Employment Equity Career Development Office

Communication within a Diverse Workforce - a Skills Approach

We are just beginning to learn to recognize diversity as cultural phenomena, which affects and has an impact on the culture of an organization. As the composition of staff become more diversified, it poses new management challenges and opportunities. It therefore becomes essential that we know how to manage, support and enhance employees' participation and performance in all aspects of these diverse work settings. This training seeks to make a contribution to the managing of diversity.

This training focuses upon learning adaptive skills and will rely upon research and education work on multicultural communication, including the work of Paul Pedersen and Allen Ivey, which has been developed for career counselors to develop their interactional skills in diverse contexts and with diverse clients. This training is not directed to learning detailed practices of 'cultures'. Rather the training is focussed upon learning a limited number of career counselling techniques and will assist participants in developing adaptive skills which will show them how to 'learn' to communicate effectively when 'difference' is presented.

The training approach of this workshop is one, which will sensitize participants to differences and through actual practice, focuses upon increasing the participants' capacity by developing their skills to:

• Reflect upon and learn about their own interactive and communication practices in the context of the daily realities of diverse staff

• Recognize, explore and understand difference in interactional and communication patterns

• Develop and improvise interactional and communication strategies, which are effective and supportive in coaching people with diverse backgrounds.

The training will give participants the opportunity to practice these techniques and skills used on a daily basis at work such as attending, paraphrasing; questioning; reflecting feelings and confrontation. This training offers one dimension of skill development and seeks to advance managerial practice in the area of diversity.