PAFF 6306 Public Personnel Management, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Master of Public Administration

1. PAFF 6306 Public Personnel Management
Summer 2016, Module Two
Master of Public Administration Graduate Program
E. Rey Garcia, MPA Candidate
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
8/8/2016
Employee Counseling Plan
Dealing with Cross-Cultural Differences in the Workplace

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Employee Counseling Plan
Dealing with Cross-Cultural Differences in the Workplace
(Week Seven Assignment)
By: E. Rey Garcia, MPA Candidate
Monday, August 8, 2016
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The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV)
The Graduate College
College of Liberal Arts
Public Affairs Department
Public Administration
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PAFF 6306: Public Personnel Management
Summer 2016, Module 2
Facilitator: John Milford
Revision 1.0

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Table of Contents
Abstract 7
Summary/Background 7
The Scenario 7
Resolving Difficult Employee Issues 8
Defining the Types of Employee Problems 8
Irresolvable Employee-to-Employee Problems 9
Emerging Context for Cross-Cultural Problems 9
Start and End with Assistance from the Human Resources Office 9
Discovering the Real Problem or Issue 9
Equity Theory 10
Working through Emotionally Charged Issues 10
Communicating to Resolve Issues 11
Moving Beyond the Issues 11
When to Use Human Resources in Troubleshooting Difficult Issues 12
Traditional Role of the HR Office in Troubleshooting Difficult Issues 12
Using Human Resources to Troubleshoot Difficult Issues in a Culturally Competent Organization 12
Setting the Stage for Using Human Resources as an Impartial Mediator 12
Using Human Resources as an Early Warning System 12
Which Legislation Applies? 13
Why did this Legislation Pass? 13
Analysis 14
Severity of the Problem 14
How many employees caused the problem? 14
Is this cultural competence problem where two individuals are misinterpreting the social/work cues? 15
What is the real problem and how does each individual contribute to the problem? 15
How do employees work through emotionally charged issues? 15
How can employees communicate to resolve issues? 16
How do employees move beyond the issues? 16
Final Recommendations 17
Five-Step Plan for Resolving Employee Differences 18
Implications, Solutions, and Workplace Values 20
Organizational Implications 20
Employee-Part of the Solution 21
Workplace Values 21
Resources 22

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Employee Counseling Plan
Dealing with Cross-Cultural Difference in the Workplace
E. Rey Garcia, MPA Candidate
Abstract
This scholarly research attempts to address the Human Resource topic of Employee
Counseling and dealing with Cross-Cultural differences in the workplace. It addresses the
subject of race and gender between two employees from different cultural backgrounds. The
analysis defines the role that the Human Resources department plays, including the
enforcing of policies and legislation as it applies, it defines the severity of the problem and
what measures are taken to resolve the differences. The concluding recommendations
outline the organizational framework and what implications are taken if the problem persists,
and what techniques are used to allow both employees to be part of the solution.
Summary/Background
The Scenario
The scenario is between two employees, Raquel and Onuka who work for the same
employer but have cultural differences which makes it socially awkward for both to have an
informal relationship or to communicate, limiting their work interaction. In this scenario, the
elements of cross-cultural differences of racial and gender differences crosses the line when
both are assigned to a project together. This causes tension between both when Raquel asks
Onuka for his share of the work, which causes them to miss their deadline. This grows into a
full-blown office fight where each feels righteous about their decision and each blames each

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other. Raquel feels she is being disrespected because she is a woman and Onuka feels that
Raquel does not like him because he is African.
What is the issue or what is the problem? - The issue is that of race and gender
differences between two employees. The problem is the disruption of the day-to-day
workflow by two employees from cultural backgrounds who refuse to work together.
What type of employee problem is it? - The type of employee problems is that of Cross-
Cultural differences between the two employees. According to Google Online Dictionary,
“cross culture is the interaction of people from different backgrounds in the business world.
Cross culture is a vital issue in international business, as the success of international trade
depends upon the smooth interaction of employees from different cultures and regions.”
Resolving Difficult Employee Issues: In order to resolve cultural differences between
employees, the problem must be defined. The origin must be used in determining the root of
the problem. Related legislation must be applied. The Human Resource office should be
involved to play an impartial role. Finally, discover the real problem/issue, deal with
emotional feelings, and communicate and move beyond the issue.
 Defining the Types of Employee Problems – There are two types of
organizational relationships that can be the cause of cross-cultural problems,
employee-to-employee and supervisor-employee relationships.
 Irresolvable Employee-to-Employee Problems – Most problems can be traced to
an incident or attitude that is rooted to the problem. The most common behavior is
employees mistreating each other.

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 Emerging Context for Cross-Cultural Problems – The passage of the Civil
Rights Act of 1964, is a part of legislation that outlawed discrimination based on
race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. The passage of this legislation has
opened work opportunities to minorities and women in the workplace.
 Start and End with Assistance from the Human Resource Office – Anytime
that there is a difference between employee that involves cultural differences, it
makes sense to get the Human Resources office involved. Most employee
differences are dealt with by HR since these problems are bound to the
organization’s policies and appeals process. The HR office enforces these policies
and takes disciplinary action if the employee(s) does not correct such behavior.
 Discovering the Real Problem or Issue – Many employee differences are related
to differences from a multicultural organization and cross-cultural relationships. A
useful framework for understanding human problems can best be seen through
equity theory, it assumes that employees seek to maintain an equitable ratio
between the inputs they bring to the relationship and the outcomes they receive from
it (Adams, 1965).

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Equity Theory involves two comparisons.
Oneself
Equals
Other
Inputs Inputs
Outcomes Outcomes
If an employee concludes that the comparison is equal, there are no problems. If the
employee senses that someone else is getting a similar reward for less effort or a
greater reward for similar effort, resulting in a sense of being treated unfairly.
 Working through Emotionally Charged Issues – These type of issues may arise
from the debate of societal issues that are often perceived as sensitive. Examples can
range but not limited to, political party affiliation, religious beliefs, same sex
marriage, and pro-choice rights. Organizational culture needs to promote openness
and to be mindful, listen, be empathetic, communicate, reinforce employee
relationships through solutions that seek to strengthen the organization.
Management must allow employees to have a voice, and to respect each other’s
boundaries. If the problem is seen as insolvable, the Human Resource office steps in
and remind employees of the consequences if policies are not followed and laws are
not obeyed. Policies are there to protect the rights of the employees and the interests
of the organization.

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 Communicating to Resolve Issues – Often one must be reminded what this
country is based on, Democracy or a government by the people. Organizational
policies work in a similar manner and serve as a means of employee awareness and
protection of their rights. Policies serve as instruments of the law, identifying the
consequences before the problem arises. The organizational culture needs to use
democracy as a tool to promote fairness and equality through policy, training, and
awareness. Employees must be treated with respect through the adaptation of an
organizational norm with zero tolerance for any form of discrimination.
 Moving Beyond the Issues – This step is aimed at managers and supervisors taking
the role of moving beyond and pass the issue at hand. It is a means of allowing
employees to resolve their differences. The best approach to use is the Problem-
Solution-Results (PSR), such approach has no author to give credit to. It extends
the statement of the problem to include a possible solution, including results for the
solution. Emotional competencies include awareness, self-control and being more
understanding, and allowing for collaboration as a measure to be used to resolve the
differences. Another method is the resilient approach, not letting emotions get in
the way, and be less impulsive and have more control, realistic, empathetic, and the
willingness to take on challenges.

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When to Use Human Resources in Troubleshooting Difficult Issues:
a. Traditional Role of the HR Office in Troubleshooting Difficult Issues – This role
is perceived to be less focused on cultural competence. Ensuring the due process for
employees.
b. Using Human Resources to Troubleshoot Difficult Issues in a Culturally
Competent Organization – The non-traditional role requires for more cultural
competence. This role sees the HR office as an informal partner in minimizing and
troubleshooting difficult issues and problems and requires both employees and managers
to participate in culturally competent training.
c. Setting the Stage for Using Human Resources as an Impartial Mediator – HR
serves the purpose of viewing the employee differences in a neutral less-biased approach,
where the organizational policies are the determining factor for the final outcome.
d. Using Human Resources as an Early Warning System – The HR office can use
tools like demographics to collect data on employee effectiveness. It can measure trends
and implications to flag potential issues that may need attention. Through employee
orientations and trainings, communicate to the organization the policies and the
disciplinary actions for not adhering to these policies.

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Which Legislation Applies? – The legislation that applies to this case is the Civil Rights
Act of 1964, Title II – Injunctive Relief Against Discrimination in Places of Public
Accommodation. This Act was amended by the Equal Employment Opportunity Act
(EEOC) of 1972. Prohibits employers with fifteen or more employees from discrimination
based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. (Retrieved from:
http://library.clerk.house.gov/reference-files/PPL_CivilRightsAct_1964.pdf).
Why did this Legislation Pass? – This legislation was passed to end segregation in public
places and banned employment discrimination, and is to this day, considered one of the
crowning legislative achievements of the civil rights movement. It was proposed first by
President John F., Kennedy, and survived strong opposition from southern members of
Congress, and was later signed into law by Lyndon B. Johnson, Kennedy’s successor.
(Retrieved from http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/civil-rights-act).
Terms: (by Google Online Dictionary)
 Cultural Competence – A set of congruent behaviors, attitudes, and policies that
come together in a system, agency or among professionals and enable that system,
agency or those professions to work effectively in cross-cultural situations.
 Cross-Cultural Competence – Refers to the knowledge, skills, and
affect/motivation that enable individuals to adapt effectively in cross-cultural
environments.

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Analysis
The purpose of this analysis is to emphasize the severity of this problem in the workplace
and what measures employers can take to educate current employees and new hires on the
significance of adhering to the organizational policies and the legislation that protects all
employees and the interests of the employer. The Human Resources office must
continuously promote cultural competence through education, knowledge, skill and
motivation, which enables employees to adapt effectively to cross-cultural differences.
Severity of the Problem: If the employer allows cross-cultural differences based on gender
and race to go unnoticed, it creates a work environment filled with hostility, hindering the
day-to-day workflow and affecting employee motivation and the overall organizational moral
up to the administration. Policies must be current with the legislation and employees must
be trained on the disciplinary actions that the Human Resources office will take if employees
do not follow to the organizational policies, which are there to protect both the employees
and the organization.
How many employees caused the problem? Both employees, Raquel and Onuka, were
equally to blame for the problem. Perhaps the problem should have been addressed by the
Human Resource office at an early stage. It is obvious that these two employees did not
work well together and for management to try and make them work on a project together
without first addressing the cross-cultural differences at hand, is ludicrous. The total number
involved is two staff employees, plus one HR staff member and the Department Head or
manager for whom Raquel and Onuka report to, making the total number of employees
involved in the cause of the problem: Four Employees.

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Is this cultural competence problem where two individuals are misinterpreting the
social/work cues? Yes, if two individuals are not trained on the organization’s views on
cultural competence, and the policies that apply, a misinterpretation of the social/work cues
will exist until it is addressed by management and the HR office.
What is the real problem and how does each individual contribute to the problem?
The real problem is the lack of employee-to-employee relationship. If an organization does
not promote teamwork, employees lack the knowledge, skill and motivation to share ideas,
common in a team environment. Employees must see the benefits of shared-knowledge and
see it as an opportunity to learn from one another. By working together, employees become
comfortable working together and learn from one another’s diverse cultural backgrounds,
allowing for a more tolerant work environment.
How do employers work through emotionally charged issues? The following
commonalities are methods that managers use to work through emotionally charged issues.
These include:
1) Be mindful that emotional employees will create an emotional state in the manager.
2) Do not feed the intensity of the emotion by trying to suppress the emotion.
3) Bleed off the energy by listening dispassionately.
4) Be empathetic and acknowledge that the issue is important to the employee and that
the manager understands that the employee is upset.
5) Communicate that the employee is a member of a team.
6) Once a common ground is reached, facilitate a discussion to determine the origin of
the problem.

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7) Once parameters have been discussed, ask the employee(s) to help solve the
problem. This reinforces a good working relationship and promotes teamwork. By
asking the employee to be part of the solution reinforces the working relationships,
giving the employee a voice in the solution. The solution should strengthen the
teamwork of the organization. And most employees want a positive solution once
they have been heard.
8) Employees want to be heard and once the manager has listened, there is great
willingness to move beyond the issue.
9) The manager must willingly treat employee complaints seriously. How management
handles the issue will spread through the informal and social network.
10) The manager must be ready to involved the Human Resource office when unable to
resolve the issue at the department level.
How can employers communicate to resolve issues? Employers can communicate
before the problem exists, through orientation, trainings, group discussions, department
meetings, inter-office email and messaging, and policies and by continuously collecting
demographics information and data from employees to see if the methods in place for
communicating with the employees is effectively promoting cultural competence and
addressing the issues before they arise.
How do employers move beyond the issues? Employers can move beyond the issue
when a common ground is met between both employees and their differences have been
heard by the manager. This is when a willingness to move forward and this is the time to
effectively promote the primary focus is about the organizational teamwork and the success
of the team.

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Final Recommendations
To resolve or minimize cross-culture differences or conflicts between employees in the
workplace starts with developing a plan for resolving the employee problems. Before
developing such a plan, it is important to point out cultural differences in negotiations that
tend to occur for two main reasons, stereotypical behavior and misinterpretation of the
others’ behaviors.
 First, we often rely on stereotypes, which are often pejorative and can distort the
expectations characterized by behavior and misinterpretations. Rather than relying
on stereotypes, the employer needs to educate the employees to focus on
prototypes, or cultural averages on dimensions of behavior or values. For example,
it is commonly understood that Japanese negotiators tend to have more silent
periods during a negotiation process. Furthermore, if the negotiator is Japanese and
especially quiet, awareness of cultural porotypes can help one anticipate and interpret
the bargaining behavior.
 Second, we tend to misinterpret others’ behaviors, values, and beliefs by
interpreting them through the lens of our own culture. Employers need to educate
employees on learning about each other diversified differences and their customs,
behaviors, and the reasons why people exhibit such behaviors, help better
understand and accept the differences which make our culture rich and unique.
(Retrieved from http://www.pon.harvard.edu/daily/conflict-resolution/a-cross-
cultural-negotiation-example-how-to-overcome-cultural-barriers/).

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Five-Step Plan for ResolvingEmployee Differences
According to the American Management Association (AMA), there are five effective steps to
dealing with conflict resolution that employers should follow when dealing with conflict in
the workplace. By adapting the following steps, organizations address the different
personalities, goals, and opinions from employees, allowing for efficient conflict resolution.
The key is not to prevent it from hindering employees’ professional career development.
Step 1: Identify the source of the conflict.
Managers and HR staff must gather as much information about the cause of the conflict.
The more information, the easier to resolve it. Gather information through a series of
questions to identify the cause, for example, “When did the employee first feel upset?”
“What is the relationship between that and this incident?” “How did this incident begin?”
Both parties must be given and equal chance to share their side of the story. It will give the
manager and HR staff a better understanding of the situation, as well as demonstrate a non-
biased impartiality to the situation. Employers must listen to each disputant, say, “Isee” or
“uh huh” to acknowledge the information and encourage them to continue to open up.
Step 2: Look beyond the incident.
Often, it is not the situation but the perspective on the situation that causes anger to fester
and ultimately leads to a shouting match or other visible—and disruptive—evidence of a
conflict.

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The root cause of the conflict might be a minor problem that occurred months before, but
the level of stress has grown to the point where the two parties have begun attacking each
other personally instead of addressing the real problem. Asking probing questions will help,
for example, “What do you think happened here?” or “When do you think the problem
between you first arose?”
Step 3: Request solutions.
After getting each party’s viewpoint on the conflict, the next step is to get each to identify
how the situation could be changed. Again, question the parties to solicit their ideas: “How
can you make things better between you?”
Managers and HR staff have to be active listeners, aware of every verbal nuance, as well as
a good reader of body language.
Just listen. The key is to get the disputants to stop fighting and start cooperating, and that
means steering the discussion away from finger pointing and toward ways of resolving the
conflict.
Step 4: Identify solutions both disputants can support.
Listen for the most acceptable course of action. Point out the merits of various ideas, not
only from each other’s perspective, but in terms of the benefits to the organization. (For
instance, managers and HR staff might point out the need for greater cooperation and
collaboration to effectively address team issues and departmental problems.)

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Step 5: Agreement.
The manager and HR staff needs to get the two parties to shake hands and agree to one of
the alternativesidentified in Step 4. Perhaps consider writing up a signed contract in which
actions and time frames are specified. However, it might be sufficient to meet with the
individuals and have them answer these questions: “What action plans will you both put in
place to prevent conflicts from arising in the future?” and “What will you do if problems
arise in the future?”
(Retrieved from http://www.amanet.org/training/articles/The-Five-Steps-to-Conflict-
Resolution.aspx).
Implications, Solutions and WorkplaceValues
When dealing with employee problems, the Human Resources office need to establish
policies outlining the implications to the organization if the policy is not followed. Employee
problems should include solutions by both parties and recognize the workplace values that
motivates the employees to do their job and do it well.
 Organizational Implications: By employers and the HR office not addressing
cultural differences, the implications can lead to employees mistreating each other,
disrupting the workflow, hindering employee professional growth, lack of motivation
and distrust of management. The implications can lead to low employee morale and
can lead to financial burden caused by employees not caring for their job to legal
implications such as discrimination law suites.

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 Employee – Part of the Solution: By allowing employees to have a voice and be
part of the solution, the manager and HR office will see a willingness by the
employees to move beyond the issue. As the employees reach a common ground,
they feel they are part of the solution. This increases management’s credibilityand
ethical principles, while addressing the employees’ workplace values.
 Workplace Values: The guiding principles that are most important to an employee
about the way that he or she does the work. These deeply held principles to choose
between right and wrong ways of working, and they help employees make important
decisions and career choices. (Retrieved from
https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/understanding-workplace-values.htm).
By adapting a plan for addressing employee cross-cultural differences, both employees and
employers will have the peace of mind that differences will not get in way of production.
Employee differences can be seen as part diverse creative team of employees working,
sharing and learning from one another. All part of a diversified culturallycompetent
organization.

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Resources
 Borrego, E., & Johnson, R. G., III. (2012). Cultural Competence for Public
Managers. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
 The Five Steps to Conflict Resolution. (n.d.). Retrieved August 08, 2016, from
http://www.amanet.org/training/articles/The-Five-Steps-to-Conflict-
Resolution.aspx
 History.com Staff. (2010). CivilRights Act. Retrieved August 08, 2016, from
http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/civil-rights-act
 How to Resolve Cultural Conflict: Overcoming Cultural Barriers at the Negotiation
Table - PON - Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School. (2016). Retrieved
August 08, 2016, from http://www.pon.harvard.edu/daily/conflict-resolution/a-
cross-cultural-negotiation-example-how-to-overcome-cultural-barriers
 Klingner, D. E., Nalbandian, J., & Llorens, J. (2010). Public Personnel Management:
Social Equity and Diversity Management (6th ed., p. 161). New York: Longman.
 Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives Library. (n.d.). Retrieved
August 08, 2016, from http://library.clerk.house.gov/reference-
files/PPL_CivilRightsAct_1964.pdf
 Understanding Workplace Values: Finding the Best Cultural Fit. (n.d.). Retrieved
August 08, 2016, from https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/understanding-
workplace-values.htm