Publish at February 24 2013 Updated May 16 2022
Intercultural communication and management of the same name have become realities in many companies; a handful of them have establishments in foreign countries and need to become familiar with the ways of working there; the others, more numerous and smaller, are simply seeking to increase harmony and efficiency in local teams that welcome several backgrounds and cultures.
The Centre de Ressources en Économie Gestion (CREG) of the Versailles academy has looked at interculturality in companies. In a long article, Stéphanie Thieyre first questions the notions of intercultural and multicultural. Multiculturalism is a social approach very much in vogue in Anglo-Saxon countries such as the United Kingdom or Canada. In this approach, an individual is perceived above all as a member of a community. Thus, the person is defined according to the characteristics of the group to which he or she belongs. Multiculturalism thus advocates the peaceful cohabitation of different communities.
For S. Thieyre, this option is problematic since it does not help build social peace. At best, it isolates the different communities from the culture of the host country and in many cases stigmatizes them. This is all the more damaging because, in fact, for the author, all individuals belong to communities in one way or another. There is certainly ethnicity, but also gender, religion, sexual orientation, age, standard of living, etc. So we are all multicultural beings. The intercultural approach would thus be more effective since it includes the notion of acceptance and exchange between communities. However, this approach is not easy to implement.
As is well known, misunderstandings between management staff and employees due to different cultures are an extremely frequent problem in companies with establishments in different countries, or that regularly welcome foreign staff. Indeed, one does not run a company the same way in Asia as in Europe. For example, Lepetitjournal.com recently published an article on French-style management that can destabilize anyone who comes to work in France. French managers are said to be authoritarian, to have little recognition of their employees' skills, to have a tendency to hold meeting after meeting and to be poor communicators... A rather harsh portrait confirmed by foreign publications such as The Economist which justifies this attitude by the training of managers in France who would not spend enough time in the field, with workers less high up in the hierarchy.
Beyond the particularities of this or that national group, the occasions of misunderstanding are very numerous. For example, in the West, a silence in a conversation creates discomfort and means a problem in the conversation. However, for Asians, it simply means that it is necessary to take time to assimilate the information previously given. The notion of a personal bubble can also be a problem. For example, North Americans have a very large personal space, and anyone in it is considered an intruder. In contrast, in southern France, Greece or Italy, this bubble is much smaller, so your neighbor can stand very close to you without you feeling attacked. Another classic misunderstanding: timetables. For Germans, being late is unforgivable and meetings must end on time, not one minute later. The French, on the other hand, like to use the Lyon/Paris/Rennes quarter-hour (and add all the city names you want) to justify being late for an appointment, while complaining about the inability of their southern neighbors, the Spanish and Italians, to keep to a schedule. In Mexico, good business negotiations involve being able to talk at length about anything and everything with your future business partner. Finally, while Anglo-Saxons love reporting and all situations that allow for data analysis, Asians will give little to no feedback on a business situation.
So how do we mitigate these shocks? There are no magic solutions, alas. but the newcomer should always start with intense observation of his colleagues and cultivate his flexibility to adapt to his new environment. For its part, the welcoming environment gains by exchanging with its workers who have come from elsewhere about their vision of work and by simply explaining the company's operating rules and codes. In any case, Stéphanie Thieyre suggests that companies plan adapted intercultural training for expatriates, managers of multicultural teams, international project managers, buyers, international HR teams among others, in order to optimize management in an intercultural context and not deny this " cultural diversity " recognized by the UN in 2000. Specialized firms exist and there is no shortage of work.
Thieyre S.: Multiculturalism versus interculturalism: what approach should be adopted in organizational management? Centre de ressources en économie gestion (CREG), académie de Versailles, February 1, 2011.
Illustration: Zurijeta, Shutterstock.com
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