A REPORT ON

CROSS CULTURAL TRAINING

SUBMITTED BY

Karan Arora
Enrollment No. 04821201714
BBA(GEN) 6 A

SUBMITTED TO-

Dr, Heramb Nayak

 CROSS CULTURAL TRAINING

Meaning

Cross-culture brings together such relatively unrelated areas as cultural anthropology and
established areas of communication. Its core is to establish and understand how people from
different cultures communicate with each other and the culture of a society comprises the shared
values, understandings, assumptions, and goals that are learned from earlier generations,
imposed by the members of the present day society and passed on to the succeeding generations.

Definition

The cross-cultural training in general can be defined as Any intervention aimed at increasing an
individuals capability to cope with and work in foreign environment

The cross-cultural has also been defined as Formal methods to prepare people for more
effective interpersonal relations and job success when they interact extensively with individuals
from cultures other than their own

TRANING STRATEGIES

Training strategies bridge the gap between the capabilities of the individual hired and the role/
responsibilities of the job that he/she is being hired for. The four strategies of training are:

Firstly, MNCs may make use of expatriates for short-term or long-term international job
assignments. Accordingly, the kind of training and development initiatives differ. The focus
while training an employee for a short-term assignment would remain narrowly focussed on
what the objective of the assignment is, while cultural gaps and work-life differences would be
of minimal importance. However, for a long-term assignment there would be a significant
amount of time and effort expended in coaching the employee on the cultural differences,
workplace behavior and national etiquette, eating habits and coping strategies to help sustain
success during the assignment.

Secondly, the staffing orientation that is adopted in the subsidiary unit influences the training
impetus. An ethnocentric staffing strategy brings all the focus in training to cross-cultural and
cultural acclimatization initiatives. And depending on the roles and responsibilities, the training
framework is determined. However, a polycentric approach to staffing shifts the training focus to
technology training and an extensive orientation/induction revolting around the parent company's
culture, policies and workplace values. Cross cultural training extends itself to 'knowledge' about
the parent country's work culture and a focus on acceptable and not acceptable work practices,
with a lot of it being learnt-on-the-job. And if the staffing approach is geocentric/rigeocentric, the
developmental efforts revolve around knowing the parent company and the particular technology
of the organisation.

Thirdly, the control and coordination linkages that the parent unit wishes to establish with the
subsidiary unit drives the training budget and the strategy. When the linkages of control between
the parent and the host unit are closely established, the investment in training for compliance and
parity of practices and work culture between the parent and the host unit is the highest and
training assumes great importance. It is driven by global budgets and is a measure of
organisational growth. It is seen as a critical tool in the achievement of the global strategy for the
organisation. Conversely, when the control linkages are we and the sub unit adopts a multi-
domestic existence, training assumes a local flavour and is driven by the philosophy of the unit's
management focussing around the local technical and managerial issues, specific to the industry
and the country of existence. Similarly, when coordination linkages between the parent and the
host unit are high, the training focus shifts to a global approach to inducting and ensuring that
coordination happens as required in the role.
Fourthly, the 'role and responsibilities of the position' determine the extent and content of
training. Roles that are higher up in the organisational hierarchy bring training focus to
individual contributions and to equipping employees with the skills related to leadership styles
and management challenges that are specific to the organisation/industry and the country of
practice. Jobs that are critical for organisational success in a host/subsidiary unit, for example,
research/sales, the individuals in these roles are selected as specialists, hence the training focus
would limit itself to global organisational objectives and on-going technology training.

EXPATRIATE TRAINING

In selecting an expatriate for a global assignment, the focus is on ascertaining the cultural
awareness and the fit for the host country s culture. In preparing an expat for a global
assignment, there is no gainsaying the fact that his/her success depends on how fast he or she can
adapt in a host country. Acculturation demands that the expatriate is aware of the cultural
nuances of the host country. MNCs offer cross-cultural training (CCT) to teach their expatriates,
the host country's appropriate norms and behaviors.

CCT may be understood as any planned intervention designed to increase the knowledge and
skills of expatriates to live and work effectively and achieve general life satisfaction in an
unfamiliar host culture.1 For more than two decades, CCT has been advocated as a means of
facilitating effective cross-cultural interactions and cross-cultural adjustments. Any CCT should
aim at imparting cross-cultural skills and knowledge to the expatriates and to facilitate his or her
adjustment to the host country's culture.
The effectiveness of a CCT is reflected by the cognitive, affective and behavioral changes that
occur during and after the training. A successful CCT inures several benefits to the business. It
also has a few drawbacks. Table 7.1 brings out the two more comprehensively.

STEPS IN CROSS-CULTURAL TRAINING PROGRAMS

Local instructors and a translator observe the pilot training program or examine
written training materials

Educational designer debriefs the observation with the translator, curriculum

writer, and local instructors

The group examines the structure and sequence, ice breaker, and other materials
to be used in the training

The group collectively identifies stories, metaphors, experiences, and examples

in the culture that fit into the new training program

The educational designer and curriculum writer make necessary changes in

training materials

TYPES OF CROSS CULTURAL TRAINING

ENVIRONMENTAL BRIEFINGS
CULTURAL ORIENTATION
CULTURAL ASSIMILATORS
LANGUAGE TRAINING
FIELD EXPERIENCE
SENSITIVITY TRAINING

ENVIRONMENTAL BRIEFINGS

Provide information about things such as geography, climate, housing, and schools
CULTURAL ORIENTATION

Familiarize the individual with cultural institutions and value systems of the host country

CULTURAL ASSIMILATORS

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

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

LANGUAGE TRAINING

Provide information about things such as geography, climate, housing, schools and aimed
at increasing communication effectiveness

FIELD EXPERIENCE

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

SENSITIVITY TRAINING

Develop attitudinal flexibility

PHASES IN CCT PROGRAMME

Develop and Deliver the CCT Programme

Developing and delivering CCT programmes involves two activities: deciding on the content o
training and sequencing of training sessions.

Course Content

The instructional content of a CCT should help the expatriate acquire capabilities for cross-
cultural adjustment. This being the overall consideration in designing the course content, the
specifics of a CCT consist of:

Language training is an obvious component of a CCT programme multilingual skills helps an

expatriate communicate effectively with the host country citizens in addition, it helps the
assignee learn about the host country-value systems and the customs of its people. English
language is the primary language of international businesses, and most expatriates from all the
countries can converse in that dialect. Those who can speak only in English are at a distinct
disadvantage while doing business in non-English speaking countries like France, Germany,
japan or china.
Failure to recognize the importance of foreign language skills may reflect a degree of
ethnocentrism on the part of MNCs. It also reflects a certain degree of unconscious arrogance on
the part of expatriates from the English-speaking countries

More and more MNCs are including language as one of the inputs in their CCT programmes. As
per one study, 59 per cent of the responding organizations provided language training prior to
departure and 74 per cent provided language training while the persons were on the assignment.

Language training should cover not only the host country dialect, but the corporate language as
well. Every MNC will have evolved its own language to facilitate reporting and other control
mechanisms. Given its place in international business, often, English becomes the common
language within these multinationals and expatriates can act as language nodes, performing the
function of communication conduits between the subsidiary and the headquarters, owing to their
ability to speak the corporate language as well as the local language.10

Knowledge of the corporate language can add to the position of the expatriate in a subsidiary. An
expatriate fluent in the languages of the home and host countries and of the corporate language
enjoys an extra edge over those who are not so skilled. He or she can perform a gate-keeping role
between headquarters and the subsidiary in accessing and dispensing information.

Cultural training:

Cross-cultural training is the main input in expatriate training. Cultural training should have an
integrated approach, consisting of both general cultural orientation and specific host country
cultural orientation. General cultural orientation helps the trainee understand factors that may
influence his or her receptiveness to effective cross-cultural interactions, such as resistance to
change, clear understanding of the purpose, value and benefits of the global assignment, and the
ability to manage stress." in addition, general cultural orientation helps understand nuances of
cultural differences and their likely impact on expatriates.

Specific cultural orientation facilitates an understanding of the host country's culture.

Understanding the host country's culture will help the expatriate empathize with the host country
citizens. Given the problems related to adaptation of spouse in the host country, it is important
that the spouse of the expatriate and perhaps the entire family, should be included in the training
programme

The intensity of cultural training depends on two factors: the degree of interaction required
between the expatriate and the host country citizens and the similarity between the assignee's
native culture and the new culture. These two factors give rise to two dimensions:

If the expected interaction between the assignee and the host country citizens is low, and the
degree of similarity between the assignee's home culture and of the host country's culture is high,
then training could focus more on task and job-related issues rather than culture-related issues.
The level of rigor necessary for effective training could be relatively low.

If expected interactions are high and dissimilarities between cultures are also high, then
training could focus more on cross-cultural sensitivity, in addition to the new task. The level of
rigor for such training could be moderate to high.

METHODS OF CCT
CCT programmes are generally conducted through four categories of methods: didactic culture
general training, didactic specific culture training, expenential cultural general training and
experiential cultural

Didactic Training This is imparted through lectures, seminars, study material, discussions,
videotapes and culture-general assimilators. Alternatively called educative training, didactic
general training seeks to incur a cognitive understanding of a culture so that its norms and
behaviours can be easily appreciate! by the assignees. Didactic specific culture training, in
contrast, instructs about the cultural nuances of the expatriate's host country. Methods used in
this category include area studies, videotapes, orientation briefings, preliminary visits, case
studies and the like.

Experiential training

What is learnt through experience constitutes experiential training. Individuals learn best from
their experiences in the host country or from interacting with individuals from other cultures.
Experiential general culture training methods help assignees experience the impact of cultural
differences on their behaviors. Methods in this category include immersion programmes or
intensive workshops. Methods in experiential specific training include role playing, look-see
trips, cultural coaching and language training. These methods seek to help expatriates experience
and learn from interactions with individuals from the host culture.

CULTURAL ASSIMILATOR

The cultural assimilator is a tool that consists of a number of real life scenarios describing
puzzling cross-cultural interactions and expectations. The scenarios here can be defined as
critical incidents which describe interactions between host and expatriates which involve
misunderstanding related to cultural differences.
CULTURAL INTEGRATION

Cultural integration is difficult to define because it is made up of many concepts. The idea of a
multicultural society reflects cultural integration at work; so too does the idea of the global
village, where, through technology and trade, a seemingly borderless world is created.

Cultural integration also concerns the adoption of a mass consumer culture where everything
from fashion to sport, music to television, becomes integrated into the national culture, often
without challenge. While this may be seen by some as a positive step towards unifying the world,
to others, cultural integration is seen as a threat to national sovereignty and cultural diversity.
Geographically, where a person lives in the world often determines what part, if any, he or she
can play in this globalization process.

BENEFITS OF CROSS CULTURAL TRAINING

People Learn About Themselves

Encourage Confidence

Break Down Barriers

Build Trust

Motivate

Open Horizons

Develop Interpersonal Skills

Develop Listening Skills

Career Development
DRAWBACKS

Develops a false sense of confidence among employees .

May not remove cultural biases and prejudices

May not be taken seriously by the recipients

May not make a visible difference in business volumes

Can never fully prepare an assignee to face real problems