Culture@Work
Welcome! My name is Joost Thissen and I am an Interculturalist. Here I share intercultural 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 intercultural insights for those of us who work in culturally diverse and global workplaces.
CULTURAL COLUMN – The concept of ‘Face’ is differently understood across cultures. Being able to effectively practice ‘saving Face’ and raising people’s social standing and self worth seems to produce much better long-term business outcomes across cultures.
CULTURAL COLUMN – organisations need to invest in building and maintaining high levels of trust in cross cultural business as this correlates positively with innovation, competitive advantage, support for change and increased productivity.
IN THE NEWS – In this enlightening article, Diego Gilardoni shows that the relationship between the UK and the EU was always meant to be turbulent, and the fact that, for decades, the Brits have been a torn in the side of the European project reflects a distinct set of cultural values that is at odds with that of the big European powers such as Germany and France.
IN THE NEWS – Geert Hofstede, professor emeritus of Organizational Anthropology and International Management sadly passed away on 12 February 2020 at the age of 91.
CULTURAL COLUMN – Bicultural competent professionals deliver a competitive edge in culturally diverse and global work situation.
CULTURAL COLUMN – Different cultures have very different ideas as to how rules, morals, and laws should be applied causing much cross-cultural surprise, confusion and frustration.
INDUSTRY BRIEFING – we look at the Finance, Education, Health and Age Care Industries and explore challenges and identify experiences to understand the impact of cultural differences in each industry. We propose interventions and solutions to solve the cultural problems.
CULTURAL COLUMN – Managers of culturally diverse teams need intercultural leadership skills to understand the differences in expectations from egalitarian and hierarchical cultures and the impact on preferred management style.
CULTURAL COLUMN – We need to identify the skills and competencies that make the difference between a translator and a culturally competent translator.
CULTURAL COLUMN – The bamboo or cultural ceiling are seen as the barriers that keep those of Asian and other cultural background away from the highest levels of leadership in business and the law. A higher than average turn over of culturally diverse staff seems to be the high price to pay.