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Managing Your Multi-cultural Starship

Written by: Dia Sutton

Article Overview: This article was written years ago. It combines my love for StarTrek and my professional work in diversity awareness training and leadership development. (Yes, I was a Trekie and I still have my Startrek communcator.) I feel this article in still relevant to todays managers and superviors. What do you think?

Managing Your Multi-cultural Starship

Managing Your Multi-cultural Starship In 1966 the Starship Enterprise set out on its five year mission with an unusual crew on the bridge. A crew which represented every color and creed in the human spectrum., and one race not even from earth. It was a minor miracle for television to show a Black woman and an Asian in positions of managerial responsibility. Now, more than thirty-five years later, it has become a commonplace corperate reality. No one notices the "miracle" of interracial presence in the StarTrek reruns anymore. No one notices the even more miraculous management achievement of Captain Kirk. He is a multi-cultural manager and -- at least on television -- a very successful one. Let's take a look at the Starship crew. Dr. McCoy, from the State of Georgia, has the prickly personal honor of a "southern gentleman" and is quick to react with outrage at anything he sees an as affront to his sense of dignity. Lt. Uhura -- whose name is the Swahili word for freedom -- grew up in Africa. Lt. Commander Scott ("Scotty") may have a Scottish brogue, but he is the true spiritual brother of every competent blue collar worker who ever came up through the ranks to management. Ensign Chekhov is a Russian Chauvinist who seldom misses a chance to explain how a Russian invented the airplane, radio, and the impulse engine. Ensign Sulu's family tree includes people from many parts of the orient and as such he is heir to the oldest human cultural tradition. And Mr. Spock is . . . well, Mr. Spock is Mr. Spock -- someone whose cultural background is ultimately unknowable. First, Captain Kirk is clear about his mission and he makes sure that it is clear to everyone who works with him. He is also clear that "seeking out new worlds" has nothing to do with what language his crew members learned at birth, how long their hair is or how they decorate their cabin. Kirk does not allow himself or anyone else to act as if the goal of the Enterprise is to have everyone conform to a stereotype. Next, Captain Kirk pays attention to the differences among his crew members and he respects them. When Mr. Spock states that the probability is "point nine three" that evacuating the colonists from Rigel Nine will fatally infect members of the Enterprise crew with their plague, Kirk does not tell Mr. Spock that he is an inhuman calculating machine. When Dr. McCoy says: "You can't just leave them down there to die, Jim. Let me get some of the colonists into sick bay, so I can try to find an anti-toxin," Kirk does not tell McCoy that he is a bleeding heart who is completely ignoring the danger to the Enterprise. Captain Kirk -- the multi-cultural manager -- is aware of the personality and cultural background of his subordinates. Spock and McCoy have both made important points. If Kirk insists that his crew conform to a single cultural style in all their expression, he will not only alienate a substantial portion of his crew, but -- much worse -- he may never hear anything at all from many of his subordinates. Captain Kirk also insists that the members of his crew respect each other. It is never acceptable for one crew member to insult another. Russian, Georgian, Black, Female, or Vulcan . . . any crew member who attacks another on that basis is wrong. It is the act of making the attack that is important. Kirk knows that he cannot change the personal prejudices of his crew, but he can and does insist that those prejudices are not expressed in any work context. No doubt Captain Kirk does not accept new crew members who cannot communicate around their cultural bias. Captain Kirk knows that he has blind spots. I am sure that Kirk spends some of his off duty hours on "continuing education for Starship Captains." No doubt this includes studying the different ways that people in the Federation think and behave. Kirk knows that the attitudes of his crew will surprise him from time to time. When it happens, he makes an extra effort to discover the crew member's point of view before he assumes that the crew member is behaving irrationally or committing a breach of discipline. There is really nothing about the management style of Starship Captain James T. Kirk that is unknown to enlightened managers of the twenty-first century. Kirk focuses on organizational goals, listens and communicates well, and enforces mutual respect among his subordinates. Nonetheless, Captain Kirk benefits from a multi-cultural perspective. We all know that if we want to manage from a multi-cultural perspective, we must: ● Recognize that differences (cultural, gender, sexual orientation, age, etc.) do exist. ● Learn about other cultures. ● Learn about our own cultural background, style and conditioning. ● Respect and be sensitive to individual differences and cultures. ● Root out stereotypes ● Set and communicate the goals for our organization. ● Explain the rules for workplace behavior ● Hold people accountable after explaining the rules ● Demand that workers respect one another on the job ● Aspire to flexibility. We can only guess what the Starfleet Academy taught Captain Kirk about managing a multi-cultural workforce, but I believe that we are going to have to learn those lessons much sooner than most people think. Managers with a mono-cultural perspective will not be employable in the twenty-first century. They certainly will never command a Starship.

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Article Tags: diversity awareness, leadership development, professional work, startrek, trekie



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