Cultural Awareness Programs – Current scenario in

international training and development.

Introduction:

Training is the process of altering employee’s behaviour, attitudes and knowledge in a

way that increases the probability of individual and organizational goal attainment. Training
aims to improve employee’s current work skills and behavior. Whereas – Development is a
continuous improvement process towards objectives. Aims to increase over all abilities of
employees in relation to some future position or jobs.

What is cross cultural training?

For International assignment, once a MNCs selected a person ( whether – CEO, Manager,
structured reproducer, trouble shooter or operator) expatriate training is considered to be the
next crucial step to ensure the expatriate’s effectiveness and success abroad – This is also
called Cross Cultural Training (CCT). CCT is a process of orientation and skill improvement
mainly on HOST CULTURE and WORK LIFE BEHAVIOR.

Fundamental difference between Training and CCT

Training Cross Cultural Training

Based on management philosophy, the training Based on management philosophy but highly
could be organized anywhere and for everyone. concentrate on staffing approach:
Ethnocentric – Parent country
Poly centric – Host country
Geocentric – Best suited areas
Re-geocentric – Any where

Types of CCT:

Environmental briefing – geography, climate, housing, and schools.

Cultural orientation – cultural institutions, value systems of the host county.

Cultural assimilators - inter cultural encounters.

Language training – communication effectiveness

Sensitivity training – to develop attitudinal flexibility.

Field experience – to make the expatriate familiarize with the challenges of assignment.

Significant of CCT:

 As companies now a days are go global, there arises the need for training employees
for international assignment. Because:
 Training aims to improve in relation to some future position or job, usually
managerial. When expatriates are unfamiliar with the customs, cultures and work
habits of the local people, they often make critical mistakes, which can be avoided by
providing them with proper training.
 Effective training can prevent many errors and minimise the impact of others. Some
of the biggest complaints against expatriates revolved around personal shortcomings
in areas such as politeness, punctuality, sensitivity, reliability, tolerance and empathy.
 Effective training programmes can also improve overall management style. In terms
of leadership, the locals would like their expatriate managers to be friendly, more
accessible, supportive and receptive to sub ordinates suggestion.
 Habits and practices relating to work motivation, profit motivation, negotiation skills,
gift giving customers, eating and dressing, body gestures etc. are vary from one
culture to another. It is essential, employees trained to handle these nuances before
being posted to overseas.
 To attain long term organizational goals.
 To minimize the cost of expatriate failure (which is very costly).
 Bridging the cultural gaps between the host country and parent country organization.
 Recognizing that orientation / induction challenges are different for the parent and the
host unit.
 Ensuring the organizational success is critical in achievement of the global objectives
 Establishing and retaining advantages over international competitors
 Building a single organizational culture across its subsidiaries.
Systematic Process of CCT:

PHASE 1 – IDENTIFY THE TYPE OF GLOBAL ASSIGNMENT

The type of global assignment should be taken into consideration when designing CCT
programs. As many authors point out, there are different types of global assignments – and
expatriate practices, such as selection, cross-cultural training, and repatriation will differ
depending on the type of global assignment being managed. Based on the performance goals
for expatriate assignments, Caligiuri (forthcoming) describes a classification of global
assignments into four categories:

1. Technical

2. Functional/tactical

3. Developmental/high potential

4. Strategic/executive

PHASE 2 – CONDUCT A CROSS-CULTURAL TRAINING NEEDS ANALYSIS

A cross-cultural training needs analysis is conducted across three levels:

1. The organizational level, to determine the organizational context for CCT;

2. The individual (or expatriate) level, to determine any special needs that have to be
addressed in CCT for a given person; and

3. The assignment level, to determine the cross-cultural knowledge and skills required to
effectively complete the given assignment.

`Organizational analysis considers the role of CCT within the context of the
organization’s (e.g., headquarter and/or subsidiary) culture, politics, structure, and strategy.
This analysis considers how CCT can assist both the headquarters and the subsidiary in
supporting its global strategy. In addition, organizational analysis considers the availability of
training resources, such as trainers and equipment required to effectively design and offer
CCT.

To illustrate, organizations with a higher proportion of strategic or developmental

assignees are more likely to need higher CCT budgets, are more likely to use professional
cross-cultural trainers, and are more likely to conduct CCT, compared to organizations with
more of their expatriates on technical assignments. Finally, organizational analysis should
determine the expected cost and the expected benefit of a CCT program. Based upon this
organizational assessment, HR decisions are made as to whether an organization is ready,
able, and willing to offer effective CCT.

PHASE 3 – ESTABLISH CCT GOALS AND MEASURES

After cross-cultural training needs have been identified, short-term and long term goals
for the training outcomes must be developed. Short-term goals specify what the expatriate
should be able to accomplish on completion of the CCT program. Long-term goals, in
contrast, reflect the expected outcome of the expatriate assignment, such as cross-cultural
adjustment and success on the assignment.

While the short-term goals of CCT will vary from assignment to assignment, the long-
term goal of many CCT programs is to improve the rate of cross-cultural adjustment.
Improving cross-cultural adjustment is important for all expatriates and would generalize
across assignments. Likewise, improved success on the global assignment may be another
generalized long-term goal – with the specific dimensions, of course, being job specific.

PHASE 4 – DEVELOP AND DELIVER THE CCT PROGRAM

Once the training needs have been determined and translated into short-term and long-term
goals, the next step is to develop and deliver the training program that achieves the training
goals. This phase involves determining the specific instructional content needed in order to
achieve the stated goal, the methods to deliver the instructional content, and the sequencing
of the training sessions.

The objective of specific cultural orientation is to help expatriates understand more about
the specific culture to which they are being assigned. To provide this cultural context,
expatriates will learn about a country’s language, customs, diversity, history, geography, etc.
In addition, expatriates learn about appropriate cultural behaviors and suitable ways of
performing necessary job tasks in the host country.

CCT methodologies available for CCT can be categorized according to two issues:
learning approach (didactic vs. experiential) and the content of the training (culture-general
vs. culture-specific). Based on these continua, CCT methodologies can be categorized into
four categories:
 1. Didactic culture general training

2. Didactic culture specific training

3. Experiential cultural general training

4. Experiential cultural specific training

Didactic culture general training methods provide cultural general information to

expatriates and include lectures, seminars, reading material, discussions, videotapes, and
culture-general assimilators. Didactic culture specific training methods, in contrast, present
information on a particular culture. Methods used in this category include area studies,
videotapes, orientation briefings, case studies, and the like

Experiential cultural-general training methods help expatriates experience the impact of

cultural differences on their behaviors. Methods in this category include immersion programs
or intensive workshops. In contrast, experiential culture-specific training methods help
expatriates experience and learn from interactions with individuals from the host culture. This
approach generally includes methods like role-playing, look-see trips, in-country cultural
coaching, and language training.

PHASE 5 – EVALUATING THE TRAINING PROGRAM

Evaluation leads to control which means deciding whether or not the training was
worth the effort and what improvements are required to make it even more effective. Training
Evaluation is of vital importance because monitoring the training function and its activities is
necessary in order to establish its social and financial benefits and costs. Evaluation of
training within work settings can assist a trainer/organization in learning more about the
impact of training. It is important to understand the purpose of evaluation before planning it
and choosing methods to do it. Some advantages of using evaluations are difficult to directly
witness, but when done correctly they can impact organizations in positive ways.

Training Evaluation is the process of deep examination and analysis of:

• Selecting measures,

• Gathering information based on those measures,

• Comparing what participants learn to some standard, goal, or expectation.

Evaluation is a process to determine the relevance, effectiveness, and impact of activities in
light of their objectives. In evaluating a training and development programme, one needs to
consider that most training and development activities exist in a larger context of projects,
programmes, and plans.

CONCLUSION:

When an expatriate enters another country for the first, or even the 10th time, they can
become extremely overwhelmed by the cultural differences between the host country and
what they are used to at home. There is also evidence showing that educating an expatriate
about the cultural differences that they should expect to encounter in the host country will
increase their job performance in the expat role, and decrease the chances of the posting
failing. This is equally true for the success or failure of the expat’s family adapting to the
other culture.

The most effective way to educate a current or future expat on cross-cultural differences
is to develop a sound and tailored cultural awareness program. This should be designed
specifically for the culture of the country that the expat will be working in, and customized to
meet any specific needs of the organisation, or the individual. The customisation process may
include the development of specific strategies that will be more culturally effective for the
expat to utilise in the chosen country, or the exploration of available and accepted leisure
activities that would appeal to the expat in that country. The depth of the program will
depend upon the level of cultural differences between the 2 countries.
 Systematic Process of CCT

PHASE 1

IDENTIFYING THE TYPE OF GLOBAL

ASSIGNMENT

• Technical • Functional • Developmental • Strategic

PHASE 2

DETERMINING TRAINING NEEDS

• Organizational Analysis • Expatriate Analysis

•Assignment Analysis

PHASE 3

ESTABLISHING GOALS AND MEASURES

• Short-term • Long-term

PHASE 4

DEVELOPING AND DELIVERING THE TRAINING PROGRAM

• Instructional content • Instructional methods

• Sequence of training sessions

PHASE 5

EVALUATING THE TRAINING PROGRAM

• Short-term goals • Long-term goals