KEY POINTS:
Organisations are now employing an increasing number of new migrants.
This integration process can often be stressful and time consuming for managers, staff and the migrants.
The Centre for Continuing Education at the University of Auckland has introduced a two half-day course to help those working in multi-cultural organisations to bridge the gaps.
Anne Cave, programme manager for professional development, says she is excited about the prospect.
"This course has been run in numerous large organisations, both public and private, and the response from managers and staff has been incredibly positive. As Auckland's multi-cultural workforce continues to grow, organisations are becoming more aware of the need to facilitate the integration process for both the migrants and their New Zealand staff," says Cave. "Following this course there has been a much greater level of cross cultural understanding and tolerance which helps both the individual and the organisation."
For employers in New Zealand the question of whether to employ a person who comes from a non-English speaking background and culture - one that is quite different from that of most New Zealanders - includes an assessment of risk as compared with potential gain. Will employing such a person alter the patterns of interaction within the team of staff? How will they fit in? Will others be able to understand their pronunciation of English? Do the potential advantages of having a staff member who speaks Chinese, or Hindi or Thai outweigh any risks?
The over-emphasis on risk sometimes occurs because employers do not have the necessary knowledge about cultural differences and how they can be accommodated in the workplace so the employees and the business both benefit. The course uses an interactive approach that allows participants to explore ideas about what culture is, and how culturally important values influence behaviour.
This gives participants a chance to think about their own culture and values in a conscious way, instead of just accepting that their way of behaving is "normal" and when others don't behave in this way they are somehow odd or even "stupid".
During the course participants also learn that people from other cultures and ethnic groups have their own idea of what is "normal". For example, a person on a recent course was horrified to learn he had quite probably been wrong in his assessment that a person with a weak handshake might be a weak, "wet" sort of person and therefore a questionable appointment.
He hadn't known that in many cultures giving a weak handshake is given in situations where one is trying not to assert status. As candidates for a vacant position, people with this cultural value do not assert status over members of the interviewing panel.
The focus changes on the second half day of the course, although there is still a great deal of interaction between participants. Course participants have an opportunity to think about prejudice and discrimination and the harm that acting in a discriminatory way does to both the person discriminating and the one who is being discriminated against. This session often elicits some strong feelings from participants who vividly remember harm done to them in this manner. It seems important to give them some strategies for responding to prejudicial comments and actions of others, so the latter part of the second session is spent on ways to show disagreement with harmful comments in a socially acceptable way. For example, one participant had felt discriminated against when her colleagues spoke in their own language in the staff room.
After the discussion she felt confident enough to say, "Talk English, you guys, I want to know what you are saying". Prior to that she had felt hostile and angry about having such "rude" colleagues from a different ethnic group.
Communicating across cultures is taught principally by Kathy Jackson - an experienced teacher, psychologist and university lecturer. Her PHD research was in the field of cross-cultural psychology and she has taught education and psychology in a number of different countries, including Hong Kong, Malawi, Botswana, Australia and New Zealand.
Jackson says she draws on this experience in her teaching and that of adapting to countries whose cultures were new and dramatically different to her.
"I believe that the successful settlement of newcomers into New Zealand society is more likely to occur if locally born kiwis are willing to acknowledge that cultural difference is real, and is okay,"says Jackson. "Kiwis who can talk about cultural difference in an open manner, without relying on stereotypes and only having their own prejudices to draw on for information, can become important colleagues and potential friends for newly-arrived immigrants. People from different backgrounds bring different experiences and ways of solving problems to the workforce. Accepting this difference as normal has the potential to be beneficial in the workplace".
