The impact of cultural diversity on organizational and operational risk levels

Pedro B. Água, Armindo Frias, A. Correia, M. Simões-Marques
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Abstract

The blue economy develops in a multicultural environment, posing an additional risk for the organizations involved. Operations at sea where people are involved, be it in ships or offshore infrastructures, are not free from operational risks, affecting safety of on board operations for example. Moreover, international projects and operations pursued by multinational organizations (such as UN, EU or NATO), have the potential for the risk levels to increase as a result of a particular aspect of human factor – cultural diversity. Crises response and peace operations, for instance, force teaming up people not only with different cultural backgrounds among themselves, but additionally make such teams interface with local populations whose culture is usually much different from theirs. Not being aware of the cultural differences of the involved people may lead to increased misunderstandings, unnecessary controversies, increased risks and avoidable accidents. Conflicts originate from different mental models of the world, which are developed as a consequence of the growing experience – not only within a specific social context, but also national one. Therefore, when people with different backgrounds are gathered as part of a multinational effort, the potential for misaligned perceptions and conflicts arise, and consequently organizational and operational increased risk levels.Several distinct models and frameworks exist to bring understanding over intercultural management; however, there’s barely any established taxonomy or standard model which one could refer to in order to master any situation. Among the main frameworks, we have the ones from Hall, Trompenaars, Hofstede. The purpose of this paper is to bring some clarity, and if possible order, contributing to establish a general framework as a result of the integration, or blending, of the main different ones, and as such provide guidance for professionals who have to face risks in their respective fields of work as a result of the impact of different multicultural settings. Even if the writing of this paper was done with the maritime industry in mind, which is perhaps the oldest multicultural industry in the world, the attained results and practical implications will spill over the purely maritime operations and extend their application into most multinational systems’ endeavours – be it within the business, NGO or security contexts.The methods used comprise the analysis and comparison of the main culture models and associated frameworks, clarifying where such models superimpose each other and where they are complementary. Once they are understood, it will be possible to think in terms of cause and effect and design useful procedures to support the people on the fields, hence contributing to an improved human factor paradigm in what intercultural interactions concern.The expected outcome will be a clearer and tentatively universal model – a proposed taxonomy - which may help to address, manage and keep risks derived from multicultural interactions under control, so their organizational risk level doesn’t arise as a result of such endeavours.Finally, and guided by the principle of usefulness, some practical implications will be presented and discussed; and a summary of suggested actions, followed by some conclusions.
文化多样性对组织和运营风险水平的影响
蓝色经济在多元文化的环境中发展,给相关组织带来了额外的风险。无论是在船舶上还是在海上基础设施上,涉及人员的海上作业都存在操作风险,例如影响船上作业的安全。此外,跨国组织(如联合国、欧盟或北约)开展的国际项目和业务,由于人为因素的一个特定方面-文化多样性,有可能增加风险水平。例如,危机应对和和平行动不仅迫使具有不同文化背景的人组成团队,而且还使这些团队与文化通常与他们的文化大不相同的当地人口打交道。没有意识到相关人员的文化差异可能会导致更多的误解,不必要的争议,增加风险和本可避免的事故。冲突源于对世界的不同思维模式,这些模式是经验增长的结果- -不仅是在特定的社会环境中,而且是在国家环境中。因此,当具有不同背景的人作为多国努力的一部分聚集在一起时,可能会产生不一致的看法和冲突,从而增加组织和操作的风险水平。有几个不同的模型和框架可以让人们理解跨文化管理;然而,几乎没有任何既定的分类法或标准模型可供参考,以便掌握任何情况。在主要的框架中,我们有来自Hall, Trompenaars, Hofstede的框架。本文的目的是带来一些清晰度,如果可能的话,有助于建立一个总体框架,作为整合的结果,或混合,主要不同的,并因此提供指导,谁不得不面对风险的专业人士在各自的工作领域,由于不同的多元文化环境的影响。即使本文的写作是在考虑海运业(这可能是世界上最古老的多元文化产业)的情况下完成的,所获得的结果和实际影响也将溢出到纯粹的海事操作中,并将其应用扩展到大多数跨国系统的努力中——无论是在商业、非政府组织还是安全环境中。所使用的方法包括对主要文化模型和相关框架的分析和比较,阐明这些模型在哪里相互重叠,在哪里互补。一旦理解了它们,就有可能从因果关系的角度来思考,并设计有用的程序来支持这些领域的人们,从而有助于改进跨文化互动所涉及的人的因素范式。预期的结果将是一个更清晰的、暂时通用的模型——一个拟议的分类法——它可能有助于处理、管理和控制来自多元文化互动的风险,这样他们的组织风险水平就不会因为这些努力而上升。最后,在有用性原则的指导下,提出并讨论了一些实际意义;然后是建议行动的总结,然后是一些结论。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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