More on cultural awareness

For managers to be effective,

· they need to know as much as possible about the cultures to which their employees belong

· Be aware of his/her own culture to know the basis from which each assesses situations

· Rather than applying the information they have to each individual they meet from a specific culture, using that information as one possible explanation for a situation and asking questions to find out what is really going on

Example of too little cultural information

· Believing that Asian women are taught to be passive

· Thinking stereotypically in that you expect Asian women to be passive

· “We can’t send her to see those clients. They’ll chew her up.”

· While the cultural norm may be for Asian women to be more reserved

· See if she is quiet because

· she is following the cultural standard

· If she’s not feeling well,

· Is a shy individual

· Is remaining quiet because the environment isn’t safe or supportive

Applying it to the personal, interpersonal and organizational levels

· Personal –where we hold all of our attitudes, biases, and prejudices about everything – work, play, sex, manners, food, school, race, gender, age and aging, religion, etc.

· Interpersonal – behavioral level. Interaction with people. Affected by the attitudes at the personal level.

· Organizational – the environment at work. People, formal and informal rules, levels and functions, how decisions are made, how people are hired and fired

Communicating with people about issues of difference

Gender, sex, race, religion, culture, sexual orientation

As children we learned what was OK to talk about and not OK

In American organizational culture, Ok to see and talk about gender

Discomfort in acknowledging seeing race or physical ability

Sense that if you notice you are racist or prejudiced or rude

Manager’s challenge

· To become comfortable acknowledging the immediately apparent physical differences associated with these without attaching value judgments to that information

· No skin color is good or bad, it just is

· We are not better or smarter if we’re one gender rather than another, we simply are who we are

· If you say, “I’ve just hired a Latina to work for me,” you would also say, “I’m interviewing a white woman for a position this afternoon.” Is one inherently better than the other?

· No, race is just a part of who she is

Race

· Most reticence about identifying and talking about race comes from white people

· As if race is a surprise

· We act as if race doesn’t matter

· If we don’t notice race, we won’t have to deal with the experiences of our colleagues of color

Communicating more effectively about issues of difference

· First, knowing ourselves

· If we are not clear about what our biases and prejudices are, what roles gender, race, regional background, etc. play in our lives

· What our values and assumptions are, and how we communicate

· How our biases affect our interactions

· We will be unable to forge whole human relationships

· Goal is to become conscious and intentional about our communication

To be effective in communication,

· we must be conscious of the fact that we have different realities depending on who we are in terms of race, gender, class, age and sexual orientation.

· How we see the world and how the world treats us is affected by these aspects of ourselves

· We in turn carry those experiences into the workplace

Guidelines for Discussing Differences

Developed by Dr. Price M. Cobbs, Pacific Management Systems, San Francisco, CA

These are basic good communications and can apply to any conversation

1. The success of these sorts of conversations is the responsibility of both persons. It is helpful to talk about what each of you would like to gain from the conversation.

2. Don’t assume you know what the other person is going to say. If we do so we lose what’s actually being said, the chance to hear a perspective and the opportunity to learn something new about the person.

3. Don’t finish the person’s sentences. Be quiet enough to listen to someone genuinely and all the way through. If we want to connect with someone we have to know what they think, not what we think they think.

4. Give the person your total attention. Avoid composing your response while you pretend to listen.

5. Try not to be defensive.

6. acknowledge the risks of conversation about race, sexual orientation, culture, etc. and then have the conversation

7. Remember that the difference is not the problem, it is the response to the difference that is problematic.

8. Good intentions are not enough. For instance, “Oh, Ned, you’re so normal I never think of you as gay.” She thinks she is paying him a compliment but what she’s really saying is “Let me strip that part of you that makes me uncomfortable and see you as I want to see you.” The challenge is to be responsible for the impact of our behaviors.

9. You may do a good job but it might still be hard or have an outcome less than desired. Remember that this is a starting point, a process and that it continues. One conversation won’t solve everything.

When/how to intervene in difficult situations

· Racial comment, “dumb blonde” joke or gay joke

· Sayings that reflect stereotypical thoughts – “Indian giver,” “Jew him down,” “Mexican standoff,” “Chinese fire drill”

· Stereotype a person because of the part of the country they are from

What is our goal of the interaction – what do we want the outcome to be?

· Do we want them to know how we feel about their words or do we want them to change their behavior

· When to talk to them – now or later

· Silence may condone behavior – even if you talk in private later

· May also signal to colleagues that you won’t support them if they speak up