Understanding Cultural Diversity among Foreign and Japanese workers

2022 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K04325
• Research Institution: International Christian University
• Principal Investigator: 笹尾 敏明 国際基督教大学, 教養学部, 特任教授 (10296791)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: cultural diversity / foreign workers / cultural complexity / work environment

Outline of Annual Research Achievements

The overall purpose of the study was to develop and validate a psychometrically valid scale that measures the concept of multilayered cultural complexity. With the pandemic, sampling and data collection were limited this year again. However, the project has shifted into a qualitative inquiry that entails more in-person interviews and focus group interviews in several industries. The work entailed more refinements of scale items and cross-validating in two additional languages besides English and Japanese.

Nonetheless, the project was re-directed because many of the industry workers have gone through the style of working due to the pandemic, although those working in small- to medium-sized companies or factories tended not to work in physical proximity, thereby very little interaction between foreign workers and Japanese workers. So, the concept of multilayered cultural complexity needs to be conceptually revised to account for contextual influences.