Recruiting, Retaining and Promoting Culturally Different Employees [Paperback]

Two Canadians, veteran intercultualists, Lionel Laroche and Don Rutherford, one from either end of the continent, have written a book that is both more than it seems and less than it appears at first sight.

Titled to address the employment management of culturally different employees, the book is in fact much more, a full course in multicultural communication and management that could be even used as a textbook in such courses in an academic setting. It serves, as well, as a solid, learn-it-yourself manual for managers who may have scant acquaintance with multicultural issues and no operational skill sets for dealing with cultural difference. At once comprehensive in scope and simple in language and organization, this volume answers just about all of the questions one could ask about how to carry out managerial responsibilities toward newcomers to the workforce from around the world.

At the same time, the book is perhaps somewhat less than what the browsing manager or HR specialist might be looking for when first taking it from the bookstore shelf or spotting it on the Internet. Recruiting, Retaining and Promoting Culturally Different Employees is not a book about managing diversity in the workforce as we commonly understand it. In other words, the focus is on cultural difference, largely as it is found in immigrant populations and the impatriate workforce, and very specifically in North America. It does not address in any significant or direct way the cultural issues that are faced by those who are described as target groups within the native populations of Canada and the USA, viz., First Nations/American Indians, people of color, women, older workers, those with disabilities, etc., though these may fall into some of the cultural dimensions under discussion.

Rather Laroche and Rutherford center their efforts on effectively bringing and keeping non-native newcomers in organizations. They addresses bias from the functional point of view, i.e., what the uninitiated recruiter or manager is likely to do and think, and the uninitiated job-seeker or employee is likely to do and think. There is no moralizing, no unnecessary political correctness, and no guilt trip. It is not a diversity management or employment equity book in the common sense of these words in North America.

This having been said, the title is on target. Recruiting, Retaining and Promoting Culturally Different Employees is literally about these three activity sets in respect to the non-native population. The first chapter is the obligatory discussion of what culture is and how it works. This is followed by attention to the recruitment and selection processes, such things as finding, screening, and interviewing candidates from newcomer groups.

One of the book's merits shows up early in these chapters as the authors pay attention not only to what the manager or employer must do to be effective but also providing advice and tips for those who are the job seekers and eventual employees. While it is improbable that the immigrant job seeker will be the purchaser of this book, it is likely that counselors, recruiters and those who manage the selection process, who are the target users of the book, can offer advice to candidates to help them put their best foot forward.

Chapters 5 and 6 deal with supporting new hires with appropriate orientation and culture shock management as well as how to learn to communicate effectively across cultures. Then, two chapters about retention largely deal with polarities and behavior sets found in intercultural theory and practice about power distance and teaming. A chapter on retention addresses rewards and recognition but, more importantly, tells how to bring out the best in culturally different employees, meeting their needs for success as well as the organization's requirements for performance. The concluding short chapter looks at the mutual benefits of the efforts of both employees and organizations at bridging and using cultural difference.

There is an interesting Appendix on migration statistics for North America that also contains some useful numbers about the numbers of migrants in major cities around the world and where they come from.

The power and utility of this book is not in audacious new thinking, but in the detailed and simple presentation of the boilerplate of intercultural communication found in the models of Hofstede, Hall, Trompenaars and all the usual suspects. It is obvious that the authors wear these skills like an old shoe, with comfort and affection, and this enables them to write so directly, simply and practically about them.

One is almost tempted to think that this everything-you-wanted-to-know-about compendium somehow marks the end of a period by summing it up so well and leaving no questions unasked or unanswered. This, of course, leads to the question, "What's next?" as we face contemporary upheaval of populations due to political, economic and sustainability issues. Would we could take for granted common knowledge and practice of what this book proposes, so that more light may fall on the shadowy path in front of us.

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