International Training Essay ⋆ Business Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

In today’s competitive global business environment, international human resources management (HRM) systems are of significant importance for developing global managers. International training may be defined as any procedure intended to increase an individual’s ability to cope and work in a foreign environment. The importance of training in preparing an individual for an intercultural work assignment has become increasingly apparent. International and intercultural work has become the norm for most large organizations. Managers are spending shorter periods in any single country, and they often are moved from one location to another. Because their managers must often operate across borders in teams of internationally diverse units, many organizations express the need for managers who quickly adjust to multiple cultures and work well in multinational teams. This makes the challenge of international training increasingly difficult because conventional methods that rely on country specific knowledge often prove inadequate.

Adjusting to an international assignment can provoke feelings of helplessness in an unprepared manager, who may have difficulty sorting out appropriate from inappropriate behavior. Learning to manage in and cope with a foreign environment involves such a profound personal transformation that it has an analog in the process of human development throughout the life span. Expatriate managers are removed from the comfortable environment of their parental culture and placed in a less familiar culture. A management style that works at home may fail to produce the desired response abroad, or it may be even counterproductive.

A growing consensus in the field of international training is that appropriate pedagogy of any program must begin with a thorough and suitable assessment of managers’ strengths and weaknesses. Methods for individual assessment range from paper-and-pencil inventories to elaborate role-playing exercises to behavioral assessment centers. Once managers are assessed and selected for training programs, the key question becomes what design optimizes their training and development. Organizations can improve the quality of managers by providing comprehensive training and development activities after assessment and selection. Considerable evidence suggests that investments in training produce beneficial individual and organizational outcomes.

International competence training and a sensible repatriation plan help buffer the stressors encountered abroad. The willingness and courage to undergo the profound personal transformation associated with an international assignment are essential for a healthy expatriate adjustment, even after the expatriate’s return. International training can partly remedy cross-cultural insensitivity, but international competence involves more than a series of country statistics and cultural gimmicks learned in a short, pre-departure training session. Making executives aware that they will face different business and social customs is not sufficient, because awareness does not necessarily bring competence in the host culture.

Many organizations are becoming aware of the need to provide continued hands-on training rather than just pre-departure awareness training. In contrast to pre-departure training, post-arrival training gives global managers a chance to evaluate their stressors after they have encountered them. Documentary and interpersonal training methods have additive benefits in preparing managers for intercultural work assignments.

Most international training programs emphasize increasing a manager’s cultural competence in dealing with others from different cultural backgrounds by enhancing their cognitive awareness and knowledge of the proposed host culture. The training format is mainly project based, with participants spending much of their time in their respective business areas. At regular intervals they are brought together to discuss their experiences under the guidance of facilitators. So, cultural differences are addressed when they surface in the context of working together. Experiential training formats also provide an opportunity to react to cultural stressors and receive feedback about the adequacy of one’s coping responses (i.e., cultural assimilator).

Employees need to actively support the adjustment process of their expatriate managers. International competence–oriented training should be provided before, during, and after the assignment. In addition, the parent firm should be sensitive to the delicate balance between the interests of the parent and the host firm that executives need to maintain, listening and working with them to define and achieve common goals. Training for the global manager should include metacognitive, motivational, and behavioral components.

The effectiveness of global managers will be limited if they are not motivated to perform their jobs. The form and structure of an organization’s HRM system can affect employee motivation levels in several ways. Continuous training, job rotation, employment security, performance appraisal, and compensation systems can motivate managers to engage in effective discretionary decision making and behavior in response to a variety of environmental contingencies.

Bibliography:

Clifford Adelman, “Learning without Borders: Training a Global Workforce Requires International Collaboration,” Community College Journal (v.78/2, 2008);
Stewart Black and Hal B. Gregersen, “The Right Way to Manage Expats,” Harvard Business Review (v.77/2, 1999);
George W. Bohlander and Scott A. Snell, Managing Human Resources (South Western Educational Publishing, 2009);
Christopher Earley, “Intercultural Training for Managers: A Comparison of Documentary and Interpersonal Methods,” Academy of Management Journal (v.30/4, 1987);
Christopher Earley and Randall S. Peterson, “The Elusive Cultural Chameleon: Cultural Intelligence as a New Approach to Intercultural Training for the Global Manager,” Academy of Management Learning and Education (v.3/1, 2004);
Fred E. Fiedler, Terence Mitchell, and Harry C. Triandis, “The Culture Assimilator: An Approach to Cross-cultural Training,” Journal of Applied Psychology (v.55/2, 1971);
LuAnn Irwin and Renie McClay, The Essential Guide to Training Global Audiences: Your Planning Resource of Useful Tips and Techniques (Jossey-Bass, 2008);
Juan I. Sanchez, Paul E. Spector and Cary L. Cooper, “Adapting to a Boundaryless World: A Developmental Expatriate Model,” The Academy of Management Executive (v.14/2, 2000);
Jan Selmer, “Effects of Coping Strategies on Sociocultural and Psychological Adjustment of Western Expatriate Managers in the PRC,” Journal of World Business (v.34/1, 1999);
Rosalie L. Tung, “Expatriate Assignments: Enhancing Success and Minimizing Failure,” Academy of Management Executive (v.1/2, 1987).

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