Cross-Cultural Effectiveness for Geologists
in the Global
Marketplace
Philip R. Harris, Robert T. Moran
Professional geologists
operating internationally need both technical and
cross-cultural skills to be productive and effective. This presenter, co-author
and co-editor of Gulf Publishing's Managing Cultural Differences book series,
reviews the latter competences, as well as the characteristics for analyzing any
culture to increase one's understanding for doing business with its
representatives. As a psychologist, this author will provide insights for
exercising transcultural leadership both at home and abroad with an increasingly
diverse, multicultural workforce ... Cultural awareness and sensitivity in both
managers and technicians can ensure program or project success, while the lack
of it can undermine the best laid plans.
Geologists
who are more cosmopolitan,
and less ethnocentric, will utilize an analytical model for cultural analysis of
people differences. This includes understanding their (1) sense of time and
space; (2) communication and language patterns; (3) dress and appearance; (4)
food and feeding habits; (5) time and time consciousness; (6) relationship
practices; (7) values and norms; (8) beliefs and attitudes; (9) mental process
and learning; (10) work habits and practices.
Furthermore, organizations that send geologists
overseas, especially to
isolated and confined environments, will have a foreign deployment system in
place for their personnel. This will consist of pre-departure employee
assessment and orientation, on-site support and re-entry services which foster
acculturation and high performance.
AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91020©1995 AAPG Annual Convention, Houston, Texas, May 5-8, 1995