52 Activities for Successful International Relocation

Donna M. Stringer, Patricia A. Cassiday

• Publisher: Intercultural Press
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9780983955887
• eBook ISBN: 9781473643413
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Management
• Index: Business

Relocating to a foreign country for school or work offers in an opportunity to expand your world view and develop useful strategies for adaptation. Preparing for such a move requires both attention to the logistical details and emotional preparation for the experience of living in a new culture. 52 Activities for Successful International Relocation is the only book of activities that focuses on issues of international relocation. These excercises--grounded in research and field-tested--were designed to help international relocation trainers and educators create programs that aid the transition from a familiar culture to a new one. Sections include predeparture preparedness exercises to reduce "culture shock, " in-country support excercises, and reentry activities to prepare individuals to readjust to life back home. Whether you're using this book in a business, education, or HR setting, 52 Activities for Successful International Relocation will help your student or employee manage the practical and emotional challenges of cultural change.

SECTION
B

In-Country

In-Country Training Importance and Characteristics

Joyce Osland, Executive Director, Global Leadership Advancement Center, School of Global Innovation and Leadership, College of Business, San Jose State University

There is no substitute for real experience. For that reason, in-country training is designed to help people understand and take best advantage of their international experience. It is difficult to prepare people for everything they will encounter in another country, and it is hard to predict how individuals will react to a cross-cultural experience. Many in-country training programs are based on the same principles that Steve Duke outlined in the introduction to pre-departure training in the previous section. The focus centers around the following:

• Effectively interacting with others

• Learning about the country’s infrastructure, political structure, economy, and history

• Learning about cultural values, expectations, and socially acceptable behaviors

• Preparing for cultural adjustment and “culture shock”

• Safety precautions

In-country training also helps people negotiate the reality of crossing cultural boundaries and how that experience impacts them personally. Challenges can involve failed expectations when the experience does not pan out how they thought it would (e.g., “I thought I would have the same freedoms I do at home” or “I expected them to be more interested in what I can contribute”). Sometimes people need help getting beyond unexpected negative surprises, such as strong affective reactions to their treatment by locals, anxiety over not knowing how to act in certain situations, and so forth. When sojourners cannot decode what is going on or make accurate attributions about why this is occurring, they can develop a negative attitude toward their entire international experience. Thus, in-country training can have a “just-in-time” component when it responds to individuals’ specific here-and-now learning and training needs.

The following characteristics of the international experience provide an overarching framework for in-country training designs and methods.

1. The potential for transformation. Cross-cultural experiences have great potential to be transformational. Many people look back on them as one of the most significant crucible experiences in their lives and can readily identify exactly how they were changed. Debriefing and reflecting upon specific experiences can lead to personal change and is often an underlying focus of in-country training. However, trainers must also bear in mind that not everyone is equally open to transforming themselves during an international experience. Sojourners generally get the adventure that they are ready for; transformation occurs when employees and students are willing and ready to be changed.

2. Dealing with paradox and duality. There are many paradoxes inherent in the cross-cultural context. Exposure to paradox is one of the characteristics of an international experience that can trigger personal transformation. Sojourners often come to realize that culture itself is paradoxical and contextual. The way people behave is much more complex than the bipolar value dimensions and communication styles that sojourners tend to be exposed to during pre-departure training. The more familiar participants become with another culture, the more likely they are to observe both poles of these dimensions and styles within a single culture. This level of complex and contingent cultural knowledge comes only with actual experience. Sojourners often come to see as valid the general stereotype of the culture they are visiting, while also realizing that many individuals do not fit that country stereotype. (For example, Indian culture is both collectivist and individualist in certain contexts.)

Seeing the wisdom of both sides in paradox and learning to resolve and live with duality can trigger personal transformation, increased cognitive complexity, and even a change in the participants’ identity to include biculturalism. The development of intercultural competence, cultural intelligence, global mind-set, and global leadership results from dealing successfully with dualities. But once again there is a caveat—not everyone is equally well-equipped to perceive and grapple with paradox. Black-and-white thinkers and judgmental people who tend to be rigid may need more help from trainers in in-country programs.

3. The Three Bucket Model and Sojourner Effectiveness. Researchers have done a good job of identifying the competencies that predict sojourner effectiveness. These competencies provide a blueprint for the skill-building components of in-country training programs. The “Three Bucket Model” consists of three components: perception management, relationship management, and self-management (Bird, Mendenhall, Stevens, & Oddou, 2010).

Perception management has to do with how individuals perceive the world around them and its effects on their subsequent learning about that world. It includes

• How mentally flexible participants are when confronted with cultural differences that are strange or new,

• Their tendency to make rapid (rather than thoughtful) judgments about observed cultural differences,

• Their ability to manage perceptions when faced with situations that are not immediately easy to understand because these situations differ from expectations, and

• Their proactive curiosity toward foreign countries, cultures, and international events.

Relationship management assesses how sojourners are oriented toward developing and maintaining positive relationships with people from other cultures. It includes

• How aware they are of others around them, the differences in interaction styles, values, and so on;

• Their personal level of self-awareness and awareness of how their own behavior impacts others; and

• The degree to which they are oriented toward the development and management of interpersonal relationships in a cross-cultural environment.

Self management assesses the participants’ natural and learned capabilities to maintain a healthy emotional state when faced with challenging situations. It includes

• The strength of their sense of self-identity,

• Their capacity to adapt and change within the context of a stable self-identity to remain mentally and emotional healthy in a new culture, and

• Their ability to manage their thoughts, emotions, and responses to stressful situations.

4. Facilitating cross-cultural learning. We know that people who are already good learners are more likely to be effective in international assignments because they are good at scanning and gathering information. They are also willing to “unlearn” behaviors that worked well in their native country but are not effective in their host country and elsewhere. They learn to adapt their behavior in a culturally appropriate manner. Ensuring that sojourners learn “how to learn” is another underlying goal of in-country training.

David Kolb’s (1983) learning cycle is a good process model to employ given its components:

• Concrete experience (e.g., a puzzling or challenging sojourner experience);

• Reflective observation (analysis of that experience);

• Abstract conceptualization (application of theories or concepts that help explain the experience); and

• Active experimentation (testing the model or lessons learned to see if they work).

If the active experimentation is successful, then knowledge is the outcome. The reflection component of Kolb’s cycle is extremely helpful because it promotes self-awareness and perspective-taking. Simply living abroad is not enough—sojourners have to convert their experience into knowledge.

Guided journals and blogs promote helpful reflection, particularly if they are structured to allow room for changing hypotheses as sojourners become more adept at decoding and understanding what they observe and feel. Study abroad research discovered that guided reflection on students’ cultural experience was the most important predictor of intercultural development (Paige & Vande Berg, 2012). Cultural mentors are another valuable source of cultural information because of their willingness to answer questions and correct mistaken assumptions. Some sojourners “learn” the wrong lessons; gently correcting misattributions and errors in understanding is another contribution in-country training can make.

In summary, in-country training can help students and employees take best advantage of their international experience when it is based on a deep understanding of the nature and stre...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Classification of Activities
• Introduction
• Section A Pre-Departure
• Section B In-Country
• Section C Reentry
• Appendixes
• References