7.2. THE GLOBAL DIVERSITY CAPABILITY CYCLE
An effective global diversity initiative requires a structure or tool that facilitates the flow of information and personal expertise. It necessitates a reciprocal exchange of intellectual capital between the global organization and the local communities. Global companies have recognized this need by including the concept of "diversity of thought" in their list of diversity descriptors, but generally they focus on individuals. Few mechanisms permit the actual transfer of diversity of thought on a macro or global level. In its absence, corporate scorecards continue to validate success by communicating statistics and programs primarily related to the internal and external dimensions of diversity, specifically in terms of race and gender. Pictures of diverse-looking people hugging globes grace brochures, implying that a company is communicating and exchanging expertise and opportunity. Affinity groups are established—over 150 different groups in one global semiconductor company. Training departments suitcase programs on women around the world, and recruitment departments troll business schools to bring black and Hispanic MBA candidates into their European workforces. Managers earn bonuses by meeting their headquarters' gender targets. These activities help empower people who are labeled as diverse and address first-order change or the change that makes the "required" adjustments in the organization. It is numbers-oriented change and nontransformational in nature. Second-order diversity change occurs when a company begins to see things in a new way. It is irreversible and requires new corporate learning. This is the change generated by institutionalizing the sharing of intellectual, organizational, and social capital drawn from a globally diverse workforce, regardless of where and how it is initiated.
The assumption underlying the Global Diversity Capability Cycle (shown in the model) is that all employees have an obligation to communicate and exercise their diversity of thought. The question is "How do we access it or anticipate it in interviewing?"
The Global Diversity Capability Cycle is an integrated management model that allows corporations to identify, select, train, develop, and reward employees for their distinctive diversity contributions. When a company broadcasts that it is global, then all workers should be able to identify how they contribute to globalization to the same degree as they communicate their contribution to localization. This is accomplished by respecting and rewarding the diversity of contribution companywide.
7.2.1. Participating in Global Diversity of Thought and Contribution
The following material describes four ways that employees can participate in the Global Diversity Capability Cycle. Regardless of his or her geographical location or level, each employee brings a specific contribution that supports corporate performance diversity. We are not speaking of job analysis or performance guides, but are addressing a more qualitative perspective. The following descriptions can help managers identify specific behaviors. Each part of the cycle contains specific competencies that can be identified at hiring, developed through training, and rewarded upon completion.
7.2.1.1. Universal Communicators
These employees have the capacity to identify and communicate essential elements of corporate policy, lead strategic programs, and impart detailed operational procedures that are core for global success, regardless of location in the world. Strong-minded nationals may consider this utilization an extension of corporate colonialism, but universal communicators are invaluable when it comes to affirming the vision of the global corporation. For example, design and manufacturing directors can communicate universal product and service standards and global training directors can teach commitments to diversity and human rights. Universal communicators have a proven awareness of their home culture, the corporate culture, and the cultures of other nations.
7.2.1.2. Selective Appliers
These employees manage the core programs, policies, and procedures in a specific cultural context. They have the capacity to blend the requirements of the global company with those of a national market. Some of these changes are cosmetic expressions of diversity, such as translating a service brochure from American English to British English or holding "ethnic food days" in the cafeteria. Others are more profound. Selective appliers implement universal standards, policies, and practices cross-culturally. They integrate the national culture with the local business style. They are skilled at identifying the difference between the universal corporate position and the local position. Key issues may be ethical, such as bribery, kickbacks, and succession strategies for woman.
Trainers, either corporate consultants or external vendor organizations, will not "suitcase" any programs, especially not classic diversity programs. Selective appliers adjust all training exercises and concepts to be inclusive both of the headquartered perspective and the local environment's learning style and values. Country managers, all managers who report up to them, and national directors of human resources need to demonstrate this competency. These employees are usually bilingual or multilingual. Monolingual leadership at this level cannot be as effective, since a monolingual employee cannot understand the nuances required for effective communication, value identification, and reconciliation.
7.2.1.3. National Specialists
These employees are able to focus on local markets, customs, and business styles. They are able to communicate detailed national intelligence to the broader global marketplace. They are rarely interested in physically moving beyond the borders of their homeland. From their national organization can come promising programs, innovative processes, and new policies that can bring vigor to other national units and ultimately to the global company. National champions support diversity of thought and performance by sponsoring the dissemination of best-of-class methodology. They also model the receptive application of other nations' best practices. Programs in global diversity competency support national specialists in maintaining their national identity.
National specialists are practical in identifying no-nonsense and verifiable programs and processes. When these employees are isolated, organizational splits occur and create "us/them" thinking, headquarters/subsidiary backbiting, and intranational corporate clashes—a true sign of the failure of the Global Diversity Capability Cycle. A global knowledge management system is vital for capturing local specialists' contributions and creating the cross-national, interregional, and global exchange of best practices. Chapter 8 provides more details on introducing this element into the performance management process.
7.2.1.4. National Achievement Integrators
These employees have the ability to take national programs, policies, and practices and transition the best of the national class back into global operations. While many companies gather this information, national achievement integrators analyze it, making the concept, programs, and policies transferable to another nation or region. Without capable individuals and systems dedicated to this analysis, the company cannot be considered diverse, since it is not reintroducing best of national class practices to the broader company. For example, Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk sends two employees around the world yearly to identity learnings that can be universally shared and integrated. Use of IT is essential in this phase for accessing and communicating best-of-class examples.
None of the employee profiles associated with establishing a global diversity competency cycle are mutually exclusive. Employees and managers are generally drawn to one of the above profiles as a preferred personal, professional, or positional style. An interview, either at the time of hiring, during a performance review, or when doing succession planning, can be used to identify a candidate's primary diversity orientation. Most corporations have universal communicators, but they may have acted in ways that triggered defensiveness from receiving national units. Most employees on cross-border and cross-civilizational assignments should be selective appliers. Unfortunately, international assignees are still selected for technical competency and are not tested for the diversity competency of a selective applier. Local nationals then perceive the international assignee as the headquarters' voice and not as a person who aligns global expectations and local requirements. Global companies' largest employee base is local specialists who, when not charged with a commitment to global diversity and international knowledge exchange, resist the introduction of new ideas and fail to identify ways of sharing "local best practices" with others. Currently, training and development departments are introducing "Global Awareness Programs" to this group, hoping to expand their "awareness" of others. These programs are extremely limited since they do not offer practical ways of sharing knowledge, nor do they provide systemic linkages for communication. The competency area most consistently overlooked is the category of national achievement integrators. They actively collect and analyze best practices and stimulate organizational and global corporate cultural change. Their contribution in turn is applied and communicated by universal communicators. All roles in the Global Diversity Capability Cycle are needed.
The Global Diversity Capability Cycle and its inherent competencies can be used in many corporate systems to enhance global diversity. Use the "Global Diversity Capability Cycle Appraisal System" to identify specific employee competency during an interview or a management/subordinate dialogue. Before using the tool, review the job description or job posting for the primary competencies required in a specific position. For those who will staff the corporate headquarters, skills and competencies of universal communicators and national achievement integrators are very valuable. For people in HR networks and expatriate assignees, both long-term and short-term, having the knowledge, skills, and aptitudes of a selective applier are necessary. For positions where managers and employees work within their own national boundaries, the skills and aptitudes of national specialists are primary. The exercise should help facilitate an interview.
7.2.2. Suggestions for Using the "Global Diversity Capability Cycle Appraisal System"
To identify candidates who bring competencies that enable globally diverse intellectual capital to be shared companywide
To introduce the expectations of active participation in global diversity and cross-border knowledge exchange
To identify developmental areas for employees to participate in greater diversity exchange
Intended Audience
Any manager, facilitator, internal/external consultant, HR professional, or trainer charged with the task of interviewing, creating a training initiative, or adjusting compensation policies and practices
Time
45 minutes
Global Diversity Capability Cycle Appraisal SystemDirections: Current or perspective employees in a global company can demonstrate behaviors that reflect one or more of the global diversity capability competencies. Use exploratory questions to evaluate your interviewee's potential from each of the four orientations. Identify which orientation suits the candidate and his or her current or future position. Be sure to review the person's job description before conducting this appraisal. Record in the performance column your strongest findings. Evaluate the candidate's specific competencies and experience and align it with the position, indicating high alignment, moderate alignment, and low alignment.
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Materials
A "Global Diversity Capability Cycle Appraisal System" form for each employee or prospective candidate
Candidate's job description or position profile
Directions
Before beginning a behavioral interview, review the Global Diversity Capability Cycle with the current or prospective employee, evenly highlighting the four types of competencies required.
Position the exercise as a discussion of the organizational dimensions of the SSI Model. Be aware of the candidate's SSI profile and its implications.
Provide concrete examples for each of the four areas, such as, "In your capacity as marketing manager for the Southern United States, you will discover aspects that Pang Nap Dak from our Hong Kong office would find valuable. Last year Pang introduced Process Electra to the company and it has helped increase market share on the West Coast by 15 percent during the third quarter."
Use behavior-based questions to identify which aspect of the Global Diversity Capability Cycle is the preferred mode for the employee or prospective candidate.
Based on the interviewee's data, appraise his or her suitability in the current job, identify potential positions for which the person may be better suited, or suggest training that may support the employee's current or future position.
Cultural Considerations
This appraisal system is based on the use of behavioral interviewing techniques, a process that is not always culturally suitable in Asia since it forces the candidates to discuss their specific behaviors and call attention to their accomplishments. Interviewers may need time to establish a personal rapport with the interviewee before using behavioral interviewing techniques.
Caveats, Considerations, and Variations
The model can become a basis for diversity training and development programs as well as specialized training modules in specific aspects of diversity exchange. Employees who by location and preference are national specialists may require more training to help them identify specific contributions that they can make to other parts of the world.
7.2.3. Global Diversity and the Interview Process
Whether from the perspective of new-hire selection or advancing internal candidates, the interview process is key to the utilization of diversity. How do we acknowledge the diversity of our employees when we may be too influenced by our own experience or preferred national style? Do we have the proper tools to sense the diversity potential of candidates? Next, we will examine how a global diversity perspective directs the way we gather and use data in the interview process, how we select the tools to engage the candidate, and how common guidelines will increase inclusion.
7.2.4. Securing Information Required for Inclusive Hiring
An effective global diversity interview brings together three types of data: hard, soft, and contextual. Each contributes to good decisions.
Hard data is quantifiable, factual information drawn from actual performance that indicates what the employee did, that is, number of units produced, rate of work, sales increases, profitability increases, projects led, or goals accomplished. It also includes background information related to educational accomplishment and institutional achievements.
Soft data, long understood to be necessary in interviewing and performance management processes, records the relationship patterns and personal traits that affect performance and interpersonal work relationships. Flexibility, the ability to see multiple perspectives, and adaptability are standard "soft" data points. Any employee who takes on cross-national and cross-cultural accountability and who wants to excel in global diversity should be assessed on these values. Referrals and letters of recommendations combine elements of both hard and soft data and differ across cultures. Interviewers should identify the soft data of the referrer and referree relationship by carefully examining letters of recommendation for subtle hints. In the United States, referral letters tend to be very functional, because a writer can only communicate the conditions of employment, namely time, dates, and function. They may even be written by a human resource functionary. In higher context cultures, things are different. The content of the letter is broader. Expansive personal comments are customary. In addition, the identity of the writer is important. The writer is usually connected to the candidate. Interviewers and recruiters should check the depth of relationship and implied networks within a high-context letter. These networks are corporate assets when working in a high-context culture.
Contextual data sums up the cultural, political, social, and economic realities in which the employee worked. In global companies, managers and human resource professionals cannot rely solely on hard and soft data in their analyses in the way that they might in domestic selection, where they share an understanding of the contextual environment. International and national contexts vary widely.
Before any interview, managers and human resource professionals need to understand the political, social, and economic context of a specific worksite so that they can thoughtfully appraise the candidate. A valuable source for this information is the Internet, especially the websites for international newspapers such as the International Herald Tribune (www.iht.com); the Wall Street Journal for the Americas, Europe, and Asia (www.wsj.com); and the Financial Times (www.ft.com). By scanning reports on national and regional events, as well as editorial and special features on business management, interviewers will equip themselves to identify cultural contexts that may affect performance. The "Interview Preparations and Analysis" sheet has been designed to help prepare interviewers for the role. It is intended to be used individually.
Interview Preparations and AnalysisDirections: Before your interview, consider the data that is required to fully utilize a global diversity perspective during the interview. Use the following form to check your preparation and identify specific questions you might need to ask to gain greater insight into the candidate's suitability.
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7.2.5. Suggestions for Using "Interview Preparations and Analysis"
To assist interviewers in gathering the pertinent soft, hard, and contextual information required in a global diversity interview
To create questions that allow interviewers to thoughtfully use the assembled soft, hard, and contextual information as well as identify additional exploratory and clarifying questions
Time
45 minutes
Materials
Copies of "Interview Preparations and Analysis"
Directions
Gather as much information as possible from files, letters of reference, recommendations, and external sources.
Review and classify the information reflecting hard, soft, or contextual data and record it in the appropriate boxes in the first column.
Review the job description for the competencies, knowledge, and skills required of the candidate.
Review the data in the first column to see if you have the data and consider what questions you need to ask to gain greater insight concerning the candidate.
In the second column record the questions that you will use in the interview to confirm the hard data and to explore the depths of the soft and contextual information.
Cultural Considerations
If you do not have experience in the contextual background of the interviewee, you will have difficulty gaining full insight. Consider taking the "Interview Preparations and Analysis" form and consulting with a colleague or coach who comes from a similar political, social, cultural, and business context and who can suggest additional questions.
Caveats, Considerations, and Variations
This exercise can be combined with a case study such as "Nordic New Co Petroleum Goes Global" (Chapter 8) to train employees in the range of information they would need to consider in conducting interviews in a global company. Participants could be asked to consider what hard, soft, and contextual data they would need to know if they were going to advance either Richard Chamberlain or Gunnar Halvorsen to a directorship in Nordic New Co.
Conduct an SSI assessment of the potential candidate and return to the form to see what additional questions may need to be asked or explored.
7.2.6. Tools and Cultural Fit in the Global Interview Process
During an interview, tools should be sequenced to complement the preferred cultural styles of the interviewee and interviewer. It would be inconsistent with a commitment to global diversity to insist that the interviewee act only according to the behavioral standards of the corporate culture or interviewer. A middle ground needs to be found that respects local culture and the interviewee's style while acknowledging the company's culture and the interviewer's style. What dynamics might be anticipated? Cultures with a strong Anglo-Saxon tradition, such as those of Germany, Austria, Anglo-Canada, and the United States, prefer information that is direct, detailed, and specific. Any process that seeks to verify hard data is quickly understood and accepted by interviewer and interviewee. An interviewer can begin with a specific discussion of a candidate's academic and performance history. Later, the use of role plays, in-box activities, and technical demonstrations helps identify soft data about how the individual approaches the workplace, interpersonal work relationships, and diversity.
On the other hand, Asian and Latin contexts function in a more diffuse manner. Here the interviewer may wish to begin with more interactive, indirect, and interpersonal approaches. These will generate soft data that can later be confirmed or linked with hard data. Situational interviews encourage the candidates to generate stories about their past work performance that will confirm a required behavior or attribute. Managers using these diffuse tools can gather contextual information that the candidates themselves would like the interviewer to know.
Specific knowledge of the candidate's national and civilizational background is essential when evaluating contextual data, especially when assessing personal characteristics, national cultural alignment, motivation, and corporate cultural synergy. One U.S. company evaluating candidates for international assignment used "initiative" as a success criterion. When People's Republic of China nationals took the inventory, they scored below the norm of "successful" candidates. Given their cultural context of collectivism, this should not have been a surprise. The Chinese adage that "the first bird is the bird that gets shot" demonstrates the low value Chinese culture places on initiative. If the data from the inventory were used to fail the Chinese candidates, there could be grounds for a discrimination case.
Attempt to identify the cultural bias of all instruments and tools when using them in an interview. There are no culturally neutral instruments of examination. All show cultural bias, beginning with the fact that they rely on literacy rather than orality.
The Interview Tools diagram provides a view of widely used interview techniques. Note that some tools will generate hard data and are very specific in nature. Others are more interactive; others are focused on soft data. Use the diagram as you consider the appropriate tools to support the diversity orientation of your interviewee. As you proceed up the diagonal on the figure, there is a movement toward greater interaction between interviewer and interviewee.
Know the cultural compatibility of your selected interview technique with its preferred national or regional points of reference. Monitor the interviewee's responses for suitability, and switch techniques to gain the information needed to meet your goals. Interviewers have many choices to consider. Allowing a diversity of technique will support a diversity of response. Use the "Interviewing Techniques Chart" to consider the cultural compatibility and complexity between the national preferences of interviewer and interviewee and how they may play out in an interview.
7.2.7. Suggestions for Using the "Interviewing Techniques Chart"
To identify which tools are best with a candidate whose preferred national and cultural style is vastly different from the preferred corporate style of the company or the interviewer
To communicate the range of intervention tools that can assist an interviewer in gaining the needed information
Intended Audience
Corporate supervisors, managers, and HR professionals conducting employee interviews
Time
45 minutes
Materials
An "Interviewing Techniques Chart"
SSI profiles for both interviewee and interviewer
Directions
Create SSI profile for the interviewee and interviewer.
Carefully estimate the difference between interviewer and interviewee in communication styles, the degree of directness and indirectness required, their orientations to high-context and low-context information flow, and the amount of specific and diffuse communications anticipated.
Review the interview techniques for global diversity in column one for their style of communication, their degree of directness and indirectness, their orientation to high and low context, their manner of information flow, and the amount of specific and diffuse communication.
Cross-reference your understanding of the SSI profiles and the interview techniques. In column three, rate how effective a specific tool may be in your upcoming interview. Rate them in terms of L = low, M = moderate, and H = high.
In column four, list the action that you might take with this technique, which might include the order of your questions and interventions, whether you will use it or not, or how you will modify it.
Questions for Discussion/Consideration
What are the best techniques to use in this specific interview?
Knowing my preferences (interviewer SSI profile), what should I be most aware of during this interview?
Knowing my interviewee's style (interviewee SSI profile) of what should I be aware?
Do corporate requirements mandate a style that is inconsistent with the interviewer's preferred national style? What is the impact in the interview of that mandate?
Do any areas need to be reconciled?
Cultural Considerations
Both national preferred styles as well as level of national economic development will determine whether some or all of the interview techniques are functional in a national context. Consult local human resource and training professionals to determine whether activities such as an in-box activity or a role play are acceptable.
Caveats, Considerations, and Variations
The case study in Chapter 8 entitled "Nordic New Co Petroleum Goes Global" can be used to apply this tool. Using the two major protagonists, Richard Chamberlain and Gunnar Halvorsen, as interviewer and interviewee, consider which techniques would be best in a new hiring interview.
Interviewing Techniques ChartDirections: Create an SSI profile for interviewer and interviewee. Based on that data, review the following interview techniques for appropriateness. In the first column, identify the assumed cultural compatibility of a specific tool with a candidate's profile, recognizing the preferred communication styles of the interviewer and interviewee. In the next column, rate the appropriateness of that technique, providing an L for Low, M for Moderate and H for High. In the last column, record the action strategy you will bring to your upcoming interview, which may include using it as is, modifying it, or not using it at all.
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