Author(s): Cari Leyshon
The following qualitative study explored how the role of culture within the individual schema impacted barriers of communication with a group of diverse stakeholders in a European enforcement network. The study utilized both insider-researcher and cooperative inquiry while collecting multiple diverse perspectives with an online pre-test survey, in-depth interviews, an online focus group, meeting facilitation and participant observation. Four action research cycles were used to gain collective input to expose how the role of culture impacted participant’s personal biases, stereotypes, and judgments that potentially contributed to barriers of diverse communication. The collective data informed the implementation of actionable strategies to confront barriers such as language, lack of trust, conflict, and unacknowledged schemas that disrupt multicultural communication. This study validates the importance of individual acknowledgment of how culture influences their schema before diverse communication can be improved for collaboration to occur. The key findings further indicate how it was possible to change existing beliefs, stereotypes, and biases by first acknowledging what they are within a trusting environment. A focus on the individual’s unique schema overcame the complexities of the stakeholders’ multiple cultural identities to realize collaborative action. Actionable knowledge generated by collective stakeholders’ perspectives, was used to create a new European business initiative. Sustainable change occurred by placing the impact of culture at the heart of inquiry when conducting a diverse stakeholder analysis, combined with a collective leadership approach. In conclusion, culture impacted the stakeholders’ perception of reality, making change more effective at an individual level first, to confront the barriers of diverse communication in this European enforcement network.