Dec 22

Relocation Training for International Assignees: Why is it so important?

Cross Cultural Training, Cultural training for Relocation, Culture, Culture training for Business & Management, Culture training for Human Resources, Culture training for the Public sector No Comments »

In this era of increasing globalisation, transnational corporations and cross-cultural mergers and acquisitions, a growing number of people are sent on international assignments around the world.

As organisations continue to outsource their operations to countries like India or the Philippines, or work with clients in countries such as Russia or Brazil, employees relocating for business must face giving up their familiar lifestyle in exchange for a completely new and different culture.

It’s not difficult to imagine the stress an international assignee might experience when changing his/her comfortable London office to an unfamiliar one in Moscow or Riyadh. International assignees often react to stress by expressing some of the following:

• General fatigue
• Lack of efficiency
• Lack of initiative
• Difficulty prioritising
• Slower reaction to time
• Frustration and irritation

Many specialists in cross-cultural communication connect these symptoms of culture shock to a lack of knowledge about the target country and its cultural norms and values. This lack of knowledge and cross-cultural skills can result in massive cross-cultural misunderstanding and failed international assignments costing the organisation a lot of money and time.

Cross-cultural training programmes such as Living and Working in Russia or Partner and Family Cross-Cultural Training can reduce the stress levels associated with international assignments and therefore improve individual business performance.  This in turn will ensure that the organisation saves not only a significant amount of money but time and resources spent on the international assignment.

Many cross-cultural trainers agree that poor performance is connected with the inability to adjust to a new communication style. One example where a lack of cross-cultural understanding resulted in a failed international assignment was when an English businessman recently relocated to Russia and felt his Russian colleagues’ communication style of using imperatives or commands was too direct. Because they were not using a more indirect approach and polite style which is expected in the UK, the English businessman incorrectly misinterpreted his Russian counterparts’ communication style as rude, aggressive and overly directive.

The misunderstanding and offence caused by their inability to effectively communicate with each other resulted in a failed contract negotiation and the departure of the English businessman for another assignment which had huge cost implications for the organisation.

Cross-cultural training programmes for doing business in Russia would have helped to prevent this kind of situation, minimising cross-cultural mistakes and improving cross-cultural communication skills to become more effective in a global context.

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Dec 21

Coming Home: The Hidden Challenges of Repatriation

Cross Cultural Training, Cultural training for Relocation, Culture, Culture training for Human Resources No Comments »

The thought of returning home after an international assignment usually creates a variety of mixed emotions for international assignees.  The excitement of seeing family and friends, anxiety about how they might be accepted professionally and personally and feelings of sadness about leaving the life they created abroad are all symptoms of reverse culture shock that many international assignees face upon repatriation.

Most people underestimate the potential challenges of readjusting to life back home.  In fact, studies show that repatriation is often the most difficult phase of the international assignment process and that reverse culture shock often affects both professional and personal reintegration.

Major professional challenges may involve the:

• Lack of recognition of improved professional skills
• Lack of an appropriate professional role
• Challenge of integrating into a potentially different organisational culture

On a personal level, international assignees often:

• Have unrealistic expectations of life at home and how it has changed
• Make false assumptions about how easily they will be able to fit back in
• Have difficulty supporting family members experiencing reverse culture shock

Studies show that over 40% of returnees leave their companies within one year of their return.  This has serious direct and indirect cost implications for the company.

Repatriation Training can help international assignees anticipate the challenges of returning home and develop strategies for dealing with them. Repatriation training provides international assignees an understanding of what has changed in their home country, tips for dealing with reverse culture shock and support from an expert to understand the hidden challenges of returning home.  Organisations can also benefit from providing cross-cultural training programmes for relocation to international assignees as it will help them harness their new skills and experience and ensure they have a professional place to come back to.

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Dec 14

Cultural Profile: Geert H.Hofstede

Cross Cultural Training, Cultural training for Relocation, Culture, Culture training for Business & Management, Culture training for Human Resources, Culture training for the Public sector No Comments »

Name: Geert Hofstede

Nationality: Dutch

Born: October 2, 1928 in Haarlem, Netherlands

Known for:

  • Five dimensions of culture
  • Small vs. large power distance
  • Individualism vs. collectivism
  • Masculinity vs. femininity
  • Uncertainty avoidance
  • Long vs. short term orientation

Key publications:

Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind. Revised and expanded 2nd Edition, New York: McGraw-Hill USA, 2005.

Exploring Culture: Exercises, Stories and Synthetic Cultures. Yarmouth, Maine:
Intercultural Press, 2002 (co-authored with Gert Jan Hofstede and Paul B. Pedersen).

Culture’s Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions and Organizations Across Nation. 2nd Edition Thousand Oaks CA: Sage Publications, 2001.

Masculinity and Femininity: The Taboo Dimension of National Cultures. Thousand Oaks CA: Sage Publications, 1998.

Hofstede earned a Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1953 and completed his PhD in Social Psychology at the Groningen University in1967. Hofstede started his career at IBM, where he founded and managed the Personnel Research Department.

Hofstede’s experience as a regular company worker combined with an interest in understanding organisational structures and management styles gave him a unique perspective. Between 1967 and 1973 he interviewed approximately 100,000 IBM employees in 53 counties. Based on the data he compiled, Hofstede developed his model of five cultural dimensions which are often used in cross-cultural training to help people categorise cultures in order to understand the differences which exist between them. Hofstede’s work focused on national cultures as well organisational cultures, both of which have an enormous impact on international business.

Following his work and research with IBM, Hofstede lectured at different institutions in Switzerland, Belgium and France before relocating to the Netherlands in 1980. In the same year, he published his first book Culture’s Consequences which paved the way for further activities and teaching in the intercultural field until he formally retired in 1993. Hofstede is still active in the intercultural field and often speaks at business events or at cross-cultural conferences such as SIETAR (Society for Intercultural Training and Research).

© Communicaid Group Ltd. 2009

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Dec 14

Cultural Profile: Fons Trompenaars

Cross Cultural Training, Cultural training for Relocation, Culture, Culture training for Business & Management, Culture training for Human Resources, Culture training for the Public sector 1 Comment »

Name: Fons Trompenaars
Nationality: Dutch
Born: 1952 in the Netherlands

Known for:

  • Seven Dimensions of Culture
  • Universalism vs. Particularism
  • Individualism vs. Communitarianism
  • Specific vs. Diffuse
  • Affective vs. Neutral
  • Achievement vs. Ascription
  • Sequential vs. Synchronic
  • Internal vs. External Control

Key publications:

Riding the Waves of Culture: Understanding Cultural Diversity in Business (1993). New York: McGraw-Hill

The Seven Cultures of Capitalism (1993). London: Piatkus Books

Building Cross-Cultural Competence: How to Create Wealth from Conflicting Values (2000). London: Yale University Press

Managing People across Cultures (2004). Oxford: Capstone

Fons Trompenaars studied Economics at the Free University of Amsterdam and completed his Ph.D. at Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.  He grew up in a multicultural family of French and Dutch and later worked for Shell in nine different countries.

Trompenaars was a student of Geert Hofstede who had a strong influence on his research in the intercultural field.  After working closely with Hofstede’s five cultural dimensions, Trompenaars decided to expand them into seven slightly different dimensions of opposing concepts adding some elements of cultural difference which were not in the original model.

Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner, also heavily involved in the field of international business research and intercultural theory, have joined together to conduct further research in the field.

Trompenaars’ Seven Dimensions of Culture is a model often referred to indirectly in online cultural tools and cross-cultural training programmes such as Communicating Effectively across Cultures to help increase understanding of cultural relativity and cultural difference.

© Communicaid Group Ltd. 2009

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