TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT

It is often said that a good selection process reduces the training effort. It might be
true in the case of domestic business. But, the global companies should have enough
training and development effort as the candidates are strangers not only to the jobs, but
also to the soil, climate, environment, people and culture of foreign country where they
are expected to work and live along with their family members.

After the candidate is selected and placed on the job, he must be provided with
adequate training and development facilities. Training is the act of increasing the
knowledge and skill of an employee for doing a particular job. Development is a
systematic process of growth and by which the executives develop their abilities to
manage. In fact, executive development/education has become global.

1. IMPORTANCE OF TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT FOR GLOBAL JOBS

Even the most valuable employees in the global companies fail to work and stay
with the company due to poor training and developmental efforts. Global companies
should make not only the employee, but also his family members more comfortable with
the company, people and the country. Hence training and development assume greater
significance in global companies.

Training and development are the most important techniques of human resource
development. Training and development lead to:
o Improved job knowledge and skills at all levels of the organization.
o Improved morale of the human resources.
o Improved profitability and/or more positive attitudes towards profit-
orientation.
o Improved relationship between boss and subordinate.
o Improved understanding of culture of various countries.

2. NEED FOR TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT FOR GLOBAL JOBS

Training and development for global jobs are necessary due to the following
reasons:
o To match employee specifications with the job requirements and
organizational needs.
o To achieve organizational viability and the transformation process.
o To meet the challenges of technological advances.
o To understand the organizational complexity.
o To make the employee and his family members familiar with the language,
customs, traditions etc., of the foreign country.

After the employee is inducted into the company, his skills, knowledge and
attitudes are molded and developed. Training is the organized procedure by which people
learn knowledge and/or skills for a definite purpose. Training improves, changes and
moulds the employee’s knowledge, skills, behavior, aptitude and attitude towards the job
and organizational requirements.
 In case of international business, training and development refer to the
development of expatriate not only towards job and organizational requirements, but also
towards the host country’s culture, environment and requirements. Therefore, cross-
cultural training assumes greater significance in international business.

3. CROSS-CULTURAL TRAINING

Cross cultural training enables the experiences to learn the cultural norms, values,
aptitudes, attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, practices of the host country.

The expatriate, after training can use this cross-cultural knowledge to behave
according to the cultural requirements of the host country. The adage “Do in Rome as the
Romans do” holds good here. The trainee expatriate can transfer the knowledge gained in
the training programme into new cognitive and physical behavior. This process gives the
trainee more satisfaction in their foreign assignment.

Procter and Gamble trained their selected candidate for their company in Japan
regarding the Japanese culture that Japanese likes more of informality, they hesitate to
say no and they finalize more of their business dealings outside the office and mostly in
restaurants in the evening. The employees transferred this knowledge into their cognitive
and physical behaviours and became successful in dealing with the Japanese. Thus they
became efficient in doing their jobs and interacting with the host country’s nationals.

However, some companies don’t train their expatriates due to the following
reasons:
 Brief cross-cultural training programmes are ineffective.
 The failure of such programmes in the past resulted in employee dissatisfaction.
 Lack of enough time between selection departure.
 High cost of training.

Though the company cannot provide training before the departure of the employee, it
can plan to provide the same in the host country.

Content of the Cross-Cultural Training

It is generally accepted that cross-cultural training is effective. Landis and Brislin

suggest the following content to be included in the cross cultural training
programmes. They categorized them as approaches to cross-cultural training.

 Information of Fact Oriented Training: the training program provides the

expatriate trainee with the information and facts of the country like country’s
economy, resources, languages, social groups, currency, climatic conditions,
eating, dressing habits, housing, banking, insurance, medical facilities, etc.

Training methods include lectures, video tapes, reading material, pamphlets, etc.
  Attribution Training: This training provides the reasons or causes for the
behavior of the people of the host country. For example, japans do not say ‘No’,
because they want to respect the other’s feelings and donot want to hurt the
others. Similarly, Americans respond straight and do not hesitate to say ‘No’.
This is because they want to communicate clearly.

Goal of this training is to understand the values, norms and perceptual maps. Once
the culture and the reasons for it is understood, the expatriates are encouraged to adapt
their behavior to the norm of host country.

Indian expatriates in the USA are given brief training regarding punctuality,
perfectness in work, etc. and the reasons for such behavior. Almost all the Indian
expatriates adapt themselves to these culture norms within no time.

 Cultural Awareness Training: This training is to provide the common values,

attitudes and behavior in the host country’s culture. This makes the trainees to
understand how culture affects the behavior of the people of the host country.

 Cognitive-Behavior Modification Training: This training provides the

information regarding the behavioral practices which result in getting rewards or
punishments in the host country. Then the trainees compare the rewarding or
punishing practices in the home country and host country and formulate the
strategies for their behavior in order to maximize rewards and avoid punishments
in the host country.

For example, Indian organizational and corporate environment donot provide

any rewards for employee commitment, hard work, sincerity and productivity.
Similarly, it does not provide punishments also for poor commitment, insincerity and
low productivity. When the Indians go to the USA, they understand that the US
corporate culture is opposite to that of India. Hence, they select the strategy of
becoming a committed, hardworking and sincere employee in US corporations in
order to get more rewards and avoid punishments including firing.

 Experimental training: The expatriates in this programme are exposed to real

life situations through field visits, visits to the host country, complex role plays
and cross-cultural simulations. This gives the trainees the real life experiences.

Training Techniques: Most commonly used training techniques include:

o Lectures
o Area briefings
o Reading material
o Video films
o Classroom language training
o Case studies
o Sensitive training
o Role plays
 o Field trips
o Simulations
o Interactive language training
o Cultural assimilations

TECHNIQUES OF CROSS-CULTURAL TRAINING

High
EXPERIMENT
Simulations

Field Trips
Role Plays
Interacting Language Training
ANALYTICAL

Sensitivity Training
Culture Assimilators

Classroom Language Training

Films
Training
Rigour FACTUAL
Books
Lectures

Area Briefings
Passive Participative
Low

Passive Participate

 Rigorous Training: Some training techniques like role plays, simulations need
rigorous training while other new techniques need mere participation of the
trainee in the programme. Human resource managers in international business
companies have the dilemma in deciding which programme requires rigorous
training. The following variables help the human resource manager in solving this
problem.

 Job Novelty: We have already discussed what job novelty is? The expatriate
trainee needs rigorous training and more assistance, if the job is more novel. The
novel job would be challenging and therefore, the expatriate needs to be trained in
the cross cultural managerial skills necessary to do the job efficiently.
  Interaction with Host Nationals: If the degree of interaction of the expatriate
with the host country’s customers, work force, government officials, suppliers,
bankers, industry leaders and the like, is high the training should be rigorous.

Other factors to be considered are:

o Degree of familiarity of the norms of host country’s culture.
o Importance of the interaction to the company.
o Culture Novelty: We have already discussed the cultural novelty. It is very
difficult to adjust with the high novel culture.
For example, it is, highly difficult for the Indians to adjust with the culture
of Maldive as the culture of Maldive is quite different from that of India. It
would be difficult to the trainees to absorb the novel cultures. In such
cases the training should be rigorous.

Black and Mandenhall argue that the greater the cultural novelty, required degree
of interaction with host nationals and job novelty, the greater the need for cross-cultural
training. Each of these dimensions are not equal. According to them adjusting to the host
culture and interacting with the host nationals are more difficult than adjusting to the
international job.

Blunders in Cross-Cultural Training

Cross-cultural training is essential to make the new employee to adjust with the
new culture of the job, company and host country. The expatriates with such training
proved to be efficient than those who did not receive the training. Cross-cultural training
is not necessary for long-term expatriates. Research studies indicate the failures when the
cross-cultural training is not provided.

EXAMPLES OF FAILURE OF CULTURAL ADJUSTMENTS

o The new American owners of a Spanish company changed the firm’s previous
prestigious Spanish name to that of the U.S. parent, flew the American flag from
the company flagpole… the company even suggested that those who had managed
the company prior to the takeover by the Americans were incompetent…. The
blunder was so serious that it resulted in a general slowdown of work (strikes
were then officially banned)…. The result: The newly acquired subsidiary lost a
great deal of its previous business.

o AN executive from Lucerne, Switzerland, negotiating a business venture with a

Japanese firm failed to recognize the importance of personal sentiment to the
Japanese and he paid the price. The president of the Japanese company sponsored
a party in Tokyo and exclaimed, “I will not do business with a man who does not
like us!” The executive believed he had concealed hi dislike for the japans during
his stay, but the president of the Japanese company had seen through his mask.
o An American manager who understood little German was sent to Germany to
discuss marketing plans with the local German subsidiary managers. The local
managers, however, spoke little English. Both sides tried to understand each
other, but neither nationality did very well. Eventually they parted, thinking they
were in agreement. It was later discovered that during the meeting many
important points were overlooked, and the company subsequently lost numerous
sales opportunities.

o A Brazilian expatriate executive created major problems for his firm when he
treated his secretaries in America as personal servants. Not only did he ask them
to do his personal shopping, but he even asked them to mend his clothes!

o An American executive was to conduct a presentation for the Prime Minister and
his cabinet of a small Caribbean country. The meeting was held in the Prime
Minister’s conference room, and the executive began his presentation with.
“Honorable Mr. Tollis and esteemed members of the cabinet.” The Prime Minister
interrupted him several times and asked him to start over. Eventually, someone
advised the bewildered and then embarrassed businessman that Mr. Tollis had
been deposed six months earlier!