Improving the Ability of Employees to Work in Unfamiliar Environments - Case Study Example

Superior Wrench Corporation is enlarging its operations outside of the United s. This requires us to establish a and services department outside US. To compete in the international market, SWO would have to relocate its personnel in several countries. Those personnel would have to communicate with staff as well as from those countries. To ensure that those multi-cultural teams work successfully, it is important to train the employees about cross cultural diversity. The training course would deal with ways culture affects firms, employees and team building. It would give self-analysis tasks to help the personnel to recognize conflict areas within a team and explore ways to resolve conflicts. It would enable the employees to agree on team goals. Besides dealing with fundamental cross-cultural differences, it would also ascertain strategies to manage future issues. http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/cross-cultural/team-building.html Our training session is designed to increase the employees’ abilities to handle and work in an unfamiliar environment. The objectives of the training session are to familiarize the employees with the culture and environment they are going in so that can effectively and efficiently work in those cultures and develop strong interpersonal professional relationships with their coworkers who may belong to other cultures. http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/cross-cultural/team-building.html There are several elements involved in designing a training session. The elements include training design, methods, implementation and evaluation of training and diversity training. (Presentation: training elements for designing a training session) It is very important to define the learning objectives of the training sessions so that the trainers, learners and the management knows what the learners would be able to do after the training program finishes. (Presentation: training elements for designing a training session) The cross cultural training would help the employees to build interpersonal relationships. The training would arm the teams with necessary abilities to conduct an international-level business in a multi-dimensional environment. http://www.abpt.com/cross-cultural_training-30-1.html Besides, promoting reciprocal understanding and respect, it would also aid in comprehending where cross cultural variations lie. Training would also provide the employees with solutions, principles and methods to help the team building process. http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/cross-cultural/team-building.html The methods that are used for training are very important as they determine what would be done as a result of training objectives. Training methods would include lectures, discussions, demonstrations, role playing and simulations and on-the-job training. These methods would encourage the employees to learn, enable them to retain, communicate and apply what they have been trained at and incorporate performance with other skills. The methods would include general orientation and specific development. General orientation would comprise of self-assessment like coping with change, managing stress and recognizing attributes and cultural awareness while specific development would comprise of acquiring knowledge, like area and host studies, and skills training (simulation and role modeling). http://www.scribd.com/word/full/2295436?access_key=key-1d46hxu76k41pn8bi8b0 Seminars would be held thrice a week on alternate days for two weeks. They would include lectures, discussions and demonstrations. Lectures are one-sided discussions in which the trainer does all the speaking. For that, the trainer would use handouts and multi-media to support the lecture. He would first identify the learning objectives to keep the participant focused. He would then familiarize the participants with their own culture and then with the cultures they are going to so that they can understand the differences in cultures. He would explain them the differences between high-context and low-context cultures. For example, in eastern, more traditional cultures, less explicit messages are sent i.e high context communication. The context like environment, person, setting and relationships give meaning for the message. In contemporary cultures, however, low-context communication is more prevalent. This means that the practice of sending direct and unambiguous messages- verbal and nonverbal- is common. In the end, the lecturer would answer any questions from the participants. (intercultural and international communication chapter 20 page 611) The duration of lectures would be 30 minutes since they start to get boring and monotonous after some time and lose their efficiency. Therefore, demonstrations would follow the lectures which would be for 45 minutes. Demonstrations would help the trainees to apply the skills they have learnt in the lectures by providing them an opportunity to perform the demonstrated task. For example, a trainer may show the audience how to answer a phone call from a customer in some other country. After that would follow a fifteen minute discussion in which both the trainers and the trainees would discuss their experiences and opinions. The trainees would be allowed to ask questions from the trainers and mingle with each other also. The timing for discussions may vary from fifteen minutes to one hour depending on the nature and course of discussion. For the remaining three days, simulations and role playing would be arranged as they are very useful for skills development. Simulations are interactive activities in which trainees mimic actions necessary at the job. They enable the employees to perform the learning steps needed to produce the learning objectives. Similarly, in role playing the trainees take up roles and act out situations connected to the concepts learnt. These methods are very good for consumer service and sales training. As they are reality based, they would increase the chances of retaining hat the employees have learnt. http://www.essortment.com/all/jobstraining_rshn.htm The duration of simulation and role playing together would vary between one and a half hour and two hours. They would also be held for two weeks. Besides these, on the job training would also be provided to meet employee-specific needs. There would also be extra sessions for two hours every day for those two weeks for those staff members who are not acquainted with the language spoken in the country they are going to. For example, if Spanish is widely spoken, the employee should be able to understand some amount of Spanish needed for minimal interaction, at least. To ensure that the methods used are able to fulfill the training objectives, certain implementation tools would be considered. These would include the trainer used to teach the employees, training materials and time. (Presentation: training elements for designing a training session) Firstly, the trainer would be hired from a firm that provides cross cultural training courses. He or she would be assisted by an old employee who would debrief the trainer about the organization’s history, objectives and the learning objectives. The assistant would also familiarize the trainer with the employees so that the trainer may design the methods according to employee needs. The training material includes the handouts and the multi-media. Handouts would be given before the seminars to give employees an overview of what would be discussed. Handouts would include information about the organization’s objectives, culture, and other details, employee responsibilities, culture specific information etc. multi media presentations would be used as a visual aid and would include text, pictures, videos and sounds as necessary. They would help to grasp and hold the attention of participants. For those presentations and handouts, SWC’s mission statement and website would be used to get the relevant information. The other country’s official websites would also be used to get the correct information about that country and to eliminate any stereotypes.. The duration of seminars and simulation would be for two weeks while separate training for learning languages would be for four weeks. Details of the timings have already been provided above. The sessions would be held in the evenings so that the employees may attend their jobs also, if required. To evaluate the extent to which training has been successful, employees would be asked to fill certain questionnaires. They would also be required to appear for knowledge tests. The questionnaires would help to determine the employees’ opinions, complaints and suggestions. The knowledge tests would determine how much knowledge and skills the employees have gained from the training session. For example, frequent linguistic tests would help to determine if the linguistic training can be taught in two weeks or four or six weeks. Evaluations can also be based upon simulations as they would show how much practical exposure the participants have gotten relative to written knowledge. Also, knowledge tests would be divided into sections about job behaviors, organizational structure and values, and cultural understanding to understand the positive and weak areas of each employee’s skills. (Presentation: training elements for designing a training session) The last element of training-diversity training- is also very important. The training is designed to recognize unique contributions each employee can make. It would create an environment in which every one would feel valued and accepted. Firstly, the training would be provided to all employees. This includes those who have been a part of the organization for a very long time as well as new employees. Employees who are placed in other countries should also be invited to attend the training sessions. This means that the trainer should be able to cater to employees with different race, gender, ethnicity, age and physical abilities. This is because the training program is designed to view employee differences as a valuable resource that can add to this organization’s success. (Presentation: diversity domestic and international perspective) Once everyone has received the training, the training would become a part of orientation training. (Presentation: diversity domestic and international perspective) This would enable the employees to adjust to the cross-cultural diversity from day one and they would not need to change their work habits or styles if they would be placed in some other countries. Also, aligning and supporting the diversity goals may incorporate the development of knowledge, skills and abilities (KSA’s). Three of the KSA’s are interpersonal. They are conflict resolution, collaborative problem solving and communication. Besides these are goal setting, performance management, and planning and task coordination. Lastly, the organization may also have to develop new policies that support diversity. (Presentation: training elements for designing a training session) Citation: Hofstede’s dimensions. (n.d.). Retrieved July 4, 2007, from http://www.geert-hofstede.com . Loden, M. & Rosener, J. B. (1991). Workforce America! New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Blanchard, P. N. & Thacker, J. W. (2004). Effective Training, Systems, Strategies, and Practices (2nd Ed). Pearson Prentice Hall: Upper Saddle River, NJ. Cross Cultural Team Building Retrieved      june 3, 2008, from kwintessential cross culturl solutions      Web site: http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/cross-cultural/team-building.html AMERICAN BUREAU OF PROFESSIONAL TRANSLATORS. (2007). Cross-Cultural Training. Retrieved      june 3, 2008, from AMERICAN BUREAU OF PROFESSIONAL TRANSLATORS      Web site: http://www.bradley.edu/campusorg/psiphi/DS9/ep/      503r.html Neelu rohmetra. (n.d). research paper on cross cultural training in an organization. Human resource development: challenges and opportunities). Read More

He would then familiarize the participants with their own culture and then with the cultures they are going to so that they can understand the differences in cultures. He would explain them the differences between high-context and low-context cultures. For example, in eastern, more traditional cultures, less explicit messages are sent i.e high context communication. The context like environment, person, setting and relationships give meaning for the message. In contemporary cultures, however, low-context communication is more prevalent.

This means that the practice of sending direct and unambiguous messages- verbal and nonverbal- is common. In the end, the lecturer would answer any questions from the participants. (intercultural and international communication chapter 20 page 611) The duration of lectures would be 30 minutes since they start to get boring and monotonous after some time and lose their efficiency. Therefore, demonstrations would follow the lectures which would be for 45 minutes. Demonstrations would help the trainees to apply the skills they have learnt in the lectures by providing them an opportunity to perform the demonstrated task.

For example, a trainer may show the audience how to answer a phone call from a customer in some other country. After that would follow a fifteen minute discussion in which both the trainers and the trainees would discuss their experiences and opinions. The trainees would be allowed to ask questions from the trainers and mingle with each other also. The timing for discussions may vary from fifteen minutes to one hour depending on the nature and course of discussion. For the remaining three days, simulations and role playing would be arranged as they are very useful for skills development.

Simulations are interactive activities in which trainees mimic actions necessary at the job. They enable the employees to perform the learning steps needed to produce the learning objectives. Similarly, in role playing the trainees take up roles and act out situations connected to the concepts learnt. These methods are very good for consumer service and sales training. As they are reality based, they would increase the chances of retaining hat the employees have learnt. http://www.essortment.

com/all/jobstraining_rshn.htm The duration of simulation and role playing together would vary between one and a half hour and two hours. They would also be held for two weeks. Besides these, on the job training would also be provided to meet employee-specific needs. There would also be extra sessions for two hours every day for those two weeks for those staff members who are not acquainted with the language spoken in the country they are going to. For example, if Spanish is widely spoken, the employee should be able to understand some amount of Spanish needed for minimal interaction, at least.

To ensure that the methods used are able to fulfill the training objectives, certain implementation tools would be considered. These would include the trainer used to teach the employees, training materials and time. (Presentation: training elements for designing a training session) Firstly, the trainer would be hired from a firm that provides cross cultural training courses. He or she would be assisted by an old employee who would debrief the trainer about the organization’s history, objectives and the learning objectives.

The assistant would also familiarize the trainer with the employees so that the trainer may design the methods according to employee needs. The training material includes the handouts and the multi-media. Handouts would be given before the seminars to give employees an overview of what would be discussed. Handouts would include information about the organization’s objectives, culture, and other details, employee responsibilities, culture specific information etc. multi media presentations would be used as a visual aid and would include text, pictures, videos and sounds as necessary.

They would help to grasp and hold the attention of participants.

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