Cultural Integration

I’m traveling to Washington in March, to speak at the ‘Families in Global Transition’ conference.  This year the theme is Cultural Integration and the Illusion of Closeness.  I will be speaking about Cultural Intelligence and how it contributes to cultural integration – more details below.

In the lead up to the conference, I’ve been thinking about cultural integration; what it really means and whether or not we have it in the workplaces and the social groups I am involved with here in Sydney. 

Integration can be defined as ‘incorporating as equals, individuals from different groups into an organization or society.'  It is not synonymous with assimilation and instead it recognizes the possibility of utilizing the strengths from each contributor.  Obviously there can be many barriers to integration, with language and culture presenting significant potential problems.

In joint ventures, off-shoring, mergers and acquisitions, the problem of integrating both the organizational culture and the national / ethnic culture, is often the root cause of failure.

In her classic book (International Dimensions of Organizational Behavior) Nancy Adler writes about different integration options.  She lists and describes the following global strategic options

• Cultural Dominance - adapting to the dominant cultures way - the way things were done at home 
• Cultural Accommodation - where the host country way is adopted
• Cultural Compromise - which combines these two approaches and usually involves one partner conceding
• Cultural Avoidance - whereby differences or potential conflicts are ignored as if they don’t exist
• Cultural Synergy - where the cultural differences are leveraged for advantage while respecting the cultural differences.  

According to Adler, Cultural Synergy requires a more inclusive and global view from the executives who use it and, in my opinion, demonstrates real integration. She also notes that Cultural Synergy is an approach not the approach and the most effective global managers will use each of the five options at various times and situations. 

Which strategic options are most used in your workplace?  And how effective are they?