Recruiting Across Cultures: How to ensure effective Cross-Cultural Communication
By Moni Lai Storz (PhD) / Juni 2009
www.gbstraining.com / www.accschinese.com
Any activity that engages human beings requires communication. Recruitment is no different. Recruitment is a process that begins and ends with human beings. In the increasing globalisation of the marketplace, recruiting businesses encounter a new challenge. The cross- cultural challenge.
Identified by many experts and global business leaders to be one of the top 5 challenges that can make or break a business, the cross-cultural challenge can be summed up in one phrase: effective cross cultural communication.
Recruitment in the 21st century is a cross-cultural phenomenon. Listen to the story that Jenny tells, for example. Jenny who works for a recruitment company has this to say: "I was interviewing Bob for a position here and everything about him was great. Wonderful credentials. Experience in the industry. Well travelled in the UK and USA. So we recruited him for the company. But he lasted 6 months in the new job. In Malaysia.
"What we didn’t take into account was the cultural factor. He went knowing only about Asia on two short trips as a tourist. In Malaysia as a production manager, he would pat workers on their heads whenever he felt jovial. Be directly critical to a Malaysian supervisor in front of the workers. But all these things we found out later and it was too late.
"As a recruitment agency, we didn’t do anything wrong - but our ignorance of the cultural issues cost us any future business with the same client. In money terms, our ignorance about cross-cultural issues cost the company something like $300,000 US dollars for the failed overseas assignment. Fortunately Joe was a single bloke. If he was married with two children, it would cost much more.”
The situation Jenny describes is an example of cross-cultural miscommunication on the part of Bob. Patting some younger person’s head may be used to communicate praise and man-to- man friendliness in an Australian context, but in multi-ethnic and multi-religious Malaysia, this is a gross violation of spiritual norms. The head is considered by Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists to be sacred.
Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia are examples of countries in Asia that are multi- cultural and require a good deal of inter-cultural sensitivity in doing business. Of particular significance is the issue of nepotism in hiring people in these places. Family and friendship 2 networks may be more important than credentials and performance in some places including China, India and Saudi Arabia.
There are many cultural barriers that exist as soon as we recruit people for cultures not their own. Culture shapes ninety percent of any human being’s behaviour. It is generally more unconscious than conscious and under stress, all human beings revert to their primary culture, that is to say, the culture that they have learnt in the first five years of their lives. When a person is hot, hungry and angry, he or she may revert to being a five-year-old and yell, displaying what is generally perceived as rude and unprofessional behaviour. In Chinese cultures (Singapore, China, Taiwan) and other Confucianist cultures such as Japanese, Vietnamese and Korean, this kind of behaviour on the part of a woman, will immediately destroy all respect for her.
Here we have a double whammy: gender and culture. Such behaviour is considered by the Asians to be distasteful even coming from a man, but a woman? It is worse. It is helpful to remember that in most parts of Asia, affirmative action does exist but community norms and perceptions regarding women are still more conservative than in Australia and the USA and take much longer to change.
Cultural barriers exist on another level given the global market place within which recruitment now occurs. Note for instance, an Australian is recruited for a company such as Jap Inc. Jap Inc has a corporate culture that is Japanese. How does an Australian manager cope with the rigid hierarchical values that permeate all Japanese corporations and their generic culture? How are these barriers manifested in overt behaviour?
The Australian culture intrinsically places all human beings equal and we pride ourselves on that. For instance, mateship is the most well known display of egalitarianism. Joe Blow, the factory hand, can have a beer with his CEO in the local pub, and share a few jokes and slaps on the back. They can even address each other by their first names. No Japanese or Korean will ever do this.
One can go on listing cultural barriers that exist between Australians and non-Australians but the following case study serves to illustrate how an apparently routine situation is laced with cultural issues. The following is a conversation between an interviewer and a potential candidate:
Recruiting interviewer: "Tell me about yourself?" Interviewee: "We do things differently sometimes but generally we take the proposal first to the managing director and then when he approves, we go to the client and that is when we believe we need to be very professional. We present a united front always, like a family.”
The interviewee (a Hindu Indian engineer) did not get the job and when she rang up to get some feedback, she was told that she did not speak about herself as an individual but used ‘we’ all the time. She came from a collectivistic culture and found it hard to talk about herself using the first person pronoun. This is easier with people who came from cultures which have individualistic values like Australia and the USA. The latter find it more comfortable to talk about their achievements as an individual.
3 Kit for recruiting across cultures
In order to recruit across cultures more effectively, it is useful to have a KIT. "K" stands for 'knowledge' of as many cultures as possible in the global marketplace. Even if you are just recruiting locally for the Australian workplace, the cross-cultural issues are still as important since we are a multi-cultural society now. Knowledge of the Asian communities in Melbourne for example, is as important as knowledge of China and India.
"I" stands for 'inter-cultural awareness'. Awareness is about attitude. It is dependent on your own mindset, and it is essentially about you, not them. When you receive knowledge and information about a cultural group that tells you that the other person is not only different but also shockingly so, do you judge that person as bad or mad? Or do you say with deep sincerity: he and I are different but that does not mean I am better/superior/nicer than him. So "I" stands for managing our attitude in terms of our prejudices, our dislikes and tolerance level in regards to differences.
"T" stands for tools, techniques and tactics. Once we get the "K" and "I" right, we need the "T" to cross cultures more effectively. Cross-cultural communication tools lie in two basic competencies; speaking and listening to the cultural nuances that inevitably exist in all cross- cultural encounters.
Much of recruitment activity is in speaking and listening to other people. In a recruitment situation when the person you are communicating to is culturally different from you, it is essential that you are able to hear beyond the accent for the message. The message is the content, the accent is the cultural factor.
Make sure you familiarise yourself with the person’s accent first before you get down to business talk. Use the beginning to talk about things that will relax both you and the other person since relaxation ensures active listening. When speaking across cultures, be sure to speak slower and use literal expressions rather than figurative ones.
Successful outcomes in recruitment as in all human activities require effective communication competencies. In a global marketplace, this is an art and a science worthy of mastering. Remember, speaking a language is only half the game – but effective communication always combines head and heart. That is the whole language in any culture.
Moni Lai Storz (PhD) is the Executive Consultant for Global Business Strategies Pty. Ltd. Global Business Strategies helps companies to bridge the cultural gap in order to capitalise on the shift in world economies. GBS offers a variety of executive training programs in Asian business cultures and cross-cultural communication skills including accelerated learning workshops in Chinese Mandarin, Indonesian, Vietnamese and Cantonese. She can be contacted on gbs002@ozemail.com.au or (613) 9809 2808 or www.gbstraining.com.
By Moni Lai Storz (PhD) / Juni 2009
www.gbstraining.com / www.accschinese.com
Any activity that engages human beings requires communication. Recruitment is no different. Recruitment is a process that begins and ends with human beings. In the increasing globalisation of the marketplace, recruiting businesses encounter a new challenge. The cross- cultural challenge.
Identified by many experts and global business leaders to be one of the top 5 challenges that can make or break a business, the cross-cultural challenge can be summed up in one phrase: effective cross cultural communication.
Recruitment in the 21st century is a cross-cultural phenomenon. Listen to the story that Jenny tells, for example. Jenny who works for a recruitment company has this to say: "I was interviewing Bob for a position here and everything about him was great. Wonderful credentials. Experience in the industry. Well travelled in the UK and USA. So we recruited him for the company. But he lasted 6 months in the new job. In Malaysia.
"What we didn’t take into account was the cultural factor. He went knowing only about Asia on two short trips as a tourist. In Malaysia as a production manager, he would pat workers on their heads whenever he felt jovial. Be directly critical to a Malaysian supervisor in front of the workers. But all these things we found out later and it was too late.
"As a recruitment agency, we didn’t do anything wrong - but our ignorance of the cultural issues cost us any future business with the same client. In money terms, our ignorance about cross-cultural issues cost the company something like $300,000 US dollars for the failed overseas assignment. Fortunately Joe was a single bloke. If he was married with two children, it would cost much more.”
The situation Jenny describes is an example of cross-cultural miscommunication on the part of Bob. Patting some younger person’s head may be used to communicate praise and man-to- man friendliness in an Australian context, but in multi-ethnic and multi-religious Malaysia, this is a gross violation of spiritual norms. The head is considered by Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists to be sacred.
Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia are examples of countries in Asia that are multi- cultural and require a good deal of inter-cultural sensitivity in doing business. Of particular significance is the issue of nepotism in hiring people in these places. Family and friendship 2 networks may be more important than credentials and performance in some places including China, India and Saudi Arabia.
There are many cultural barriers that exist as soon as we recruit people for cultures not their own. Culture shapes ninety percent of any human being’s behaviour. It is generally more unconscious than conscious and under stress, all human beings revert to their primary culture, that is to say, the culture that they have learnt in the first five years of their lives. When a person is hot, hungry and angry, he or she may revert to being a five-year-old and yell, displaying what is generally perceived as rude and unprofessional behaviour. In Chinese cultures (Singapore, China, Taiwan) and other Confucianist cultures such as Japanese, Vietnamese and Korean, this kind of behaviour on the part of a woman, will immediately destroy all respect for her.
Here we have a double whammy: gender and culture. Such behaviour is considered by the Asians to be distasteful even coming from a man, but a woman? It is worse. It is helpful to remember that in most parts of Asia, affirmative action does exist but community norms and perceptions regarding women are still more conservative than in Australia and the USA and take much longer to change.
Cultural barriers exist on another level given the global market place within which recruitment now occurs. Note for instance, an Australian is recruited for a company such as Jap Inc. Jap Inc has a corporate culture that is Japanese. How does an Australian manager cope with the rigid hierarchical values that permeate all Japanese corporations and their generic culture? How are these barriers manifested in overt behaviour?
The Australian culture intrinsically places all human beings equal and we pride ourselves on that. For instance, mateship is the most well known display of egalitarianism. Joe Blow, the factory hand, can have a beer with his CEO in the local pub, and share a few jokes and slaps on the back. They can even address each other by their first names. No Japanese or Korean will ever do this.
One can go on listing cultural barriers that exist between Australians and non-Australians but the following case study serves to illustrate how an apparently routine situation is laced with cultural issues. The following is a conversation between an interviewer and a potential candidate:
Recruiting interviewer: "Tell me about yourself?" Interviewee: "We do things differently sometimes but generally we take the proposal first to the managing director and then when he approves, we go to the client and that is when we believe we need to be very professional. We present a united front always, like a family.”
The interviewee (a Hindu Indian engineer) did not get the job and when she rang up to get some feedback, she was told that she did not speak about herself as an individual but used ‘we’ all the time. She came from a collectivistic culture and found it hard to talk about herself using the first person pronoun. This is easier with people who came from cultures which have individualistic values like Australia and the USA. The latter find it more comfortable to talk about their achievements as an individual.
3 Kit for recruiting across cultures
In order to recruit across cultures more effectively, it is useful to have a KIT. "K" stands for 'knowledge' of as many cultures as possible in the global marketplace. Even if you are just recruiting locally for the Australian workplace, the cross-cultural issues are still as important since we are a multi-cultural society now. Knowledge of the Asian communities in Melbourne for example, is as important as knowledge of China and India.
"I" stands for 'inter-cultural awareness'. Awareness is about attitude. It is dependent on your own mindset, and it is essentially about you, not them. When you receive knowledge and information about a cultural group that tells you that the other person is not only different but also shockingly so, do you judge that person as bad or mad? Or do you say with deep sincerity: he and I are different but that does not mean I am better/superior/nicer than him. So "I" stands for managing our attitude in terms of our prejudices, our dislikes and tolerance level in regards to differences.
"T" stands for tools, techniques and tactics. Once we get the "K" and "I" right, we need the "T" to cross cultures more effectively. Cross-cultural communication tools lie in two basic competencies; speaking and listening to the cultural nuances that inevitably exist in all cross- cultural encounters.
Much of recruitment activity is in speaking and listening to other people. In a recruitment situation when the person you are communicating to is culturally different from you, it is essential that you are able to hear beyond the accent for the message. The message is the content, the accent is the cultural factor.
Make sure you familiarise yourself with the person’s accent first before you get down to business talk. Use the beginning to talk about things that will relax both you and the other person since relaxation ensures active listening. When speaking across cultures, be sure to speak slower and use literal expressions rather than figurative ones.
Successful outcomes in recruitment as in all human activities require effective communication competencies. In a global marketplace, this is an art and a science worthy of mastering. Remember, speaking a language is only half the game – but effective communication always combines head and heart. That is the whole language in any culture.
Moni Lai Storz (PhD) is the Executive Consultant for Global Business Strategies Pty. Ltd. Global Business Strategies helps companies to bridge the cultural gap in order to capitalise on the shift in world economies. GBS offers a variety of executive training programs in Asian business cultures and cross-cultural communication skills including accelerated learning workshops in Chinese Mandarin, Indonesian, Vietnamese and Cantonese. She can be contacted on gbs002@ozemail.com.au or (613) 9809 2808 or www.gbstraining.com.
Moni Lai Storz
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