Few companies require their assignees to follow a cross-cultural training - after all, sending expats abroad is a costly business. So what risks does a transferee run by opting out of cross-cultural training? For one, career suicide, say training firms.

When British executive Keith Hampson and his family first caught sight of their new home atop a remote South African mountain hours from the nearest store, they realised expatriate life would be a challenge.

Relocated to South Africa for two years during the early 1990s by UK construction firm Balfour Beatty PLC, Hampson received little preparation for his assignment, short of being plunked down in the far-flung location. A decade later, when Balfour Beatty was having trouble filling a dozen positions for surveyors in the UK, Hampson proposed relocating qualified South Africans. But he insisted on smoothing their transition through the use of cross-cultural training.

"From my own experience in South Africa, I realised the recruits needed an understanding about living and doing business in the UK before arriving," says Hampson, now commercial director of Balfour Beatty Rail Projects Ltd in Thornton Heath, UK.
Cross-cultural training courses aim to give executives being relocated overseas, or managers who work closely with foreign-based teams, insight into the cultures and customs they will face on assignment. Provided in-house by larger companies, as well as by hundreds of boutique firms world-wide, cross-cultural training is often offered as part of an overall relocation package.

Usually conducted before departure over one or two days, cross-cultural training courses teach would-be expatriates and their families about a country's history, culture, laws, traditions and business practices in order to minimise culture shock — and ultimately to help executives adapt and remain in their host country for the duration of their contract. Moving an executive overseas is costly; by most estimates, it costs about EUR 45,000 to relocate a top-level manager internationally for a long-term assignment.

But while almost all companies offer standard expatriate bonuses, such as financial incentives and help with finding an apartment, cross-cultural training isn't yet common practice. Some 90 percent of companies typically offer housing allowances to transferees, but only 28 percent regularly offer cross-cultural training, according to Cendant Mobility's 2004 Policy Survey. Moreover, when cross-cultural training is offered, the majority of executives opt out; some 47 percent of companies that offer cross-cultural training report uptake rates of less than 50 percent, according to Cendant.

"We always offer cross-cultural training, but it's very seldom used by executives leaving in a rush at the last minute," says Suzanne Bernard, director of international mobility at Bombardier Inc's aerospace division in Dorval, Canada, which has sent about 300 employees abroad this year.

"Even if most companies authorise cross-cultural training, there are few companies that require it," says Carolyn Ryffel, director of training for Cendant Mobility Intercultural Services. Some 30 percent of companies say the top reason international assignments fail is the failure of an executive's family to adapt, according to Cendant.

Cross-cultural training courses take many forms, but most include an overview of the host country's cultures and beliefs, briefings from local businesspeople and a series of exercises aimed at handling real-life situations.

For example, during one training session, a group of Canadians heading to Taipei were first asked how much they knew about the political tensions between Taiwan and mainland China. Not much, it turned out. "Some of these people had never been out of Canada before and were not politically savvy," says Laraine Kaminsky, executive vice president of Graybridge Malkam Inc, an intercultural training firm based in Ottawa, Canada.

Certainly, cross-cultural training, if done well, can have impressive results. Of the 29 South Africans brought to the UK by Balfour Beatty Rail Projects, none have returned home, says Hampson. On top of offering a two-day training course about the differences in British and South African culture, Balfour Beatty also set up a buddy system linking each incoming employee with a British colleague. "Buddies helped with work-related concerns, but also helped sort out housing, doctors and schools, and came around for visits on the first few weekends," says Hampson.

What risks does a transferee run by opting out of cross-cultural training? For one, career suicide, say training firms.

"The worst-case scenario is the executive does something at the beginning that totally compromises his effectiveness," says Cendant's Ms Ryffel. For example, losing your temper in public in Thailand is very serious. "You might as well put yourself on the next plane out because you'll never really be able to recover professionally," she says.
Having skipped cross-cultural training before his transfer to Belgium in 1999, Jon Chambers, a British technical manager for Procter & Gamble Co, remembers at first being frustrated heading up a 50-person team.

"In Belgium, there is a strong sense of hierarchy and people working for me wouldn't disagree with me or offer their opinions," says Chambers, who expected team members to speak up with ideas and concerns. Resentments built up and simmered under the surface. "I realised the Flemish are quite reserved and now I work with this, instead of against it," he says.

"Boss-employee relationships can easily go wrong with just a slight lack of awareness," says Richard Hill, senior intercultural expert at EuroPublic SA in Brussels, an intercultural consulting firm that works with companies such as Coca-Cola Co, as well as the European Commission. For example, many Eastern Europeans are wary of working for large corporations after the abuses of communism in the past, he says. "They want to work on their own and aren't into teamwork," says Hill. In that case, a manager of an Eastern European team would do better to set individual goals.

Sometimes, a small change in approach can work wonders. During a project between the US’. National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Russian government, Steven Jones, director of East-West Business Strategies Inc, a cross-cultural training firm based in Seattle, was hired to smooth the rough edges between teams. After the project stalled several times, Jones realised the assignment length was too short. NASA was sending engineers to Russia for just six months, but most Russians don't feel comfortable working with people they have known for only a short time. "We were rotating people out just when they were starting to be effective," he says.

December 2004