Dos and Don’ts
Be careful with evaluating people based on personality traits and behavior
Probably most cultures have some tendencies in behavior and in working styles that may be seen as more characteristic for that particular culture than others. However, people from the same culture may have different business behaviors.
- Don’t make assumptions about a person, based on their name, language, and accent. As shown in the video case study, you may have watched, it becomes clear that individuals can experience negative consequences from a phone conversation, because their name has been related to a particular culture. Names do not represent personality or a specific culture. Therefore, you can invite the person for a face-to face meeting, in order to achieve more transparent communication.
- Don’t judge, before having a clear picture about the situation. On first sight, some facts may not sound respectful and professional. An example could be when entrepreneurs may not use adequate forms of address because they are not using their native language.
However, ambition and professionalism can be measured by other factors. To gain better understandings about the business experience, do ask further questions related to his professional behavior.
Focus on new data rather than making assumptions based on pre-existing information
Emphasizing original, pre-existing information over new data, may lead to a slow decision-making process. In relation to making business decisions, new information should be taken in consideration carefully, to determine its value.
- Don’t focus on your previous practice. Having a negative business experience with people from a specific culture, does not mean that everyone from this culture is the same. Personality development refers to how the organized patterns of behavior that make up each person’s unique personality emerge over time. Many factors go into influencing personality, including genetics, environment, parenting, and societal variables. Before making any conceptions, collect more data about the person, the country, and its way of doing business by, for example, making use of google and social media channels such as LinkedIn.
- Don’t take decisions based on your current emotions which are achieved by previous experience. Having a short conversation, where for instance, the person has the opportunity only to say the name and to make a short personal and business presentation, may not be enough to get to know the person and the business potential. The facts, exchanged in a short conversation may remind you of previous experience which may affect you in connecting this case with an earlier one.
Instead of focusing on your previous (negative) experiences and the emotions connected with, give people a second chance to prove their professionalism, by a longer conversation or arrangement of a second meeting.
Sources : https://www.verywellmind.com/personality-development-2795425
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Respect different styles of work
Working with a variety of different personalities and different cultures means that you get to experience very different work styles from which your team may benefit.
- Don’t think your work style is the only really efficient one. Individual and cultures function differently. Some cultures, for example, tend to work on more tasks in parallel, others prefer a strictly sequential mode. You might find some habits very helpful and some others bizarre. Regardless of how you feel, make sure your colleagues feel comfortable with the working mode. Approach the issue with them, – this will increase awareness for different work styles and help the team to be productive.
- Don’t hinder creativity by being too strict when it comes to allowing different working modes and individual preferences. Allow for example to listen to music via headphones if you notice this might help.
Be integrative
Diversifying your workplace takes more than hiring a few people who have different ethnic origin from the majority of your employees. Diversity and inclusion means to make efforts to encourage an attitude of openness toward all employees in your organization.
- Don’t neglect other aspects that make organizations diverse, like gender and sexual orientation, religious beliefs, physical ability and economic status.
- Don’t hinder the freedom of your employees to express their opinions and ideas with equal weight.
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Accept different concepts of formality in work situations
Probably most cultures have ways and communication modes to show respect, authority, status; etc. However, the strategies they apply to show it may vary.
- Don’t judge a new employee with a different cultural background from yourself if he or she presents him- or herself on the first day of work in an outfit you don’t find appropriate for your company. Help the employee understand your standards by explaining your expectations about company dress codes.
- Don’t assume disrespect if colleagues or collaborators use other greeting forms than you are used to. They may only transfer their verbal and non-verbal communication habits to – for them – a foreign language. If, for example, a colleague avoids direct eye contact this can be a sign of respect in some cultures.
Focus on content rather than appearance when reading a CV
It’s quite natural for human beings to feel drawn to persons who appear to be similar in appearance, manner, language; etc. The power of affinity can be observed abroad, when people get to know others from their home country rather than locals.
- In recruiting situations don’t let similarities in the CV of the applicant guide you (for example, same home town, same communication style, same hair colour), but stick to the substance of their application.
- Don’t be the only recruiter to evaluate the candidate. Look for support from colleagues and consult guidelines.
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Make the rules, the accepted culture of work, and the norms of cooperation between employees and managers clear for every person working in your company. Be aware of the various cultural backgrounds and experience of people working with you regarding to the person-to-person communication.
People coming from different countries may have various habits and experiences regarding the culture of work and accepted norms when it comes to a colleague-colleague, manager-employee and boss-employee communication. In some countries the communication between all people working in the company is based on partnership but in some countries hierarchy is very important. The employee needs to be aware how they should communicate and behave when interacting with someone of a higher position in the company.
- Don’t assume that each person will be aware of the culture of work and norms of cooperation between people of different positions in the company.
- Don’t judge immediately when someone will make a mistake e.g. when talking to a manager or boss in the non-conventional way (e.g. is too familiar or too official in their communication style) and don’t call them unprofessional because of this.
Organize business parties to strengthen the connection between employees and to create a better working environment. When organising a party at work consider the variety of cultures and personal habits of each employee to make this event pleasant for everyone.
The business party is always a good opportunity to meet people from the same workplace in less official conditions and get to know them better. During such an event employees can share their stories about their personal life; etc. People usually join business parties as these are fun. But each party consists of many different elements, e. g. food, drinks, music, the place where it is organized, the way of placing the tables and chairs and many other aspects. If there are people in your company who are e. g. Muslims you should think about ordering Halal food and non-alcoholic drinks for them, if Hindu – order food containing non-beef meet and consider vegetarian/vegan options.
- Don’t assume that every employee, regardless of religion and culture, will enjoy the same food and drinks during the business party organised for all people working in your company.
- Don’t predict that situations of conflict won’t happen during your business party. For example, what if a person who, because of his/her religion, avoids the consumption of alcohol will be asked to sit at the same table with a drinking group and will feel uncomfortable because of that? Or what if some person who is vegan will stay hungry because there is no vegan food option on the table?
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Encourage a healthy and friendly environment in the company
Companies should encourage a healthy and friendly environment in the workplace by providing training and workshops for achieving respect for diverse workgroups. If any disputes arise between workers with different ethnicities, the managers should take them into account to implement changes and procedures to soften and avoid them.
- Do not assume that people working in the same environment will get along well, even though they have different cultural backgrounds.
- Do not ignore the disputes about cultural differences that arise in the workplace. Coming from different backgrounds does not lead to disputes per se.
Focus on the capabilities of the person
It is something usual that in the workplace, the youngest workers are perceived as less capable of managing work. Age bias appears in these situations, as employees are judged by their youth instead of their work. Managers should review the functions and responsibilities of the workers to ensure that they are appropriate for each of them.
- Do not miss the opportunity to exploit the capabilities of the workers because they are young.
- Do not underestimate workers only because they are young. Most of the times, young people are enthusiastic and willing to work hard.
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Be flexible as far as possible.
Flexibility and adaptability are very important features that are often underestimated. It can be said that the amount of flexibility in the workplace is inversely proportional to the size of the enterprise. Take a huge company like McDonalds as an example. Hundreds of thousands of people from various cultural backgrounds work in it, but in a company with such a high specialization, where everything must run like clockwork, it is difficult to find a significant amount of flexibility in relation to cultural differences among employees. Therefore, the smaller the enterprise, the easier it is to implement cultural solutions relevant to employees of various origins, religion, etc … Use this aspect if you have such an opportunity, and employees will certainly notice and appreciate it.
- Don’t limit their religious needs due to working hours. If they need to pray during it, try to offer them a compromise consisting, for example, in the possibility of indulging in religious practices during working hours in exchange for the time spent on it at other times.
- Don't underestimate details that may be relevant to others. For example, if you are aware of culturally based superstitions in your team, try to help your team members to feel at ease. Some Chinese people for example may believe that the number four brings bad luck. So try not to place them on the fourth floor.
Be cautious about potential historical and political conflicts between workers from countries that are involved in conflicts with each other.
In an international company, it may happen that Palestinians and Jews, Armenians and Azeris, Japanese and Koreans sit side by side in the workplace. However, this is not a reason to take any action without a clear need. Moreover, the implementation of such solutions as, for example, segregation of employees in groups due to their origin would certainly not have a positive effect on the integration of the entire team.
- Don’t assume that international conflicts have to be reproduced in relationships between employees
- Don’t let their eventual appearance ruin your team. Nip them in the bud by helping to create an atmosphere of mutual respect.
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Consider that different cultural backgrounds have different attitudes towards the recruitment processes
There are some certain rules of etiquette during each job interview which are common for everyone but not all of them are understood in the same way by people from different cultural backgrounds. In some countries interviewees are expected to be very humble and quiet during job interviews, in others they should talk openly about their benefits as this is seen as professional and a sign of self-confidence.
- Don’t assume that there is one universal rule of etiquette during each job interview which describes the behaviour, communication style by the interviewee and also dress code.
- Don’t forget that the cultural background of an interviewee should be taken into account together with this person’s performance.
Focus on a position that is best for the candidate
People coming from poor countries should not be labelled automatically as those with less qualifications for the job. It is important to find out as much information about the professional experience of all the candidates during the recruiting process, regardless of their origin.
- Don’t think that people from poor countries have less professional qualifications and try to find out as much as possible about their qualifications that can often be undocumented.
- Don’t underestimate people from poor countries by thinking they are looking for just “any” type of job.
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When meeting remotely for work consult with other colleagues in order to get a job done.
It is very easy when interacting remotely to just rely on your own judgement and forgo the critical review by others to get a job done and misunderstand/misinterpret messages due to cultural bias.
- Make sure, reflective of the cultural diversity in your team, that everyone understood that consultancy is important. The lack of face to face (F2F) meetings in a company can have challenges and some team members might understand the online discussion in another way than you do depending on their cultural background and the lack of visual clues. Don’t think that an F2F meeting is the same as an online meeting; specifically with various attitudes by team members to authority and the willingness to contribute to discussion.
- Don’t rely on your own judgement but invite other colleagues to individually evaluate decisions from their point of view and let them speak first before a task is signed off.
When working remotely with international team keep an open mind in interpreting the behaviours of your colleagues.
The sporadic and limited interaction in remote work environments can make it difficult to grasp team members’ individual situations without being biased.
- Don’t let your brain compensate for any missing information. We quickly can jump to incorrect conclusions about people’s behaviours by being biased in our own point of views.
- Don’t forget to stay flexible and open minded and ask for explanations for why a particular behaviour might have occurred and whether it is generally representative of that colleague.
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