Interculturality and employee engagement: a challenge for companies
A specialist in intercultural management, Catou Faust has been a professor at emlyon business school for nearly 10 years. Her research focuses on intercultural issues, whether it is national culture, corporate culture or generational culture. In an interview for ANDRH magazine, she talks about the HR issues of the moment, whether they concern cultural difference or the integration of Generation Z.
You have been teaching at emlyon business school for nearly 10 years. What are your areas of expertise?
I have lived and worked for more than 10 years outside my country, and I am passionate about observing how people from different cultures adjust to work together. I remain fascinated by the fact that we have different perspectives on many subjects such as decision-making and that we are rarely aware of it. I am convinced that working in a diverse environment in terms of cultures in the broad sense allows us to learn about others but above all a lot about ourselves: our ability to question our certainties and to realize that we no longer remember what justifies them if not the force of habit. Thus, I am interested in national or ethnic cultures but also in other forms of culture. In the case of a merger or a company takeover, it is also fascinating to observe how everyone is shaped by their own organizational culture: how they are influenced by what is perceived as "good" behavior or "good" practice in their company and how they find it difficult to change this prism.
I am also interested in human resources and in the issue of employee engagement, an important subject because the engagement rate is extremely low, especially in our country (7% according to the 2024 Gallup Study), while it is 33% in North America!
As a specialist in HR and intercultural management issues, what are the problems and challenges facing companies today?
In recent years, we've talked a lot about working time and talent retention. These are still important issues today, but they are taking back seats due to an economically unfavourable context. The question of commitment is now at the heart of the issues. As far as intercultural management is concerned, there are still few companies that are taking the subject head on! However, the issues related to cultural difference are increasingly important and affect everyone today.
Generation Z has different aspirations than seniors. How do you analyse this asymmetry?
Generation Z does not live on another planet: we all breathe the same air, we all live in the same social, economic, political and even digital context. The difference is that adults over 30 have experienced other contexts and this has marked them. They therefore carry within them a kind of ambivalence: there are practices or values that they regret about the past and others that they have been quick to adopt. As far as Generation Z is concerned, they have only breathed the air of today, it is their normality, their reference.
Thus, in some situations, points of view can diverge but also converge. As far as the relationship to work is concerned, for example, I am convinced that on many subjects, Generation Z is a kind of spokesperson for the aspirations of the elderly: because they had an education that put individuality strongly first, they dare to assert their expectations. But who wouldn't agree with the desire for a flatter hierarchy? Less marked statuses? More flexibility in working hours? More open communication? More frequent and encouraging feedback?
In these demands of Generation Z, we find many of the aspirations of generations X and Y. In the end, it's quite practical to let young people express these requests.
And within the school, what are the changes observed on the part of the students?
The big change, I think, is unfortunately the use of artificial intelligence. It happened suddenly, educational institutions and teachers didn't have time to prepare for it and our challenge today is: how do we make sure that students continue to use their brains? This is crucial.
As for their wishes, it's difficult to generalize, but what I see in a business school is still that security remains important, especially financial security. Even if they are often given importance to the search for meaning, this quickly comes up against the question of salaries (it is true that many of them are in debt in private education) and few decide to lower their standard of living to align their values with their work: For example, going into the associative or cooperative sector would be an interesting outlet for these students, but very few choose them as a first step. On the other hand, after 10 or 15 years, it is sometimes in this direction that they branch off after a disappointing start to their career.
The second thing that stands out is the desire to multiply experiences. Here, I think there is a real break with previous generations.
Article published in the supplement of the ANDRH magazine n°638 - May 2025