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For nearly ten years, McKinsey, a leading management consulting firm, has been providing valuable insights into how diversity impacts company performance. Their latest report, which examines data from over 1,000 large companies across 15 countries, reinforces the strong link between cultural diversity and business success. The analysis reveals that companies in the top quartile for ethnic representation are 39% more likely to outperform their peers in the bottom quartile. This compelling evidence highlights the significant benefits of embracing cultural diversity in the workplace.
A diverse workforce brings a wealth of perspectives, skills, and experiences, driving innovation and problem-solving. By including individuals from varied backgrounds, cultures, and life experiences, companies benefit from a broader range of viewpoints, which can lead to more creative and effective solutions. Additionally, a varied skill set among employees ensures that the firm can tap into a rich reservoir of expertise, improving overall performance and competitiveness. Embracing cultural diversity also significantly enhances a company's brand reputation, portraying it as an inclusive, forward-thinking, and socially responsible organisation. This positive image resonates with consumers, clients, and investors who value equality and representation, thereby boosting loyalty and trust in the brand.
Furthermore, a commitment to cultural diversity attracts top talent from around the world, as job seekers increasingly prioritise inclusive workplaces that value different perspectives and foster personal and professional growth. By drawing from a global talent pool, companies not only enhance their innovation and problem-solving capabilities but also ensure they are equipped with the best and brightest minds, driving competitive advantage and long-term success.
Given the globalisation of business and increasing diversity in the workforce, cross-cultural training can no longer be considered as a useful ‘add-on’ merely for expats moving abroad to develop their careers. Nowadays, more and more professionals are required to work effectively across cultures. Even if they are based in their home locations, they are likely to be interacting with people from other cultures. Training in cross-cultural management has therefore become a ‘must’, whether for graduates at the start of their career or for senior managers who wish to increase their effectiveness when leading international teams.
So, what do we mean by ‘cross-cultural’ training programs? In essence, culture captures the defining characteristics of a group, whether large or small. It represents the values, norms, practices, and behaviours shared by individuals within that group. These cultural aspects are typically learned through upbringing or extended exposure, offering a systematic and organised approach to navigating various aspects of life.
As the influential scholar Edgar H. Schein put it, "Culture is the way in which people solve problems." Similarly, Dutch researcher Geert Hofstede noted that we often remain unaware of our own culture, much like a fish is unaware of the water it swims in.
Researchers have studied the impact of various cultural factors on an individual's values and behaviours, including age, corporate culture, country, education, gender, industry, profession, and religion. The findings consistently show that some factors carry more weight than others, with national culture emerging as the most influential. Our societal culture shapes us more profoundly than any other group we associate with.
Cultural differences may not always be visible in the workplace, but they do exist. Numerous studies suggest that global teams face significant challenges in four major areas: cultural differences, communication, technology, and project management. Current research suggests that team failure is also directly related to the difficulties of building trust and positive relationships across the three boundaries of geographical distance, time zones, and cultural norms.
The strength of cross-cultural teams is their diversity of experience and perspective. But to capture those rich insights, colleagues must commit to open communication and sharing their feedback. This is rarely an easy process. While most professional exchanges are easy and successful, there are times when communication breaks down and relationships are damaged. When people collaborate across cultures and in virtual teams, the chances of this happening are much greater, as each member brings his own influences and cultural conditioning of what is "normal" to the encounter.
For example, the Dutch, Germans and Americans often pride themselves on their blunt and direct communicative style. However, directness is not equally effective in all cultural contexts. In much of the Asia Pacific region and the Arab world over-directness is disliked because it seems to create conflict. The Japanese stringently avoid using language forms likely to cause offence and involve the other person in loss of face. Take “Eii doryoku shimasu” which means “We shall make efforts” which means “We intend to do nothing”.
Participation norms also vary widely across cultures. Team members from egalitarian and individualistic countries like America and Australia often feel comfortable brainstorming their unfiltered opinions and ideas. In contrast, those from more hierarchical cultures, such as Japan or India, typically wait until senior colleagues have spoken before they contribute. Some people may hold back because they fear appearing superficial or foolish. For example, Finns prefer to “think before you speak,” a stark contrast to the more spontaneous “shoot from the hip” attitude common among Americans.
Comfort with public disagreement is another significant source of conflict in cross-cultural teams. In cultures that highly value "face" and group harmony, members may avoid confrontation to prevent conflict and maintain social cohesion. Conversely, in some cultures, having a “good debate” is seen as a sign of trust. Additionally, people from different parts of the world vary in how much emotion they express and expect during professional debates.
For instance, when individuals from Latin and Middle Eastern cultures raise their voices, colleagues from more reserved cultures might misinterpret the intensity of their opposition. On the other hand, when people from Asia or Scandinavia use silence and unreceptive body language to express dissent, the message often gets lost on their more emotionally expressive peers.
Furthermore, though English is often referred to as the lingua franca of the international workforce, it has several variants depending on the geography and culture of its speakers. For example, in the United States, people use idioms and sporting references, in Australia, slang and abbreviations are commonplace and in India, you may hear English phrases that are literal translations from Hindi. These expressions, which are easily understood domestically, can be a challenge to non-native English speakers and lead to breakdowns in communication.
Cross-cultural training programs offer advice, techniques and strategies for effective communication and collaboration and how to optimise your English, to help connect more clearly with global teammates, colleagues and clients. Not only does this help individuals accomplish their goals, but importantly, it creates a more inclusive environment by allowing people to connect with others no matter where they are located. Programs and policies that reduce prejudice and stereotypes and promote friendly interaction amongst team members benefit any diverse team.
For this reason, many organisations have come to view cross-cultural training not only as an investment to ensure that international assignees settle into new global roles, but that remote project teams perform well, business is secured in new territories, JV relationships are strong enough to overcome inevitable challenges and that their global talent becomes culturally competent.
In short, cross-cultural training programs offer their people an efficient way of quickly developing the knowledge, skills and behaviours for successfully working across diverse backgrounds and areas of the world. Tangible benefits include increased productivity and retention, improved customer service and reduced complaints, improved relationships between clients, stakeholders and peers and increased job satisfaction.
Good cultural training has up-to-date and relevant country information. Crucially, it is delivered by knowledgeable experts in a way that ensures delegates practice new behaviours that can be applied straight away in their day-to-day activities. These new behaviours may include taking a different approach to obtaining a partner’s buy-in or resolving a conflict, understanding ‘unwritten’ rules of a new workplace, tailoring presentations for non-native English speakers, writing effective emails to improve team exchanges or negotiating successfully with a new client. In an ideal world, cross-cultural training should always be most than just a one-time event and followed-up with specific support and coaching.
During the pandemic, adaptation and flexibility emerged as critical factors for businesses according to PWC’s How Business Can Emerge Stronger CEO panel survey. The findings revealed that CEOs prioritised flexible, digital business models and an employee-centric approach. Highlighting the increasing significance of intercultural skills, CEOs also identified demonstrating respect for others, building trust, and working effectively in diverse teams as the three most crucial skills they required. These were ranked above having the right qualifications and experience. Earlier research from the British Council also showed that intercultural skills are valued as highly as formal qualifications.
Clearly, the impact of cultural differences must be considered by all organisations. Consequently, developing cultural intelligence and intercultural communication skills is more important than ever.
So, is cross-cultural training an unnecessary or expensive investment? Well, only if the cost and the associated benefits are not measured. If an organisation is failing to measure the costs of botched expatriate assignments, underperforming global teams, supplier delays, missed opportunities, failed joint ventures, etc. then it may never know how preventative these costs could have been with effective cultural training programs. In fact, in our experience, insightful organisations fully understand the accelerated speed with which projects succeed, assignments go smoothly and relationships flourish all because of cross-cultural training. Given the enormous costs associated with global projects, how could developing cultural competencies required for their success ever be seen as simply an unnecessary or too expensive investment.
Hult Business School asked 100 of the world’s leading CEOs what key competencies business graduates need in the 21st century. When it comes to international business skills, they ranked the following as critical for employability and success:
In short, cross-cultural training provides an efficient way of quickly developing the knowledge, skills and behaviours for successfully working internationally.
When speaking to the thousands of delegates we have worked with, we see challenges in four main areas. These are:
We begin our programs helping participants understand core concepts related to culture and cultural competence. We explore how we identify ourselves and share our understanding and experiences of other cultures’ preferences. Our work with global teams means we practice how to communicate successfully in various intercultural situations and how to resolve differences with creative problem-solving skills.
Prior to the delivery we will invite your attendees to complete a needs survey which will ask them about their observations and experiences of their foreign counterparts. These comments will remain confidential and will only be shared with our Trainer. It would be helpful to ask the participants to contribute one or more intercultural incidents or work-related situations they would like to explore during the training. This process will also help manage expectations and feasible outcomes of the training.
No, we also offer inspiring and interactive language lessons in all major world languages at a convenient time, tailored to our learners’ specific goals, with enthusiastic support and motivation from native-speaking tutors.
"I very much enjoy my Italian lessons and I have struck up a real bond with my tutor. I hope to be able to continue with my Italian studies!"
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"We are very happy with the service that we receive from Babel which has been consistently proactive and prompt. Our learners give consistently positive feedback on the standard of tuition provided. I would not hesitate in recommending Babel as language tuition provider."
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