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Speaking in tongues

Employees serve as in-house cultural ambassadors for global company

The Multilingual/Multicultural Employee Connection at Raytheon Missile Systems in Tucson is exploring the world’s cultures and languages as a way to enhance its members’ lives and promote business.

Denise Tepe, a data manager at Raytheon, co-founded RAMMEC in October 2006, along with fellow employee David Peltz. Both are leaders of the Connection. “We started from scratch, from just a possibility,” Tepe says.

She relates that an employee in one of the company’s six divisions worldwide sent an e-mail asking if anyone could translate into Dutch. From that inquiry and others like it came a brainstorming session among employees in Tucson on how they could meet translation and cultural sensitivity needs in-house. From that seed, the Multilingual/Multicultural Employee Connection was born.

In less than a year the association has amassed 214 members, all employees of Raytheon, representing 39 different cultures and or languages.

“Now we get translations requests from our different divisions within our company,” Tepe says. Other activities by Connection members include facilitating lectures, coordinating events, and teaching and mentoring other members.

Latino members have translated high tech data sheets into technical Spanish, fielded requests for Castilian Spanish translations for its electronics company in Spain, and converted English-language documents into Brazilian Portuguese.

Nor are these globally minded employees ignoring the local cultures.

For example, the group has invited HOLA, the local Hispanic Organization for Leadership and Advancement, to share advice on career development.

“We invite experts from the UA, and business leaders from around the area, and we see how we can make Tucson a better place to live,” Tepe says.

‘MAKES BUSINESS SENSE’

Raytheon Company, with 2006 sales of $20.3 billion, is a technology corporation specializing in defense, homeland security and other government markets throughout the world. Raytheon provides state-of-the-art missile, communications and intelligence systems. With headquarters in Waltham, Mass., the company employs 73,000 people worldwide, with about 11,000 in Tucson.

“We are a global company,” says John Patterson, Raytheon spokesman in Tucson. “We do business around the world. In order to reach your customers, it helps to understand the cultures of the countries you do business in."

“From a business standpoint it makes a lot of sense,” Patterson says. “Our company continues to grow more internationally: India, Asia and the Middle East.”

Tepe adds that the bottom line of the employee association is diversity and sensitivity to other cultures. Tepe herself is an example of cultural diversity, with an ancestry tree with branches in the French, German and Turkish cultures.

“That’s how most of us are,” she says. “In the group they usually speak not just one language, but three or four.”

RAMMEC’s mission “is to transcend traditional cultural and ethnic stereotypes, boundaries, and perceptions by creating an environment rich in knowledge and multiculturalism that develops, encourages and facilitates language and cultural learning to contribute to business growth.”

“Raytheon is company that embraces diversity,” Tepe says. “The more diverse our people, the better we do business and better prepared we are for the future.”

The company organization was approved by the University of Arizona as a “community of practice,” a designation that allows the Connection to collaborate with the university on education and knowledge transfer research.

The association’s members meet together as a group for an hour on a monthly schedule. The agenda of each meeting is pre-planned, and usually includes an international topic and an expert guest speaker on that subject. In June, the speaker was the president of the International School in Tucson. The March event featured cultures of the Middle East. Other planned speakers will include Miles Simon, a player on the UA 1997 National Champion college basketball team, who will speak on international teambuilding.