Cross-cultural training is an essential fixture in the human resources management arena of businesses and organizations. The need for cross-cultural instruction is essential in organizations whose breadth stems globally. These training sessions are necessary to expand the organizations vision and strategic plan into other cultures. Furthermore, these organizations must be prepared to strengthen and possibly change their structural plans due to the cultural intricacies embedded around the world. Without efficiently trained managers in internationally based locations, strategic goals, values, and global partnerships may become unrealized or missed. The study of cross-cultural is very relevant to ensuring organizations success in this …show more content…
If companies do not give their employees the tools to be successful at global locations, then the organizations will not be successfully global companies. Cross-cultural training (CCT) is one of the critical steps to develop influential staff members whose training makes them adaptable to the international community. Furthermore, CCT is necessary to make sure that employees will not be failures at their new office location due to the cross cultural differences. Over the past decade, there has been a shift in the expectations of globalizing corporations. In order to maximize returns on investments, and to support the globalization assignees are expected to be “change agents” (Bennet et al. 2000, pg. 240). They are also expected to be transfers and acquirers of knowledge. In order for companies to maintain assignments that develop both individual and organizational competencies the assignees must take on many responsibilities during their assignment. Initially, assignees must have the skills, knowledge, attitudes, and attributes to perform effectively in a different cultural environment. Furthermore, assignees and accompanying family members must be able to personally adjust to living in new locations. Finally, assignees must understand how to maximize developmental opportunities while abroad (Bennet et al. 2000, pg. 240). As dictated in the New York Times (2004), there are some supporters of cross-cultural and intercultural training. These employees say it
Competing in global markets entail many factors and centralization of its human resource practices is certainly vital to improve global competitiveness and empower employees for global assignments. To achieve success in global marketplace, the challenge of all businesses regardless of their size is to understand global corporate cultural differences and invest in human resources which includes selecting and retaining talented employee, training and development whilst encouraging employees to be innovative and creative. Employees selected to work in foreign locations should be prepared beforehand with adequate cross-cultural training. For an organization to be successful in the international marketplace, it must be concerned with this fit from both an internal and
It also helps to reduce the barriers formed caused by of language and cultural differences. Cultural confusion and miscommunication can be avoided by regularly training any international employers early in their careers. By doing this,
Kreitner, R. (2009). International Management and Cross-Cultural competence. (11th ed.). Management. Mason, Ohio: South-Western Cengage
Since each national market has its own set of values and beliefs, that one has to appreciate in order to pursue a future in said globalized-world, it is no wonder we observe a constant rise in the demand for intercultural and cross-cultural trainings.
Unquestionably, organizations rely on business professionals that can manage their business across a variety of cultures. With the rise in globalization, it is imperative that business professionals have a high cultural intelligence, which is the ability to adapt to individuals of other cultures. Luckily, cultural intelligence can be developed and ameliorated with experience, training, and with a conscious effort (Cardon, 2013). As a Human Resources Manager, I have worked with people from numerous countries throughout my career, but they were all here in America. It was not until I took my most recent position that I traveled outside of the United States to one of our facilities in Mexico. Unfortunately, I knew a minuscule amount about their culture, but have been intrigued by them ever since
Managers in human relations needs a variety of skills and knowledge to help their firms succeed in the global marketplace. They need to cope with the initial shock that often accompanies working and living in a different culture. Also, they can become more effective through learning the language of the host country and interpreting accurately the work values of their foreign counterparts. The following traits may be associated with candidate’s who are likely to succeed in international contexts, such as, flexibility, sensitivity to culture differences, business knowledge, culture adventurous and a desire for their views. Before doing business with people from different cultures, managers can familiarize themselves with research that describes important cultural differences in work values. There is four dimensions on which different cultures can be compared, which includes of power distance, individualism, uncertainty avoidance and masculinity/femininity.
GE has numerous expatriate employees in overseas positions. Catalanello and Redding (1989) argued that GE’s success with their human capital is based on the training they provide to them (as cited in Jain and Agrawal, 2005, P. 83). The training provided to its expatriate employees helps to build competitive advantages at GE. Expatriates, when visiting a foreign country on business would need a basic understanding of that nation’s culture, as it relates to business. Being able to say please and thank you in the native language can go a long way to building productive relationships with foreign nationals. Although, as business has become more global, business people understand there are cultural differences and are generally tolerant of visitors that do not understand, or have a working knowledge of their
Training: To address these issues, Earley & Peterson (2004) discuss a new conceptual framework for intercultural training called the Cultural Intelligence or CQ approach (Earley & Ang, 2003). In this individual are taught to collect and integrate large information by overcoming
Choice of not seeing diversity of culture results in limiting the ability for its management. This involved minimizing the issues being caused while there is maximization of advantages and key benefits allowed (Latimer, 2012). When there is lack of consideration across diversity of culture, foreigners end up becoming mere projections related to organizations.
Our corporation being a global one has expatriates across the globe. It is important that all employees understand that they need to be global workers. In order to do so, they need to be capable to work with people from diverse cultures and backgrounds. This is essential for their development. Diversity training would train them in countless skills and abilities and make them knowledgeable and aware about other cultures. This cross culture experience would help the employees understand the different work ethics and values of the other cultures. This training would encourage understanding and increase cooperation among the co-workers. This exercise is not only important for expatriates, but others as well as expatriates would be working with these employees. In this circumstance the employees have to be open about accepting people from other communities and background. Also another important point is that
While there are many various global issues that affect the International Human Resource Management to run efficiently, there are two key concepts that play a major role in understanding how to approach them with cohesive and a well coherent strategy; they are the International Human Recourse Management Strategy and Understanding the Cultural Environment. In the International Resource Management strategy, many companies will do their research in finding companies that offer the
With many organizations expanding and becoming more global organizations, whose businesses deal with other countries, cultural diversity becomes more challenging. That is why it is important for organizations to create a cultural diversity training program to encourage employee from different backgrounds to come together and learn each other 's belief system which can enhance the organization 's ability to problem-solve. To do this successfully an organization needs to create an organizational climate that promotes a learning organization. Which learning organization was first coined by Peter Senge (Kopp, 2014). According to Kopp (2014), Senge defined a learning organization as “an organization where people continually expand their
This has highlighted a crucial issue for international companies to be aware of the cross-cultural implications in the conception, design and implementation of the various market entry strategies for the Chinese markets, especially when considering the Human Resources Management strategies since Corporate Strategy will in turn determine the Human Resource (HR) strategy to be deployed.
Face to those options and wide resource, the managers in global enterprises have particular concern about the employees’ ability to disseminate knowledge and innovation throughout their global operations . The use of expatriates has seemed to be a logical choice for staffing, while the use of parent-country nations seems to be most appropriate in some specific situation . Some other global enterprises also prefer integrate the expatriates and local human resource. Nevertheless, each procedure has both advantage and disadvantage.
They must consider language differences especially whilst preparing training material. Some individuals may also require an interpreter to get messages across clearly (Noe, Raymond, 2002, p333). If an interpreter is used, it is important to conduct a practice session with the interpreter to evaluate pacing of the session and whether the amount of topics and material is appropriate (Noe, Raymond, 2002, p333). A needs assessment or analysis would be helpful for trainers to evaluate cultural dimensions and the characteristics of their employees whether it be language barriers, cultural status (Noe, Raymond, 2002, p334). By identifying the needs of cultural and ethnic minorities, trainers will be able to properly train and develop this minority to group to not only suit the individual themself but also the company.