UNIT 5

Training and Development

Training in International Management:

Training: Process of altering employee behavior & attitudes in a way that increases the
probability of goal attainment.

The most common topics covered in cultural training include:

 social etiquette
 customs
 economics
 history
 politics
 business etiquette

Reasons for Expatriate training

1. Organizational reasons

 Overcome ethnocentricism
 Belief that one’s own way of doing things is superior to that of others
 Improve the flow of communication between home office & foreign subsidiaries
 Increase overall efficiency & profitability

2. Personal reasons

 To improve the ability of overseas managers to interact effectively with local people in
general & with their personnel in particular
 Personal shortcomings in areas such as politeness, punctuality, tactfulness, sensitivity,
tolerance, empathy
 Arrogant demeanor (Ugly American problem)
 Open criticizing by expatriate managers of home or host country

3. Improve overall management style (leadership, decision making, communication, group work)

4. Focusing on dispelling myths & stereotypes by replacing them with facts about the culture.

Contingency Approach to Cross-Cultural Training (Mendenhall, Dunbar & Oddou, 1987)

Length of Cross-Cultural Training Approach
Training
Immersion
1-2 Months HIG

Affective Approach
Level of
1-4 Weeks
Rigor

Information Giving
Less than
LOW Approach
a Week

LOW MODERAT
Degree of Integration
1 Month 2 - 12 1-3
Length of stay or less Months Years
Cultural Assimilators:

 A Cultural Assimilator consists of critical incidents.

 Critical incidents are short descriptions of situations where there is a problem of cultural
adaptation, or where there is a problem rising from cultural differences between the
interacting parties.

 In a Cultural Assimilator the incidents are equipped with alternative explanations &
feedback. Trainees are expected to choose the "best" explanation considering the context.

 This method helps to sensitize users to cultural differences between their own culture &
the target culture.

Sensitivity training is about making people understand about themselves and others reasonably,
which is done by developing in them social sensitivity and behavioral flexibility.
Social sensitivity in one word is empathy. It is ability of an individual to sense what others feel
and think from their own point of view.

Behavioral flexibility is ability to behave suitably in light of understanding.

Preliminary Visits: Preliminary trip of host country

Accept or reject the assignment based on experience

Language Training: Host country language skills and adjustment: improves expatriate’s
effectiveness and negotiating ability, info of host country, social support

 Role of English language

 Knowledge of corporate language: a common company language –English

Practical Assistance: Adaptation to new environment, assist in relocation

Cross-Cultural Training Programs

Major types of cross-cultural training programs

 Environmental Briefings
 Cultural Orientation
 Language Training
 Cultural Assimilators
 Sensitivity Training
 Field Experience

 Provide information about things such as geography, climate, housing & schools

 Familiarize the individual with cultural institutions & value systems of the host country

 Programmed learning techniques designed to expose members of one culture to some of

the basic concepts, attitudes, role perceptions, customs, & values of another culture

 Develop attitudinal flexibility

 Send participant to the country of assignment to undergo some of the emotional stress of
living and working with people from a different culture

 A variety of other approaches can be used to prepare managers for international

assignments including:
 Visits to the host country

 Briefings by host-country managers

 Training in local negotiation techniques

 Analysis of behavioral practices that have proven most effective