Cross-Cultural Effectiveness for Geologists in the Global Marketplace

Philip R. Harris, Robert T. Moran

Professional geologists operating internationally need both technical and cross-cultural skills to be productive and effective. This presenter, co-author and co-editor of Gulf Publishing's Managing Cultural Differences book series, reviews the latter competences, as well as the characteristics for analyzing any culture to increase one's understanding for doing business with its representatives. As a psychologist, this author will provide insights for exercising transcultural leadership both at home and abroad with an increasingly diverse, multicultural workforce ... Cultural awareness and sensitivity in both managers and technicians can ensure program or project success, while the lack of it can undermine the best laid plans. Geologists who are more cosmopolitan, and less ethnocentric, will utilize an analytical model for cultural analysis of people differences. This includes understanding their (1) sense of time and space; (2) communication and language patterns; (3) dress and appearance; (4) food and feeding habits; (5) time and time consciousness; (6) relationship practices; (7) values and norms; (8) beliefs and attitudes; (9) mental process and learning; (10) work habits and practices.

Furthermore, organizations that send geologists overseas, especially to isolated and confined environments, will have a foreign deployment system in place for their personnel. This will consist of pre-departure employee assessment and orientation, on-site support and re-entry services which foster acculturation and high performance.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91020©1995 AAPG Annual Convention, Houston, Texas, May 5-8, 1995