Cultural stereotypes of Italian employers

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Размещено на http://www.Allbest.Ru/

Размещено на http://www.Allbest.Ru/

Federal state autonomous educational institution for higher professional education

National research university higher school of economics

Faculty of Humanities

Department of Foreign Languages

Degree program "Foreign languages and intercultural communication"

BACHELOR'S THESIS

Field of study: Intercultural communication

Cultural stereotypes of Italian employers

Student Elizaveta Khorsova

Supervisor:

Professor Yashina M.G.

Moscow, 2019

Contents

Introduction

1. The phenomenon of a stereotype and its role in the process of intercultural communication

1.1 The emergence and development of stereotypes as an aspect of a communication act

1.2 The types and functions of cultural stereotypes

1.3 The role of cultural stereotypes in the modern business environment

2. Cultural stereotypes in the framework of employment opportunities in Italy

2.1 The essence of cultural prejudices among Italian employers

2.2 Possible strategies for prevention and resolution of conflicts between Italian employers and non-Italian employees

3. Survey as a method of monitoring the current situation at Italy's labor market

3.1 The structure of the survey

3.2 The presentation of the collected data

3.3 Analysis and results of the survey

Conclusion

References

Appendix

Introduction

In the modern world cultural prejudice is getting more and more influential in social and business environment. The process of cross-cultural communication may be affected by biased attitude from one of the sides towards its interlocutor. Such prejudice is normally caused by cultural stereotypes. Even though people realize that generalizing and judging an individual basing on his cultural origins and background is not a highly professional strategy, subconsciously they tend to do so followed by stereotype thinking. Therefore, in order to perform a successful communication act it is essential to be aware of possible obstacles that might be caused by generalizations as well as to acquire the necessary skills of an intercultural communicator. It is also essential to be aware of the possible reasons for their emergence and the way they function. Generalizing and stereotype thinking is the obstacle that usually prevents interlocutors from perceiving each other correctly. That is why it is essential to study more precisely the phenomenon of a stereotype in both social and business environments.

The relevance of the present research can be considered in terms of a current employment situation in the whole world and at the Italian labor market in particular. Due to the existing economic situation and political strategy taken by Italian government immigrants have received more opportunities to move to Italy and find work. This area of study has not been explored well by researchers. The existence of gaps in research studies may be explained by the fact that the crucial changes in legislation have been made recently. Moreover, there is no definite statistics yet because of the unstable and constantly evolving situation regarding immigrants.

The main aim of the study is to investigate the phenomenon of a cultural stereotype and its influence on the process of cross-cultural communication in terms of social and business environment as well as to observe the current situation on the Italian labor market and to reveal the linkage between cultural prejudice and opportunities of employment in Italy.

The object of the current project is stereotypes as one of the obstacles in the process of intercultural communication in social and business spheres.

Since the study is expected to include several issues, we can distinguish the following goals:

* To define the phenomenon of a cultural stereotype and its role in the process of intercultural communication;

* To reveal the existence of cultural stereotypes in business environment;

* To collect data on the current situation at the Italian labor market basing on the correlation of Italian and non-Italian employees and their qualifications;

* To prove or disprove the hypothesis of the biased attitude of Italian employers towards potential non-Italian employees;

• To suggest some possible strategies of amelioration the relationship between Italian employers and immigrants as potential workers.

* To conduct and analyze the results of the survey with Italian employers, Italian and non-Italian workers in order to find out their true opinion of the degree of probability for a foreigner to get a job in Italy.

Theoretical value of this work is that due to constantly changing political, economic and social conditions in the modern world, stereotypes remain one of the crucial obstacles of a successful cross-cultural communication and it is important to provide the reasons for their emergence as well as the ways to deal with them. In particular, this research might be a valuable source for academic, business and social spheres, since its content encompasses all these fields. It can be useful as a material for social studies, cultural studies, intercultural communication studies, political studies and psychological studies. Moreover, it may be a valuable source for foreign employees that come to Italy for business purposes and might be prepared with the help of this research.

Practical value of our research is that it suggests some possible strategies of amelioration of the relationship between Italian employers and foreign employees. In terms of employment situation at Italian labour makes such contribution might be highly valuable in the modern business environment.

The methods of the research are:

• Survey with multiple choice questions and open questions that will reveal the real situation of employment in Italy from the points of view of the participants of different statuses;

* Collecting and analyzing data on the current political and economic situation in Italy in terms of employment opportunities for immigrants and natives.

1. The phenomenon of a stereotype and its role in the process of intercultural communication

1.1 The emergence and development of stereotypes as an aspect of a communication act

In our everyday life we constantly face the preset images of the representatives of our own and other cultures and nationalities. Sometimes we do not even realize it, this prejudicing process happens subconsciously. Our attitude towards their individual and common features is determined by such judgements that attribute to a social group certain cultural and behavioral characteristics. These preset schemes are called cultural stereotypes (ancient Greek уфесеьт (stereуs) - "solid" and ф?мрпт (tъpos) - "sort, type") and denote a simplified, schematized, emotionally colored and relatively sustainable image of an ethnic group, which is related to all its representatives (Tchesnokova, 2015).

The phenomenon of a stereotype was first introduced by the French winter Didot in 1798 and its original meaning was "a printing process involving the use of fixed casts of the material to be reproduced" (Ashmore& Del Boca, 1981). Then, approximately a hundred years later a term "stereotypy" which is related to "stereotype" appeared in the field of psychology and denoted a specific pathological condition. Only in 1922 with the publication of "Public Opinion" by the American writer Walter Lippmann the attention of social scientists was addressed to a stereotype as a social concept. At first this concept implemented the standardized image of a social phenomenon. Lippmann came up with several ideas regarding this issue and some of them were used in further conceptualizations. According to Lippmann, stereotypes are the most sophisticated and widespread mechanisms of influence. They are sustained, they possess some value characteristics (both positive and negative) and denote "the images of the world" determined by culture, which helps to perceive complicated social phenomena more easily (Tretyakova, 2015). From Lippmann's point of view, stereotypes are "cognitive structures that help individuals process information about the environment" (Lippmann, 1922). Today such a definition may seem to us too general and possessing positive features, while a modern concept of a stereotype usually has a negative meaning. Psychologists tend to define them as "incorrect generalizations that are rigid, oversimplified and biased" (Stroebe&Insko, 1989). Wolfgang Stroebe and Chester Insko have come up with their own definition of a stereotype as a "set of beliefs about the personal attributes of a group of people" (ibid, 1989).

In 1922, Rupert Brown in his «Prejudice: Its Social Psychology» regards stereotypes as "indispensable cognitive devices" that help to understand, negotiate and construct the social world of an individual (Brown, 1995). According to him, stereotypes emerge in a person's mind not only because of his background or the social environment in which he was raised but also from his own categorization process of perception the features that the members of other group share and that differ from his own. One of the reasons may also be the socio-economic differences that create biased attitude towards minority groups. Brown in his work points out the influence of stereotypes on people's judgments and one of the most correct ways of regarding stereotypes is as hypotheses used to search confirmatory information. He also suggests that people who are preoccupied by their own concerns tend to use stereotypes more, since they spend their cognitive attention on these distractions, whereas stereotypes require less attention and cognitive activity what makes them the labour-saving way (ibid., 1995).

The phenomenon of stereotype mainly emerged from the human need of differentiating the terms "native" and "foreign", "good" and "bad" caused by diverse and rapid social changes. The perception of other, foreign, unfamiliar forms of behavior is an inherent part of intercultural communication. This concept is closely connected with the analysis of perception by people the representatives of their own and other political, religious, cultural societies, as well as their own and other genders, ages, professions, generations, social statuses, and so on. Language is a part of representation of a stereotyped communicative model that is connected with determination of the relevant or irrelevant speech behavior. It is correlated with the perception of culture as well and with the stereotyped forms of speech behavior in particular (Tretyakova, 2015).

Stereotypes were formed as the result of intercultural communication between the representatives of different nations. Deutsch precision, British politeness, French elegance, Italian emotionality, Finnish slowness, etc. - these are all generalized images of different nations that relate to all their members (Tchesnokova, 2015).

During a communication act with the representatives of other cultures a person subconsciously tends to perceive their behavior from his own position. It is highly probable that nobody is capable of creating an absolutely objective image of a certain group of people or constantly comprehend an ample number of aspects of the world around him. In this respect, the tendency to correlate the unknown phenomena with the already existing and understandable ones turns out to be a natural human trait.

Stereotypes were an integral part of cross-cultural communication in all historic periods. Their content might have varied due to certain economic, political and socio-sutural conditions. According to Alexander Sadochin, during the process of interpretation the behavior of the representatives of a foreign culture "the content of casual attribution is largely determined by stereotyped images of each of the sides about the other one. These are ideas of their lifestyles, traditions, morals, habits, i.e., about the ethnocultural characteristics of a certain people. They are based on simplified mental representations of various categories of people that overestimate their common qualities and ignore differences" (Sadochin, 2004).

There are different studies that attempted to classify the reasons for the emergence of stereotypes. Bergmann divides the existing theories into four large groups:

1) Theories of individual psychology and psychodynamic personality theories explain the phenomenon of stereotypes by interpersonal conflicts and lack of development. According to this approach, stereotypes appear as a result of inadequate procession of one's own inner conflicts and expressing them. An individual tries to resolve his interpersonal conflicts using the pseudo-protecting system of stereotypes. Depending on the theory, different conflicts are stressed: Oedipus conflict, authoritative approach of education, frustration, etc.

2) Cognitive theories of social development consider basic forms of human perception and thinking processes as the main trigger for stereotypes emergence. In terms of cognitive psychology, stereotypes are ordinary processes of information recycling. In order to maintain successful orientation in the world it is essential to systemize the incoming information. As a result, all the perceived categories are ordered and easy to learn during the education process. External and social differences, such as gender, nationality, style, manners, behavior, etc. make up the features that an individual learns in the process of socialization. And chording to these features, individuals are "distributed" to different categories.

3) Social groups theories define competition and intergroup conflict as the reason for stereotypes appearance. They include numerous socio-psychological and sociological approaches. It is considered that ethnocentric overestimation of one's native group increases its inner homogeneousness and therefore simplifies the inner processes of decision making while improving friendly atmosphere within the group. On the one hand, a high level of ethnocentrism increases the motivation to contribute to the group and facilitates learning the group norms. On the other hand, it leads to incorrect perception of other groups, high level of conflicts and creation of negative stereotypes.

4) Theories of social and cultural education of groups and individuals stress the explanation of the process of stereotypes transmission. These theories originate from the fact that every culture has its unique and relatively stable number of settings, norms and values that regulate its attitude towards other ethnic groups. According to this approach, the emergence of stereotypes is explained by a permanent interaction of individuals with other representatives of their social environment and in the process of socialization they learn the assessments and attitudes to other groups by such mechanisms as imitation, identification, observations, prohibitions, and so on (Bergmann, 1987).

All the approaches mentioned above have their advantages and disadvantages. Not all of them are appropriate to be regarded in the context of intercultural communication. Obviously, that psychodynamic theories can explain extremely negative stereotypes of an individual and can hardly be utilized in terms of "ordinary" stereotypes. The explanation of stereotypes provided by the theory of cognitive psychology seems to be more suitable for this target. In its turn, social groups theories can explicate the phenomenon of collective stereotypes and competition. Theories of cultural education can also be a valuable source for intercultural communication since they are closely connected with cross-cultural interactions.

It is impossible to get rid of cultural stereotypes completely. Psychologists claim that even frequent contacts with the representatives of other nations might only increase the already existing ones. According to psychological studies, the reason of this tendency is that in the process of interaction people are prone to pay attention to those particular behavioral features that verify already existing ideas. Stereotypes are a natural reaction of human psychics and help it to interpret the incoming information.

1.2. The types and functions of cultural stereotypes

The mechanisms of stereotyping are studied in various sciences, such as linguistics, sociology, psychology, cultural studies. There are two major groups of cultural stereotypes: auto-stereotypes and hetero-stereotypes. Auto-stereotypes implement the perception by a social group or ethnical community its own culture. Hetero-stereotypes denote the images of a culture made by other peoples or societies (Tchesnokova, 2015). They are formed as a result of intercultural meetings and interactions as well as by the influence of literature, art and mass media.

Pavlovskaya suggests the classification of cultural stereotypes according to the duration of their existence and their influence on the perception of one nation by others: superficial and deep stereotypes (Pavlovskaya, 1998). According to her, superficial stereotypes are images of a nation or a people that were caused by historic, political, international situation or other factors. Such stereotypes get modified in accordance with global and social changes. The duration of their existed depends on the general stability of the society. As a rule, they are images that are connected with certain historic realities. Unlike superficial ones, deep stereotypes are stable, unchangeable and cannot be modified in course of time. These stereotypes provide the material for studying the features of the stereotyped people as well as reveal the peculiarities of its culture.

Functions of stereotypes

Stereotypes play an important role in the process of perception, comprehension and assessment of the environment. They also help to analyze and predict future events and react on them in a relevant way. Normally, stereotyped thinking is not consciously controlled. They are perceived as something objective and are rarely analyzed. Such "conserved" judgements are accepted and used in everyday communication even without any personal experience of interaction with a representative of the mentioned culture (Rot, 2006).

Stereotypes are not only an individual psychological phenomenon but also a social one. In the process of socialization a child subconsciously adopts the generalized images of other cultures that exist in his native one. Then he transfers them to the next generation and so on. Therefore, stereotypes exist for a long time and can be affected only by some significant changes in public opinion.

The common meaning of the term "stereotype" carries a rather negative connotation as it is often associated with something preset and unoriginal. However in intercultural communication they are not accepted that unambiguously since stereotyped ideas of different cultural features exist in everyone's mind in a varying degree. There are several main positive functions of stereotypes in the process of cross-cultural communication:

• Information. To a certain extent stereotypes contain objective information about the environment, despite being a result of an exaggerated generalization of the existing traits or qualities of other cultures). Thanks to them we have a certain image of people who we have never met in real life and of some peculiar features that we have only heard about.

• Categorization. Stereotypes help to divide the flow of incoming information into several categories. The emergence of stereotypes is closely connected with the particular features of a human ability to perceive information as well as with some common strategies of building mental images. A person is able to perceive information only by categorizing objects. Stereotyped thinking serves to recycle the complicated reality.

• Orientation. Stereotypes let us orientate in the world around us. They are necessary for our cognitive system and serve for individual and social orientation in the huge amount of information, help to process and structure it into patterned schemes. If it is possible to put a piece of information into already existing forms it can be processed, if not, the cognitive dissonance appears. With the help of stereotyping we can create a "simplified matrix of the environment, in the cells of which, basing on the stereotypes, certain social groups are put" (Grushevitskaya, Popkov, Sadochin, 2002). As a result, people become divided into groups basing on the stereotype features and all members of these groups are considered to have standardized thinking and behavior.

• Complexity reduction. From a psychological point of view, the mechanism of stereotype emergence can be explained by a principle of "effort saving, common for human thinking. This principle implements that people do not tend to react on the appearing phenomena in a new way but to attribute them to the existing categories" (ibid., 2002). The constantly changing world may overload a person's psychics with new information and makes him classify it into more convenient models. This leads to selective perception of incoming emotions. The system of stereotypes is a well-ordered, regulated and more or less sustainable picture of the world, in which people and things take their proper place and behave exactly the way they are expected to.

• Self-identification and delimitation. Stereotypes create the feeling of belonging to a certain group and of restricting it from negatively perceived other ones. These feelings are based on a person's tendency to divide everything into "own" and "foreign". As a rule, the "own" is considered more positively and diversely than the "foreign". Such a phenomenon might appear as a result of ethnocentrism, the tendency to judge someone basing on one's own cultural norms. The representatives of one's own culture constitute a group of people that have common aspects in thinking, feelings and acts. Self-identification of a person with one group automatically means his restriction from other ones. When two cultures clash, each side basing on its own background tends to reveal the degree of similarity between them as well as the alternative variations and equivalents that they have to deal with. In the interaction with a foreign culture nostrocentrism plays a significant role. It implies the situation, in which one's own point of view and experience are generalized and absolutized. Moreover, this process usually happens subconsciously.

• Protection of the native group's values. Stereotypes serve for creation a positive identification image of one's native culture. As a result of stereotyping, it is possible to compare and assess one's own and foreign cultures. Therefore, it becomes feasible to protect his own group's values and traditions. In this respect, stereotypes become "a mechanism of protection that serves for maintaining positive identity of one's own group. Such a delimitation is connected with a phenomenon of in-group favoritism that implements the creation of a more positive image of one's own culture as compared to others" (Grushevitskaya, Popkov, Sadochin, 2002). Negative stereotypes appear to be attributed to foreign cultures in order to retain positive characteristics for his native one. In the process of socialization a person subconsciously adopts the stereotypes predominant in his society. Depending on the setting that currently prevails in the society an individual will form his own one according to the preset subjective categories existing in the society (Tretyakova, 2015).

• Cultural shock softening. The phenomenon of stereotype stands for simplifying of elaborated and complicated social realities to trivial connotations. According to Ter-Minasova, "despite the schematism and generalizations, stereotypes about other people and other cultures prepare an individual for the clash with a foreign culture and therefore, soften cultural shock" (Ter-Minasova, 2007).

Undoubtedly, there is a number of features that stereotypes possess, due to which they may negatively affect a communication act. The process of perceiving a foreign culture may happen of different levels: from professional ethnographical, geographical and social studies about other nations, to primitive and often ideologically negatively colored products of mass culture. Mass media frequently replicates the existing stereotypes, simplifies schemes and patterns which exaggerate some common features of the representatives of other cultures while ignoring the distinguishing ones. Because of the abundance of such sources when a person meets a representative of another culture he already possess a number of stereotypes and that can negatively affect the communication process and even ruin it at the very beginning. There are no people completely free of cliches, we can only take into consideration various levels of stereotyped thinking. This cognitive process depends on two factors: on individual psychological features of the interlocutors (the level of tolerance, friendliness, etc.) and on their experience in intercultural communication (Tchesnokova, 2015) .

Stereotypes may be effective in the process of cross-cultural interaction only if they are use as first and positive guess about a person or a culture and are not considered as an absolute true. They may negatively affect a communication if they relate people to wrong communities, provide incorrect information about norms, traditions and morals, if stereotypes are mixed up with the description of an individual or if people do not manage to modify stereotypes basing on their personal experience and observations. Therefore, they may become a serious obstacle in a cross-cultural communication act. In general, there are several main reasons for that:

1) It is hard to reveal true individual characteristics of people. Stereotyping implements all members of a group to possess certain traits. Such an approach is used with the whole group in general as well as with every individual that belongs to it for a long period of time, despite their individual variations.

2) Stereotypes repeat and intensify some beliefs until people start to consider them true.

3) Stereotypes base on the half-truths and misrepresentations. It means that having real characteristics of a group, stereotypes misrepresent the reality and offer inaccurate images of people. What is more, usually people consider their stereotypes true being unaware of the fact that our conscious is selective (Popkov, 2002).

1.3 The role of cultural stereotypes in the modern business environment

Cultural differences have a significant influence on business environment. This influence has considerably increased in recent years due to globalization. As a result, the representatives of different nations and cultures on the one hand, have got an opportunity to expand their work opportunities and increase their personal level of life but on the other hand, have found themselves obliged to coexist with each other at their workplaces. Sometimes intercultural communication incompetence may lead to miscommunications that generally lead to intercultural and interpersonal conflicts. The necessity to control the relationship between coworkers and maintain friendly environment at work lead to the emergence of a special branch of studies in business management: multicultural or ethnic management that analyzes the traditions and stereotypes that have coworkers from different nations (Ageev, 2006).

Sarah Lanier suggested her theory, according to which all the cultures existing in the world can be divided int two groups: the "hot climate" (or tribal) and the "cold climate" (or urbanized) cultures. In the "hot climate" cultures the relationship between people are based on their personal connections, whereas in the "cold climate" ones the relationship are based on the cooperative achievement of goals and dealing with issues. The first system of relationship is group-oriented, while the second one is individual-oriented. These cultures often contradict each other, especially during their interactions with each other (Lanier, 2000).

Another classification was suggested by Edward T. Hall who divided cultures into two groups: "high-context" and "low-context" basing on the rooted behavioral traditions in a community.

In the cultures of the first type the traditions were formed hundreds or even thousands of years ago and it is extremely hard or even impossible to modify them. People of these cultures are prone to act in a formalized way and pay a lot of attention to etiquette, rules, etc. The second type was formed in relatively young countries, where the population is more varied and does not have many traditions and, as a rule, do not pay high attention to them. These are main differences in business management (Hall, 1976).

In business environment, stereotypes can be modified according to the changing conditions. Gregory Tillett claims that prejudiced attitude towards migrant workers is usually based on two different types of stereotypes. In the period of economic downturn, the population perceives immigrants as invaders who take workplaces away from local citizens. Whereas in the period of economic growth, locals distinguish immigrants who contradict the traditions of their country. Whatever type of stereotypes the prejudices are based on, they lead to negative consequences and create unhealthy environment within the society. Because of them, it is hard or even impossible to establish and maintain friendly and trustworthy relationship between hostile groups of the society. It is especially hard to confront stereotypes that exist between two ethnic groups for a long period of time and have a continuous conflict history (Tillett, 1999,).

The Institute for Cultural Democracy of the United States has formulated six key principles of business management that are highly recommended to be used by employees and managers of multiethnic companies:

1. Communication: Every people has its own body language and some gestures might have opposite signification in different cultures. Besides, even some words and expressions might have different meanings. Therefore, in order to lead a successful intercultural communication and avoid or prevent possible conflicts it is essential to be aware of this aspect.

2. Conflict: Some people consider conflicts a positive phenomenon, whereas others try to avoid them as much as possible. For example, in the USA people prefer to discuss openly the problem in order to resolve the conflict, while some eastern cultures tend to separate the conflicting sides and prevent the conflict since an open public argument is unacceptable.

3. Task orientation: Task orientation differences are explained by a number of factors, such as monochromic/ polychromic cultural differences, success criteria, etc. For instance, in business environment Asian and Hispanic people pay more attention to personal relationship creation than Europeans and Americans. In their turn, the representatives of European and American cultures give the major importance to task performance, while the relationship are expected to be maintained naturally during the work process. However neither of these approaches guarantees more or less successful task performance.

4. Decision making: This aspect can also vary greatly from culture to culture and have a considerable influence on work performance process, results and work environment. Generally, in the USA the boss delegates a part of his duties to his employee who is completely responsible for the performance of this or that task. In cases when the decision is made collectively, usually point of view of the majority is accepted. Whereas, for example, in Japan all parties try to find a compromise that would satisfy everyone. In many countries of south Europe and Latin America the boss makes all decisions by himself.

5. Openness: This aspect is especially noticeable during conflicts. For instance, in some cultures boss and employees are aware of some facts of their colleague's private life, while for others private life is open only for nearest relatives and friends. In case of a conflict this awareness or unawareness of private life details of an individual can play a considerable role since one of the parties may feel to be treated unfairly because of his or her private issues.

6. Knowledge: The representatives of different cultures use various methods of gaining knowledge. Generally, Europeans are prone to learn about an issue basing on strict criteria, i.e., reading literature, measuring, analyzing, while paying less attention to already existing information about the subject. Africans tend to refer to symbols and imagination, while in Asian cultures the best way of acquiring knowledge is considered to be transcendental methods. As a result, in order to get information about the subject Europeans would prefer to go to the library, Africans would attempt to familiarize themselves with the issue directly using non-scientific methods, whereas Asians would tend to search for an expert of the field (Ageev, 2006).

2. Cultural stereotypes in the framework of employment opportunities in Italy

2.1 The essence of cultural prejudices among Italian employers

Stereotypes and cultural prejudices have not been studied well in terms of business environment and therefore, they have not been widely observed as factors of inequality of job opportunities. In order to explore this area, it is essential to consider the general immigration tendencies in the country of the interest and their correlation with the changes in the situation at the labor market. What is more, the latest scientific and publicistic articles related to the studied issue are expected to clarify the current attitudes towards migrant job-seekers in the Italian business environment.

Immigration tendencies in Italy

In the last 50 years Italy has become a multicultural country due to continuous arrivals of immigrants. The first immigration flows were recorded in the 1970s but in the next decade the immigration phenomenon became even more noticeable. In the 1970s, 143'838 foreign citizens legally resided in Italy. Over the next ten years, the number of foreigners in Italy doubled, reaching 300'000 visitors in 1980. In 1990, the number of immigrants with a residence permit also doubled, reaching a total of 781'000 people. In the subsequent period of the 1990s, the number of immigrants continued to increase however it did not affect the overall immigration situation in the country significantly. Nevertheless, due to mass immigration flows, Italy has faced an ethnic and cultural puzzle that was unprecedented or reflected in recent European history and, in particular, in the current immigration landscape (Conti, 2008).

According to ISTAT (Italian National Institute of Statistics) data on the national demographic balance, Italy is currently one of the main European destinations of substantial immigration flows and the number of immigrants continues to grow. From 2008, the foreign population regularly presents approximately 3,5 million people from different parts of the world: mainly from the East Europe as well as from Africa, Asia, America. Up to 2018, 5'144'440 foreign citizens became Italian residents, which is 8.5% of the total resident population (60'483'973 people) (ISTAT, 2017). However it should be mentioned that ISTAT data on resident foreign citizens do not include Italian naturalized foreigners and irregular foreign citizens. According to the 2011 population census, Italian naturalized foreigners were 607'394. Acquisitions of citizenship are constantly increasing, from 4'158 in 1991, to 10'401 in 2001, to 65'383 in 2012 and up to 178'035 in 2015 (ibid., 2017). In this respect it is essential to distinguish the regular and irregular immigrants and consider the difference in their employment opportunities.

Education as a factor of opportunities for employment

The level of education is a significant factor of job opportunities in most of the countries in the world and in all developed countries. A diploma of higher education is usually considered by employers as a guarantee of an employer's high awareness of his field and his professionalism. Therefore, according to this criterion the essence of prejudices of employers towards foreign job-seekers can be especially noticeable.

According to Maria Pia Belloni, Francesco Fasani e Giovanni Osea Giuntella, the foreign population resident in Italy has a level of education similar to that of the Italian population. Istat and Bank of Italy sources report that 39.4% of the Italian population have a high school diploma compared to 38.9% of the foreign population. What is more, the correlation between Italians and foreigners with a university degree is around 12.5% ??against 10.2% (Hassan, Minale, 2010).

According to another source, Directorate General for Immigration and Integration Policies of the Ministry of Labor and Social Policies of Italy, foreign entrepreneurs, employers and freelancers in percentage have even higher degree than Italians. In particular, 28,3% of foreign entrepreneurs, 67% of freelancers and 9,4% of self-employed workers have a degree against only 19,8%, 64,6% and 7,9% of Italians respectively. Moreover, 38,7% of foreign employees have a graduation, while only 28,8% of Italian employees do. Finally, 6,5% of foreign workers have a degree and 42,6 have a diploma, against only 1,6% and 40,9% of Italians respectively (Riboldi, 2018).

Nevertheless, despite having high qualification, migrant workers tend to be paid less than Italians. In 2016, an average monthly salary of full time employees is estimated to be € 1,501 for Italians, € 1,203 for EU citizens and € 1,124 for non-EU citizens. Therefore, on average the Community members' salaries are 19,9% ??and non-EU citizens' salaries are 25,2% less than native Italian workers'. Comparing these data to the ones of the second quarter of 2017, there can be noticed an increase in both Italian employees (+ 0,6%) and those employed in other EU (1,1%) and non-EU countries (+0,8 %) (ibid, 2018).

However, despite the fact that Italian employees have a relatively equal level of education or even lower than non-Italian one, Alessandra Venturini and Claudia Villosio claim that even being highly educated, employed migrants tend to have poorly paid and low-quality jobs (Venturini, Villosio, 2017). According to the study they conducted, native Italians who not only have an equal level of education with migrant workers but even being less educated in general tend to have higher wages. The authors explain this phenomenon by the economic crisis, which has deteriorated the quality of jobs and caused a high segmentation of Italian labour market in terms of foreign and native job-seekers (ibid., 2017). What is more, migrant workers are mostly concentrated in a small number of so-called "ethnicised jobs" and it does not seem feasible for them to change their occupations. Another consequence of the long-lasting economic crisis are the crucial changes in Italian economy that ended up in the reinforcement of the low-skill production model, which has negatively affected immigrants' employment opportunities. In general, the crisis has exacerbated the general situation of on the Italian labour market for foreigners increasing at the same time their high segregation in specific low-quality sectors and jobs along with no career upgrading and widespread over-qualification (ibid., 2017).

Undoubtedly, economic crisis has played a significant role in the changes of Italian economy and labour market. However, it is only one of the possible reasons of the fact that migrants are prone to have low-skilled and poorly paid jobs and difficult work conditions. Economic conditions might necessitate employers to cut down their workers' salaries or worsen work conditions to some extent, however it can hardly explain the fact that native Italians generally have more employment chances even being less educated or skilled than migrant job-seekers. A long-lasting economic recession might cause mass dismissals and job cuts but rather for all the employees, regardless their nationality. Therefore, cultural stereotypes are expected to be one of the major reasons for that.

Myths and stereotypes about foreign employees

It is widely believed in Italy that immigrants "steal" jobs from native Italians. Such a stereotype creates a hostile attitude towards migrant workers among their Italian colleagues as well as reduces their chances of employment. According to the survey conducted by Demos in November 2017, the hostility towards immigrants increased in comparison with the data of the previous year: every tenth Italian claimed to be frightened by immigrants. Never before has the percentage been so high. The fact that at present immigrants might be treated worse than ever is explained by misinformation, clichйs and stereotypes that in some cases turned into real myths (Camilli, 2018).

One of the most rooted myths is that which assigns immigrants a role of competitors for Italians in terms of employment. However, it was dispelled by Moressa Foundation's Report on Immigration Economics. According to the study conducted in 2017, immigrants are reserved only for unskilled jobs, partly rejected by Italians. In agriculture, for example, most of the workmen are of foreign origin, while almost 90% of specialized farmers are Italian citizens. Foreigners do not reduce the employment of Italians but progressively assume the less qualified positions abandoned by them, especially in the field of personal services, construction and agriculture. These are sectors that encompass predominantly manual work, which is normally heavier, poorly paid and which provides contracts that offer no stability (ibid., 2018). From the data provided by ISTAT, it emerges that more than a third of immigrants have unskilled jobs (36% against 9% of Italians), 29,3% work as skilled workers and only 6,7% are qualified professionals. The most common jobs among immigrants are some particular categories: 74% of domestic workers are foreigners as well as 56% of carers and 51% of street vendors. What is more, 39,8% of fishermen, shepherds and lumberjacks are of foreign origin, so as 30% of construction workers and agricultural workers (ibid., 2018).

Nevertheless, despite the fact that the majority of immigrants is likely to take low-skilled and undervalued jobs, there is still a certain percent of foreigners hired by Italian transnational companies purposefully for the communication with international clients. As a rule, such employees have a higher education degree and are highly valued by their employers.

What is more, nowadays Italy pays great attention as far as possible to attracting foreign students. For instance, all leading Italian universities such as Ca'Foscari University of Venice, Politehnico di Milano, University of Bologna, Sapienza University of Rome and others offer English-taught courses, exchange programs and various opportunities of education for foreign students. Undoubtedly, having an Italian higher education degree it is easier to get a job even for a foreigner. What is more, generally, migrant job-seekers tend to be more motivated, flexible and goal-oriented than Italians and these personal qualities sometimes appear to be essential for certain companies.

Overall, employment chances and work conditions for foreign job-seekers are influenced by two factors: on the one hand, stereotypes and prejudices existing in every person's mind are likely to reduce the chances and cause unequal treatment, while on the other hand, globalization and economic needs of an individual company and the country on the whole tend to enhance foreigners' employment. Other aspects that regulate business relationships in Italy are the types of work and the types of work contracts that exist in Italy. Due to the expanded area of the research and the versatility of the topic it does not seem to be possible to study in the framework of a single research. However, it provides opportunities for further studies.

2.2 Possible strategies for prevention and resolution of conflicts between Italian employers and non-Italian employees

Cultural stereotypes are highly likely to take place in every cross-cultural communication act and especially in the business sphere. Lack of communicative skills and awareness of the principles of intercultural communication and conflict management might lead to negative consequences, such as miscommunication, misinterpretation, prejudices and conflicts. It does not seem feasible to change the opinions of large groups of people and therefore ameliorate their relationship with the help of one study. A large promotion company along with mass media and propaganda actions should act in order to deliver this message and call many people to action. In cross-cultural communication cultural conflicts are highly likely to happen, nevertheless it is still possible to contribute to the amelioration of Italian employers' attitude to foreign job-seekers but suggesting a number of effective strategies for conflict resolution.

In Italy, the attitude of employers towards migrant job-seekers seems to be influenced by cultural stereotypes and poor knowledge of intercultural conflict management can only worsen the situation. It is important to mention that conflict does not have only a negative connotation as is commonly believed. Stella Ting-Toomey defines the term conflict as "A state of dissonance or collision between two forces or systems. <…> The perceived and/or actual incompatibility of values, expectations, processes, or outcomes between two or more parties from different cultures over substantive and/or relational issues" (Samovar, Porter, McDaniel, 2014). From these definitions it is clear that a conflict is a clash or incompatibility of two parties, which is not necessarily caused by hostile attitudes and not always leads to negative consequences.

There are two main types of conflict: destructive conflict and constructive conflict. Destructive conflict creates an unhealthy environment, which does not empower individuals for alternative ways of thinking by controlling and manipulating their thoughts; it polarizes people, sharpens the differences between them reducing their cooperation, causes a destructive behavior and ultimately can poison the company by preventing people from exploring new ideas. Destructive conflict is what is usually a conflict is associated with and this type of conflict should be prevented or effectively managed (ibid., 2014).

On the other hand, constructive conflict not only does not damage the relationship but builds cooperation between the parties, supports and reinforces alternative ways of thinking and encourages people to learn more about each other, as well as creates the stage for healthy conflict resolution. In the process of communication, especially in business, the essence of a constructive conflict might help to create and maintain strong and fruitful relationship between a company members.

Usually both parties of a conflict are responsible if this clash of interests happens. If one of them acts as an initiator another should apply conflict management strategies in order to minimize the negative consequences or turn a destructive conflict into a constructive one. In a conflict situation between an Italian employer and a non-Italian employee, in the majority of cases the employer acts as the initiator. Therefore, the employee should manage the situation in order to ameliorate the relationship between them. There are two major cases of conflict according to which the employee should choose the conflict management strategy: conflict prevention and conflict resolution.

If the conflict situation has not manifested yet, it is reasonable for the employee to try to prevent it by:

- Familiarizing himself with cultural features of his opponent, traditions and habits that to some extent differ from his, studying the information about Italian business culture beforehand as well as observing some behavioral and professional peculiarities of his Italian colleagues;

- In case if he does not understand the reason of his boss's dissatisfaction but feels some tension or pressure from his side, it is better first to consider the possible motives for that, after that to ask the most trustworthy colleagues about their opinion and only then to ask the boss directly;

- It is important to control his emotions and not to let the conflict manifest. The most appropriate ways for controlling emotions for an employee would be changing reactions by using third eye technique (at himself or at his boss), self-control techniques: deep breathing, antigenic training (visualizing relaxation) and also reframing technique (changing the font of view on the situation and looking for alternative ways of dealing with it).

In case if the employee did not manage to prevent the conflict and let it manifest, he can still mitigate it and find the best way of it resolution. In a conflict situation between a boss and an employee two important factors should be taken into consideration: it is an interpersonal social role-play conflict in the majority of caused by ineffective miscommunication but might also be caused by value or power sources; power distance factor often takes place. There are several strategies that an employee is highly recommended to follow:

- If the conflict is constructive and the employee is welcomed to share his ideas on an issue with his boss, it is very beneficial to use collaboration strategy. He is expected to exchange his opinion with his boss and by discussing some possible solutions come to the result that would satisfy both of the parties.

- If it is not possible to implement the collaboration approach and the employee can suggest some alternative solutions, a compromise strategy can be used. In this case both parties are expected to make some concessions in order to find a middle ground between their needs. However the power distance factor needs to be considered: the employee should not forget about his position.