How does business continuity management effectively address cultural diversity in international commerce?

Cultural diversity can pose a huge challenge to those trying to manage multi-national organisations. As if the currency, language differences, time zones, and issues caused by natural features are not enough to contend with, often people in overseas branches have entirely different ways of doing things – both professionally and socially. The difficulty in trying to establish and implement business resilience as part of business continuity management is to not only overcome these differences but use them to develop resilience at a deeper level.

An understanding of local and global awareness of risks is essential in any business continuity planning and management. Without paying due regard to the people who will effectively implement the plans on the ground, there is a danger that ‘good’ planning will turn out to be not so good after all. Getting people onside, wherever they are located in the world, and no matter what their cultural practices is a huge step in creating robust disaster management plans and embedding business resilience.

Communication plays a huge part in getting staff members on side. You not only need to talk to staff all the way up and down the workforce spectrum, but listen, and listen well. For example, the existence of a variety of cultural or ethnic groups within any organisation may mean that a company needs to meet the practical and psychological needs of staff having a variety of religious beliefs and observances which may affect working patterns; listening to those staff can give you some good ideas for how to build in resilience.

Due to the huge diversity of culture, economy, and geography faced by different branches of a multi-national organisation, there won’t be a ‘one-size-fits-all’ business continuity plan. At best you will have to adapt the plan to suit each branch, but we have also found it beneficial to let each branch create its own plan. Encouraging team members to share their ideas on continuity management can reap big rewards.

As those who work in each branch are all too familiar with the challenges they face on a daily basis, they are in the best position to be able to identify the business operations most at risk and have some experience of dealing with typical issues. Being told what to look out for and how to react by someone in a global HQ thousands of miles away may not only be a terrible way of keeping remote branches on side, it can also be foolhardy. Business continuity policies will be interpreted and implemented as the local management team see fit, and once the plans start being tweaked at will, best-laid plans go out of the window. Have policies that can be adhered to from the get-go, and everyone will know what they are supposed to do should disaster strike.

When designing a business resilience programme for your company, you should consult with those who do the essential tasks on a daily basis. Find out their concerns and ask how they deal with common problems. Write policies that integrate cultural practices rather than try to eradicate them. Culture is not something you can wish away, no matter how bad it may be for your business plan.

The key is to listen to your team members, create policies which create resilience and embrace cultural practices, and communicate them well to the team members they concern.

Author bio: In his lengthy experience he has encountered cultural diversity in all its forms and successfully incorporated it into his clients’ business continuity plans.