IRELAND TEAMS CULTURAL DIVERSITY MANAGEMENT

Ireland Teams Cultural Diversity Management

Abstract

Little is known about how living between two cultures affects the psychological well being of immigrants . This study examined the relationships between cultural identity, role adaptation, quality of life of foreign nationals residing in the Republic of Ireland. Although the process of migration-adaptation is a challenging experience, it can also mean hope for a better future, safety, and security for some individuals and groups. Indeed, individuals and groups may not always respond in negative ways but instead there are some that may exhibit high resilience attitude to the adaptation stressors in their bid to survive at all cost in their newly found home. The present study was conducted between 18 of January 2010 and 27 March 2010 and participants were sourced voluntarily in Dublin, Maynooth, Kildare, Athlone and Mullingar. Based on the model developed by Berry 1997 to assess four acculturation attitudes of immigrants (assimilation, integration, separation, and marginalization ,integration was identified as the strategy of choice .This study contributes to existing research in the field of cross-cultural adaptation, by making visible the experiences of new arrivals  in Ireland which include International students, expatriates, refugees, diplomats etc and therefore  extending our understanding of the challenges they faced at that time. Finally, this study also provides insights on identity change in the cross-cultural adaptation process, as well as identifying strategies for preservation of one's original culture while adapting to a new cultural environment.

IMMIGRATION AND ADAPTATION STRESSORS

BACKGROUND OF RESEARCH

Historically Ireland, as a country of emigration had never been in receipt of significant numbers of immigrants  since the underdeveloped state of the Irish economy did not attract significant levels of migration. Overall, the insights offered by this thesis from an intercultural perspective reveal the positive and difficult aspects of mutual adjustment by both the immigrants  and their host society. The design of the broad based questionnaires covered the major adaptation related stressful areas, which were relevant to the core category of this research, namely cross cultural transformation:

INTRODUCTION

The emergence of a very different Ireland in the later part of the 20th century partly because of its economic expansion increased immigrants flow, and in effect, nearly 20% of the population today are foreign nationals. As a result, people from other parts of the world  have been living, working, raising their families and making their homes in Ireland for a number of years now and there is no doubt that more, will continue to come in the future as Ireland is no longer a monocultural Roman Catholic country  that it used to be but now striving towards becoming a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and even multi-religious society as a result of its open door policies on immigration issues . Interestingly, the Irish are tolerant of cultural diversity, and they show positive attitudes to immigrants in their communities. This attributes may be traceable to their long past experiences at home that led them to emigrate and also to the fact that most of the present day Irish have had cultural counter ...