international assignments | Communicaid Blog | Cross Cultural Training and International Communication Skills

Dec 21

How Can Sports Help Expats More Effectively Manage an International Assignment?

Relocating to another country can be a challenging experience for many international assignees. Cultural differences international assignees may encounter in the food, language, working practices or cultural values can lead to culture shock. The ability to effectively manage culture shock and cultural difference is crucial to the success of the international assignment. A cultural awareness training for relocation course can help expats to more effectively manage the challenges of living and working in a new country through developing strategies to stay active, meet people and find new hobbies in the target culture.

Football Adam Kazmierski i How Can Sports Help Expats More Effectively Manage an International Assignment?

Finding new hobbies is an excellent way to successfully adapt to a new culture but it can sometimes be a challenge as many international assignees search only for things they did in their home country. There are many new hobbies and activities expatriates can get involved in that can bring immense benefit to them. Expatriates living in South East Asia recently discovered this when they opened a Gaelic Football club.

Gaelic football was played widely in Ireland during the 19th century and came to South East Asia through international assignees coming from the UK. Surprisingly, this sport was well received and the locals joined expatriates in creating several teams which are now competing against each other across China, South Korea, Malaysia and Thailand. Joe Trolan recently described Gaelic Football in the Korean Times as a real bridge between British international assignees and Koreans.

Some find it strange to see a traditional Gaelic sport spreading throughout South East Asia but this is a perfect illustration of sport’s uncanny ability to bridge cultural differences and ease intercultural communication. Indeed, sport is a great way to overcome cultural differences.

One of the best examples of this is football, commonly called the “world game”. Football’s unrivalled popularity and ability to bring different cultures together is proven through the many tournaments across countries and cups like the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Football is not the only sport that creates bridges between cultures. Cricket, for instance is equally popular in the UK, Australia and India, thanks to the common past shared by both countries. Japan, Korea and the US share the same passion for baseball while ice hockey enjoys an enormous popularity both in Eastern Europe and North America.

These sports and many others are instrumental in bringing cultures together around the world and helping expatriates effectively manage their international assignment. Whether playing together with locals and other expats in a league or watching a sports event together, sports can break down barriers of cultural difference and help expats build relationships that will improve their international assignment.

Playing or watching sports on an international assignment is just one thing expats can do to ensure their success abroad. Understanding the key cultural values of their own culture and their host culture and being able to effectively manage these differences is essential. A cultural awareness training for relocation course can give international assignees the cultural insights and strategies they need to overcome the main challenges of an international assignment.

Knowing how a culture operates and how to build relationships with people in the target country will help expats throughout their international assignment. The cultural awareness, knowledge and skills expats can gain from a cultural awareness training for relocation course can also help them to perform more effectively in any sport they decide to play as an expat, making international assignment more enjoyable.

© Communicaid Group Ltd. 2010

Tagged with: Cross Cultural Training • cultural awareness training for relocation course • culture courses • culture training for relocation • Gaelic Football • how to bridge cultures • international assignees • international assignments • living and working abroad • sport and culture

Apr 28

Living and Working in India – Second Most Challenging Destination for International Assignments

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 »

The recently published 2010 Global Trends Survey reports a 46% decrease in corporate international assignments, a fall directly linked to the global financial crisis. On a positive note, 44% of multinationals surveyed expect the number of employees sent on international assignments to rise in the future. Surveying 120 multinationals, the report also provides an overview of what countries are the most popular destinations for employees on international assignments, offering considerable insight into the cross cultural challenges faced when doing business on an international scale.

According to the report, India is now the second most challenging destination for expatriates, and tops the list of countries for failure rate of international assignments, falling to fourth place in the list of emerging assignment locations. Despite its roaring economy and membership of the emerging BRIC bloc, establishing and doing business in India still poses a considerable challenge to multinational organisations.

Taj Majal x drew i Living and Working in India – Second Most Challenging Destination for International Assignments

Why is India such a problematic destination for international employees? After all, as a former British colony it is not new to Western culture and business practices. English is the official language – used throughout India’s civil service and legal system – which should theoretically facilitate cross cultural business interactions, particularly for US and UK companies. Furthermore, unlike China, India does not have a system of government many international companies could perceive as a cultural risk and a hindrance to trade.

When you look at the core values of Indian business culture, the greatest differences with the world average are in power distance and uncertainty avoidance. Indian indexes for the first are well above the world average, suggesting a widespread acceptance of uneven distributions of power within the workplace as well as a certain adversity to embracing Western management styles that encourage empowering staff and delegating decisions. As a result, despite the strong work ethic Indians are renowned for, managers on international assignment in India may find Indian employees reluctant to take on responsibilities, preferring to be told exactly what to do, when to do it and how. Furthermore, nepotism is strongly present within Indian companies, which contrasts with Western values of ascendancy by merit.

Indians have a fairly high tolerance for uncertainty, in other words, Indian business people generally accept unstructured situations and are able to successfully adapt to different business scenarios. Although this may seem in line with other Western business values, Indians seem to take it a step further. This is where potential cross cultural misunderstandings and risk begin. Such a high acceptance of uncertain situations can push adaptability to new boundaries, where honesty becomes relative and experimentation dominant. Coupled with the influence of the concept of karma and fatality, decision-making processes can appear highly volatile in the eyes of foreign business people who are unaware of Indian business culture.

There are, however, risks to approaching cross cultural business interactions from such a broad stance as offered by some of Hofstede’s research highlighted above. Often, a much more bespoke solution is both necessary and more effective in order to take into account a business’s unique corporate culture and the cross cultural skills that its managers and employees may well already possess.

This is even more the case when doing business in India, a country both as vast and diverse in territory as in population, resources and business opportunities. If you or your organisation are managing an Indian team or negotiating a merger with an Indian business, the dynamics of the business interactions will most likely be determined by the specific context in which all parties are operating, as well as the wider context of Indian business culture. A lack of tailored cross cultural awareness training solutions could well be one of the reasons for such a high rate of failure in international assignments there.

Recognising the need and the benefits of combining a general overview of culture with an organisation’s specific business needs and context, Communicaid has developed a tailored approach to intercultural training for international business. Communicaid’s Intercultural Training India programmes include Doing Business in India and Living and Working in India, providing business people and their families with concrete intercultural skills to ensure international assignments in India do not pose such a cross cultural challenge.

© Communicaid Group Ltd. 2010