Lecture 7
INTERNATIONAL
TRAINING &
DEVELOPMENT
Examples
The American executive who could speak
Chinese well…
Carlos - Mexican director in Dutch office
(Heineken)
Aaron – Israel director in Russia
Walmart in Germany
Objectives
1. Role of training to support expatriate adjustment and
on-assignment performance
2. Components of pre-departure training programs
3. Developmental aspect of international assignments
4. Process & issues of re-entry or repatriation
1. Introduction
“It is part of our philosophy as an attractive employer to invest continuously in
developing the skills of our employees. In the past seven years alone, we have
invested approximately €1.5 billion in training.”
Norbert Reithofer, Chairman of the Board of
Management, BMW Corporation, BMW annual
report, 2013, p. 17
“Over the long term, the only sustainable competitive advantage may be an
organization’s ability to learn faster than its competitors.”
As Arie de Geus, former head of strategic
planning at Royal/Dutch Shell
Defining Training & Development
- Training refers normally to activities designed to develop
or improve employee job skills
- Development refers primarily to the development of
managers and executives (or the preparation of
employees to become managers and/or executives,
although less frequently it refers more broadly to career
development of all employees).
Expatriate failure
- Definition of Expatriate Failure:
Usually defined in terms of early return home or termination but could also be
defined in terms of:
+Poor quality of performance in foreign assignment;
+Employee not fully utilized during assignment;
+Personal dissatisfaction with experience (by expatriate or family);
+Lack of adjustment to local conditions;
+No acceptance by local nationals;
+Damage to overseas business relationships;
+Not recognizing or missing overseas business opportunities;
+Inability to identify and/or train a local successor;
+Leaving soon after repatriation; and
+Not using foreign experience in assignment after repatriation.
…
Expatriate failure
+ Direct costs: airfares and associated relocation expenses, salary
and training…
+ Indirect costs: lost contact with host government officials and
key clients, loss of market share, difficulties with host-government
officials, and demands that expatriates be replaced with HCNs (thus
affecting the multinational’s general staffing approach)…
International assignment as a training and
development tool
Expatriates are trainers
- part of knowledge and competence transfer
- expected to help train and develop HCNs
Expatriates ensure adoption
- show how systems and processes work
- monitor HCN performance
Expatriates are management under development
- job rotation broader perspective
- they become global operators
7 imperatives have been suggested as keys to
global organizational learning and T&D
Think and act globally
Become an equidistant global learning organization
Focus on the global system, not its parts
Develop global leadership skills
Empower teams to create a global future
Make learning a core competence for the global
organization
Both the global organization and its individual
members must constantly reinvent themselves
Issues related to
global training
Who should deliver training?
How should the training be
delivered?
What are the effects of language
differences?
Should courses be handled
differently for host-country and
third-country employees?
How does an MNE adapt a
training program to different
countries and cultures?
…
(A) T&D localization issues
Culture
Learning styles
Education levels and forms
Language
Training and development laws (e.g.: regarding training expenses,
training subjects)
Transfer of learning
(B) Standardized approach to international T&D
How to integrate and MNE’s T&D activities, not only to achieve economies
of scale and scope, but to ensure that the same T&D is available for all of
their worldwide employees on a timely basis
(C) Virtual and global teams
MNEs are increasingly using these cross-border and virtual
teams/projects.
Teamwork and team effectiveness?
2. Components of effective
pre-departure training
Essential components of pre-departure training
Cultural awareness programs
Preliminary visits
Language training
Practical assistance with day-to-day matters
Security briefings
Mendenhall and Oddou’s 3 keys for cross-
cultural training (CCT)
1. Training methods
2. Levels of training rigor
3. Duration of training relative to
Expected degree of interaction
Culture novelty = how different host
culture is
from native culture
Information-giving approach
Low interaction, high < 1 week training
similar cultures
Emphasize information-giving approach:
area or cultural briefings
lectures, movies, books
interpreters
‘survival-level’ language training
2-12 month job, more training rigor
some interaction 1-4+ weeks long
Emphasize affective approach:
role-playing
critical incidents Affective approach
culture assimilator training
case studies
stress reduction training
moderate language training
High interaction, more training rigor
novel culture 2+ months long
Emphasize immersion approach:
assessment center
field experiences
Immersion approach
simulations
sensitivity training
intercultural web-based workshop
extensive language training
5 phases - designing an effective
CCT initiative
1 Identify the type of global assignment for which CCT is needed
2 Determine the specific cross-cultural training needs
+ Organization level:
+ Assignment level or job level:
+ Individual or employee level:
3 Establish the goals and measures for determining training
effectiveness
+ Short-term goals:
+ Long-term goals:
4 Develop and deliver the CCT program
+ Content (culture specific/culture general)
+ Method (didactic vs experiential)
+ Timing of delivery: pre-departure, post-arrival, sequential
+ Mode of delivery (modality): in-person, online), or hybrid
5 Evaluate whether the CCT program was effective
3. Developing staff through
international assignments
Outcomes of international assignments
Management development
Individuals get experience, advance careers
MNE gets cadre of experienced international operators
Organizational development
MNE accumulates knowledge, skills and abilities
MNE and individuals get a global mindset
MNE gets direct control and socialization which helps with
knowledge transfer and helps transfer competence
Knowledge and skills acquired
from international assignment
Market specific knowledge
local systems (political, social, economic), language, customs
Personal skills
inter-cultural knowledge, self-confidence, flexibility, tolerance
Job-related management skills
communication, project management, problem-solving
Network knowledge
meeting diverse people
General management capacity
broader job responsibilities,
exposure to other parts of the organization
Common barriers to knowledge
management and sharing include
Ignorance and lack of relationships;
Lack of a system for sharing;
Belief that knowledge is power (so one doesn’t want to share it);
Insecurity about the value of one’s knowledge;
Lack of trust;
Fear of negative consequences related to sharing what one
knows;
The belief that best practices do not move across borders and
cultures;
Language and translation issues;
Superiority and/or condescending attitudes;
Intra-organizational competition
4. Re-entry and career issues
Repatriation: the activity of bringing the expatriate back to the home
country.
Repatriation process: repatriation can be seen to encompass three
phases:
Re-entry and repatriation problems:
* Staff turnover
+ 22 percent of expatriates left the company during an
assignment (historical average 21 per cent);
+ 28 percent left within one year of returning from an
assignment (historical average 31 per cent);
+ 24 percent left between the first and second year of
returning from an assignment (historical average 24 per cent);
+ 26 percent left after two years of returning from an
assignment (historical average 24 per cent).
2015 Brookfield report:
to reduce international assignee attrition…
In most to least effective order:
1. position guarantee after the assignment
14%
2. repatriation support for the family
11%
3. opportunities to use international experience
11%
4. repatriation career support
10%
5. recognition
8%
Individual reactions to re-entry
Factors influencing
repatriate adjustment
Responses by the MNE
Linking
repatriation
process to
outcomes
Designing a repatriation program
Topics covered by a repatriation program
Strategies for smooth re-entry
Pre-departure briefings on what to expect and upon return
Multiple career planning sessions
Written repatriate agreements clarifying available assignments
upon return
Mentoring programs that continue after return
Extended home visits to keep up with social, family, and
organizational changes
Reorientation programs on changes in organization
Personalized reorientation for social readjustment
Personalized financial and tax advice
Providing an adjustment period upon return
Visible and concrete expressions of
repatriate’s value to the firm
