Carrying out both a qualitative and ethnographic research, and studying over
thousands of organizations in 11 countries for about 5 years, Christine Congdon
and Catherine Gall have come out with their paper, Vision Statement: How
Culture Shapes the Office, which mirrors the factors mattering the performance
and productivity in a multicultural environment.
Their study brings forth the six dimensions of culture which may help
understand people’s expectations in a workplace and thus help an organization
ensure the best performance from a group of people, diversified in their
culture and united under a multicultural environment.
To increase both the performance and productivity in a multicultural environment, an organization or any globally operated business establishments must have a set a strategies based on the six cultural dimensions as follow:
- autocratic-consultative,
- individualist-collectivist,
- masculine-feminine,
- tolerant
of uncertainty-security oriented,
- short
term-long term, and
- low
context-high context
It’s no wonder, in a multinational company, you will meet people representing different cultural traits: people with the blue blood from Great Britain or the authoritarian trait being carried by the people from Germany might pose rather a conflicting environment with the people representing consultative, amicable or altruistic characteristics. You have to make a balance between these traits of binary opposition. People brought up in a dilapidated economy like those of in the third world countries usually have troubles with uncertainty about their future and feel comfortable with long-term secured jobs; on the other hand people from the countries with strengthened social securities can easily put aside things like future while giving emphasis on the present. Now you know how to approach to bring the best performance and productivity, judging the cultural background in terms with economic stability. Again, as a gift of industrialization of the 18th century, there has been a rising conflict of feminism and anti-feminism, which developed to a cultural trait in certain communities. Still we can not ignore the negative attitude toward female bosses in many countries while in some Islamist countries there are some strictly maintained principles as to how you will deal with a female colleague especially if you are not an Arab.
For a better understanding regarding the performance and
productivity in a multicultural environment, the
essay, Meetings in Gulf Arab Countries, by Kemp and Williams
can be taken for granted. As they realize from a closer observation, the Gulf
Arab region offers an eclectic mix of different cross-cultural interactions and
as for the business meetings, sense of timing, being late to be in the meeting
place sometimes in an open space, regular disruptions, open doors, and
haphazard seating- these all are treated rather flexibly in this cultural
setting. For a successful business deal, you must not carry down your
western-style meeting-culture when in an Arab-setting. Again the Arab culture
is high context where communication is rather indirect with many interruptions
and often dependent on external environment. So for designing a business
operation in an Arab setting it’s worth considering these cultural dimensions
to come out with the best performance and productivity.
This article along with others on cultural diversity & challenges is available in eBook or paperback in Amazon.
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