Multicultural individuals can bring several benefits to global organizations. They can help build cohesion on multicultural teams, bring creativity and innovation, and positively influence intercultural negotiations. However, for organizations to fully leverage these benefits, they need to develop a culture that values multiculturalism, recruit and place multicultural individuals strategically, and provide training to help close skills gaps between mono- and multi-cultural employees.

1. Multicultural
Individuals:
What Can They Bring to
Global Organizations?
(Fitzsimmons, Miska, Stahl)
CROSS CULTURAL MANAGEMENT – 19.12.2013
Emilie BONTANT, Florence GIORNI, Margareta HEIDT, Kerstin
KNOBLOCH

2. Multicultural
Individuals:
What Can They Bring to
Global Organizations?
Impact of
Multicultural
Individuals
Global
Organizations
and
Multicultural
Individuals
(Fitzsimmons, Miska, Stahl)
AGENDA
Managing a
Global
Workforce
Conclusion
Types of
Multicultural
Individuals

3. Multicultural individuals: What can
they bring to global organizations ?
• Global organizations
•
•
•
•
•
•
an international alliance involving many different countries
technology, mobility, different cultures
multicultural individuals = multitalented
more than one culture has been internalized
cultural awarness and knowledge
for corporations, it is a ressource not optimized nowadays
19.12.2013
Emilie BONTANT, Florence GIORNI, Margareta HEIDT, Kerstin KNOBLOCH
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4. Multicultural individuals: What can
they bring to global organizations ?
• INDRA NOOYI
• CARLOS GHOSN
• CEO and Chair for Pepsico
• shaped Pepsico as a global company
→ derive benefits from employees who have diverse
cultures
19.12.2013
• President and CEO of Renault and Nissan
• Brazillian – Lebanese – French – Japanese – English
• Dongfeng Motor → Dongfeng Renault Automotive Co
Emilie BONTANT, Florence GIORNI, Margareta HEIDT, Kerstin KNOBLOCH
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5. How can multicultural employees
contribute to global businesses ?
• Multiculturals' impact on teams
Multicultural individuals to build cohesion
• divisions within a groups or faultline :
• often develop along cultural lines, promoting
disharmony, dissatisfaction, poor performance
• avoid factions based on nationality → multicultural
individuals
• to bridge fautlines through language, general
knowledge, by explaining the opposing subgroups'
behavior
• VS intergroup hostility and stereotyping
19.12.2013
• Multicultural teams bring creativity and
innovation
• to speed up the process of tapping diverse perspectives
• multicultural teams take longer to performe tasks :
differences
• multicultural individuals is a key to avoid conflicts
within a global team
Emilie BONTANT, Florence GIORNI, Margareta HEIDT, Kerstin KNOBLOCH
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6. How can multicultural employees
contribute to global businesses ?
• Multiculturals' impact on intercultural negociations
•
•
•
•
•
several ways to improve negociations
maximizing individuals objectives – common goals
to know counterparts' goals, expectations, negociation strategies
monocultural individuals can see dissimilarities and obstacles
creative bargaining solutions
perspective-takings : the ability to consider the world from another person's viewpoint
• pleasant communication experience, trust and respect
multiple perspectives → creativity → joint gains
• multicultural individuals : able to take both perspectives, positively influence their negociation partners' communication
experience
19.12.2013
Emilie BONTANT, Florence GIORNI, Margareta HEIDT, Kerstin KNOBLOCH
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7. How can multicultural employees
contribute to global businesses ?
• Multicultural‘s impact on teams
Multicultural individuals to build cohesion
• divisions within a groups or faultline :
• often develop along cultural lines, promoting
disharmony, dissatisfaction, poor performance
• avoid factions based on nationality → multicultural
individuals
• to bridge fautlines through language, general
knowledge, by explaining the opposing subgroups'
behavior
• VS intergroup hostility and stereotyping
19.12.2013
• Multicultural teams bring creativity and
innovation
• to speed up the process of tapping diverse perspectives
• multicultural teams take longer to performe tasks :
differences
• multicultural individuals is a key to avoid conflicts
within a global team
Emilie BONTANT, Florence GIORNI, Margareta HEIDT, Kerstin KNOBLOCH
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8. How can multicultural employees
contribute to global businesses ?
Multiculturals' impact on intercultural negociations
• several ways to improve negociations
• maximizing individuals objectives – common goals
• to know counterparts' goals, expectations, negociation strategies
• monocultural individuals can see dissimilarities and obstacles
• creative bargaining solutions
perspective-takings : the ability to consider the world from another person's viewpoint
• pleasant communication experience, trust and respect
multiple perspectives → creativity → joint gains
• multicultural individuals : able to take both perspectives, positively influence their negociation
partners' communication experience
19.12.2013
Emilie BONTANT, Florence GIORNI, Margareta HEIDT, Kerstin KNOBLOCH
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9. How can multicultural employees
contribute to global businesses?
• Multiculturals’ Impact on Expatriation
BUT:
Hearts
at home
• Problem: International job rotations and
internationals assignments
Multiculturals individuals:
 More successfull in international assignments
 Experience managing two or more conflicting identies
 Higher cultural metacognition
Cultural metacognition:
Tendency to reflect on one’s cultural assumptions when preparing,
monitoring, and learning from intercultural interactions
 Essential für international assignments
19.12.2013
Dual
citizens
Dual
Allegiance
Dilemma
Gone
native
Free
agents
DANGER !
Emilie BONTANT, Florence GIORNI, Margareta HEIDT, Kerstin KNOBLOCH
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10. How can multicultural employees
contribute to global businesses ?
• Multiculturals’ Impact on Ethics and Leadership
Problem: Use or adopt ethical principles?
Perspectives of ethical argumentation
Ethical
Universalism
Ethical
Relativsm
Multiculturals individuals:
 able to reconcile these conflicting perspectives
 ability to see complex situations from multiple perspectives
 able to balance global consistency and local sensitivity in ethical decision making
19.12.2013
Emilie BONTANT, Florence GIORNI, Margareta HEIDT, Kerstin KNOBLOCH
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11. How can multicultural employees
contribute to global businesses?
• Multiculturals’ Impact on Cross-Border Alliances, M&A
Problem: Integrating the different cultures and workforces of different countries
Cultural Due dilligence process
Multiculturals individuals:
• To evaluate factors influencing
the organizational fit
• To understand future cultural
dynamics
 Greater cultural empathy
 Perspective-taking skills
 Ability to bridge cultural gaps
Conflict about the degree of
interdependence and intergration
19.12.2013
= TRANSITION TEAMS to facilitate
integration process
Emilie BONTANT, Florence GIORNI, Margareta HEIDT, Kerstin KNOBLOCH
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12. Types of Multicultural Individuals
• Marginals
„It would be better to be a
full-blooded Indian or fullblooded Caucasion. But
being a half-breed, well,
there‘s just nothing there.“
• Cosmopolitans
„When you are an outsider
and you cannot be
categorized into one
culture, it makes people
feel that you are unlikely
to be biased.“
• have more than one culture, but feel disassociated with
both or all of them
• Feel free to choose actvities that are unconventional to
both cultures  in-depth knowledge, but detached
from the cultures they represent  able to make
unpopular decisions (layoffs, pay cuts, etc.) in a
culturally appropriate manner.
• identify with many cultures, are usually frequent
travelers, and have lived in several different countries
• Tend to do well psychologically, with evidence of highadaptability and complex thinking
• Resilient to identity threats  able to switch identities
momentarily
At risk of becoming free agents
Weakly linked to both parent and local organizations
At risk of becoming free agents
Identify strongly with a global identity
19.12.2013
Emilie BONTANT, Florence GIORNI, Margareta HEIDT, Kerstin KNOBLOCH
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13. Types of Multicultural Individuals
• Separated
„I‘ve definitely become
more assertive… It really
was critical to have that
Western vs. Eastern aspect,
and still feel like I never had
to change who I am.“
• Keep their cultural identities apart and identify with one
or the other depending on the context
• Higher levels of cognitive complexity ( time spend
switching back and forth between cultural lenses)
• Most likely to take on either the hearts-at-home or gonenative positions
• Integrated
„I could never claim to be
Chinese at the core. Yet
neither would I claim, as if
by default, to be merely
‚white inside‘. I do not
want to be white. I only
want to be integrated.“
• Merge their cultures together, resulting in a new, hybrid
culture
• Benefits: lower stress, better social integration across
cultures, and more creativity (comp. to separated ind.)
• Most likely to become dual citizens and have bigger
creative potential
Both identify with two cultures, although they mentally organize those cultures differently
Frame-switching increases their experience seeing the world from more than one perspective
19.12.2013
Emilie BONTANT, Florence GIORNI, Margareta HEIDT, Kerstin KNOBLOCH
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14. Managing a Multicultural Workforce
• The Organizational Implications Pyramid
19.12.2013
Emilie BONTANT, Florence GIORNI, Margareta HEIDT, Kerstin KNOBLOCH
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15. Managing a Multicultural Workforce
• The Organizational Implications Pyramid
19.12.2013
Organizational Culture Development
• Value multiple cultures to benefit from cultural diversity
• If not, risk = suppress employees' multicultural identities
and the skills and abilities that emerge from being
multicultural
Visible signs that the company values employees with
multicultural background
Shape the organizational culture towards one that values
multiculturalism
Provide the necessary context to leverage
multiculturals’ potential.
Simply hiring multicultural is not enough !
Emilie BONTANT, Florence GIORNI, Margareta HEIDT, Kerstin KNOBLOCH
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16. Managing a Multicultural Workforce
• The Organizational Implications Pyramid
Recruiting and Placement
• Develop systems that identify multiculturals potential
• Diverse teams
• Complex tasks requiring creativity
Hire people with wide variety of multicultural backgrounds
Once more is known, place them strategically
It will help shift the organizational culture in the right
direction
19.12.2013
Emilie BONTANT, Florence GIORNI, Margareta HEIDT, Kerstin KNOBLOCH
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17. Managing a Multicultural Workforce
• The Organizational Implications Pyramid
Training and Development programs – 2 goals
• Support multicultural to become more conscious of their
skills and abilities
• Mentorship and coaching
• Global experiential programs*
• Develop similar skill sets among monocultural employees
 Develop to close the gap
• Global experiential programs*
*Help participants to broaden their horizons, reduce stereotypes and
prejudices
 Those steps should create the conditions that allow
multicultural employees to shine
19.12.2013
Emilie BONTANT, Florence GIORNI, Margareta HEIDT, Kerstin KNOBLOCH
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18. Conclusion
• Advantages of Multicultural Individuals:
• Contribute valuable skills to teams, negotiations, alliances, mergers and acquisitions, international assignments, ethics
and leadership
• Risk for Organizations:
• Experiences of multicultural individuals are not universal
Risk of alienating multicultural employees unless organizations consider the different ways to be multicultural
• Next Step for Companies:
Take advantage of the potential in multicultural employees by staffing, training and leading with these
benefits in mind!
19.12.2013
Emilie BONTANT, Florence GIORNI, Margareta HEIDT, Kerstin KNOBLOCH
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19. THANK YOU FOR
YOUR ATTENTION
CROSS CULTURAL MANAGEMENT – 19.12.2013
Emilie BONTANT, Florence GIORNI, Margareta HEIDT, Kerstin
KNOBLOCH