Praxis Note. 8. The multi-cultural iceberg. Exploring international relationships in Cambodian development organisations

From time to time in the Cambodian development sector, Cambodians and foreigners will be heard to express mystification and bewilderment about each other. While this happens less now than in the past when Cambodians and foreigners had had less exposure to each other, it is a fact that a deep and pervasive lack of cross-cultural understanding still exists.

The lack of understanding across cultures is of critical importance, because it is a primary cause of problems where there is an inability of people from different cultures to work together effectively (that term in itself is open to multiple cultural interpretations). Most multi-cultural organisations will have a history of great ideas that never became reality, the revised system which over time metamorphosed back to its previous form, the agreed action that never came to fruition.

Globally the development sector is structurally international and cross-cultural, but it appears that as yet little serious attention has been paid to the impact of cross-cultural issues in the functioning of the sector’s organisations. This Praxis Note explores challenges and opportunities of multicultural organisations.