Danger and Opportunity Bridging Cultural Diversity for Competitive Advantage

The Chinese characters for "danger" and "opportunity" form the word "crisis". Ancient Chinese wisdom sees an opportunity in danger. While cultural diversity brings challenges to the workplace, how do we turn these challenges into opportunities? Drawing on their extensive experience working with multicultural and multinational organizations, Lionel Laroche and Caroline Yang provide an in-depth analysis of cross-cultural dynamics in the workplace and offer practical suggestions at both the individual and organizational levels.

The book analyzes cross-cultural challenges in six areas: the relative importance of technical and soft skills; cross-cultural communication; cross-cultural feedback; hierarchy; individualism; and risk tolerance. It then provides a solutions framework that encompasses people, systems and environment to bridge the issues that arise from cultural differences. The analysis and solutions are applied in four business contexts: managing a multicultural workforce; competing in the global talent market; collaborating with joint venture partners; and working with offshore resources.

If you work with colleagues, managers, employees and customers from diverse cultures, if you are with an organization that has a multicultural workforce and/or global operations, or if your organization collaborates with joint venture partners or offshore resources from different cultures, then Danger and Opportunity: Bridging Cultural Diversity for Competitive Advantage is the book for you.

1. Introduction 2. Cultural Factors and Concepts - Part I 3. Cultural Factors and Concepts - Part II 4. Managing a Multicultural Workforce 5. Working with Offshore Resources 6. Collaborating with Joint Venture Partners 7. Competing in the Global Talent Market 8. Conclusion

Lionel Laroche is founder of MultiCultural Business Solutions, Canada. He consults on the impact of cultural differences in multinational organizations. Lionel has written two books, and runs regular training programs.

Caroline Yang is a cross-cultural consultant at MultiCultural Business Solutions, Canada. With over 15 years' experience in human resources, she has authored books on leadership, teamwork and global human resource policies.