Q1. Cross Cultural Learning plays a Crucial Role in Management Consultancy. Critically evaluate the statement.

Answer: Cross Cultural Learning can be defined as the interaction of people from different backgrounds in any business/organization. Cross culture is a vital issue in international business, as the success of international trade depends upon the smooth interaction of employees from different cultures and regions. A growing number of companies are consequently devoting substantial amount of resources towards training their employees to interact effectively with those of companies in other cultures in an effort to create a positive cross-cultural experience. Management consultancy is the practice of helping organizations to improve their performance and it operates primarily through the analysis of existing organizational problems and the development of plans for improvement. Organizations may draw upon the services of management consultants for a number of reasons, including gaining external (and presumably objective) advice and access to the consultants' specialized expertise. As a result of their exposure to and relationships with numerous organizations, consulting firms are also said to be aware of industry "best practices, although the specific nature of situations under consideration may limit the transferability of such practices from one organization to another. It also provides organizational change-management assistance, development of coaching skills, process analysis, technology implementation, strategy development, or operational improvement services. Management consultants often bring their own proprietary methodologies or frameworks to guide the identification of problems and to serve as the basis for recommendations for more effective or efficient ways of performing work tasks. Role of Cross Cultural learning: With the globalisation of the world economy and the increased contact of personnel from different cultural backgrounds, cross-cultural learning plays a vital role in increasing the efficiency and efficacy of the management consultancy. Cross-cultural learning is a large inter-disciplinary field concerned with facilitating communication and interaction of people of different cultures, where the differences of these cultures impose additional factors or

difficulties in communication or interaction. Cross-cultural learning helps the consultation process in many ways as it is concerned with helping the consultants to solve business problems of cross-cultural communication and interaction in those areas in as far as they affect differences of values, perception and behaviour. It develops the following core competency of the business to which the consultation is being provided and those are group psychology, humans and their values in an international setting. Such values often have a great impact, though not always tangible, on international business operations. These can cause communication breakdowns, misperceptions, lack of trust when things go wrong, or positively it can create synergy, increased productivity, creativity and enlightened morale. It helps the consultants in following ways: Cross-cultural Negotiations: - As cultural interpreters, consulting multi-cultural negotiating parties or their superiors on culturally appropriate negotiation strategies, styles, preparation, planning, execution, followup and cultural etiquette, so that they can avoid or overcome unnecessary frictions, disputes, misunderstandings for e.g. different attitudes to law and contracts, misinterpretations, suspicions and communication breakdowns, which initially arise largely due to culturally different modes of communication and negotiation. It helps the parties to distinguish true disagreements from cultural misperceptions. Cross-cultural Process Counselling: - As observers and analysts involved in the various stages of international joint-ventures, mergers and acquisitions, technology transfer or other similar projects, counselling multicultural mixed group project members on the progress and efficiency of their operations and productivity by assessing it from a cross-cultural point of view such as misunderstandings, bad lines of communications, inhibitions, personal frictions etc., which decrease efficiency and hence are costly and process consulting the concerned parties and management For e.g. in case a re-organisation of the project is required accordingly, to maximise global costefficiency. This includes the massive area of international post-merger integration process consulting.

Cross-cultural Decision-Making - Assisting multi-cultural work groups to operate efficiently as teams by assessing the impact of cultural differences on the decision-making process on the organisation, and consulting on compatible modes of internal decision-making, in order to help the teams maximise their resources and make informed group decisions, allowing them to focus on the relationship of global and regional strategy planning and implementation to assure world-wide competitiveness. Cross-cultural Skills Training: -Designing and delivering company-specific or function-specific training programs and materials based on needs analysis and ongoing interaction with the organisation, to develop skills for the global marketplace. - Providing General Cross-cultural Awareness Training for employees not directly involved overseas, but indirectly affected by various multi-cultural business transactions. - Delivering Briefings to staff that travel overseas or host foreign visitors in basic business and social etiquettes, and strategies for effective communication, in order to promote a positive corporate image. - Supplying Short Pre-departure Orientations and Briefings for business people leaving on longer-term overseas assignments about the cultures concerned, re: their infrastructure, political structure, geography, economic system, institutions, education system etc., as a general orientation. - Providing Extended Pre-departure Skills Training for business people leaving on longerterm overseas assignments in cross-cultural skills: dealing with culture shock and stress management, observation skills, conflict resolution skills, 'silence' skills, communication and meta-communication skills, non-verbal behaviour, perception, customs and etiquette and so on. - Supplying on-going Follow up Training and counselling for business people who have left on longer-term overseas assignments, once they are in the new culture and have briefly

experienced facets of it (including various stages of culture shock), and counselling (individual or groups) to help them digest the experience and maximise their efficiency. - Providing Programs to assist expatriates overseas with a general understanding of local laws, business practices, political and economic system, social institutions, civil rights, social responsibilities and community involvement. - Offering Family Counselling and Training for managers, spouses and children of expatriates living overseas to deal with various aspects of family life: education, health, security, transport, community, facilities, help organisations and common legal rights and obligations, as a cultural orientation and skills-building. - Providing 'Re-entry' Services for returning expatriates and families, including counselling on the re-adjustment process and integration of overseas experience, in order to enrich the personal and organisational experience. - Arranging Specialised Comparative Training Programs designed to explore more specific areas of business life from a cross-cultural point of view: Comparative law, marketing, finance, tax management, human resources, manufacturing, industrial relations and labour legislation, accounting practices, business law etc.. Cross-cultural Human Resources Management - Consulting on improvements in productivity of multi-cultural teams by researching, in cultural audits and mixed ability appraisals, the organisation to determine whether creativity and problem-solving talents of the culturally diverse work-force are fully understood, used and focussed.