Intercultural competencies: competitive advantage through ethnic diversity.

• Author: Wilson, Mike
• Position: Advice

THERE IS A RAPIDLY changing ethnic makeup in the business landscape today. It is not just large corporations that are hiring international employees. Many small businesses in Indiana are hiring people from Asia, Europe, the Middle East and other parts of the globe.

Technology companies seem to be particularly aggressive in seeking employees that represent a variety of cultures and backgrounds. This movement toward diversity places extraordinary pressures on businesses that strive to build an "internationalized" team of workers. For organizational success to occur, it is necessary to devise strategies that will allow international employees to assimilate into the local corporate culture, as well as training activities that will increase the intercultural competencies of the entire team.

In their book Human Resources and Personnel Management, William B. Werther and Keith Davis point to ethnocentrism, or the use of one's own cultural reference points to evaluate others, as a particular challenge for those wishing to encourage intercultural interactions and relationships. An ethnocentric view often fails to recognize the viewpoints of others. This can serve as a fundamental barrier to the formation of work teams and ultimately, to the success of the enterprise. When a company wishes to combat ethnocentrism and desires to encourage increased intercultural effectiveness, intercultural training objectives need to be defined and implemented. Robert Kohls is helpful in his book Developing intercultural Awareness. He states that to be able to effectively interact in an intercultural environment, an individual must:

* Learn to have positive attitudes toward persons from other cultures

* Develop intercultural communication skills

* Be aware of one's own cultural values, and

* Reduce stereotypes and prejudices

As an owner of a small business, I have often seen the challenge of our increasingly diversifying workforce and have not been quite sure how to address these challenges. The list...