Week 5 - International Training & Development Flashcards
How important is training and development for organisational performance?
Some evidence:
- empirical study of training policy in the hotel industry in Spain identified T&D and human capital development as a source of differentiation and competitive advantage (Ubeda-Garcia et al., 2013)
How important is training and development for HR performance?
Some evidence:
- the higher the average number of training hours delivered for employees, the greater was their knowledge & commitment to their employing organisation (Vidal-Salazar et al., 2012)
How significant is expatriate training and development at an organisational and individual level?
Organisational level: it can reduce international assignment failure rates by minimizing problems of adjustment
Individual level: provides progression opportunities and enhances overall career prospects
Draw the international training and development flow chart
Lecture 5 notes
Identify the different features of expatriate preparation
- Visits to the host country
- Briefings by host-country managers (informal and firm specific)
- In-house management programs
- Training in local negotiation techniques
- Analysis of behavioural practices that have proven most effective
- Cross-cultural training
What do expatriate training programs cover?
- The nature of the assignment
- The use of any equipment/technology
- The institutional framework of the host-country
- Cultural issues
What is cross-cultural training?
The educative processes used to improve intercultural learning via the development of the cognitive, affective and behavioural competencies needed for successful interactions in diverse cultures (Littrell et al., 2006)
What are the objectives of cross-cultural training?
1) Learning to learn (how we can change as individuals)
2) Making isomorphic attributions
3) Overcoming difficulties
4) Developing positive relationships
5) Accomplishing work related tasks
6) Coping with stressors
What do CCT environmental briefings cover?
Information about things such as geography, climate, housing and school
What does a CCT cultural orientation involve?
Familiarising the individual with cultural institutions and value systems of the host country
What are CCT cultural assimilators?
Programmed learning techniques designed to expose members of one culture to some of the basic concepts, attitudes, role perceptions, customs, and values of another culture
Explain what CCT language training involves
Moving beyond working proficiency to more informal ways of communicating
What does gaining CCT field experience involve?
Send participant to the country of assignment to undergo some of the emotional stress of living and working with people from a different culture
What is CCT sensitivity training?
Develop attitudinal flexibility
Draw Mendenhall, Dunbar and Oddou’s cross-cultural training model
Lecture 5 notes
What are the emerging issues related to CCT?
- Over-reliance on pre-departure training (need on-going support from HQ)
- ‘Real time’ training
- Assessment centres
- Self-training (ability to absorb information and pick relevant things to learn about their international assignment)
- International job rotation (don’t need to wait until there is a need to train someone)
Why do some MNCs neglect CCT?
There is an untested premise that managerial effectiveness is cross-culturally transferrable
Managerial efficacy, leadership and adjustability are not the only factors determining the success of an international assignment…
e.g. on-going support from HQ during the assignment
- other factors are involved that you can’t measure
e. g. expatriate environment (friends & family)
e. g. institutional and political environment
What are the 6 cross-cultural training programmes commonly used?
Environmental briefings Cultural orientation Cultural assimilators Language training Field Experience Sensitivity training
