Conducting a cultural study needs special attention to ethics and objectivity. As I belong to one culture I could be, consciously or unconsciously, biased. The results of the study could be influenced and in the more extreme case a group of participants could feel they were not being treated respectfully or fairly. Ethical standards must be followed in doing research, which particularly means that participants are aware that they are taking part in a research study and that they know what the results are used for. I used surveys, questionnaires and interviews to interact with people in the organisation and to gain insights on their cultural personality as well as on the effectiveness of the project. These have been accompanied by interventions, like trainings, workshops, coaching, to convey the findings of the intercultural research. I had interaction with different nationalities in various countries, talking with job candidates as well as with those leaving the company.
I take the ‘Code of Standards and Ethics for Survey Research’ (CASRO) as the basis to validate the compliance of the survey with ethical standards (Insights Association 2017). This covers the principles of
- Information of the participants - Willingness of the participants - Confidentiality and Privacy
All participants in the study received an explanation about the purpose of the study and how their feedback will be used. For the surveys I designed an invitation letter, which is attached in Appendix A. The two main surveys that I designed and used in the study are the Intercultural Leadership Survey (ICLS) and the Customer Satisfaction Survey (CSS). For both surveys I used Surveymonkey as an external, commercial tool to collect the data and evaluate the aggregated responses. For the evaluation of interventions I used an After Action Review (AAR) Format as attached in Appendix F. Participants were asked to fill out AAR sheets directly after the intervention and drop the paper in a box. They were asked to leave their name on the sheet for a further dialogue to monitor their personal journey in the programme. Participation in the AAR was voluntary as well as disclosing their identity. The same applies to the use of the standardised Cultural Intelligence Scale in its short version (Mini-CQS) (see Appendix G) to help participants reflect on their cross-cultural competence and to document their development during the programme. The participation in the Mini- CQS as well as the exposure of the results in disclosing their identity was voluntary.
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My research approach includes interviews to find out more about the organisational climate as it is related to cultural questions, for instance asking people who leave the company for their reasons. In these cases I worked together with HR departments which already today conduct ‘exit interviews’. As part of the study these interviews included open questions on the relevance of cultural aspects on the person’s decision to leave the company and on suggestions how to improve the organisational climate. All feedback was given to me in an aggregated and anonymous format.
The surveys as well as the interviews were conducted in English. The use of a common language, English, has been a central point in the feedback from internal interviews and customer surveys and an improvement in the English communication turned out to be an important factor in the development of the external and internal satisfaction scores. However, I also need to be aware that the level of English language knowledge, particularly for the Chinese colleagues, might influence the participants’ understanding and interpretation of the questions. Combined with cultural traits of conflict avoidance and not ‘loosing face’, participants may pretend to understand the questions although they do not. Therefore I included Chinese advisors for the survey reviews in the preparation phase to gather their opinions as to whether the survey text and the questions could be clearly understood. For the AARs I explained the questions at the end of each workshop when the feedback was collected, or this was done by dedicated people in the project – the concept of ‘Cultural Brokers’ is introduced in Chapter 6.4. Finally, all participants had my name as contact for any remaining questions. For the group work I was careful to address participants who were quite shy and restrained, possibly because of the English, individually without pushing them, to give them the time and the security they needed to speak up. Talking slowly in the workshop has indeed been a challenge for me. This has been a good opportunity to see that the internal regulation worked as people then reminded me to talk slowly.
To measure the effect of the intercultural programme on the climate within the participating departments, a large number of employees – in the best case all employees – should have joined the programme. There are practical limitations to this as the amount of training and even more the individual coaching capabilities are limited. Furthermore, people may not want to participate in the programme or they may not want to disclose their data. I needed to respect these views – all participation has been voluntary.
To stimulate a larger participation, people need to know about the programme. More advertisement may result in more participants. However, any hype on intercultural management within the departments may trigger response effects. Knowing that they are part of the programme where the management pays greater attention may influence their responses, either tailoring them to what they think I am expecting or in using the study to over-emphasise complaints on management, leadership, or communication. For each project initiation I had to find the right balance on the promotion of the programme.
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A considerable amount of information is collected on a qualitative basis and requires interpretation and also some filtering on what is relevant for intercultural management. At the same time I have a desire to explore the effectiveness of the programme. This may lead to a tendency to select data sources that are supportive for that aim and neglect any opposing data. This may even happen unconsciously, without bad intention. To withstand that temptation I agreed to select and interpret the data jointly with the Learning & Development (L&D) department.