- a seminar about cultural diversity in the workplace

We live in a time of rapid internalisation and the pressure to welcome new cultures and ideas into our workplace is increasing. What prejudices and value judgements prevent constructive encounters when people from different countries meet?

In this seminar we have chosen to illustrate both extremes of cultural prejudice, the immoderate and loud as well as the quiet and barely visible, as both types generate negative consequences. The active participation of the audience promotes a deeper understanding of the difficulties and the possibilities and forms a base for future discussions and development.

The plot of the dramatic part revolves around the recruitment of foreigners into the organisation. Can a Kenyan man be considered for the position of personel administrator? Is it pointless to even invite him to an interview? A cleaner at the organisation has a Swedish as well as a French engineering degree. When a position requiring his particular qualifications opens up he hands in his application. This provokes strong reactions with the associates as well as the directors of the organisation. Many different outlooks and attitudes towards the new and foreign are represented among the employees. During the course of the play, all these thoughts, questions, fears, and expectations will be ventilated between the characters as well as with the audience. A few of the issues and attitudes dealt with are:

· foreign habits and traditions
· that immigrants should be greatful to their hosting country
· prejudice about a foreign culture’s attitude toward women
· education
· exaggerated positive expectations of people from a different culture
· inability to see past the stereotypes
· failure to overlook a foreign accent
· feelings of inadequacy during cultural bumps and confrontations between associates.

“It´s not my responsibility that there are no foreigners at my job!”

This is a quote from one of the characters in the play and it symbolises one of the most important questions of the seminar: Who carries the responsibility for cultural diversity in the workplace? Integration issues often focus on the immigrant as the problem. This seminar concentrates on the common domestic attitudes that effectively obstruct the welcoming of foreign competence.