of his or her way to meet you, it is considered courteous to pay for their coffee. This is however not obligatory and not something you should do each time. So if there are several meetings involved, people generally pay for their own coffee unless you have made some kind of an arrangement where you take turns paying.

Meeting for lunch

If you meet for lunch make sure the place you choose is quiet enough to talk and be willing to eat whatever food is offered there. When people insist on having a food that the restaurant doesn’t offer (for example: “Why don’t you have rice on the menu? I don’t eat meals without rice!), it does not look good to the person you are meeting for business. Show appreciation and courtesy to the servers in a restaurant. It is considered impolite to ignore, speak in a disdainful manner towards, or not thank a server. It is even better if you compliment the server, the food and/or the restaurant – but only if you can sincerely do it, not as flattery. A sincere compliment makes a good impression on Canadians who have high regard for customer service.

If you are at a business meeting, don’t eat anything that is messy, will make noise, or for which you have to get your fingers dirty. Make sure you do not speak with your mouth full. Watch the eating norms of your meeting partner and copy them.

Thank the business meeting partner for taking the time for lunch.

Common mistakes immigrants make at first meetings

Don’t apologize for your English – if you have to repeat something do it without saying you are sorry. Canadians appreciate confidence and are suspicious of people who are too meek or who are always apologizing.

Show respect but not to the point of deference or even reverence. If you are too “suppliant” in your attitude, you have lost the respect of the Canadian speaker.

If you need something, present your case in a calm and polite way. Groveling and begging is very off-putting for Canadians. It is not a good idea to say, “I really need this job, my family has to eat”, or “You should give me a chance, I can do it, please buy/use the service/hire me”. Instead say, “You will appreciate our company’s professional service and high standard of customer satisfaction”.

If you come on strong, criticize, try to intimidate, or act upset if the speaker does not want to take you up on your offer, you will lose business. Leave the choice in the speaker’s court and remember to remain detached, friendly and neutral in your approach. If you intimidate or get upset with a person in authority, you have not only lost their business but you will be making things difficult for the next immigrant who tries to make a business deal. People tend to stereotype, if they have a bad experience with one person from a country, they will be less likely to try to engage with a second person from that same country. This is also true between minority groups. A business owner from one country will be very insulted if someone from another company comes in and criticizes the business. Stay away from criticism generally – this includes so-called “feedback”; usually an indirect way to criticize.

Common mistakes immigrants make in follow up

The most common mistake is not following up! The person who called you doesn’t care if your English has mistakes in it, he or she does care that you don’t return the call or do what you said you would do. Always follow up what you say you are going to do. Be consistent in fulfilling your promises or don’t make the promise in the first place.

The second mistake is making too many calls or trying to get too friendly or personal with your business contact especially in the beginning. Most business contacts are made through weak interpersonal connections, not strong ones.

How and when to interrupt a speaker

It is a fine art to know when to interrupt a speaker and when not to. In Canada it is generally considered polite not to interrupt. However the person who interrupts is showing that they have something important to say and that they have the confidence to say it. Interrupting too frequently looks disrespectful to Canadians. Not interrupting at all looks like incompetence and lack of confidence. Study how and when people interrupt and match your interruption style accordingly.

How much silence?

In Canada more than a second of silence is generally considered very long, unless it is an emotional exchange between people, which is not usual for business.

Smells

If you can be smelled, it is generally not considered professional here. People should not be able to smell what you ate for lunch or what you cooked for dinner the night before. They should also never smell body odor. Strong perfume is frowned upon.

A final note

In your business dealings, you are likely to find Canadians who are rude or unprofessional in their business dealings. That is not your problem; they will certainly lose business and credibility if they are not following the expected protocols. But as an immigrant you may be judged more harshly than the Canadian business owners, so it is always best to be on the safe side and be careful to observe Canadian business etiquette.  People are tolerant of mistakes newcomers make, but they are less tolerant of mistakes from immigrants who have been here for several years.  Take the high road and your business will prosper because of it. If you do, you may teach a Canadian business owner a thing or two about politeness and helping customers feel welcome.

The myth of “old school” management

Marie Gervais, PhD. Director Global Leadership Associates Inc

www.global-leadership.ca

Manager yelling

It always irritates me when I hear people excuse a manager’s poor performance by saying “don’t worry about (insert name of bad manager here), he/she is ‘old school’”. What does that really mean when someone describes a decision maker as ‘old school’? My initial list isn’t very complimentary: general behaviors would be problems with anger management, poor communication skills, bullying, yelling, harassing employees, refusing to deal with issues such as prejudice, sexism and inequity (or even actively promoting them for kickback), ineffective conflict resolution, silencing messengers, and no allowance for input or feedback. Think about it – is there any “school” that would teach these vices?

Managers who can be characterized by these kinds of behaviors likely don’t have a management education or if they do, either they didn’t pay attention to the courses or it hasn’t been updated for a very long time. It isn’t just the ‘old school’ label I object to: it is the wry smile and other qualifiers that usually accompany such comments, things like: ‘boys will be boys’, ‘you can’t teach an old dog new tricks’, and ‘that’s just the way some people are’.

Bad management is everywhere: In Ireland, ESRI research showed that bullying among managers in the public sector is more prevalent than in the private sector. See for example “Workplace bullying in nursing: towards a more critical organisational perspective” by Hutichinson, Vickers, Jackson & Wilkes (Nursing Inquiry, Volume 13, Issue 2, pages 118–126, June 2006).  In education here is the analysis of direct cost to one school district (http://www.workplacebullying.org/2009/04/06/northcutt/) from bullying by one administrator and three administrative support people who kept her bullying under wraps:

$119,957 — 2004 arbitration

$225,000 — 2005 settlement

$60,475 (est.) 10 years district contribution to her retirement

$35,200 (est.) 10 years health and welfare benefits

$104,956 — district legal expenses, all designed to enable bullying without consequences

$545,588 the total expense for ONE bully principal and 3 supportive district personnel – and that doesn’t even begin to tally the indirect costs to those employees working under this school principal.

An Australian study by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) did a survey of 478 HR professionals and 613 employees to determine the negative effects of various issues on worker productivity. The findings were as follows:

1. Effects of poor management were the highest at 58% negative impact on productivity.
2. Next was lack of motivation among employees at 38%.
3. Then there was the issue of ongoing organizational changes at 26%.

It doesn’t take too much imagination to see that lack of motivation and poor handling of organizational change are likely also linked to management.

Productivity issues aside, let’s look at some of the medical effects of this so-called ‘old school’ of management. Anna Nyberg of the Swedish Karolinska Institutet discovered during her doctoral research that bad bosses have an actual medical impact. Employees with poor managers were sick more often and missed more work than employees with skilled managers. But that isn’t the worst news: Based on 20,000 employees from Sweden, Finland, Germany, Poland and Italy and in a variety of fields and industries, this study showed that the longer an employee worked under a bad manager, the greater his or her increase of risk of heart attack. Employees working under bad managers have a higher rate of heart attack than other employees[1].

One of my manufacturing clients had no less than three of their maintenance long term employees die from heart attack over a period of 16 months. All three had worked for 10 years under immediate managers and upper managers who were bullies. Their plant manager while I was there was a gem and should be nominated for an award. He was able to turn the entire workplace climate around within two years. But he came too late to help the employees who died; two had their heart attacks at work.

So don’t excuse anyone in your organization by letting them off the behavior accountability hook. There is no ‘old school’ of management. It is a myth that allows us to avoid facing the reality that we are condoning upper level substandard behavior and making employees sick, less productive and in some cases dead, in the process.