Managing the Hispanic Workforce 1 Understanding the Dimensions of Culture: Learning to Relate to Hispanic Employees

in agricultural and horticultural businesses in the Northeast has increased dramatically in recent years. This increase in people from Latin American cultures has introduced change into our workplaces and our communities. Decades ago the United States was referred to as a “melting pot. ” As groups of people of different nationalities, ethnicities, races, and religions came to this country they came together and blended to eventually resemble one another. Today, the term “salad bowl ” is often used to reflect the mixture of people in American society. We are all one population but with individual identities. Immigrants today often have the expectation of maintaining their cultural identity while participating in the American way of life. As agricultural and horticultural employers become familiar with the Hispanic workforce, cross-cultural understanding is essential to building healthy interpersonal relationships and strong communities. It is also essential in the workplace where supervisors find it important to take cultural values and beliefs into consideration as they manage their employees. Culture is defined as the set of values, attitudes, and beliefs that members come to share. Culture guides how a group of people perceives the world and how life is organized and experienced. Each person within a culture possesses learned ways of finding meaning in their actions and experiences. Culture is not genetic; it is learned from one’s social environment