Cultural diversity management in a New Zealand coal mining company

Globalization represents a phenomenon that is responsible for many people being exposed to new cultures. In today's global economy, many people often take job opportunities overseas and find themselves in an entirely new culture. Sometimes people can be exposed to culture shock if the culture is too alien to them. This analysis conducts an interview with a HR manager in New Zealand and asks him many questions related to his perceptions of culture. His responses demonstrate the affect that culture can have on an organization and its employees. In fact, his company is actually implementing a cultural training program to help individuals understand each other. Following the transcript, there is a literature review and short discussion related to culture. Understanding differences in cultural preferences and the role they play can help to mitigate any conflicts that might occur out of cultural misunderstandings.

Introduction

Thomas Silva is the HR manager of the organization. The organization is engaged in coal mining operations in New Zealand and Mr. Silva is from New Zealand originally; although he has worked in Australia as well. The company extracts coal from three open cast mines at present and the majority of the coal that is extracted is either exported or sent for thermal power generation. Mr. Silva is in overall in charge of all the human resource related issues of the company. The company employs people from multiple countries that include Indonesia and Australia.

Interview of Mr. Thomas Silva

Question: what is the exact nature of your job?

Answer: My job involves taking care all the human resource related issues of the company. The job involves interviewing new candidates, setting up the entire interview process, recruiting people, managing leaves and holidays, managing salaries, perks and incentives according to company policy, managing conflicts that can arise among the staff and the employees, conveying and explaining company policies and changes in polices to employees from time to time, communicating in a number of easy with the employees about company decisions and taking care of all issues that the company delegates me and my team to handle related to employees.

Question: What is the general mix of employees in the company with respect to nationalities?

Answer: even though our primary operations are based in New Zealand, we employ people from more than one country. For our present projects, the majority of the employees are from New Zealand. However we also have almost a similar number of employees from Australia and Indonesia. There are 50 employees from New Zealand, 20 from Australia and 10 from Indonesia. Apart from this there just a handful are from other countries.

Question: What are the problems that you as a HR manager have to face when interacting with people from another country? Is language the only hindrance to communication?

Answer: No there are a lot of other issues apart from language that I have to encounter while I interact with employees, that I have to do very often and forms my core job responsibility. Such issues are often related to the way people from another country. People from another country react to a situation in ways that are different from what I am used to here. In the initial days of my dealing with employees from another country, I could not understand why people used to react in a different manner. For example, some of the people from Asian countries often got irritated if I asked them about their personal lives and what they do after work. These questions actually help a human resources manager to know an employee and his nature which further helps in framing policies suitable for employees. But I was taken aback by some of the reactions I got from employees of other countries. There is also a considerable difference in the preferences, for example, in recreational choices after work or building up ties and relations with other employees. There were also issues with foreign employees regarding the attitude of some of the colleagues while they were at work. When I inquired into the details of such complaints, I invariably found that they were trivial and often silly matters.

Question: Why do you think employees from foreign countries react in a way that is different to what you are used to?

Answer: from my learning and experience of working with people from other countries, I believe that the cultural difference between people of two countries often is the result of this different behavior. It all depends in the culture and the atmosphere that an individual is brought up in. Such cultures leave a significant influence on an individual and shapes the way that individual reacts and behaves in different situations.

Question: What are the problems that can arise or does arise when people from different cultures work together?

Answers: inability to understand why and how an individual reacts to different situations can lead to misunderstandings which can result in conflicts between individuals. While this is true for people in general, this is widely applicable for co-workers, especially in an organization like ours where there needs to be coordinated work where more than one person does a job. Misunderstandings between colleagues can lead to conflict and create sour relations between them which can hamper the job at hand and ultimately hamper efficiency and output.

Question: what are the steps that you have taken to mitigate this issue or at least reduce it?

Answer: On a personal level, I try and understand the reason behind an employee's reaction and try to understand the cultural reasons behind the action. I also try and do some reading about cultures from other countries to better understand the culture and relate them to the way the employees react. As for the employees themselves, we have designed crash courses on various aspects of foreign culture. At present we are focusing on understanding Indonesian culture and trying to impress the same to the Australian employees. Conversely we are also organizing interactive sessions with the Indonesian employee to make them understand about New Zealand cultures. We promote greater interaction between the employees and have taken up certain programs after work hours to allow the employees to better mingle with each other and understand each other.

THNK YOU FOR YOUR TIME & TAKING MY QUESTIONS

Table

Culture(s)

% of hours in Context during week

Knowledge

Identification

Internalization

Number of Ties

Strength of ties

Time spent in culture

Culture 1

10 (Indonesia)

15

10

10

10

15

10

Culture 2

70 (New Zealand)

70

70

70

70

70

70

Culture 3

20 (Australia)

15

20

20

20

15

20

Analysis

The feelings of confusion and uncertainty that an individual would experience when that individual interacts with or simply comes into contact with a culture that one is not used to is termed as cultural shock.

Cultural shock is a result of things that are done differently in life by a large section of people from what one is used to doing or witnessing and hence such act seem alien or completely unknown to one.

Such feelings resulting from being placed in an environment of an alien culture can be experienced by students who go abroad for studies or professionals who go outside of their known cultural area to work as well as for immigrants and refugees (Aarkrog and Jorgensen, 2008).

Feelings of cultural shock can have several dimensions like feelings of alienation, confusion, surprise, etc. These are felt by an individual when that individual is encounters unfamiliar surroundings or may be a new city that is unknown or a community which that individual has never before encountered. Such feelings can also result from interactions with individuals from another culture and the interpersonal interactions can involve behaviors and values that are different from those engrained by the individual within his/her own culture of the culture that he/she has been brought up in (Bochner, 2003).

When one is encountered with a foreign culture the initial reaction or feelings that are associated include surprise and anxiety after becoming aware of cultural differences which lead to a feeling of uncertainty of how to accomplish tasks in a new environment. Very often it takes time to understand what is appropriate and what is inappropriate in the new culture and till that time these feelings get accentuated. Every culture has its own set of values and behaviors that re expected to be shown by people and deemed to be proper. For an individual in a new culture, there is often a feeling of confusion in the roles and expectations and values as demanded by the culture which leads to feelings of being strained due to the effort required to make necessary psychological adaptations to adapt to the requirements of the new culture. In some situations, a prolongation of these feeling can lead to anger and even hostility towards the new culture or members in the culture. It can also lead to increased criticism and rejection of new culture.

The feelings of a cultural shock assume importance for employees and workers who go to work in a new country. In the modern globalised economy, the rising number of multinational companies is testimony to the growing trend of employing people from multiple countries to work together. Such employees coming from different countries carry with them the culture, values and behavioral attitudes with them to the new work place (Culture shock, 2013). In cases where the culture and the atmosphere in the place of work is different, the employees who come from a foreign culture have a cultural shock. This is also true for the local people who also find the foreign employees and their cultures alien and often completely different from what they are used to.

When we visited the coal mining company, we witnessed a mini cultural shock that the employees were facing there. This was also evident from the interview of Mr. Thomas Silva that there is a problem of cultural difference between the employees. The employees from Indonesia have a culture that is completely different from that of the New Zealand employees and the local culture (Culture shock, 2013).

This is also what we experienced when we interacted and encountered while we visited a mine of the company and interacted with the employees there to understand more about the problems that can crop up due to cultural differences. While we were used to the Australian culture, the way of the Indonesian employees were different from what we were used to. We discussed and interacted with a group of employees after their shift was over as suggested and identified by Mr. Thomas. The group included employees who were of New Zealand as well as of Indonesian origin. We noticed striking differences in the behaviors and values in the two communities (Culture shock, 2013).

During the interactions, we were treated with both tea and coffee along with some beer. While the most of the New Zealand employees preferred either coffee or beer, the Indonesian employees preferred to have tea. The way we were greeted by both the communities was also different. While the New Zealand employees greeted us by a bear hug and a strong handshake, some of the Indonesian employees greeted us with folded hands while others were relatively mild with their handshaking. As we knew, the New Zealand culture is to speak out loud and assertive, the Indonesian employees said the same things in a lighter manner and subdued tone. We were also informed that while most of the New Zealand workers preferred to either play a round of golf or spend time at the local pub after work, most of the Indonesian employees preferred to gather in groups and spend time chatting away or getting into an activity together.

One of the more significant difference in the cultures of the two communities that we witnessed at the gathering was that the Indonesian employees were keener on developing a relationship with us through understanding our culture and knowing about what we do and what our plans were and o the details about our lives. On the other hand the New Zealand employees too were keen to strike a chord with us but in a different manner. They invited us to have a game of pool and intended to chat up with us (Glick, 2002).

While initially this seemed quite odd to us, we later understood that the way the Indonesian employees react in various situations was different from the New Zealand ways of life and culture that we were more familiar about. =while initially we could no were also a little taken aback by the questions of the Indonesian employees about our lives and careers, we later understood that this was their way and culture to strike a chord with unknown people.

This was an enriching experience for us as we understood what cultural difference was and how it worked. We also realized that it was important to understand the reasons behind actions of people who belong to a different culture and understand the motive behind their actions.

Cross-cultural analyses of the experience

The term "culture" refers to the complex accumulation of knowledge, folklore, language, rules, rituals, habits, lifestyles, attitudes, beliefs, and customs that link and provide a general identity to a group of people. Culture takes a long time to build up it may take generations to develop. So, it becomes very difficult to move to some other country and communicate with that culture in proper way in the new culture. Without proper communication people can't join a developing group or take part in development or even in jobs that requires a coordinated effort (Harrison, Chadwick and Scales, 1996).

While dealing with cultural difference often people faced with a mini cultural shock have a feeling being lost in a new environment due to exposure to new foods, languages, and climate.

Research in to cultural differences has identified three basic stages in cultural shock and subsequent adjustments to the foreign culture.

The first period is termed as the Honeymoon Period. This is the time when one enters a new cultural environment and the first few days that are spent in the new culture. Several researches have shown that during this period there is generally a feeling of fascination with the new environment and new culture and a growing excitement that is the result of experiencing new fashion, food and social customs (JOHNSON and CERRETO, 1975). When people are placed in a new culture there are also tendencies in the initial period to make new discoveries and new observations about the new culture and the cultural environment which gives rise to a pleasant anticipation.

However as time passes and after the initial euphoria about the new culture, the second phase is the frustration period where individuals tend to get frustrated due to not understanding the language or gestures and the customs of the new culture accentuated by the growing difficulties understanding local culture and norms and traditions. Often this is not a one way feeling and the members of the local culture can feel the same way about a foreigner. This can lead to foreigners being left out where people in a new culture can develop feelings of being misunderstood or left out of the community. There would be homesickness and the initial excitement and the eagerness that accompanied the first contact with a foreign culture could be lost or get faded away. In such situations people can begin to idealizing their own culture and the ways and behaviors and values of the home culture (Lawler, 1988).

While one feels frustrated one still realizes that they have to spend some time in the new culture and then begins the phase where they develop feelings and actions that are associated with the understanding of the new culture. At this stage individuals feel less homesick and become more comfortable with the culture, people and the food of the host country. This creates an understanding what that individual likes and enjoys about the new environment and the realization that it is okay to make mistakes as one transitions into a new environment. This helps in the individual to begin to feel more comfortable in the new surroundings.

Following the understanding stage, an individual gets acclimatized with the new culture and the ways and values of the new culture. This stage allows individuals to objectively compare the host country with the home country which allows for better coping with things that initially frustrated the individual until one begins to feel less like a foreigner (Proctor, Nof and Yih, 2012).

This is the framework that individuals and groups use to get used to a new culture -- especially when that new culture means job.

During the short interaction with the employees at the mine of the company, we underwent at least some of the stages mentioned above. After the initial interest and the eagerness to meet people from a different culture there was a level of frustration among us as we were unable to completely understand the language and the gestures that the Indonesian employees were making while they attempted to communicate with us. At one point in time a few of us were contemplating moving over to the New Zealand employees as we were more comfortable with the language and the culture.

However after the a certain period of time, there was an effort on both sides -- us and the Indonesian employees, to try and understand each other better and after the initial hick ups we began to understand the language and the gestures being made by them better. I believe that the Indonesian employees too felt the same way. Soon enough were at home with the foreign employees of the company and did not feel much of a difference with them even though they belonged to a different culture and were used to a culture which was completely different from what we are used to. This is what we later realized was cross cultural adjustment that we managed to achieve.

The degree of psychological comfort an expatriate has with the various aspects of a host culture is often referred to a cross-cultural adjustment. This consists of overcoming or reducing the uncertainty associated with a foreign culture and as that happens one begins to develop a level of comfort and this can be achieved through the learning of behaviors which are deemed to be appropriate in the new culture and those behaviors and values which are not.