Chasing the invisible This is so obvious... So WHY can’t we see it?

Managing multi-cultural teams in

conflict environments

Chasing the invisible

This is so obvious...

So WHY can’t we see it?

What is culture?

• ‘Culture, taken in its wide ethnographic sense, is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.’

• Edward Burnett Tylor ( 1871)

• How important is cultural competence for the 21st century peacekeepers?

Military maps

• RED

• BLUE

Attitude to “uniform”

Choose the word which best describes the attitude to police in your own country :

• respect• security • justice • force • fear • corruption

Are Hofstede’s cultural dimensions still valid?

Social networks : society structure

• social welfare Denmark • written rules Germany• tribal hierarchy Sierra Leone• religious beliefs ? • vertical hierarchy ?

Individual versus group

ДАНИЯ

High/Low context society

• All the information in words/all the information in codes

• Emotions hidden/emotional outbursts

• ? ??

PARIS - NEW YORK

Communication

Power distance: International contingent, Helmand

UK, US, Denmark and Estonia :

Different lines of communication

Different meanings behind various strategic concepts

OSCE Special Monitoring mission to Ukraine

• Established on 21 March 2014• 300 Monitors deployed in

the first two weeks• 57 countries sent their

representatives• Monitors operating in ten

cities across Ukraine

G8 Science Ministers’ meetingFinal document

• France Holistic approach, let’s involve all the emotions and have the document beautifully crafted

• Germany We have to make sure that all the rules and procedures are listed and thought through

• Italy We need to think how the changes of scientists careers’ affect their families

• Russia We disagree with a number of points and will come back to you with our position later.

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