Human Resources: Supporting Your Multicultural Workforce During a Military Conflict

The events surrounding the war and world tensions are traumatic for people all over the world. The threat to people´s safety and sense of order have a profound impact regardless of country or culture.

Times of trauma and uncertainty bring out the best and the worst in people. While people may feel united by fear of a common situation, war also wears people down and opens the door for intolerance and anger. In this way, current world events have an impact not only on a large scale but also at the level of community and individual relationships. How these events are processed and the impact they have differ between cultural and ethnic groups.

In recent years, the workforce has become increasingly multicultural. Moving forward, the different experiences and expressions of trauma and fear will be apparent in a multicultural society and workplace. This could be cause for misunderstanding and misgivings. In times of great emotion, people resort to the comfort of their earliest and deepest cultural or ethnic values. For instance, a person who has strayed from religious practices may gravitate towards the solace and support within their place of worship and start attending services again.

Impact On The Individual

During a military conflict, many employees may experience heightened emotions. As a result, some individuals might:

Seek a sense of belonging and connection to share their concerns and to give and receive support.
Revert to their mother tongue as it is the language of their emotions.
Seek guidance around cultural and historical values on dealing with fear and anger.
Return to past (personal or community) experiences that were similarly traumatic (i.e. triggering experiences of political or ethnic violence in their own country).
Return to past (personal or community) experience in search of guidance on how to handle the current events.

This may express itself in the following ways, among others:

Different use of the spoken word. In many cultures the spoken word is not used as the main tool of communication. When there is a mismatch in communication, the person who expresses verbally may feel they are not being heard, and the person who does not use spoken language to process may feel overwhelmed and embarrassed by the verbal disclosures of the other.
Different expressions in non-verbal communication: The cultural norms range from no display of emotions to a cultural acceptance of greatly overt and public expression of emotion. The person who does not show emotion may be seen as cold and indifferent while the person expressing emotion publicly may be seen as exaggerating and wanting attention.
Different rituals are perceived to be appropriate and comforting. People may choose to remember loss or to celebrate life.
Different expressions of the inability to cope. (i.e. As an individual becomes depressed this may not be recognized, since he or she may express depression through anger or has a value system that does not allow personal feelings to be visible in the workplace.)

When cultures clash, there may be polarization between groups which leads to stronger "us and them" thinking. Some groups may feel invalidated (i.e. Americans away from home may find that their host culture is not sympathetic or understanding of their values), some may feel they are not allowed to talk about what current world events means to them, and some may feel threatened and unsafe as anger and intolerance rises.

How Managers Can Support Employees

Managers working with multicultural staff will be challenged to educate themselves and their staff and to model tolerance and inclusiveness. In seeking to support staff in these troubled times, consider:

Proactively acknowledging the impact of war-related events
Proactively acknowledging that the events will have unique meaning to different individuals and communities
Consulting with staff on how to support cultural differences in relation to the impact of the war
Reinforcing the message of cultural respect, inclusiveness and zero tolerance regarding harassment, political aggression or inappropriateness in the workplace
Without singling out any individual or group, where possible, consider the impact of current global events on different cultures when scheduling meetings and designing team initiatives

Michel Arsenault, Director of Global Trauma Services for FGI, received his Masters of Social Work degree from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He has been practicing clinical Social Work for several years, specializing in counseling individuals and groups dealing with trauma. He is also a Certified Trauma Responder through the American Association of Traumatic Stress Specialists. Michel oversees the operations of the department, complemented by an experienced Trauma Team, 350 trained Trauma counselors across the country and 100 trained counselors around the world. Michel Arsenault can be reached at marsenault[at]fgiworld.com.

Gabor Gellert, Regional Manager, Trauma Services for FGI, has 12 years of clinical management experience, both in EAP and Trauma Services. His additional 25-year career in the mental health field includes direct counseling experience for a wide range of issues, and he has conducted more than 125 critical incident stress defusings and debriefings. Gabor received his Master of Education (Counseling Psychology) from McGill University in 1977. He also holds a Bachelor of Science Degree from Concordia University, a diploma in Education from McGill and a diploma in Addiction Studies from McMaster University. Gabor has completed his Basic and Advanced certificate in Critical Incident Stress Management from the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation. Gabor Gellert can be reached at ggellert[at]fgiworld.com.