Law enforcement interview*

Law enforcement Interview*

Interview Report This interview was conducted from Mr. Brown Lee. Mr. Brown is 40 years old and has been serving as a safety manager in a construction firm for ten years. He has done a diploma in safety management and keeps taking several; short courses to advance his career in safety management. This paper compiles a summary of his responses to the questions of interview and presents an interview report.
Mr. Brown Lee is an African American. Being an African American, the typical African American dialect was clearly noticeable in his speech. Occasionally, he would use slang language like the African Americans do. Mr. Brown’s nonverbal communication contributed just as much as his verbal communication did in conveying his meaning to me. He would raise his eyebrows to emphasize upon specific points while talking. Mr. Brown maintained a constant eye-contact while talking and also facilitated his speech with hand gestures.
This interview was 15 minutes long. The questions asked in the interview were as follows:
Since how long have you been serving as a safety manager in this company?
How is your experience of communicating with workers with different cultures?
Do people of one culture share similar attitudes toward safety and differ across cultures in these attitudes?
Can people’s cultural perceptions be changed? If yes, how?
Mr. Brown told me that while he can easily communicate with the American workers, he experiences linguistic barriers while communicating with the Chinese, Indian, and Pakistani workers. Mr. Brown said that while the Chinese, Indian, and Pakistani workers speak English in their local accents, it is not as much of a problem. The real problem is that they do not have fluency in English because of which, it sometimes takes a lot of time to convey little things to them.
Mr. Brown said that he noticed differing attitudes of people belonging to different cultures toward safety management. Mr. Brown said that while the African Americans and the Caucasian Americans tend to be very particular about safety management, Indian workers do not take personal safety very seriously. Also, while the Caucasian Americans take personal safety very seriously and consider it a means of keeping safe, the African Americans wear the safety equipment considering it part of the job, whereas the Indian workers think of the management’s requirement to wear personal protective equipment as a punishment.
Mr. Brown said that it is very difficult to change the perceptions of people particularly when they are grounded in their respective cultures. However, with education and counseling, a positive change can be brought, yet immediate results cannot be expected.
Overall, it was a very informative interview. Mr. Brown remained patient throughout the interview and actively participated in it. From this interview, I learnt that cultural traits also influence people’s attitudes toward safety. Hence, to improve the safety management at a construction site, it is imperative that the cultural perceptions of the workers toward safety are studied in detail and they are provided with the required training and education as per their needs and demands.