Consulting
How is your team communicating across cultures?
Globalise can review your current practice and provide:
- A detailed report on how your organisation is currently handling spoken and written cross-cultural communication
- Recommendations for future practice
- Professional development programs tailored to your specific needs
- Tools to help your team communicate more effectively across cultures
EXAMPLES OF PREVIOUS REVIEWS
Monash College
Monash College is a transition education provider that offers courses and foundation programs that prepare students for university entry. At the time of the review, about 90% of the enrolled students were from China.
Globalise was asked to manage the Cultural Diversity Project, which involved:
- Observing cross-cultural communication at classes and events
- Conducting interviews with teaching staff, professional staff and students
- Reviewing teaching materials, publications and communications
At the end of the project, Globalise provided a 12 page report on Monash College teaching practice, student services, orientation program and communication and the following tools:
- A 32-page handbook titled ‘Teaching International Students’ with sections on key challenges reported by staff (managing language barriers, facilitating class participation, facilitating group work and setting readings) with 10 accompanying Teachers’ Tipsheets which summarise key information
- A 90min training program on the Chinese education style
- A short video for international students demonstrating and explaining Australian-style class participation
- A report on the College Orientation program, with recommendations on how to make it as accessible as possible for newly arrived international students
- Recommendations on effective written communication across cultures
Deakin Student Life
Deakin Student Life administers services to students at Deakin University, which include a Deakin Medical Centre, a counselling service, the chaplaincy, the student advisory service, academic support services, and campus security services.
Globalise conducted an audit of cultural diversity management across the organisation, which involved:
- Interviews with staff and students
- Observing class run by academic support services
- Observing cross-cultural communication at all service desks
- Observing Orientation sessions and campus tours
- Reviewing publications, webpages and documents produced by the organisation
- Reviewing the professional development programs available to staff
At the end of the project, Globalise provided:
- A detailed report on cultural competency across the different sections within Deakin Student Life which flagged key areas of need for both staff and students and provided recommendations for future practice.
- Tailored training programs designed for specific groups of staff
- A Staff Resource that provided detailed information for staff working with international students. This Resource comprised two parts:
- Part A: General information for staff on using multicultural names, managing communication and language barriers, teaching across cultures and health care (general, sexual and mental) across cultures
- Part B: More in-depth information about the above topics organised by country for the top nine countries represented among international students at Deakin University.
- A visual flowchart of the Australian medical system with a glossary of key terms to assist medical centre reception staff with communicating this information to international students.
- A summary of key findings about international students’ sexual health with a detailed outline for a sexual health information session to be provided during Orientation.