Cross-Cultural Issues in Employment Counselling for Internationally Trained Professionals

1
Cross-Cultural Issues in Employment Counselling
for Internationally Trained Professionals

• Presented by Elga Nikolova
• Skills for Change, Toronto
• OPPORTUNITIES, 2003

2
www.onip.ca

• The Ontario Network for International
  Professionals is
• An online resource
• Providing sector-specific information, networking
  and professional development opportunities
• Serving internationally-trained professionals and
  service providers
• Province-wide

3
Today we will attempt to

• Expand awareness by questioning some of our own
  cultural assumptions
• Create a conceptual framework to put some of our
  difficulties with internationally-trained clients
  into perspective
• Attempt to generate some solutions
• Find out how ONIP.online can be part of the
  solution

4
Topics

• Culture
• Definition of culture
• Culture shock
• Dimensions of culture
• Applications to job search
• Possible solutions
• Culture and the professions
• Any open issues?

5
Looking for a job is a full-time job

• And the job description includes
• A firm handshake
• Assertiveness
• Walking the extra mile
• Selling yourself
• Highlighting your achievements
• Maintaining a positive attitude
• Universal facts, or assumptions?

6
What is Culture

• A culture is a way of life of a group of
  people--the behaviors, beliefs, values, and
  symbols that they accept, generally without
  thinking about them, and that are passed along by
  communication and imitation from one generation
  to the next.
• Source University lecture handouts of
  Communication Across Cultures, by Dr. Daradirek
  Ekachai, Associate Professor, Department of
  Speech Communication, Southern Illinois

7
More on Culture

• Culture is symbolic communication. Some of its
  symbols include a group's skills, knowledge,
  attitudes, values, and motives. The meanings of
  the symbols are learned and deliberately
  perpetuated in a society through its
  institutions.
• Source University lecture handouts of
  Communication Across Cultures, by Dr. Daradirek
  Ekachai, Associate Professor, Department of
  Speech Communication, Southern Illinois

8
Some highlights on culture

• There are no good and bad cultures. Each
  culture is uniquely adapted to its circumstances
• There is a broad spectrum of behaviors. Within
  one culture, people tend to choose the same
  behavior
• We may be totally oblivious to behavior, and
  facts of life not common in our culture
• We may misinterpret behavior and facts not common
  in our culture
• We assign higher value to behavior and attitudes
  favored by our culture
• Cultural preferences are reinforced, and
  deviations are discouraged

9
Culture shock

• The term culture shock was introduced in 1958 to
  describe the anxiety produced when a person moves
  to a completely new environment.
• Culture shock is the physical and emotional
  discomfort one suffers when coming to live in
  another country or a place different from the
  place of origin.
• The term expresses the lack of direction, the
  feeling of not knowing what to do or how to do
  things in a new environment, and not knowing what
  is appropriate or inappropriate.

10
Stages of culture shock

• Introduction (Honeymoon, Vacation)
• Transition ( Hostility)
• Denial, rejection
• Anger
• Escape
• Depression
• Acceptance (Humour)
• Adjustment (Home)

11
Symptoms of culture shock

• Sadness, loneliness, melancholy
• Aches, pains, allergies, insomnia, desire to
  sleep too much
• Changes in temperament, depression, feeling
  vulnerable,
• Anger, resentment, unwillingness to interact with
  others
• Longing for family, identifying with/ idealizing
  the old culture
• Loss of identity
• Trying too hard to absorb everything in the new
  culture
• Unable to solve simple problems, lack of
  confidence
• Feelings of inadequacy or insecurity, need to
  depend
• Developing stereotypes about the new culture
• Feelings of being lost, overlooked, exploited,
  abused

12
How is this relevant to job search?

• The way we do job search is culturally determined
• Professional practices vary across cultures
• Some job search concepts are unique to North
  America, or Canada in particular
• Some job search concepts may have a different
  meaning
• Job search and professional behavior is be
  interpreted differently in different cultures
• Some job search and professional behavior may
  be judged differently in different cultures

13
The new wave of immigration

• In the 1990 new immigrants did not integrate
  into the Canadian labour market as effectively as
  previous cohorts of immigrants
• Prior to 1961, 92 of all immigrants arriving
  to Toronto came from Europe
• Of all immigrants who arrived in Canada in the
  1990s, 73 were visible minorities, up to 68 in
  the 1980s, and 52 in the 1970s.
• In 2002, over 80 of all immigrants to Canada
  came from regions outside Europe
• Sources Elizabeth McIsaac, "Immigrants in
  Canadian Cities Census 2001 - What Do the Data
  Tell Us. CIC Canada, Facts and Figures 2002
  Immigration Overview

14
Cultural Dimensions

• Hofstede, 1980
• Power distance
• Collectivism vs. individualism
• Uncertainty avoidance
• Masculinity vs. femininity
• E.T.Hall
• Time
• Space
• Context (information)

15
Power distance

• Eastern Europe
• 1 Canada 2 3 4 5
  6 7 8
• 0 20 40 60 80
  100
• 1/ Austria 2/ Pakistan, Iran
• 3/ Greece 4/ Chile, Peru, Turkey, Colombia
• 5/ Hong Cong, Brazil 6/ Yugoslavia, India
• 7/ Venezuela, Mexico 8/ Philippines
• Power Distance measures the extent to which
  people believe in and support hierarchy and
  uneven distribution of power in a society

16
High power distance cultures and Canadian job
search

• Client-service provider relationship
• Confusion about status
• Service provider viewed as a person of power, or
• Authority of service provider questioned, or
• Confusion about role
• Client dependent on service provider, or
• Overly demanding

• Job search behavior attitude
• Lack of initiative
• Need to follow step-by-step instructions
• Experience loss of identity
• Confusion between passive-assertive aggressive
• Blaming, negativism

17
Individualism

• Eastern Europe
• 1 2 3 4
  5 6 Canada 7
• 0 20 40
  60 80 100
• Collectivistic
  Individualistic
• 1 Venezuela, Colombia, Pakistan 2 Chile,
  Yugoslavia, Portugal, Hong Kong
• 3 Turkey, Brazil 4 Iran
• 5 India, Japan 6 Israel
• 7 USA
• Individualism measures the extent to which
  people view themselves as individuals
  (individualism), vs. viewing themselves as
  members of a group, elements of a larger entity
  (collectivism).

18
Collectivistic cultures and Canadian job search

• Client - service provider relationship
• client expects to be given things
• client expects service provider to do their
  homework for them
• client dependent on service providing
  organization

• Job search behavior attitude
• difficulties with assertiveness and
  self-promotion
• difficulties with identifying achievements
• skepticism about networking

19
Uncertainty Avoidance

• 1 2 3 4 Canada 5
  6
• -10 0 20 40 60 80 100
• Low risk tolerance High risk tolerance
• 1 Greece 2 Yugoslavia, Chile, Mexico
• 3 Venezuela, Pakistan 4 Iran
• 5 India 6 UK, Hong Kong
• Uncertainty avoidance measures the extent to
  which people cope well with risky, unpredictable
  and unstructured situations by establishing
  formal rules and processing information

20
Uncertainty avoidance and Canadian job search

• Client - service provider relationship
• may be asking for unreasonable amount or
  useless information
• may be asking for clear instructions
• background level of stress increases with
  decrease of risk tolerance

• Job search behavior attitude
• may consider themselves overqualified, and their
  local colleagues non-professional
• may appear under qualified or unprofessional
• may have difficulties in communicating their
  skills and qualifications

21
Context

• High context
• Far East
• Indian Subcontinent
• Arab Countries
• Latin America
• Eastern Europe
• Latin Europe, UK, Quebec
• English Canada
• US
• Scandinavia

• Context refers to the way in which cultures seek,
  and communicate information to make meaning of an
  event.
• High context information is in the
  circumstances. Non-verbal, and implicit
  information is essential. Professionals tend to
  be generalisits
• Low context information is in the verbal
  message. Professionals tend to be highly
  specialized

22
Context and Canadian job search

• Client - service provider relationship
• client may overwhelm service provider with
  information
• client may not be able to prioritize
  information
• client may have difficulties identifying, and
  verbalizing their strengths

• Job search behavior attitude
• Failure to provide the right amount and detail
  of information during an interview
• Difficulties with identifying strengths/
  achievements
• Difficulties with making sense of information

23
What are the solutions?

• On individual level
• Question own assumptions
• Work with the client to raise cultural awareness
• Accept, acknowledge and work with culture shock
• Set realistic expectations
• Encourage observation and reflection
• Probe into clients professional background
  extensively, assist in reframing of professional
  experience
• Refer clients to A-B-C of Job Search, Relevant
  Employment and Sector-specific Terminology on
  www.onip.ca

24
What are the solutions?

• On group/organizational level
• Offer training on cultural awareness and culture
  shock
• Create opportunities for networking as part of
  service
• Refer clients extensively to networking
  opportunities within their profession (reframe
  networking)
• Revisit job development practices
• Use www.onip.ca to refer clients to networking
  opportunities (sector-specific discussion boards)
  and online mentoring

25
Professional culture

• Some aspects of professional education and
  practices which deviate among cultures
• education theoretical vs. hands-on
• institutionalization of professions
  licensing
• technical standards
• methodology of problem solving and project
  management
• standards of professional conduct and ethics
• management and customer service practices
• The more people oriented an occupation is, the
  more culture-specific it tends to be.

26
Questions? Enquiries?

• Elga Nikolova, ONIP.online Coordinator
• Skills for Change, Toronto
• [phone], ext. 294
• coordinator_at_onip.ca
• www.onip.ca