The importance of understanding how a cultural approach at work will be implemented is without any doubts crucial for managers and leaders, as well as for colleagues and subordinates in our modern pluralistic society. As Hofstede (1991) defines culture being “the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the member of one group or category of people from another”, one can face various challenges whilst interacting on a professional level with different individuals, groups of people or companies. The understanding of cultural influence on an employee could shed some light on how to phrase working tasks or how to clarify professional goals from a linguistic perspective.
A post-covid working approach has enhanced a range of employees who could be hired to perform their job roles and tasks within one international company. Hybrid working and fully remote work unite people from different countries and continents. Thus, team leaders confront significant challenges in order to let their subordinates to reach their professional potential whilst performing within one group. On the other hand, team leaders should be able to foreseen any possible areas where might arise a conflict due to various cultural characteristic of employees or potential misunderstanding in view of not quite profound knowledge of a working language. Furthermore, leaders should be offered various options to enhance their cultural expertise in order to find a better working approach of how to interact with a group of employees formed by experts with varying backgrounds.
On the contrary, how often do we see that an international company pays meticulous attention to their leadership members in order to support them in their learning initiatives to acquire professional cultural knowledge, skills, abilities and other characteristics. Unfortunately, quite often it is a case of an implementation of a “Swiss cheese model” when cultural misunderstandings and differences as a whole lead to professional failures in various levels. No one can underestimate the supportive influence of acquisition and implementation of cultural knowledge.
