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We have provided numerous consultations and presentations on the subject of multicultural organizations. Since we are located in Sacramento, California, where there is no majority cultural or racial group, we interacts with a variety of cultures on a daily basis. Sacramento was featured in the September 5, 2002 cover story for Time Magazine because of the many cultures in the region, including East Indian, Balkan, Russian, Hmong, Vietnamese, Korean, Chinese, Laotian, Thai, Nigerian, Eritrean, Mexican, Salvadoran, Guatemalan, Honduran, Costa Rican, Columbian, Chilean, Argentinean, among others. Regarding culture-specific organizations, she has worked with various Asian and Hispanic organizations.
In terms of culture-specific knowledge, we are most familiar with the twenty-one Hispanic national cultures and many of the subcultures in Latin
America and Spain. Dr. LaCalle has worked extensively with organizations that employee a high percentage of Hispanics. She has traveled widely throughout Mexico and Latin America. She has presented lectures or workshops in Mexico, Argentina, Columbia, and Panama. Our other consultants have also traveled widely in Mexico.
With the globalization of the world economy and with the increased numbers of immigrants and first generation Americans in the United States workforce, it is imperative that organizational leaders and employees understand each other's cultures.
In particular, multicultural workplaces must have the intercultural skills to . . .
- successfully develop immigrant employees who have not yet completely adjusted to our culture
- increase mutual understanding and cooperation among a diverse workforce
- leverage the benefits of multiple and unique
perspectives that are intrinsic in multicultural
organizations
- improve employee retention due to the organization's cultural competency
- provide better customer service to
culturally diverse consumers and clients
Organizations will benefit from cross-cultural training on topics such as:
- What is culture?
- How are the cultural values among cultural groups
both different and similar?
- When and how do communication styles differ?
- Why do problems occur with translation?
- What is the important social and business etiquette for each culture?
- Why do intercultural conflicts occur and what can be done to resolve them?
- How can different cultures work together more efficiently?
Our bilingual skills in English and Spanish enables us to work directly with your monolingual and limited-English-speaking Hispanic employees. Nearly all of our services--including consulting, facilitating, coaching, mediating employee conflicts, and training--are delivered in either English or Spanish.
Spanish-speaking employees must be offered training, in their native language, to enable them to be better employees and provide them skills for occupational advancement. Training for Spanish-speaking employees may include:
- Supervisory skills
- Cross-cultural understanding
- Time management and organization
- Sexual harassment prevention
- Team building
- Conflict resolution
- Negotiation
- Communication
- Compliance with safety regulations
