Diversity Awareness in International Fieldwork
Abstract
The training session "Diversity Awareness in International Field Work" was conducted in a large multinational organization with offices located in a number of countries around the world. The organization's managers realized that its various programmes and projects in the field were not as successful as had been expected and therefore conducted a survey on the causes of this problem. The results indicated that these problems arose due to employees' insensitivity to the need for cultural adaptability while working in the field. Therefore, trainers were hired to conduct a short workshop with a view to heightening awareness of cultural diversity and to begin the process of eliminating prejudices, fears and stereotyping about people who were different. Furthermore, participants were exposed to measures they could employ to adapt/adjust to an unfamiliar cultural environment and were asked to determine what impact their willingness or unwillingness to do so would have on the people in the host culture and on their own self-identities.