Steps in Cross-Cultural Preparation

To prepare employees for cross-cultural assignments, companies need to provide cross-cultural preparation. Most U.S. companies send employees overseas without any preparation. This has resulted in failed overseas assignments, which means companies don’t fully capitalize on business opportunities and incur costs for replacing employees who leave the company after returning to the United States.⁵⁴ Cross-cultural preparation is especially important because North American companies plan to increase the length of expatriate assignments from two to five years.⁵⁵

To succeed overseas, expatriates (employees on foreign assignments) need to be

1.       Competent in their areas of expertise

2.       Able to communicate verbally and nonverbally in the host country

3.       Flexible, tolerant of ambiguity, and sensitive to cultural differences

4.       Motivated to succeed, able to enjoy the challenge of working in other countries, and willing to learn about the host country’s culture, language, and customs

5.       Supported by their families⁵⁶

One reason for U.S. expatriates’ high failure rate is that companies place more emphasis on developing employees’ technical skills than on preparing them to work within other cultures. Research suggests that the comfort of an expatriate’s spouse and family is the most important determinant of whether the employee will complete the assignment.⁵⁷ Studies have also found that personality characteristics are related to expatriates’ desire to terminate the assignment and performance in the assignment.⁵⁸ Expatriates who were extroverted (outgoing), agreeable (cooperative and tolerant), and conscientious (dependable, achievement-oriented) were more likely to want to stay with the assignment and perform well. This suggests that cross-cultural preparation may be effective only when expatriates’ personalities predispose them to be successful in assignments in other cultures.

The key to a successful foreign assignment is a combination of training and career management for the employee and family. Cross-cultural preparation involves three phases: predeparture, on-site, and repatriation (preparing to return home).

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Predeparture Phase

Before departure, employees need to receive language training and training focused on the new country’s culture and customs.⁵⁹ English is the common language at many multinational companies. But failing to speak the native language can cause employees to risk being misinterpreted or fail to understand informal conversations. Speaking and understanding the local language can help employees avoid misunderstandings and gain greater respect from business partners, subordinates, and customers. For example, at Intel, employees with a business need can take classes in Mandarin, Japanese, and Spanish at various offices throughout the United States, free of charge.⁶⁰ Also, it is critical that the family be included in orientation programs.⁶¹ Expatriates and their families need information about housing, schools, recreation, shopping, and health care facilities in the areas where they will live. Expatriates also must discuss with their managers how the foreign assignment fits into their career plans and what types of positions they can expect upon their return.

Cross-cultural training methods include presentational techniques, such as lectures that expatriates and their families attend on the customs and culture of the host country, e-learning, immersion experiences, or actual experiences in the home country in culturally diverse communities.⁶²Experiential exercises, such as miniculture experiences, allow expatriates to spend time with a family in the United States from the ethnic group of the host country. For example, an Indian trainer took twenty managers from Advanced Micro Devices on a two-week immersion trip during which the group traveled to New Delhi, Bangalore, and Mumbai, meeting with businesspersons and government officials.⁶³ The program required six months of planning, including providing the executives with information on foods to eat, potential security issues, and how to interact in business meetings. For example, Indians prefer a relatively indirect way into business discussions, so the managers were advised to discuss current events and other subjects before talking business.

VF Asia Limited is a Hong Kong–based unit of VF Corporation. VF Corporation is the world’s largest apparel company and the owner of many brands, including Nautica, Wrangler, Jansport, and North Face.⁶⁴ VF Asia’s Self-Enhancement Learning Fundamentals (SELF) program is an online customer training program that includes instruction on topics that help employees understand and communicate with individuals from the diverse cultures throughout Asia with whom they do business. Course topics include business etiquette, holding successful meetings, and negotiations. VF Asia’s training team maintains a partnership with the VF Corporation development team. Both teams work together to develop and implement global initiatives to ensure that they are customized to local needs and requirements.

Research suggests that the degree of difference between the United States and the host country (cultural novelty), the amount of interaction with host country citizens and host nationals (interaction), and the familiarity with new job tasks and work environment (job novelty) all influence the “rigor” of the cross-cultural training method used.⁶⁵ Hands-on and group-building methods are most effective (and most needed) in assignments with a high level of cultural and job novelty that require a good deal of interpersonal interaction with host nationals.

On-Site Phase

On-site training involves continued orientation to the host country and its customs and cultures through formal programs or through a mentoring relationship. Expatriates and 462their families may be paired with an employee from the host country, who helps them understand the new, unfamiliar work environment and community.⁶⁶ Additionally, expatriates should be encouraged to develop social relationships both inside and outside the workplace.⁶⁷ Companies are also using websites and social media to help employees on expatriate assignments get answers to questions such as, “How do I conduct a meeting here?” or “What religious or business philosophy might have influenced today’s negotiation behavior?”⁶⁸ Companies also are using websites and social media to help employees who are not expatriates but interact with clients around the world or who work on cross-cultural teams requiring limited travel. IBM uses social networking tools to connect its employees around the world. IBM’s site, known as w3, contributes to the global integration of the company. The w3 On Demand Workplace is a powerful productivity and collaboration tool for 400,000 IBM employees in seventy-five countries. The w3 can be used by employees to find resources and knowledge from peers around the world to help clients innovate and succeed. Employees can create personal profiles, bookmark websites and stories they are interested in, comment on company blogs, contribute to wikis, share files, and read and review position papers, videos, and podcasts.

A major reason that employees refuse expatriate assignments is that they can’t afford to lose their spouse’s income or are concerned that their spouse’s career could be derailed by being out of the workforce for a few years.⁶⁹ Some “trailing” spouses decide to use the time to pursue educational activities that could contribute to their long-term career goals. But it is difficult to find these opportunities in an unfamiliar place. GlaxoSmithKline’s International Service Center, which handles all of its relocations from or to the United States, offers a buddy system for spouses to connect with others who have lived in the area for the past several years.⁷⁰ General Motors (GM) offers career continuation services that reimburse spouses $2,500 each year during the expatriate assignment for maintaining professional licenses or certifications. The World Bank manages an Internet site dedicated to expatriates, where spouses can post résumés and ask for job leads.

Repatriation Phase

Repatriation prepares expatriates for return to the parent company and home country from the foreign assignment. Expatriates and their families are likely to experience high levels of stress and anxiety when they return because of changes that have occurred since their departure. Employees should be encouraged to self-manage the repatriation process.⁷¹ Before they go on the assignment, they need to consider what skills they want to develop and the types of jobs that might be available in the company for an employee with those skills. Because the company changes and colleagues, peers, and managers may leave while the expatriate is on assignment, they need to maintain contact with key company and industry contacts. Otherwise, on return, the employees’ reentry shock will be heightened when they have to deal with new colleagues, a new job, and a company culture that may have changed. This includes providing expatriates with company newsletters and community newspapers and ensuring that they receive personal and work-related mail from the United States while they are on foreign assignment. It is also not uncommon for employees and their families to have to readjust to a lower standard of living in the United States than they had in the foreign country, where they may have enjoyed maid service, a limousine, private schools, and clubs. Salary and other compensation arrangements should be worked out well before employees return from overseas assignments.

Noe, Raymond. Employee Training & Development, 7th Edition. McGraw-Hill Learning Solutions, 01/2016. VitalBook file.

 

 UNIT 10 WORKSHEET (Note the length requirement of 900 words)

 

In order to help you become more familiar with HRD professional articles, this Assignment has a reference requirement. One article from TD (formerly T + D). Use this link once you are in the KU Library to find TD articles:

http://search.ebscohost.com.lib.kaplan.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&jid=IX0&site=eds-live

 

Introduction            (minimum of one paragraph)

 

            What will the paper address and why?

 

 

 

 

What steps should P&G take to prepare employees for international assignments to help them succeed? (minimum of one paragraph for each of the following)

 

            Pre-departure Phase                       

 

 

 

 

 

            On-site Phase            

 

 

 

 

 

Repatriation Phase  

 

 

 

 

 

Spouse and Family Training                       

 

 

 

 

 

Conclusion    (minimum of one paragraph)

 

            Summarize your main points

 

Attachments:

• 1506422936-HR410_Unit10_Rubric.pdf