Managing a Multi-Cultural Workforce - Literature review Example

Topic: Managing a multi-cultural workforce Introduction Managing a multicultural workforce is considered a most challenging task for managers in an organisation. Challenges in this environment may for example emanate from undue favourism or discrimination of the workforce. This is because a multicultural workforce comprises of numerous different cultural groups that are diverse in terms of “gender, age, language, ethnicity, cultural background, sexual orientation and religious belief” (Tatli and Özbilgin, 2008). It also relates to the myriad ways in which individuals differ from one another in respect to “educational level, job function, socio-economic background, personality profile, geographic location and marital status” (Taylor, 1991). Managing a multicultural workforce becomes even more challenging when migrants are involved. It is in no doubt that most projects in the construction industry have progressively become multicultural, especially those countries lacking enough labourers. As observed by Anderson and Rogaly (2005), these countries are now turning to migrants to work in the sectors that are despised by their counterparts in the host countries. In view of this realisation, construction project managers are reportedly faced with a number of significant challenges especially in the management of safety, health and environmental risks to the workers. This paper purposes to identify and discuss the main safety, health and environmental challenges that project managers have to contend with in handling a multicultural workforce and give a critical assessment of the potential solutions to the challenges. Literature and research Published research findings tend to confirm that a significant number of migrants are currently working in the UK construction industry. These reports further claim that the numbers of migrants in the construction industry have increased tremendously in a span of seven years from 18,000 in 2000 to 93,000 in 2007 (Chappell et al, 2008). Despite this revelation, the management of safety, health and environmental risks faced by this workforce has remained unchanged. It is therefore not surprising to note that the rate of accidents and deaths have continued to rise. Dainty et al (2007) for instance report that five migrants were killed in Britain’s construction industry in 2005/2006 and a further five the following year. This turned out to be the highest construction related death toll for five years as noted by Owen (2007). This alarming evidence suggests that stringent measures should be introduced to the construction industry in order to combat the additional health and safety risks plaguing migrant workers. Highlighted hereunder are some of the commonest safety and health challenges the project manager has to overcome when handling a multicultural workforce of migrants. It is common knowledge that migrants largely operate within the most unskilled and dangerous trades in the world. For this reason, their safety, health and environmental concerns are greatly compromised as noted by Chappell et al (2008). Moreover, migrant workers are known to lack adequate experience and aptitude to carry out their mandate in these otherwise precarious work environments. Coupled with long working hours and under different cultures, migrants find it difficult to ensure their own safety and that of their co-workers (Bust et al, 2007). McKay et al (2006) concur with this by pointing out that migrant workers report more accidents caused by human-related mistakes. Viewed from this perspective, the project manager faces an uphill task in ensuring safe and health environment for this intricate workforce. Another key challenge resides in the fact that a multicultural workforce has a limited means of communication occasioned by language and cultural barrier. Accessed information on UK construction industry suggests that majority of migrants in construction are handicapped when communicating using English language (Bust et al, 2007). Fine (1996) stresses that miscommunication within an organisation is the most notable setback in passing messages between individuals. In its presence therefore, meanings of messages can never be completely shared between individuals holding varying views (Bust et al, 2007). In a study findings reported by Billy (2006), health and safety managers contended that the language barrier was the biggest contributor to risks in a multicultural workforce. Their views were also reiterated by migrants themselves after admitting that they found it difficult to communicate within the workforce. In recollecting these thoughts, it is suggestive that many migrant workers do not understand all aspects of the site induction due to language issues and thus poses a big safety and health management challenge. In addition to the miscommunication challenge within a multicultural workforce, Scott (2007) cites cultural bias as yet another factor that challenges the project manger. Cultural bias on one hand includes both prejudice and discrimination that may be held by a group of individuals over another. Boswell (2005) argues that “prejudice implies negative attitudes toward an organisation member on the basis of cultural orientation while discrimination is the observable adverse behaviour for the same reason”. Based on these two aspects of cultural bias, migrants appear to readily accept working in a dangerous manner probably because they come from countries where health and safety standards are very relaxed (Collett, 2006). Other industry players argue that many migrants are unaware of their responsibility to manage their own safety and that of others (Owen, 2007). Migrants have been shown to lack training, trade-specific skills and qualifications that can be used during the selection and recruitment process. The project manager is thus forced to make the process simple and quick. Because migrants have limited construction experience either in their home country or the UK, industry players stress that a workforce of this caliber is prone to safety and health risks (Walck, 1995). Moreover, the nature of work found in the construction industry places migrants at added risk due to their relatively short periods of work in the UK. This relates to the challenge of assimilation which is defined by Fine (1996) as the ability of a worker to become familiar in a new work environment and adapt to it as soon as possible. Unfortunately, Fine (1996) argues that those workers who assimilate soon enough never get the opportunity to develop themselves within the workforce. Potential solutions and strategies After having accessed a number of research works on the challenges facing managers in a multicultural workforce of migrants, it has emerged that not all of them are “at risk” regarding their safety and health at work. To this end, several solutions have been suggested in diffusing these concerns. Most of these measures are mainly concentrated around reducing risks pertinent with the language and cultural barriers; working patterns and the high risk sectors preserved for migrants (Brownell, 2003). Addressing these concerns, coupled with the establishment of best practice guidance on the management of migrants is deemed to end the spiraling number of accidents reportedly bedeviling this workforce. In so doing, I strongly believe that most organisations at large will create safer environments to the benefit of everyone. In respect to the widespread challenge of language and cultural barriers to communication and training in safety and healthy environment of migrant workers, it is critical for the management to take steps that can help in mitigating this challenge. Some people have insinuated that English language should be made the only language of communication for all UK construction sites (Brownell, 2003). Supporters of this school of thought argue that careful planning and good application of techniques can help this proposal achieve its objectives. They further argue that employers of migrants exceeding a certain percentage should be mandated to provide them with free of charge English language sessions (Chappell et al, 2008). In their views, this move is hoped to reduce the number of non-English speaking migrants working in construction sites. In addition to this, Bust et al (2007) stresses good English speakers could be asked to act as interpreters whenever possible. As a last resort, the management can recommend the use of nonverbal communication to get through the barriers. Remotely related to this strategy, employers should be educated on effective migrant management techniques as suggested by Tatli and Özbilgin (2008). Additionally, the construction industry should consider employing bi-lingual supervisors to help with the miscommunication problem. It is further proposed that the management of a multicultural workforce should try partnering of migrants with workers of the host country in order to ensure their safety and health environment. According to reports by Dainty et al (2007), this is a most popular measure among employers who consider it very effective. In contrast, health and safety managers pointed out that employers need to be educated on the health and safety pitfalls of employing migrants with little industry experience and limited English language skills (Scott, 2007). According to them, employers should be encouraged to increase levels of migrant monitoring on-site and to keep regular contact in order to review working conditions. Regarding the challenge that migrant workers largely operate within the most unskilled and dangerous trades, it has become imperative that the accident reporting process in organsations be improved. As researched literature highlighted, it is not yet routine practice to record the accidents in the victim’s country of birth including their length of stay in the UK. This information would be very helpful in causal analysis studies. As stated earlier, migrants are also particularly poor at reporting accidents. In view of this, the whole accident reporting process should thus be re-evaluated to facilitate accuracy of future investigations (Tatli and Özbilgin, 2008). The literature researched also indicates that there are large numbers of undocumented workers in the construction industry. This makes any analysis of data for migrants unrealistic and any findings should be treated cautiously. Furthermore, the industry needs to establish the extent of the undocumented workers in order to facilitate accurate research in the future. It is also important to increase levels and quality of health and safety training for the migrant workers particularly in terms of intensity and delivery (Walck, 1995). The current research has yielded strong evidence that migrants have received little training in their lives despite their responsiveness and willingness to learn. It is therefore important to encourage migrants to expand their skills base for them to work in skilled, less hazardous trades (Bust et al, 2007). This suggestion is in line with another advocating for the provision of transport and accommodation for workers in a multicultural setting. Provision of these two incentives could be in the best interest of the project manager in ensuring workers’ maximum health and safety (Scott, 2007). Discussion and conclusion The preceding sections have clearly demonstrated how challenging it can be to manage a multicultural workforce of migrants in the construction industry. In the same stride, potential solutions to these challenges have also been presented through a comparative analysis. It is now the onus of this section to critically assess the enumerated solutions so as to identify the best for adoption by project managers. On reviewing the stated solutions and strategies, I find it in order to concur with extant literature about the fundamental role played by language and cultural barriers to communication and training in safety, health and environment of the multicultural workforce. Suggested solutions to this challenge are wide and varied. They include but not limited to making English language the only language of communication for all UK construction sites; mandating employers to provide migrants with free of charge English language sessions; employing bi-lingual supervisors; introducing the use of nonverbal communication or even engaging good speakers of English to act as interpreters (Anderson and Rogaly, 2005). These solutions in my view are the best options under the circumstances as they centre on employees who are less familiar with the primary language spoken within the organisation. Secondly, the solution to the challenge of minimising migrants’ exposure to safety, health and environmental risks due to the nature of their assignments seems attainable in my views. Improving the accident reporting process in multicultural organizations seems to be the most natural thing to do. Drawing from the literature accessed, migrants are reported to be particularly poor at reporting accidents and should thus be inducted to refine their skills. This effort should be extended to cover other areas that might help the migrants improve their trade-specific skills and give them adequate experience and aptitude to stand up to the challenge of the tasks they undertake (Collett, 2006). These new qualifications gained will ease the manager’s task in job matching. This paper has attempted to assess the challenges faced by project managers in the management of safety, health and environment of a multicultural workforce in the construction industry in UK and their potential solutions. Among these solutions, the one for minimising miscommunication due to language and cultural barriers emerged as the best followed by that of improving accident reporting process in multicultural organisations. My take is that having an integrated approach of bringing on board the other solutions remains the most viable solution for the project manager. References Anderson, B and Rogaly, B. (2005) Forced Labour and Migration to the UK. Oxford: COMPAS with the Trades Union Congress. Billy, V. (2006) High Impact Diversity Consulting. San Francisco, CA: Diversity Training University International Publications Division. Boswell, C (2005) Migration in Europe, A paper prepared for the Policy Analysis and Research Programme of the Global Commission on International Migration, Migration Research Group, Hamburg Institute of International Economics. Brownell, J. (2003) Developing Receiver-Centered Communication in Diverse Organizations. Listening Professional, 2(1), 5-25 Bust, P. D., Gibb, A.G and Pink, S. (2007) Managing construction health and safety: Migrant workers and communicating safety messages. Safety Science, V46, no.4, p585 – 602 Chappell, L., Sriskandarajah, D, and Swinburn, T. (2008) Building a New Home: Migration in the UK construction sector. Economics of Migration project, Working Paper 2. Institute for Public Policy Research, London. Collett, E (2006) One size fits all? EPC Working paper No.24 Dainty, A., Gibb, A., Bust, P., and Goodier, C (2007) Health, Safety and Welfare of Migrant Construction Workers in the South East of England. Report for the Institution of Civil Engineers, Department of Civil and Building Engineering, Loughborough University. Fine, M. G. (1996) Cultural Diversity in the Workplace: The State of the Field. Journal of Business Communication, 33(4), 485-502. McKay, S., Craw, M. and Chopra, D. (2006) Migrant workers in England and Wales: an assessment of migrant worker health and safety risks. Report for HSE by Working Lives Research Institute, London Metropolitan University, London. Owen, E. (2007) Shock rise in site deaths down to language barrier, New Civil Engineer, p11 Scott, P. (2007) The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. Tatli, A and Özbilgin, M. F. (2008) Global Diversity Management: An Evidence Based Approach, Palgrave Macmillan. Taylor, C. (1991) The Multicultural Organization. Academy of Management Executive, 5(2), 34-47. Walck, C. L. (1995) Editor’s introduction: Diverse approaches to managing diversity. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 31, 119-123. Read More