Training Needs AnalysisType of TrainingTechnical Training
Management Training
Domestic information
Cross cultural training
Language trainingExampleTechnology level, cultural and
attitudinal constraints on technology transfer, leadership skills,
handle responsibilties
Organisational structure, spans of control, reporting
relationships, communication structures,administrative procedures,
government-business relationships, business environment, marketing
issues, HRM issues, investment issues, ethnical considerations?
Accommodation, schools, hospitals, medical and social services,
shopping facilities and domestic services, issues related to
vehicles, customs and procedures, insurance
Information about other cultures, how to adjust
Few words or phrases, basic understanding, needs of use of
interpreters?
Effective Knowledge TransferCreation of global teams and
networks of experts through the actual mobility of
people;Maintaining effective communication systems and databases
that people can draw from;Having a systematic evaluation of
individual's experience upon completion of an international
assignment and ensuring that where valuable knowledge has been
acquired, this is built into the organizational routines and taught
to others.Kamoche, 1997, p. 220
Assumption that the more rigorous training will lead to lower
incidence of poor performance.
Information flow, strategy and control requirements will all
affect the level of rigorous training can be taken by MNCs.Explain
the systematic training cycle from Baumgarten (1995, p. 209)
Technical might be related to Baumgardens ideal of job-related
variables. Management training related to organizational
variables.
Domestic: situational variables
cross-cultural/language - personal variables
It must be aware that possible variations in expatriate
training. Tung (1981) proposed a contingency framework for deciding
the nature and level of rigor of training. Two determining factors
were the degree of interaction required in the host culture and the
similarity between the individuals native culture and the new
culture.
Mendenhall, Dunbar and Oddou (1987) propose three dimensions -
training methods, low, medium and high levels of training rigor and
duration of the training relative to degree of interaction and
cultural novelty that are used as guidelines for determining an
appropriate program.
Black and Mendenhall (1989) thought the earlier studies are tow
cultural in nature, with little integration of the individuals new
tasks and the new host culture, so they used Banduras social
learning theory and prior cultural awareness training models, and
proposed three aspects of social learning theory - attention,
retention and reproduction and show how these are influenced by
individual differences in expectations and motivation and the
incentives to apply learned behaviors in the foreign location. This
approach recognized that effective training is only the first step
and that the expatriates willingness and ability to act on that
training in the new environment is crucial to effective
performance.
But again, black and Mendenhall ignore the time factor and other
contextual factors such as cultural toughness, length of assignment
and the nature/type of the job - may have a bearing on the content,
method and processes involved in the cultural awareness training
program. (see also the figure in Baumgarten, 1995, p. 218)1989
survey by Columbia university of 1500 senior executives in 20
countries indicated that trained in a foreign language is important
for Non-US respondents (64%) and 19% of the US respondents.
Another study by Fixman (1990) also indicated that foreign
language skills were seldom included as part of cross-cultural
understanding and that language problems were largely viewed as
mechanical and manageable problems that could be easily solved.
Pucik (1985) comments on diminishing MNCs linguistic capacity
could have significant strategic implication. For instance, it
limits the MNCs ability to monitor competitors and process
important information. Translation services, particularly those
external to the firm, cannot make strategic inferences and
firm-specific interpretations of language specific data (Eg. Russia
volka and meat v. spirit and flesh, no standing v. sitting
down).
Fixman raises the question of protecting important technology in
international JV activities: it would seem that the less one
understands of a partners language, the less likely one is to
detect theft of technology.
A recent study by Tung-Arthur Adnersen (1997) indicated that the
ability to speak the local language regardless how different the
culture was to their home country, was as important as cultural
awareness in their ability to adapt the perform on assignment.
Knowledge of the host-country language can assist expatriates and
family members gain access to new social support structure outside
of work and the expatriate community.They point out in studying
British firms that to accept English as the defacto language of
international business gives the advantage to the other person:
Disregarding the importance of foreign language skills may
reflect a degree of ethnocentrism - Wright & Wright called for
use of international English rather than poor and broken English.
Macquarie University advanced in collecting spoken English by
Asian
Hall and Gudykunst (1989) showed that the lower the level of
perceived ethnocentrism in an MNC, the more training it provides in
cultural awareness and language training.
Pricewaterhowuse survey 1997-98 indicated that the importance of
language training has been picked up the MNCs, they even extend the
training to family members, spouse.
As a result of the increased global competitive pressures, and
growing awareness of its strategic and operational importance, more
MNCs are requesting business schools to include foreign languages
in their curricula and are giving hiring preference to graduates
with foreign language skills.Theoretically, pre-departure training
should also be provided for TCNS, but often, this is the area of
neglect. Such omission could create perceptions of inequitable
treatment in situations where PCNs and TCNs work in the same
foreign location. One Australian working in the Japanese subsidiary
of a US MNC comments: we were the third class in Japan. The
American received cultural training about Japan, we were just given
plan tickets.To save costs, some MNCs are now using satellite
technology to deliver custom-designed training courses from
home-country locations.The last one has been argued that this type
of international transfer exposes HCNs and TCNs to the headquarters
corporate culture and facilitates their developing a corporate
perspective, and it is very effective in helping to develop global
management teams, is a necessary part of successfully operating a
truly internationalised firm.
It is often hard to bring foreigners to head office. The type of
incentive and compensation packages for those hard-to-move high
potential managers will also be an important dimension in a
companys ability to bring people to the corporate office.Cultural
adjustment is inherent in international staff transfer. HCNs
require cultural training also. Besides, adequate language skills
is prerequisite for transfer training. A study of a Finnish company
indicates that lack of language competency may be a major barrier
in terms of access to corporate training program.Successful
companies such as Swedish-Swiss conglomerate ABB practice
developing a small cadre of international employees rather than
internationalizing everyone.
The global leadership program - 5 week, learn global business
skills by seminars, lectures, adventure-based exercises and field
trips to investigate business opportunities in countries such as
Brazil, China and India. The objective is to produce individuals
with a global perspective. But the success of the programs depends
on participants being able to apply these skills in their home
location and assist in the development of multinational, cross
border and cross-functional teams.
Kamoche (1997) also criticized that previous studies on IHRM
much focus on knowledge transfer from HQ to subsidiaries, rather
than the other way around, and called for adopting the approach of
organizational learning, so that firm is able to create HR
capabilities which reflect the firms core competence in the pattern
of policies and practices pertaining to selection, appraisal,
training, rewarding and career management.A concept of individual
learning should be embedded in a concept of group learning, which
in turn should be embedded in a concept of organization
learning.
Individual level of learning is concerned with interpreting;the
group level with integrating; andthe organizational level with
institutionalizing (Inkpen & Crossan, 1995, Believing is
seeing: JV and organizational learning, Journal of Management
Studies, 32:5, 595-618.)
hence, effective communication systems and a willingness to
challenge traditional wisdom are the cornerstones of the mechanisms
for the diffusion of knowledge.
There are a number of research issues remained:1) under which
circumstances, some learning mechanism are more suitable than the
others;2) integrating process of group-level learning may be
appropriate where teamwork exists, but in the case of individuals
working on their own, learning might proceed by direct coaching or
through mentoring3) a closer examination of the relations between
subsidiaries a d sub-units in terms of power structure,
dependencies and conflicts in the learning process4) in the area of
comparative HRM, through planned transfer of management practices
from one country to another can be quite complex if need to take
cultural consideration, communication problems and methodological
issues into to account.
