Managing the Multicultural Workplace

InterCultural Advantage consultants have tested experience with small businesses, non-profit organizations and human services.

Workplace teams made up of people differing in cultural, ethnic, and gender identity can be significantly superior to homogenous teams when properly managed,

or,

they can be much worse than even a poorly managed homogeneous team if leaders ignore differences between people of different backgrounds.

Because of the growing diversity in the workplace, you may find yourself managing, being managed by, or co-managing with people from another culture.

Your ability to succeed in these situations will very much depend on your intercultural communication skills. Learning to manage the multicultural workplace requires:

• flexibility
• curiosity
• willingness to learn
• tolerance for ambiguity

InterCultural Advantage seminars help participants develop a set of skills known as a “multicultural leadership toolbox”. Workshop activities lead participants to:

Know yourself: What you bring to the communication event greatly influences the success or failure of that event.

Know your culture: Each of us is a product of our cultural background, including gender, ethnicity, family, age, religion, profession, and other life experiences.

Know your perceptions: Identify those attitudes, prejudices, and opinions that you carry around and that bias the way the world appears to you.

Monitor yourself: Discovering what is appropriate behavior in each situation.

Know your communication style: If you perceive yourself in one way, and the people with whom you interact perceive you in another way, serious problems can arise.

InterCultural Advantage

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