International Relocation: The Importance of Cross-Cultural Awareness
Companies operating in the global market are quickly discovering business success depends heavily on expatriate managers’ knowledge and familiarity with the cultures in which they do business. Culture clashes have a momentous influence on an expatriate’s assignment, and understanding the host country’s culture is a significant piece of the puzzle. Since expatriate failure is costly for companies, it is to a company’s benefit to provide cross-cultural training to employees working on overseas assignments.
Although generic programs exist, cross-cultural training is most effective when it’s tailored to the specific needs of the expatriate and the host country. Because learning about a new culture requires an understanding of one's own cultural biases and behavioral traits, companies that use customized, cross-cultural training typically receive better results.
Successful cross-cultural programs can include the following:
Host Country Information
Basic information about the assignee’s host country, including its history, common religions, political structure and recent events, so employees can understand citizens’ values and beliefs.
Behavior Adaptation
Although people have a hard time changing their cultural understanding, they can learn to alter their behavior to adapt to a new culture. In this phase of cross-cultural training, expatriates examine the way they currently handle a situation and what is required in the new culture.
Communication techniques
A manager going to live in a foreign country for the first time might not realize how communication styles differ around the world. For example, U.S. employees tend to use “low context” communication, which is direct and task-oriented. Many other cultures have “high context” communication, in which messages are more indirect, like in the Middle East.
For a full account of information regarding this service visit our resource library.
Companies operating in the global market are quickly discovering business success depends heavily on expatriate managers’ knowledge and familiarity with the cultures in which they do business. Culture clashes have a momentous influence on an expatriate’s assignment, and understanding the host country’s culture is a significant piece of the puzzle. Since expatriate failure is costly for companies, it is to a company’s benefit to provide cross-cultural training to employees working on overseas assignments.
Although generic programs exist, cross-cultural training is most effective when it’s tailored to the specific needs of the expatriate and the host country. Because learning about a new culture requires an understanding of one's own cultural biases and behavioral traits, companies that use customized, cross-cultural training typically receive better results.
Successful cross-cultural programs can include the following:
Host Country Information
Basic information about the assignee’s host country, including its history, common religions, political structure and recent events, so employees can understand citizens’ values and beliefs.
Behavior Adaptation
Although people have a hard time changing their cultural understanding, they can learn to alter their behavior to adapt to a new culture. In this phase of cross-cultural training, expatriates examine the way they currently handle a situation and what is required in the new culture.
Communication techniques
A manager going to live in a foreign country for the first time might not realize how communication styles differ around the world. For example, U.S. employees tend to use “low context” communication, which is direct and task-oriented. Many other cultures have “high context” communication, in which messages are more indirect, like in the Middle East.
For a full account of information regarding this service visit our resource library.
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