Executive Housekeeping Today - March 2008 - (Page 6)

frugal housekeeper The young man stepped off the airplane and followed the lengthy line of travelers to the airport terminal. After much shuffling of official documents, such as passports and visas, his passport was stamped by a customs official. After picking up his luggage, he went outside into a new country and a new world. Within a few minutes, a taxi was whisking him downtown, to the heart of one of the largest cities in the world. He was sitting in a taxi, watching as the numbers on the meter seemed to be changing with alarming speed! The taxi he rode in was yellow; he was used to pretty much all black taxicabs. As he neared his destination in the center of the city, he looked out the taxicab window and up at the sky. “Yikes,” he thought, “the sky was gone, or maybe it had fallen!” As he looked up, all he could see were buildings, walls, and glass. This city had no sky, or so he thought. He stepped out of the cab and paid a huge sum of money to the taxi driver (enough money to buy him several good meals in his home country). As soon as the driver left, he looked up and up and up. Finally, there was the sky, way at the top of the huge buildings—skyscrapers, as some people called them. Suddenly, a huge car drove by—it was as big as a ship or, at least, so it seemed to the wide-eyed traveler. Then, there was another and another. In his home country, the cars were much smaller—actu- t Lessons from an Irish Immigrant: Bridging the Gap Between Organizational Cultures by Alan S. Bigger and Linda B. Bigger ally some of the smaller cars may have fit into the boot (oops—trunk!) of some of the big cars. It was the 1960s and bigger was better, at least in this city. Absentmindedly, he stepped off the curb and was nearly hit by a car. He was looking the wrong way, and the drivers all seemed to be driving on the wrong side of the road. “Shucks,” he thought to himself, “they don’t even know how to spell.” There was a “theatre” across the street, or that is what it seemed, but the spelling was wrong! Or, was it? “Theatre” was spelled “theater.” Things were different. A new visitor to a different country—new rules, new taxis, new spelling, new money. It was quite a culture shock and before long, he was thinking about his homeland and the certainty of that environment. However, the reality was that he had moved on to a new place, to uncertainty, and to a new country. Many immigrants before him had probably felt the same way, and maybe thousands have returned home, not being able to adapt to the change or accept the culture. Our culture is part of us, as this Irishman learned. To be successful in the new land, he’d have to learn the new culture and what was important in the culture in order to survive and be successful. There was a gap between his culture (the old homeland) and the culture of the new country. In order to be successful, that gap would have to be bridged. Likewise, when we hire new employees, there are gaps between the culture of the organization from whence they came and the new hiring organization; and the culture of an organization is very important. Writing in 2000, Jen Lund stated in the article Politics of Organization Culture: Make Leadership a Key Factor that “Today’s executives reflect a growing awareness of the importance of workplace culture.” Asim Khan of the Business Management Group, Inc., stressed the importance of organizational culture when he stated that, “The success of any company depends in part on the match between individuals and the culture of the organization.” In order for individuals and companies to be successful, there must be a match between the individual’s perception of the organization’s culture and the real culture of the organization. Much like the immigrant mentioned, in order for him to be successful in the great country in which he had arrived, he had to understand his perception of the culture and validate that view with the real culture of the country. The importance of organizational culture is often missed in the hiring process. Many sectors of our industry are plagued with high turnover rates and low retention rates, and we need every opportunity to make employees successful, 6 Executive Housekeeping Today/March 2008

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Executive Housekeeping Today - March 2008 Contents Executive Corner Mold Issues: Restoration and Prevention Mold Removal with Steam Vapor: Study Validates New Technology Frugal Housekeeper Executive Housekeeping Today Virtual Magazine is a Big Hit with Readers! Executive Profile The Green Scene 2008 Convention Information Inside the Industry Product Highlights New Members Joint IEHA/ISSA Members Advertisers' Index Calendar of Events Inside I.E.H.A. What I.E.H.A. Has Done For Me

Executive Housekeeping Today - March 2008

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