Training and development in international context

Training and Development in
International Context
Ligo Koshy, Faculty, MACFAST, Tiruvalla

Expatriate Training
• MNCs offer Cross-Cultural Training (CCT)
• A planned intervention
• To increase the knowledge and skills of expatriates to
live and work effectively
• To achieve general life satisfaction in an unfamiliar host
culture
• The effectiveness of a CCT is reflected by the cognitive,
affective and behavioural changes that occur during and after
the training.

Culture
• Culture refers to the full range of learned
human behaviour patterns, practices,
traditions that are characterised by a specific
group of people.
• National Culture vs Sub-culture

IDV

Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions
• Power distance (PDI): the extent to which the members of a
society agree that power in the organisations or institutions
are distributed unequally. A high PDI indicates clear hierarchy
and a low PD stresses on equality
PDI Characteristics Tips
High PDI
• Centralised organisations
• More complex hierarchies
• Large gaps in compensation,
authority and respect
• Acknowledge a leaders status
• Be aware that you may need to go
to the top for answers
• Morocco, Russia, Iran, Italy
Low PDI
• Flatter organisations
• Supervisors and employees are
considered as almost equal
• Delegate as much as possible
• Ideally involve all those in the
decision making who will be
directly affected by the decision
• Eg: Netherlands, DenmarkLigo Koshy, Faculty, MACFAST, Tiruvalla

Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions
• Individualism vs Collectivism (IDV): the degree to which
people in a society are integrated in to groups. In
Individualistic societies people prefer to act as individuals
rather than as group
High IDV
• High value is placed on time
and their need for privacy and
freedom
• Enjoyment of challenge and
expectation of individual
rewards for hard work
• Acknowledge individual
accomplishments
• Encourage expression of peoples’
own ideas
• USA, UK
Low IDV
• Maintaining harmony among
groups members overrides
other issues
• Suppress feelings and emotions that
may endanger harmony
• Avoid giving negative feedback in
public
• China, Korea, Japan

Hofstede's cultural dimensions theory
• Masculinity vs feminity (MAS):masculinity is the preference
in the society for traditional masculine roles of achievement,
heroism, assertiveness, power control and material rewards
for success. Feminity refers to put relationships before wealth,
respecting poor, supportive, caring etc.
High
MAS
• Strong egos
• Money and achievement are
important
• Beware of possibility of
differentiated gender roles
• Japan
Low MAS
• Relationship oriented
• More focus on quality of life
• Work life balance and workplace
flexibility may be important
• Treat men and women equally
• Sweden

• Uncertainty Avoidance: This relates to the
degree of anxiety that society members feel
when in uncertain or unknown situations.
High UAI
• Very formal business conduct
with lots of rules and policies
• Be clear and concise about your
expectations and parameters
• Belgium, Greece, Portugal
Low UAI
• Informal business attitude
• Accepting of change and risks
• DO not impose rules or
structure unnecessarily
• Denmark, Singapore, Sweden

• Long term orientation vs short term orientation (LTO): this
dimension associates how much the society values long
standing traditions
High LTO
• Preparation for the future
• Strong work ethics
• High value placed on
education and training
• Show respect for traditions
• Reward loyalty and commitment
• Behave in modest way
• Avoid talking too much about
yourself
• China, Japan, Korea
Low LTO
• Short term gratification
• High Creativity , individualism
• Promotion of equality
• Be respectful of other
• USA

International Training Process/ Phases in CCT Programme

Training Objective
• Bridging the cultural gap between the host and parent
organisation
• Maximise the cultural sensitivity of relocating employee
• Avoid misunderstandings based on cultural differences
• How to communicate verbally and non verbally with
colleagues in other cultures
• To understand more about the host country
• Learn to anticipate factors leading to culture shock and how
to manage it for oneself and one’s family
• Role based training for ensuring due performance of jobs

Types of global Assignments
• Global assignments are of the following types
• Chief executive officer
– Is the subsidiary manager who overseas and direct the entire
subsidiary operations.
• Structure reproducer
– Have the responsibility of building a structure similar to the parent
country to any subsidiary
• Trouble shooter
– Is an individual who is sent to a foreign subsidiary to analyze and solve
a specific problem
• Operative
– Job is to perform operational task in an existing operational structure,
generally at lower level, supervisory positions

Need Analysis
• Needs assessment diagnoses present problems and identities future challenges
to be met through training and development.
• Needs assessment occurs at three levels:
• The organizational analysis
– In the context of culture, politics, structure and strategy
• The Task analysis
– Involves identifying the tasks in the subsidiary and type of cross cultural
skills required to perform he tasks effectively
• The individual analysis
– Individuals existing level of cross cultural knowledge and skills

CCT Goals and Measures
• Short-term
• What the expatriate should be able lo accomplish on
completion of the CCT
• Long-term
• Reflect the expected outcome of the expatriate
assignment
• Short-term as well as long-term Goals should be detailed and
be in measurable terms.

Develop and Deliver the CCT
Programme
• Involves three activities
• Decide on the content of training
• Methods of Training
• Sequencing of training sessions

Content of Training
• A. Language Training
• English: the global Business Language
• Host country language skills and a adjustment
• Knowledge of corporate language

Content of Training
• B. Cultural Training
• General cultural orientation
• Receptiveness to effective cross-cultural
interactions, clear understanding of the
purpose, value and benefits of the global
assignment, the ability to manage stress.
• Specific host country cultural orientation
• Understanding of the host country's culture,
adaptation.

Content of Training
• B. Cultural Training
• The intensity of cultural training depends on two factors:
• The degree of interaction required between the
expatriate and the host country citizens
• The similarity between the assignees native culture and
the new culture

Tung’s Framework(1981)- framework which
helps decide the nature and level of rigour of training

Cross-Cultural Training Methods ƒ
• Cultural Briefings :
• Explain the major aspects of the host country Culture,
including customs, traditions, every day behaviors.
• Area Briefings:
• Explain the history, geography, economy, politics, and
other general information about the host country and
region.
• Case study:
• Portray a real-life situation in business or personal life
to illustrate some aspect of living or working in the
host culture.

Cross-Cultural Training Methods
• Role playing :
• Allows the trainee to act out a situation that he or she
might face in living or working in the host country.
• Field experiences/ Preliminary Visits:
• Provide an opportunity for the trainee to go to the host
country or another unfamiliar culture to experience living
for a short time
• Cultural assimilator :
• Provides a written set of situations that the trainee might
encounter in living or working in the host country. Trainee
selects one from a set of responses to the situation and is
given feedback as to whether it is appropriate and why.

Sequencing of Sessions
• Pre- Departure CCT
• Key people involved and in need of training
• Expatriate, Spouse, Children
• Components in Pre-Departure Training
• Cross Cultural training
• Preliminary visits
• Language training
• Security briefings
• Post Arrival or In-Country Training
• Facilitates learning by experiencing the host country
culture, beliefs and values.
• Training on deeper cultural learning about a new country
and its culture and the awareness of the skills and
behaviours needed to be successful in another culture.

Evaluating the Effectiveness of CCT
• Evaluation necessitates an identification of training goals and
methods so as to judge whether or not the goals have been
met.
• Short-term goals
• Cognitive goals
• Affective goals
• Behavioural goals
• Long-term goals

– Cognitive goals focus on helping the expatriates understand the
role of cultural values on behaviour in the host country.
• Awareness of the norms required to effectively interact with host
country nationals
• Knowledge about managing stress
– Affective goals seek to manage his or her feelings towards the
new culture and effectively handle negative emotions.
• Changing the expatriates perception about the host culture
• Enhancing his or her self-confidence to communicate with people
from other cultures
– Behavioural goals help the adaptive behaviour by the cross-
cultural skills, interpersonal skills.
• Developing intercultural skills
• Negotiating skills, Relationship building skills

• Methods to evaluate the effectiveness of the CCT
• Paper and pencil tests
• Online tests
• Personal interviews
• Observation of performance in a cultural stimulator
• Role-play.

• Long-term goals of the CCT programme include the expected
outcome of the expatriate assignment
• Cross-cultural adjustment
• Success on the assignment

HCN Training
Steps in HCN training
objectives Types of assignments Need analysis
Goals and measures Develop and deliver Assessment of
effectiveness

HCN Training
• Objective
– A few commonly understood objectives of training
in the multinational corporation are:
• Gaining information about the parent organisation and
its global existence and objectives.
• The acquisition of technological know-how specific to
the organisation
• The role of the new subsidiary in the MNC’s Road Map
• General awareness about parent country norms,
culture and work methods

HCN Training
• Type of HCN Assignments
• Managing Director / Country Head / Centre Head –
Chief Operating Officer, Chief Technology Officer, Chief
Information Officer, Chief Finance Officer, HR
Director/HR Manager – Unit Staff

HCN Training
• Need Analysis
• The individual Need Assessment remains the same as in
Expatriates
• The training needs analysis at an organizational or
assignment levels are
• Orientation to parent country processes and
reporting mechanism
• Familiarity and awareness of parent company work
practices, work culture, values
• Training for Global corporate vision and mission
• Training for uniformity in global work practices

HCN Training
• Training Goals and Measures
• The ability to have the subsidiary similarly managed as the
parent unit.
• Short-term
• Awareness
• Long-term
• To carryout the objectives of the organisation

HCN Training
• Develop and Deliver HCN Training
– Involves two activities
• Corporate Induction
• Technological Training

HCN Training
• Develop and Deliver the HCN Training
• A. Corporate Induction
• Corporate history, heritage, founders, promoters and
investors
• Industry overview, company’s market share and positioning,
competitors, growth
• Company’s specific product and service background
• Inducting to corporate and local leadership teams
• Future plans for growth
• Role of subsidiary
• Communicating to corporate vision and mission statement,
philosophy
• The HR policies of subsidiaries

HCN Training
• Develop and Deliver HCN Training
• B. Technological Training
• Sharing of detailed information on the core business of
the company
• Knowledge to make the subsidiary to work
independently

HCN Training
• Methods of Training
• On-the-Job
• Class room training
• On-site visits
• Mentoring
• E-learning

HCN Training
• Evaluating the Effectiveness
• The ability of the individual to build successful
subsidiary operations
• Establish competent teams
• Achieve the units objectives while adhering to global
processes and policies

TCN Training
• The focus is on ascertaining the technical,
cultural and managerial fit of the person for
the role.
• The approach is similar to that of the HCN

Merits and Demerits of CCT
Merits Demerits
Increases chances of success in
global assignments
Develops a false sense of
confidence among employees
Provides a comprehensive global
perspective for managers
May not taken seriously by the
recipients
Instills a sense of confidence in to
people
May not remove cultural biases
and prejudices
Foreign employees can be
managed better
May not make a visible difference
in business volumes
Reduces culture shock due to
frequent travels abroad
Can never fully prepare an
assignee to face real problemsLigo Koshy, Faculty, MACFAST, Tiruvalla

Training and development in international context

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