We live in a global society. As businesses have invested in operational processes in different countries, value chains have grown from small-scale processes to complex global systems. With an international audience to cater to and a global workforce to manage, how do we adapt?

I was privileged to talk to Joydeep Hazra, Regional Product Manager at Nokia and respected professional in his field, having worked in more than thirty countries for the last fifteen years. From India to Finland to the United States, he’s led cross-cultural discussions within and outside of his company. For the past few years, he’s also been mentoring students from the University of Washington and Bellevue Community College.

 

BUILDING CULTURAL COMPETENCE

People have implicit racial biases where we unconsciously identify people based on race, ethnicity, nationality, and other factors. But every person has his or her personality, character, and set of preferences. Recognizing and adjusting to these factors by building cultural competence is critical to breaking these stereotypes. Companies should strive to identify and understand cultural and individual traits, and management and employees should communicate with stakeholders to create a better working environment. At Nokia, this is what they do.

 

DIVERSITY AT NOKIA

When Hazra started at Nokia, he saw that diversity policies were “not very clear.” He began in India where almost all employees came from the same region. Those who came from overseas were “working in silos” and “there was no way people could talk to them.” But Hazra mentioned that “it’s been improving over time.” As more people came from different parts of the world, diversity started becoming a core issue within the organization.

In response to this, Nokia began observing its people. While traveling abroad, employees started “recording their thoughts and their experiences” and shared “their lifestyle, their challenges, and how they coped [with working with people from different backgrounds].” They wrote these comments on a piece of paper and shared them with their departments. From this practice, Nokia learned trends in employees’ characteristics and behaviors and used this to optimize performance and results.

Currently, Hazra says that diversity at Nokia is “doing well.”  The company has been actively promoting more interaction and collaboration across cultures through discussions about culture, gender, and age groups, among others topics. Being a global company, Nokia provides a general framework to address issues and concerns since each locale has its particular challenges and ways of addressing issues.

 

BUILDING BETTER ORGANIZATIONS

Building cultural competence and having empathy enables us to work better. As we understand how to motivate employees and how to adapt to client personalities, we empower ourselves reach our personal, professional, and organizational goals.

At Nokia, diversity is considered a strength of the organization. Hazra said that “a diverse team always generates more ideas compared to a homogenous one, e.g. five people with diverse backgrounds will tend to generate five different ideas to solve a problem whereas a team of five people from a similar background will regurgitate the same five ideas.” A team that is engaged and has a collaborative environment—where employees provide feedback—can create better processes and make better decisions.  

Globalization enables people from around the world to interact in real time inherently creating internationally diverse environments and impacting global workplace demographics. Recognizing these factors and understanding that inclusion promotes better outcomes, companies like Nokia are striving to eliminate the opportunity gap for their ever-diversifying workforce.

 

The above are personal experiences and reflections. Corporate feedback should be obtained from Nokia human resources representatives.