Using cultural awareness to create an efficient working environment

Abstract

This thesis aimed at using the concept of cultural awareness to increase the efficiency of a working environment by decreasing the time spent on misunderstandings and conflict, while simultaneously increasing output and revenue. The textile industry and Elis Suisse specifically built the frame for this paper. After clearly defining the terms Cultural Awareness, Working Environment, Efficiency, and Textile Industry the thesis looked at literature to get an understanding of both the basic theories of culture as well as cultural awareness. Further, it used literary resources to grasp the risks of lacking cultural awareness. From the literature, a questionnaire was formulated and implemented with Elis Suisse. The aim was to assess the following three areas: the level of cultural awareness currently present with the employees, examine the organizational culture and how it influences workers, and what tools would be of most interest to increase intercultural skills. From the in-field research, it is found that tolerance, open-mindedness, and patience are oftentimes enough to handle most intercultural situations. However, cultural awareness is needed to further hone and master those skills. For industry-wide use, the grill party is determined to be the most appropriate tool when trying to teach employees about cultural awareness. Workshops and other types of courses are understood to have a necessity for tailoring, according to the company’s needs and issues. Overall, cultural awareness is still a rather new and scarcely implemented concept that holds promising leads for an intercultural future.