留學生管理類作業：cross-cultural trainings

全球經濟體系正在經歷一個巨大變革，遠離了個體國內市場，向著一個統一的，更少貿易，地理和文化壁壘的全球市場邁進。相應地，在近年來，很多企業使用海外管理者的數量在急速的增加中。本篇文章主要的目的就是評估如何培訓那些在外國工作的海外的管理者，說明一些能夠更加成功的有效的途徑。在本文中，首先我們將會評估到的，就是商務中的跨文化培訓的重要性和必要性。接下來，本文將分別說明跨文化培訓的形式和方法。

首先，大家都知道跨國公司都有著十分復雜的組成形式，從國際慣例需要跨文化意識這一技巧來改變和提高工作的效率和表現以來，這一形式就在不斷且快速的變化之中。就這一挑戰而言，據哈里斯和庫瑪描述（2000）許許多多的跨國公司都試圖通過跨文化培訓在他們的國際工作中讓員工發展別國文化意識。（哈里斯和庫瑪，2000：:64）

The world economic system is undergoing a transformation away from individual national markets towards a single global market with fewer trading, geographical and cultural barriers. Correspondingly, in recent times, there has been a considerable increase in the use overseas managers. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate how to train managers who will be working abroad and to explain the effective approaches to becoming more successful. In this essay, the importance and necessity of cross-cultural training in business will be reviewed first, and then the form of cross-cultural trainings and approaches will be considered respectively.

First of all, it is known that global organisations have very complex forms and it has been changing rapidly hence international management requires cross cultural awareness with skills to change and enhance job's performance efficiently. In this regard to this challenge, Harris and Kumra (2000) states that a large number of multinational corporations (MNCs) have attempted to achieve cross cultural  training  in order to make them  develop awareness of other cultures in their international work assignments.(Harris and Kumra, 2000: 604)

In addition, the cross-cultural training programme can be defined as  “Any intervention aimed at increasing an individual’s capability to cope with and work in foreign environment” (Tung, 1981, in Zakaria, 2000). On this basis it may be inferred that cross-cultural training is significant component of international management training in order to assist people to learn how to become familiar with their environment. Thus, cross-cultural training includes methods such as stimulations to make people prepared for new environments and cultures. Cross-cultural training (CCT) has also been defined as planned to negotiate for organisational requirements, is one of the key elements of international  business (Caligiuri et al., 2001) and also Lewis (2003) notes that a principal case for a company's achievement is its workers' ability to comprehend, adaptation skills and to improve a global mindset. Indeed, it has long been known that adaptability, cultural sensitivity and cultural literacy are very valuable assets.

There is no doubt that cross-cultural training programmes might be necessity for overseas assignments. However, survey was conducted by Mobil/ECA (1994): “There is a lower level of provision of pre-assignment preparation for the partner and forty four per cent of companies provide no preparation for children”. Yet another associated survey indicated that although CCT  is reasonable  from both a strategic and financial perspective, only around forty  percent of MNCs obtain some training forms for their overseas managers.(Dunbar & Katcher, 1990).Global companies have specified a large number of reasons for their attitude. The most common reason is that multinational companies advocate such training is non-essential or inefficient for its expatriates (Black & Mendenhall, 1989). However, some international corporations have regarded CCT training as effective at developing managers' performance and efficiency. Because over twenty empirical approaches, including both (Black & Mendenhall, 1990) and (Deshpande & Viswesvaran, 1992), indicate that CCT is well-structured and it has significant effects of cross-cultural skills improvement for overseas manager. Of course, cross-cultural training is not only the one way of preparing for overseas challenge. For example, managers may utilise articles, materials, handbooks about cross-cultural difficulties and also they can learn how  to handle  cross-cultural  issues from published stories and tips of expatriates before going to foreign countries.

Apart from these approaches, the main point is that how to train managers before going abroad for international tasks. Bennett et al. (2000) makes clear that the significance of pre-departure training, suggesting that pre-departure training provides the employee with a basic understanding of the new culture they will experience and how to manage culture shock and practical information about living in the new country (Bennett et al., 2000: 244).

There are some important components related to pre-departure programme. Firstly, cross-cultural awareness training allows participants to learn about their own culture and its effects on their behaviour in order to understand others’ cultures. Trainees can learn different cultural behaviours and rules that exist and when they face uncertainty and culture shock during their assignment, they already know how to react to these types of difficulties in order to be equipped with knowledge. It seems that  this approach might be beneficial for people who going abroad for international assignments. The opinion of  Schneider and Barsoux (2003) is that, “The more we understand each other’s culture, the more important it will be to arrive at a shared way of working together, rather than imposing our ways or adapting to theirs’’ which makes it clear that training above and beyond providing information about different business customs is very important.

Secondly, cross-cultural communication skills training which allows trainees to understand someone from a foreign culture can be way of reducing barriers to efficient communication in international organizations. It is known that English is one of the most widespread languages in the world but not everyone prefers to speak English in the business environment so overseas managers might work in the host language since it may ease to communicate. Rugman and Hodgetts (2003) also highlight that language training ‘‘allows the manager to  monitor the competition more effectively’’. Training regarding non-verbal communication (NVC) which is known as '' body language '' may also be important for overseas managers as sometimes it can be problem when interacting. For example, in South Korea, people avoid eye-contacting since it can be considered rude unlike in British culture. Non-verbal communication may also help to replace spoken communication.#p#分頁標題#e#

Apart from that, international  negotiation skills, which can be focused training from cross-cultural communication, enhances abilities and also  negotiation tactics to efficiently interview with a diversity of cultures. Negotiation instruction also may aid managers to study and gain experience by communicating with the new environment for them. Another training for managers may take a brief about region or country. Indeed, participants have a chance to explore some aspects about foreign country, such as politics, economics, geography, tradition, religious and local customs. Meanwhile, there are already some multinational companies which have their own cultural training centres to help their managers develop more skills in terms of  negotiation, culture briefing and  cross-cultural communication. For example, Motorola Inc. has trained its own managers so as to be considered  “transculturally competent ” (Hagerty, 1993). IBM managers have been given a wide range of interior cross-cultural facilities.

To sum up briefly: the issue of  cross-cultural mobility and  driven development approaches have been examined for managers  preparing for  multinational assignments. As researches and approaches have stated that multinational companies, training courses  and  education services have  attempted  to  enhance managers’ skills  in order  to be more  effective  on an international scales. My opinion is that  these forms  might  offer  tremendous profit opportunities  for managers before facing  a new environment and they also feel more competent  to cope with  their overseas assignments. Hence, after  this  improvement framework,  they know how  to  take part in  effective cross-cultural communication, reduce business risk, build better relationship in their organisation and  negotiate commerce deals  more efficiently before going overseas. Nevertheless, except private CCT courses, multinational companies should  provide better  pre-departure education  to  develop  its  managers.