Many often think that anything related to intercultural awareness has something to do with different nationalities. This is correct. To some extent. It is true, that interculturalism works within different cultures, and that we often perceive culture as having something to do with nationalities or religion or folk dance for instance. However, culture is more than just a national matter. It is also in our workplaces.
What is Intercultural Awareness?
Interculturalism is simply put when different cultures interact. This can be on national levels or in the workplace, or in other settings where people interact. This could be in a social setting, work setting, sport setting, or other social setting. Different organizations have different cultures, which are either constructed to encourage behavior in the organization, or it is something that has slowly developed as people with different work backgrounds come together and create a new organizational culture. It is important, that the different participants of the organization understand the culture in the departments, so they are able to work together across the different departments. By knowing what interculturalism is, it becomes intercultural awareness.
As an example, we can look at a factory. A factory has a factory hall, where people oversee or partake in the production of a certain product. Outside the factory hall, are usually, a number of offices.
These offices could be a manager's office, a finance office, and a sale office. These four departments of the factory must work together if they want to sell their product. However, the four departments have different methods to do their work, and they use different terms in their work. Each department will most likely have a work culture that is different from the other departments. The factory hall could be running 24/7, thus the workers have another culture than the workers in the offices.
If the organization is an international organization, we can add the national culture to the mix. Then the workers in the offices will have to interact with either international partners or maybe even international customers. Maybe the organization rotates the workers, so they will be moved to another country and will have to not only learn a new national culture but also a new organizational culture. They might need to speak a foreign language, work different hours, eat different food, adjust to a different climate, and adhere to new national customs and traditions.
Why is it Important that Managers and Leaders have Intercultural Awareness?
As mentioned above, there are many different intercultural aspects in an organization. But for managers and leaders, it is very important to be extra aware of this. Especially if you are managing an international department, or you have foreigners working in your department. It is the managers or leader, who oversees the work culture and must ensure all workers in the department are doing their best. This will optimize t
he worker's performance and in the end the profit, in general terms. It will create a better work environment, and it will ensure that international workers adjust to their new environment faster.
Is Intercultural Awareness Important in Maritime Educational Institutions?
Maritime educational institutions will always educate to work in international work culture. The students must be prepared to understand the work culture at sea, as well as understand colleagues with different nationalities as well. If the communication across these intercultural boundaries is not clear, it could compromise the safety onboard the vessel.
For any educational institution, the aim is for the students to graduate. Teachers are often the ones who will ensure the student's performance, but this must be rooted in the institution's guidelines for that specific education. And this is where interculturalism comes into play. Modern higher educational institutions are often run as a business. The manager of a department must ensure that X amount of students graduate each year. This is set out by the board, and the finance department must ensure that all departments are staying within the budget. The dean must adhere to the board, and show he has a functional educational institution. Every department has a different work culture, and yet they must all work together to ensure the students are graduating.
If it is an international educational institution where the teachers have different nationalities, then the manager or leader must ensure everyone is on the same cultural plate. If the teachers come from different national cultures, as well as different work cultures, it can be difficult to educate them with
interculturalism in mind, At the same time, they must prepare the students for the work culture at sea, educate them on interculturalism and ensure the students pass exams and graduate.
This is why BluePoint Scholastic emphasizes interculturalism in our leadership and teacher training courses. But we also analyze this when we work with educational institutions. If you as a teacher or manager are interested in learning more about interculturalism
you can join our online workshop. You can also contact us if you have a large group of teachers and managers, and you would like us to run a two-day seminar at your educational institution.
You can contact us at courses@bluepointscholastic.com if you want to set up a course for your organization.
Or you can go to our online workshop site here