Your Task
You manage a cohesive, supportive and friendly work team in a business that is undergoing significant growth. In response to this growth, the company has hired some new staff from Thailand. Most of the new staff will soon join your team. Your current work team are all Australians. They have minimal experience working with people from different countries and little awareness of cultures beyond Australia. You are planning a training workshop that will be delivered to the current Australian staff and the new Thai employees. The workshop will deliver three
outcomes:
1. An appreciation of cultural differences based upon Hofstede’s model of Intercultural Dimensions and Edward T. Hall’s model of high-context versus low-context culture.
2. Practical examples of how to adapt messages to make these suitable for all members of staff. These examples will draw upon either Hofstede’s theory, Hall’s theory of high-context versus lowcontext cultures, or both.
3. Strategies and specific actions that will make the new staff feel accepted, supported and part of the team.