Managing Cultural Diversity in Technical Professions (Managing Cultural Differences) [Paperback]

Lionel Laroche Ph.D. P.Eng. (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0750675810 | ISBN-13: 978-0750675819 | Publication Date: December 2, 2002

'Managing Cultural Diversity in Technical Professions' provides managers of technical professionals with clear and tested strategies to improve communication and increase productivity among culturally diverse technical professionals, teams, and departments.

Dr. Laroche outlines the differences in education and training, career expectations, communication styles, and management expectations in countries around the world. He explains cross-cultural concepts and presents his case for the importance of cross-cultural competence supported by hard data, including charts, tables, and readily accessible schematics.

You'll benefit from the author's experience and expertise as a manager and consultant in this area, illustrated by numerous anecdotes, critical incidents, and mini case studies, centered around two central themes:

* Most technical professionals do not recognize the impact of cultural differences in their work
* Cross-cultural issues lead to a significant under-utilization of talent and affect productivity negatively

'Managing Cultural Diversity in Technical Professions' offers proven tactics for improving your personal effectiveness and the efficiency of your multicultural teams, breaking the communication barrier in the multicultural workplace.

* Provides specific, tried and tested suggestions for managers to improve employee effectiveness within the North American technical workplace
* Examines many aspects of the professional lives of technical people in the U.S. and Canada and how they compare to those in other parts of the world
* Contains an appendix specifically written for HR managers and diversity trainers, describing how you can modify your approaches to suit this specific audience

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...a very readable and well documented text, addressing the common misunderstandings and frictions between what Laroche carefully defines as Americans and New Americans when it comes to management, teamwork, decision-making, feedback, making presentations, humor, and a host of other human interactions that technical people are involved in. Certainly, it belongs in the hands of any intercultural trainer who has been interrupted with the question, 'Can you give me a concrete example of that?' when presenting a point of cultural theory to a hard-nosed technical audience." - Dr. George F. Simons of www.diversophy.com

From the Publisher

'Managing Cultural Diversity in Technical Professions' provides managers of technical professionals with clear and tested strategies to improve communication and increase productivity among culturally diverse technical professionals, teams, and departments.

Dr. Laroche outlines the differences in education and training, career expectations, communication styles, and management expectations in countries around the world. He explains cross-cultural concepts and presents his case for the importance of cross-cultural competence supported by hard data, including charts, tables, and readily accessible schematics.

You’ll benefit from the author’s experience and expertise as a manager and consultant in this area, illustrated by numerous anecdotes, critical incidents, and mini case studies, centered around two central themes:

* Most technical professionals do not recognize the impact of cultural differences in their work

* Cross-cultural issues lead to a significant under-utilization of talent and affect productivity negatively

'Managing Cultural Diversity in Technical Professions' offers proven tactics for improving your personal effectiveness and the efficiency of your multicultural teams, breaking the communication barrier in the multicultural workplace.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 236 pages
• Publisher: Butterworth-Heinemann (December 2, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0750675810
• ISBN-13: 978-0750675819
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #678,564 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great help for foreign students and their professors!, January 31, 2003

By 

diane michelangeli (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Managing Cultural Diversity in Technical Professions (Managing Cultural Differences) (Paperback)

I am a professor of atmospheric chemistry at York University. Most of the people in my research group have done their studies (either graduate or undergraduate, or both) outside of Canada. I have found the content of this book and the suggestions it provides invaluable. Last Christmas, I gave each of my students and postdocs a copy of this book. The feedback I got from them has been very positive.

I strongly recommend this book to any foreign student who is studying in Canada and wants to pursue a career here. I also recommend strongly to professors and researchers who work in groups as diverse as mine.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great textbook!, September 23, 2003

By 

Marcia Friesen (Winnipeg, Manitoba) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Managing Cultural Diversity in Technical Professions (Managing Cultural Differences) (Paperback)

I am using this book as a textbook in a course that I facilitate for international engineers at the University of Manitoba. We're using the text to explore cultural parameters and the different ways they manifest themselves in different cultures, both generally and specifically in engineering business. I value the book for the work it does in framing the larger concepts behind specific cultural differences, but also for the practicality it offers through anecdotes and tips for working with other cultural styles.

While it's early in the academic term, this book has already been extremely useful in framing discussions in our class. Also, as I talk to employers in Manitoba, many have asked for the bibliographic reference to source the book for their corporate library.

5.0 out of 5 stars Getting Multicultural Teams to Work!, February 22, 2003

By 

Mike Jackson, P.Eng. (Vancouver, BC Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Managing Cultural Diversity in Technical Professions (Managing Cultural Differences) (Paperback)

We all know how much difference there is when a team functions well - the tricky part is getting it to happen. This new book tackles this topic in the context of Canadian engineering teams, which are almost all composed of people from many cultures. In this insightful book, Dr. Laroche includes lots of material to help get multicultural teams firing on all cylinders.

Written for both managers and technical contributors, the book uses a multicultural lens to look at management styles, teamwork, communication and career management. This new perspective drives home a central theme that cultural differences are key in how our teams work, and not widely recognized in their importance. In these kinds of abstract topics I find concrete examples very helpful, and the author includes numerous anecdotes drawn from his consulting background. These vivid examples show the profound impact of what sometimes seem like small issues, like the Mexican engineer who resigned the day after getting some negative feedback in front of his colleagues.

The book also includes a number of quantitative charts and tables showing how different cultures have quite different expectations of the importance of hierarchy, individualism, and risk tolerance. Having read this book, I now much better understand the experience I had in Canada managing an employee from another culture. What I experienced as a lack of assertiveness was actually the case of an employee expecting highly directive management, and their way of showing respect. Had I understood that well at the time, I would have approached the situation quite differently, even starting at the interview stage. On the flip side, the book would have helped me a lot during my two-year stay in France. In particular, it wasn't until I read this book that I realized that when my French colleagues were jumping in and finishing my sentences, they were demonstrating their agreement by showing they knew how my sentences were going to end!

The book closes with a number of interesting comparisons, like the different emphasis on theory and hands-on work that exist between engineering schools in Canada, the United States, France and Mexico. And to finish off, an entertaining appendix containing explanations of expressions which we take for granted from such diverse areas as baseball ("to be out in left field" - to make no sense at all) and warfare ("loose cannons" - ones which are not fixed down, and fire a different direction each time).