Cultural Competence for Public Managers

Managing Diversity in Today' s World

Espiridion Borrego, Richard Greggory Johnson lll

• Editore: Routledge
• Anno: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351570428
• Edizione: 1
• Argomento: Politica e relazioni internazionali
• Categoria: Politica

Our increasingly globalized society demands a higher level of sophistication when working cross-culturally and internationally in local, state, and federal governments; tribal corporations; and nonprofit organizations. Cultural Competence for Public Managers offers guidance on how to become a leader in developing cultural competence in your organization. It provides a conceptual foundation and successful examples for developing cultural competence, including competencies for international collaborations.

The authors clearly define terms and provide their own cultural competence model that will add significantly to the current field. They describe the rapidly changing worldwide demographics that are bringing new cultures into many countries and societies. They also examine the issues that culturally diverse landscapes create in the United States, Asia, Europe, Africa, and Latin America, highlighting the differences between assimilationist and the multicultural viewpoints. Drawing on a wide range of examples from universities; local, state, and federal governments; health care service providers; and nonprofit organizations, the book illustrates management practices that are then extended into the relevant cultural context. It also includes examples of cultural missteps and cultural competencies that have worked in practice.

Written in an accessible format and style, the book provides practical and useful standards and performance measures, proven coaching and mentoring guides, as well as templates, checklists, exercises, and guidelines. It includes downloadable resources with coaching guides, checklists. Organized thematically, the book defines the scope of cultural competencies, highlights best practices, and describes variations in responsibility for administering cultural competence for executives, managers, supervisors, and employees.

I INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL COMPETENCE: DO I REALLY NEED TO BE CULTURALLY COMPETENT?

Chapter 1

Why Cultural Competence Is Important

If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world, and that his heart is no island cut offfrom other lands, but a continent that joins them.

Sir Francis Bacon

Example 1.1: I’ll Do Exactly What You Ask Me to Do

Ana was the daughter of immigrant parents and was a first-generation college student. She competed for and was selected as Presidential Management Intern (PMI), which is now the Presidential Management Fellows (PMF). She went to work for the Comptroller’s Office in NASA, where she was a program analyst for the physics and astronomy missions. She and her immigrant parents came from a very family-oriented culture where the parents and all figures of authority are treated with the utmost respect and never questioned. She had been working there for about one and one-half years when one morning Charles, the deputy comptroller, asked her to come into his office. He told Ana he wanted her to take a closer look at the system engineering of one of the astronomy missions that was beginning to experience some problems that could lead to schedule delays. He wanted a better understanding of the issues. She agreed and returned to her office. She worked late into the evening and then came in very early the next morning to finish her report. The following afternoon, she went in to see Charles to give him her report. Charles read it and then looked up at her.

Charles This is not what I need.

Ana I know that, sir.

Charles Then, why did you give it to me?

Ana Sir, it is what you asked me to do.

Charles I know, but it is not what I need.

Ana Actually the problems are with the fabrication of two of the instruments that the scientists are building, and until those problems get fixed, system engineering is on hold.

Charles This is what I need. Why didn’t you tell me that in the first place?

Ana That is not what you asked me to do, sir.

Charles Okay, just finish this and get it back to me.

1.1 Introduction to and Short History of Cultural Competence

Ana’s experience with Charles can be a typical situation. Many employees from family-oriented cultures will not question figures of authority and will do what is literally asked of them. They may not use their experience and insight to produce the best work product. They will follow orders and direction diligently. Not all such conversations end as well as this one did. Strictly following orders and waiting to be told what to do are not what most managers expect from good employees. Doing so hurts the careers of otherwise excellent employees, as well. Cultural competence would have helped both Charles and Ana.

In discussing cultural competence, a short history of how we got to this point is useful and informative, as is a brief review of relevant terms and concepts. The terms, concepts, and models mentioned here are described and cited in much greater detail in Chapter 3 and the Appendix. This chapter is intended only as a brief introduction and background.

The United States, Europe, and some Asian countries are experiencing aging populations with low birthrates and unprecedented levels of immigration. Many countries that had been predominately monocultural now have significant multicultural communities, which create cultural changes in the country. The cultural changes have generated many discussions of assimilation versus multiculturalism. Much of that debate has been acrimonious. The demographics are driving a cultural change that will continue into the future.

Since the passage of the Civil Rights Act, many terms have come into the lexicon, for example, affirmative action, representative bureaucracy, diversity, reverse discrimination, social equity, managing diversity, and cultural competence. A short history of how the United States got to this point is helpful in understanding the terms and concepts.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned discrimination against women and minorities. Women and minorities were classification terms of gender, race, and ethnicity. Culture and cultural characteristics were not a concern at that time. In broad terms it may be said that an organization does not discriminate when the race, ethnicity, and gender of employees reflect their proportion in the communities the organization serves. The employees of a representative bureaucracy are proportionally representative of their numbers in the community. When the Civil Rights Act passed, the employees of most organizations were not representative of the communities they served. Affirmative action became a way to overcome past discrimination and to increase the proportion of women and minorities in organizations. More women and minorities were hired into organizations. Some questioned whether these were the most qualified for the positions for which there were hired, and with that question came the concept of reverse discrimination. Were more qualified white men being discriminated against when women and minorities who might be less qualified were hired or promoted, instead of the white male? Diversity, at that time, meant how representative an organization was in terms of minorities and women. A diverse organization more closely reflected the community it served. The next step was when some individuals questioned whether a minority from a wealthy family should be given preference over someone who is white and poor. The concept of equity or fairness was brought into the equation. Social equity broadened the concept of diversity to include race/ethnicity, gender, social class, sexual orientation, and disabilities.

In 1964 when the Civil Rights Act passed, the proportion of minorities was small in the United States. The two main groups the act affected were women and minorities. Minorities are people of color or nonwhites. Heavy immigration began after the 1980s, and increased the proportion of people of color in the country. The top four countries that have the largest number of U.S. immigrant workers are Mexico, China, India, and the Philippines (Sum, Harrington, and Khatiwada 2005). The U.S. Census Bureau (2010) lists the five countries of origin for the U.S. foreign-born population as Mexico, China, Philippines, India, and El Salvador.

In 2011, the situation is very different. Now, about one of every three Americans is a minority and about one in eight people in the United States was born in another country (Day n.d.; Morello and Keating 2009; Ortman and Guarneri 2009). This year more minority births are expected than white births (Yen 2010). Census Bureau projections show that in the 2040s, there will be no racial or ethnic majority in the United States (Day n.d.; Ortman and Guarneri 2009). There are many immigrant and minority communities in parts of the country that had been predominately white. These immigrant and minority communities retain many of the cultural characteristics of their country of origin. Thus the United States is shifting very quickly from a monocultural country into a multicultural country. The cultural changes are making some people unsettled and uncomfortable. This provides a different cultural context for understanding cultural competence and managing diversity.

Immigrant and minority communities were suffering disparities in health care. Many such communities retained their original cultures and languages, and these diverse cultural characteristics were creating problems in the delivery of adequate health care. The Western medical model did not always translate well into an immigrant or minority community’s cultural views of health care. Further, the different cultural characteristics and languages brought about a host of problems. The federal government mandated the delivery of culturally competent health care to these communities. Cultural competence, in this context, means the delivery of health care services in a culturally relevant manner. Funding enabled research into cultural competence. The concept of diversity now includes cultural diversity, or different cultures with different cultural characteristics. Cultural diversity becomes an important concept. To make matters a bit confusing, the term diversity is still used when describing a representative bureaucracy. For example, diverse organization is the term still used to describe the proportional representation of the various employee categories within an organization.

Research into the culturally competent delivery of health services to immigrant and minority communities was incorporated into the concept of cultural competence in public administration. Cultural competence, in an organizational context, is the ability to manage the different employee cultural characteristics (i.e., employees’ diversity or cultural diversity) to build an effective organization. Where earlier the emphasis had been on classification—for example, race and gender—that emphasis began shifting to culture and cultural characteristics. It was the cultural difference between the Western European (or U.S.) cultural delivery of health care services to communities with a different cultural concept of health care that was creating misunderstandings and problems. These misunderstandings were creating disparities in the delivery of health care.

Cultural competence was perceived as the way to overcome or bridge the cultural differences to provide culturally relevant health care. To be effective, health care services were to be provided in a way that would be culturally relevant to the immigrant and minority communities. That meant learning and understanding the culture, cultural characteristics, and language of the immigrant and minority communities. Organizations were now expected to have employees who understood the culture and language of the communities they served. The easiest place to find people familiar with the culture and language of these client communities was within the communities themselves. As members of the communities were hired, they brought their own cultural characteristics into the organization. Some of the cultural characteristics differed from the Western European cultural traits found in most U.S. organizations.

In the same way that the different cultural characteristics were creating misunderstandings and problems in the delivery of health care services; employee cultural misunderstandings and problems began to surface in organizations. The research then led to organizational requirements for cultural understanding within the organization.

Public administration research on cultural competence draws heavily from the research on the delivery of health care services to immigrant community. Many of the same terms and concepts are used, but now in an organizational context. People from the immigrant communities are employed in organizations. They may be legal residents or children of recent immigrants. These immigrants come from almost every country in the world. They retain many of the cultural characteristics of their country of origin. Some of these cultural characteristics are different than the more common Western European cultural characteristics. The cultural differences (cultural diversity) of the employees can create cross-cultural misunderstandings in the organization. The concept of diversity is also changing. In the past, the term diversity referred to such classifications as race and gender and whether their representation in the workforce was similar to their proportions in the population. The term is still used by some authors in this way. The research on cultural competence expanded the meaning of diversity to include cultural diversity (employees with different cultural characteristics). Sometimes the term diversity is used interchangeably for race and gender classification and cultural diversity, which can be confusing. The research on cultural competence shows the importance for managers and employees to understand the different cultural characteristics of their organization’s culturally diverse employees.

The first tenet of almost all the research on cultural competence is respect for and understanding of the culture of the immigrant and minority communities. For example, respect for understanding of other cultures is incorporated into the public administration literature. Respect does not mean that a manager has to learn about the Korean culture when hiring an employee who is Korean. It does mean that to be effective, a manager has to understand how those cultural characteristics can create cross-cultural misunderstandings. Cultural competence is the ability to manage cultural diversity (different cultural characteristics) in a way that allows diversity to contribute to the effectiveness of an organization rather than create misunderstandings and conflict. Cultural diversity can indeed contribute to the effectiveness of an organization, but it can also create misunderstandings and conflict in an organization. Culturally competent managers can create effective cross-cultural work teams and prevent an organization from becoming dysfunctional.

There is extensive research literature on the culturally competent delivery of health care services to immigrant and minority communities. The public administration literature brings in the same cultural competence concepts. There is very little research and literature, however, on how a manager or employee can be culturally competent or how a manager can manage a diverse workforce of employees who have many different cultural characteristics.

Managing a culturally diverse workforce requires a more limited set of cultural competencies than does delivering services to culturally different communities. For example, government employees are expected to speak English. Learning another language is not required. On the other hand, a manager needs a quick way to learn enough about many different cultural characteristics to manage a culturally diverse workforce. A manager does not have to manage in a way that is culturally relevant to each employee. Instead, an effective manager has to create a common ground or shared culture where culturally diverse employees can work effectively together.

The research on culturally competent delivery of services to immigrant and minority communities also resulted in cultural competence organizational requirements. The organizational requirements can be summarized as follows:

1. A mission statement incorporating cultural competence
2. Policies and procedures that incorporate cultural competence
3. A diverse organization—using the broader definition of diversity to include race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, social class, disabilities, culture, and cultural characteristics—and culturally competent workforce
4. Position descriptions that include cultural competence skills

Cultural competence as described above came from research on delivering services to immigrant and minority communities that retained much of the culture and language of their countries or origin. Each community had it own culture and la...