Syrian Refugees: Who Helps the Helpers?
<1160 words> The harsh truth about helping Canada’s Syrian refugees is with us now. The state of their kids’ teeth, our inability to communicate in Arabic, and all that. I’m sure there are many misunderstandings that have the potential to gnaw at the goodwill cloud that swept the Canadian nation when first our new PM […]
Fairness is simple. Bring culture into it and bedevil everything.
The way of breaking through cultural barriers to fairness is to return to our human origins. Fairness is the default position; culture is the way in which we express and judge it. The more culturally divergent a workplace is the less likely it is we’d have consensus on what constitutes ‘fairness’.
This paper explores Brown’s human fundamentals via Pinker; Frans de Waal’s research on the moral behaviour of animals; and then human culture via Hofstede, with a view of stimulating HR to look at how they ‘do’ fairness differently. What is being done currently doesn’t quite meet the human standard of fairness.
And so, how does one set that standard? The answers are in your approach and your level of cultural competence.
Some ideas are offfered on how fairness might be viewed and enacted differently – if someone has the curiosity and courage to do it.
Ghostwriting & Mediation
It may seem an odd combination, being a ghostwriter and a mediator. This morning I realised that it isn’t so. The ghostwriting is not only an excellent proving ground for refining my writing skills but it is also giving me deep insights into the ways of mediation. I have a few Canadian clients but mostly they are from very different worlds – the Philippines, Australia, the USA, the Middle-East, East Africa, England. The writing involves a range of assignments which means that I’m broadening my general knowledge – often on topics I didn’t think I needed to know much about , but more frequently on topics that become fascinating as I work on them. My awareness of cultural nuances is sharpening as a result. Australians ARE very different from Canadians, for example.