UTZ

25 oktober 2017

InCross-culturele communicatietraining

General organizational profile

UTZ is a non-profit organization aiming to create a world where sustainable farming is the norm. UTZ has the largest certification program for coffee and cocoa and has certification schemes in other commodities including (herbal) tea, rooibos and hazelnuts. The UTZ certified label features on over 20,000 different products across 135 countries.

UTZ consists of approximately 140 employees, of who around 100 are based in headquarters Amsterdam, The Netherlands and around 40 colleagues are based abroad on various continents. Most nationalities in the Amsterdam headquarters are: Dutch, German, French and Latin American. Abroad the nationalities vary from China, Vietnam, India, Kenya, Ethiopia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Turkey, United States, Nicaragua and Guatemala to name a few.

UTZ consists of four executive directors, responsible of different impact areas. UTZ has 16 executive managers: one manager has a non-Dutch background, the rest of the managers are all Dutch nationals. Twelve teams are overall operational within UTZ.

An overall restructuring of the organization is taking place. In this process more powers will be given to the local directors and offices in other continents besides the headquarters in The Netherlands.

‘A survey amongst all employees of UTZ led to the request and need for a training on intercultural communication and more intercultural awareness.’

In general the working culture of UTZ is described by you as ‘relaxed and informal with a strong people oriented atmosphere and a strong working ethic and commitment towards meeting results’.

A survey amongst all employees of UTZ led to the request and need for a training on intercultural communication and more intercultural awareness as different styles in communication and value orientations arise at times, in specific about direct and indirect ways of communicating, on task/goal oriented focus or relationship focus to illustrate as example that came out of your survey.

In order to prevent further (minor) tension, friction and confusion from happening and improve skills of the staff of UTZ on dealing effectively and productively with cross cultural differences, expert advice from a specialized intercultural training organization / expert was asked.

Training

Diversity Matters offered the training and support to make UTZ a truly international company, with staff able to orient themselves internationally, shift perspective when needed and be effective in their communication across cultures. Diversity Matters offered several consecutive trainings of 1 day for 12-15 pp. maximum to the international staff over the course of 1 year.

Results

‘More understanding of how communication styles influence interactions between colleagues, my own strengths and weaknesses in relation to those styles and how to deal with conflict when styles clash’
‘Opportunity to look at myself out of the box’
“I have gaind more knowledge if intercultural communication, the different styles and their way of communicating and how to avoid mistakes”
“More insights about myself and good tips to understand others” • “refreshing, makes you think about sometime sthe obvious tings but usually not things we give enough time to”
‘More aware of the different intercultural communication styles’
‘Insights in your own dominant communication style abd how this is percievd by others’
‘Gained better understanding of what communication style I am lacking, what experiences of others can help me improve collaboration with my collegues’