Cultural Competency and The Salvation Army

Sharon Jones-Ryan asks if it’s an oxymoron

erms like cultural competence, diversity, and affirmative action have become commonplace in the human resources field: an initial query on Google for “cultural competency” yielded 23,300 hits, affirmative action 1,210,000. It is vital for leadership in any organization, especially those in human resources, to familiarize themselves with the issues incumbent in these terms. Yet a unique challenge exists for faith-based organizations (FBOs) when beginning an exploration into the issues of diversity and cultural competence. The cornerstone of a FBO’s identity, its faith, yields the de-facto reality of non-diversity within its ranks.

The Salvation Army faces a further unique challenge within FBOs in that it is neither simply a denomination, nor exclusively a provider of social services, but a highly interfaced amalgam of the two, and is dependent on external funding to ensure the continuance of its current operations. The Salvation Army also has arguably one of the most highly developed internal ‘cultures’ within mainstream protestant denominations in North America.

It is my assertion that although it is neither appropriate nor expedient for The Salvation Army to minimize the issue of cultural competency within its organization, it is not a realistic expectation that the constituency of the organizational leadership would be culturally diverse. However, public demands place a priority on the addressing of this issue within the organization, especially if funding is coming from public sources, and often written with caveats in this area. The Salvation Army does need to be able to articulate its own culture, by virtue of which it is purposefully discriminatory, and be willing to state its commitment to mission and service in a culturally competent manner. This paper looks specifically at The Salvation Army in Canada, but one can assume parallels in other geographic contexts.

For the purposes of this discussion, the understanding of cultural competence will be that of the National Center for Cultural Competence, Georgetown University: “Cultural competence requires that organizations and their personnel have the capacity to: (1) value diversity, (2) conduct self-assessment, (3) manage the dynamics of difference, (4) acquire and institutionalize cultural knowledge, and (5) adapt to diversity and the cultural contexts of individuals and communities served.” (Goode, Jones & Mason, 2002)

The Salvation Army has existed for 125 years in Canada and has provided both social services and houses of worship during that time. Currently, The Salvation Army provides a multitude of services under its social services branch (corrections, health services, long term care, refugee and immigrant services, addictions rehabilitation, mental health, etc.) employing thousands of persons and serving thousands more. The Salvation Army also has hundreds of churches across Canada and thousands of congregants (Salvationists).

Leadership in The Salvation Army is provided almost exclusively by commissioned officers, with a few administrative exceptions. Commissioned officers have gone through the Army’s college for officers, which is a two-year intensive residential educational and training ground. To be accepted into college, a candidate must pass a series of criteria, from physical to educational to spiritual, a process in itself that is highly discriminatory – but necessary to ensure the candidate meets the necessary qualifications to become an officer (clergy) in The Salvation Army. Thus the reality – The Salvation Army is ‘purposefully discriminatory’ – there exists only a fraction of a percentage of the population that possess (or are interested in possessing) the prerequisites for leadership in The Salvation Army.

Yet, by virtue of the mission of The Salvation Army – to save souls and serve suffering humanity – the Army has in its leaders people who are committed and empathetic to serving the diverse populations in Canada, whether in provision of social services or pastoral leadership. And this is evident in the scale and range of programming that can be seen in The Salvation Army in Canada.

Does The Salvation Army have an obligation to cultural competency? Or, perhaps a more succinct question for The Salvation Army, given the reality of its nature, would be, what can, or should, cultural competency in The Salvation Army in Canada look like? There is a natural tendency, given the current societal climate, to wring one’s hands over what can be perceived as a homogenized, non-inclusive, constituency. The recipients of ministry and services provided by The Salvation Army are as diverse as the ministries themselves. The Salvation Army operates in communities as large as Vancouver and Toronto and as small as Maple Creek and Roberts Arm, from coast to coast to coast. Maybe the best starting point for discussion would be to be to unpack the five points outlined in the understanding of cultural competence and examine them from the Salvation Army’s context.

The NCCC’s description begins with the statement that the organization and its personnel needs to have the capacity to value diversity (Goode et al, 2002). It would be hard to find someone who would contend that The Salvation Army did not value diversity in the delivery of its programs or the scope of its ministry. The more pressing question is whether having the capacity to value diversity entails having to change the parameters of an organization’s constituency. Are there negotiables, or are all the components of membership (and according leadership capability, in The Salvation Army’s instance) integral to the organization’s mission and identity?

The second requirement delineated by NCCC is that an organization needs to have the capacity to conduct self-assessment. According to Goode (2001):

… cultural competence is a developmental process and evolves over an extended period. Both individuals and organizations are at various levels of awareness, knowledge and skill acquisition along the cultural competence continuum. The capacity to engage in self-assessment helps organizations to:

gauge the degree to which they are effectively addressing the needs and preferences of culturally and linguistically diverse groups;

determine their strengths and areas for growth; and

strategically plan for the systematic incorporation of culturally and linguistically competent policy, structures and practices. (p. 1)

By virtue of its size and breadth, The Salvation Army in Canada benefits from a pool of administrative resources that is more comprehensive than most non-profit organizations. There is definitely the capacity to engage in self-assessment within the organization; the resources just need to be engaged to begin the process in an intentional manner.

The third requirement towards cultural competency outlined by the NCCC is to “manage the dynamics of difference.” (Goode et al, 2002) Taken at face value, this does not seem to be an insurmountable hurdle for any organization. Managing difference is part of any effective manager’s role, whether the difference emanates from a cultural origin or personality clashes.

Acquiring and institutionalizing cultural knowledge is the fourth competency delineated by the NCCC (Goode et al, 2002). Currently, The Salvation Army in Canada has a department of multicultural ministries, located at its territorial headquarters in Toronto. It would certainly be within the focus of this department to acquire cultural knowledge, but it is not evident that the institutionalizing of this knowledge falls in the department’s mandate.

The final point to achieving cultural competence articulated by the NCCC is the organization’s capacity to adapt to diversity and the cultural contexts of individuals and communities served (Goode et al, 2002). In its delivery of services, The Salvation Army has a strong history of serving diverse individuals and communities effectively. The capacity for adapting to diversity externally has been proven: it is internally that this is not as evident. This capacity is one which the Army must be confident that is required internally, and one which does not compromise the effectiveness of the mission externally.

An examination of the Army’s current capabilities for cultural competence cannot be done without looking at the existing culture within The Salvation Army. The Director of Human Resources for The Salvation Army in Canada, John Coubrough, defines culture as “the collective beliefs, behaviours and assumptions of the workforce: written rules, policies and procedures; unwritten rules, practices and habits; norms and perceptions; attitude and perception; and solutions that have worked consistently.” (Coubrough, 1993) Coubrough has articulated a preliminary assessment tool for measuring internal culture and identifying those things that are negotiable. He notes that the need to assess internal culture is four-fold:

to close the gap between real and ideal culture
to keep abreast of the community changes occurring around you
to make sure you don’t change the things that are vital to your success
to make sure that communications between different parts of the organization are not weakened by lack of sensitivity for culture (Coubrough, 1993).

It would seem that although The Salvation Army in Canada is purposefully non-diverse in its constituency, it would be prudent for the Army to intentionally self-assess its culture. Not necessarily with the anticipation that the internal culture needs to be changed, but for the benefit of having gone through a process that can strengthen those things which are integral to success and mission, and to recognize those things that are peripheral and possibly even damaging to success and mission. Faith based organizations are highly vulnerable to criticism from outside, and self-assessment should facilitate greater internal understanding and enhanced external communication capabilities. Further, The Salvation Army in Canada is well-served currently with the capability in its human resources department, and it would be poor stewardship of internal resources not to exploit the internal capabilities. “When we seek training, we often bring in an outsider. However, in many cases, there are staff within the agency who have the skills, talent and credibility to offer practical training that meet our needs.” (Goode, 2001)

As an insider looking in, I think The Salvation Army in Canada is much further ahead in cultural competency terms than might be expected. There are strong assets in infrastructure to support cultural competency – existing departments with knowledge and information regarding multiculturalism in Canada; strong expertise in human resources; communications and educational channels that can be made widely accessible. What is lacking is any systematic or acknowledged interest in developing and articulating cultural competency. Reality, though, is that the Salvation Army operates in a public environment, where these issues are high on priority lists, especially from the public sector perspective. Issues of funding and government support for programs could be compromised by unintentional negligence to internally address the issue of cultural competence. Accordingly, I see it incumbent upon leadership within the Salvation Army to place a priority on defining the Army’s commitment to cultural competence.

What are the implications? The primary implication is that The Salvation Army in Canada will understand and be able to articulate clearly and unapologetically its own culture. Secondly, if cultural competence is determined to be a priority within the organization, a major commitment to education and communication in this area will be required. This is not impossible – as mentioned previously, The Salvation Army has a capable infrastructure to support this task – it simply requires a strategic and long-term commitment to the process. Perlmutter, Bailey and Netting (2001) state “… to ensure more progress with diversity in human service agencies in the future requires educating and securing the active engagement of the organization’s leaders” (p. 117).

The language of cultural competence rings hollow without a basic understanding of culture, and that understanding must begin at home. The Salvation Army must be confident in its own identity, understanding the strengths that come because of its exclusivity, and growing the empathetic ministry for which it is renowned. Unapologetic faith can be married with compassion and sensitivity to diversity. The challenge for The Salvation Army in Canada is to make the first steps down the road toward that relationship.

Writer: Sharon has worked at The Salvation Army Ethics Centre in Winnipeg, Canada since it started in 1994. She is currently spearheading the Values at Work project for the Canada & Bermuda Territory, which examines the congruence between operational and stated organizational values. This paper was written as a part of her studies for a Masters in Nonprofit Management.