Culture@Work
Welcome! My name is Joost Thissen and I am an Interculturalist. Here I share columns and insights for those of us who work in culturally diverse and global workplaces.
Welcome! My name is Joost Thissen and I am an Interculturalist. Here I share columns and insights for those of us who work in culturally diverse and global workplaces.
Rather than fitting in, expatriats should prepare for readiness: reflect on personal traits and develop the level of cultural competence to be able to better manage the complexities of cultural challenges.
CULTURAL COLUMN – About an International Sales Manager who got stuck in the honeymoon phase: why Culture shock can help to recognise cultural differences and provides opportunities to develop cultural competence to close the cultural gaps.
CULTURAL COLUMN – Recognising that staff, clients or partners might differ in skin colour, race, religion, accents and language fluency is not enough information on which to design an effective intercultural training program.
CULTURAL COLUMN – Cultural differences cannot be summarised as a magic list of “Do’s and Don’ts at work”. It can actually cost you business and your integrity – often without your knowledge. Investing in exploring the underlying drivers to cultural behaviour will have the leading edge.
CULTURAL COLUMN – Relatedness is a must for effective information sharing in high performing global teams, and cultural factors can negatively impact different expectations of team members.
CULTURAL COLUMN. Strategies to deal with culture at work: to accommodate, to avoid, to dominate, to compromise or to synergies to overcome cultural challenges.
CULTURAL COLUMN – To benefit from cultural diversity, multicultural organisations invest in developing intercultural competence: it prevents staff turnover and communication breakdown.
CULTURAL COLUMN – Humour is culturally influenced and you better be aware of it before using your favourite joke. It might just cost you the deal…
CULTURAL COLUMN – The way we perceive time is part of our cultural programming. Dealing with people at work who have a preference for a different approach to time can make us feel uneasy and frustrated.
CULTURAL COLUMN – Successful knowledge transfer across cultures will need to take culturally diverse learning styles across countries and cultures and personalities into consideration.