HP recently cut 9,000 jobs and will hire 6,000 new employees outside the US. According to Bloomberg BusinessWeek, HP is shedding the sizable portion of its workforce to be more competitive with IBM.

This story, like many others, underscores the continuing effects of globalization and the increasingly crucial need for managers to develop global business skills and intercultural competency. We now understand companies can no longer rely on a national approach to the market to be competitive. Developing economies around the world have created an environment multinational corporations find hard to resist. Can their global endeavors be sustainable without acknowledging significant cultural differences before establishing operations in numerous foreign countries?

Joshua

RW3 CultureWizard

The May issue of Training + Development magazine describes a sales coaching initiative, “Sales Coaching Across Cultures,” that was successful at one company’s offices all over the world. According to the magazine, it was successful with people from the US, Norway, Argentina, Japan, Italy and Australia.

What design methods can make a standard program effective in a number of culturally distinct locales? In the above instance, it’s clear that the delivery of the sales coaching lessons was flexible enough to allow for culturally-specific tactics, which are different from country to country. Oftentimes we hear about the failure of global initiatives created in one culture that didn’t reflect adjustment when delivered in another culture. It’s important to understand cultural gaps in learning styles when training around the world. For example, how would a German group of sales managers best learn how to coach their team versus an Indian group? How does the value placed on relationships make the sales process different in these countries? How do norms of communication affect the ways in which a sales manager would coach a salesperson?

The magazine states the company learned that “a global initiative is most effective when there is a standard program that is delivered locally and with flexibility.” How would you factor cultural differences into a global program design? What would you use to support the global integrity of widespread initiatives? Please let us know.

RW3 CultureWizard

Do you find that group activities, whether in a classroom or on a project team, exacerbate differences or provide a safe space to learn about and synergize with your colleagues? An article by Wei-Wen Chang in Training + Development argues that group activities characterize the former without proper facilitation and can lead to “segregation and misunderstanding.” Chang says that in groups, people “sometimes become more aware of the differences and consciously or unconsciously want to maintain their cultural identity,” thus leading them to a personal, cultural extreme. Could this perhaps be due to the pressure a team can exert on an individual to perform? A common intercultural lesson is that we revert to our cultural roots when under pressure and lose a certain amount of perspective. Can you relate to this experience?

An individual’s preferred method of learning also impacts the ways people interact, or do not interact, in a group. Direct interrogation is common in North America, while silence and contemplation are valued methods of learning in Asia. Facilitators of training can conflate these very different approaches by asking for written or verbal responses to activities, according to Chang. A specific intercultural awareness training I recall for a bi-cultural team of Malaysians and Americans included quizzes on US and Malaysian history and geography. The facilitator gave the quizzes to all participants to demonstrate the lack of knowledge both cultures had of their counterparts country’s. While this activity deliberately segregated the two groups in a very explicit way, it also served to unite them through an informal question and answer session that followed amongst the team members. This allowed the team to engage on matters they knew well, which strengthened their relationships.

How else have you seen group activities encourage or discourage learning in multicultural settings? What did you do to overcome any challenges?

Sean

RW3 CultureWizard