The Diverse Organization: Integrating Differences to Achieve the Same Corporate Culture

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Author(s): Russell B. Millholland

* An inside look at Saint-Gobain, a 40 Billion Euro worldwide ceramics and plastics company *

How does a multinational organization bring people together to form a more uniform business culture? The result lies with an ability to have people form cooperative relationships to achieve common business results. People must first understand themselves, their culture and their impact in a world totally different from their parents.

* Intergenerational Teams and Businesses *

Today, it is critical to recognize that differences exist in how people are motivated and engaged. A manager must not presume that what motivates them is the same for others. What is the same is the desire to be needed, valued and recognized for accomplishments. Today's manager has to understand both younger and older people.

At Saint-Gobain, our managers are not always the older, more-seasoned person but often the younger and more technical person who advanced in their speciality. This creates challenges, concerns and the need to be flexible to new ways of working together. Letting go of an old view of advancing by putting in your time and loyalty is not the same today.

* The Impact of Cultural Differences in the Effective Business Operation *

The ability to become highly effective is a function of how well the people at all organizational levels work together to achieve business results. I have found our business succeeds only because people must work together no matter where they physically reside. The key is to know each other and be able to acknowledge the critical communication needs of both the business and the individual.

We provide cultural training along the lines of "Doing Businesses in Asia," so the business team is able to recognize that cultural differences really do exist. The purpose is to have people recognize the difference between the intent of their behavior and its impact.

I have seen where people simply do not understand that their success in the home culture will not always carry into another culture. This cultural development provides the opening for them to realize how they can and do impact others and how they can be successful.

The international transfer of people and their families provides us with a better understanding of different cultures and the development of future managers. This development allows the expatriate to broaden both cultural awareness and insights into how people think and react to business situations. We spend significant time on pre-departure, arrival and post arrival assistance to help the person and their family transition into the location and new culture. We have developed an International Management Assessment process to help the person transition to a culture and business. This allows us the ability to understand what challenges the person and their host manager may have in the new assignment.

* The Unrecognized Value of Part-Time People who have Retired from the Company - and Their Impact in an Organization *

Like many companies today, downsizing easily reduces the number of people, but not always the amount of work. There is a hidden cost in the loss of valuable institutional knowledge.

We bring many of our retirees back as part-time temps to help both with projects and to provide some source of history. Even with part-time people, the loss of history and key technical skills creates more challenges: simply "who knows how to handle this technical issue?" We now cast a much wider search to find specialized knowledge across the company. Many times when the person is found, the answer is they are too critical where they are and can not be spared.

* Virtual Workplace, Workforce and Technological Impact on People *

Although we are a global company, a virtual workplace is not a normal situation in our company. The global nature of the business provides us with the need to learn new techniques in solving problems and communicating across many time zones. The Blackberry has become a vital tool and allows almost constant contact. This has shown the weakness in how well we communicate for understanding. Electronic communication has improved speed, but is not always effective and understood content. Now the originator must ensure the communications are not just received but understood by the receiver.

What a difference when you simply walked onto the person's office and actually talked to ensure comprehension occurred. The extra benefit was in developing your personal relationships.

We bring our worldwide business department team together yearly to review the results from the prior year and set the direction for the current year. This is followed up with two or three mini meetings at a more focused, tactical level to make the results happen. The most important part of the annual meeting is simply providing everyone the opportunity to become more familiar with people you do not see but work with via email or phone calls. This provides a personal touch, and now they are not a name or phone number but someone you know and with whom you have a relationship.

Russell B. Millholland, is director, Human Resources at Saint-Gobain Ceramics and Plastics in Worcester, MA. Millholland can be reached at russ.b.millholland@saint-gobain.com.

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