The Cultural Understanding and Knowledge for American Expatriates - Term Paper Example

? International Assignment Training for Pakistan 11/7 International Training The American Co. Trainees Expatriate Training Consultant Date: 13/7/2011 Subject: The Cultural Understanding and Knowledge for American Expatriates Cultural Differences Between Pakistan and America People’s attitude, lifestyle, habit and way of thinking depend greatly on their culture. There are certain traits which may help to distinguish between the people of one culture from the other. Culture includes the religion, language, dressing attitudes, way of living, food habits and traditions of a particular group of people. This paper would further discuss the role of two different cultures in building the personalities of men and women in the society. It is not difficult to distinguish between the people of Pakistan from a large number of Americans. The reason is their different and unique cultures. Pakistani people have distinguishing dressing patterns, living style and traditions which are not present in the American culture. Pakistan is one of the biggest Islamic countries and hence, Islamic teachings are reflected in every way of their life (Abbott, 1968). In Pakistan, male children are given priority over the females. This discrimination among the children covers a vast area of their lives. Male members are given priority when it comes to the availability of education, financial support, dressing and entertainment stuff (like toys, games, Computers, cell phones etc.), food etc. Brothers, fathers and husbands are normally considered as the head of their families. Head of the family takes all important decisions about the house and lives of the family members. Pakistani children are taught to respect their elders and women are strictly directed to follow the decisions and respect the opinions of the head of their families. Religious strictness forces the Pakistani women to stay out of sight of male counterparts of the society (Bano, 1994). Men are supposed to help their families financially. They are given proper guidance since their childhood about their responsibilities to the family. It can be said that when Pakistani children grow up they are fully aware of the fact that it is their duty to support their family financially and morally. However, on the other hand, American people face less or no discrimination on the basis of gender as Shelly’s Frankenstein suggests in the portrayal of the monster’s desire to have an opposite sex companion. Children are given proper education, food, opportunities to grow confidence and are provided with the sense of independence. They are taught to distinguish between rights and wrongs of the society. Females are not forced to adopt and accept the decisions of their male counterparts. As they grow up and enter their teenage life, they start feeling and using their independence. However, they may misuse this freedom by adopting negative attitudes of the society. American teenagers are more likely to involve in alcohol misuse, drug addiction, smoking etc. Youngsters drink alcoholic beverages for fun and fashion purposes but afterward they get addicted to it. The exposure of alcohol and drinking to youngsters and young adults is evident in their literature as Hamlet’s refusal to kill his step father suggests when he was praying. His revenge wanted him to kill his father’s murderer when he was busy in negative or prohibited activities like drinking, sexual relationships and so on. These habits change their attitudes towards their family, friends, studies and responsibilities. They create a severe risk to their lives and future. However, once they enter their adulthood, normally they are not answerable to their elders unlike Pakistanis. However, it always depends on the way they are brought up. There are no restrictions on the American women to keep themselves away or hidden from the male counterparts of the society. They have equal rights to employment, education, health facilities and career selection. American culture and laws are strict against discrimination on any grounds (Boudreaux, 2000). These differences place an additional burden of American expatriates to keep a distance from the female employees and understand fully their role when dealing with both genders. Alcoholic drinks are not highly regarded and expatriates need not to challenge any of the core beliefs that are related to the religion of the local residents. Training of American Expatriates for Foreign Assignments There has been a debate over the importance and need to train expatriates before sending them to a new country. There are a number of challenges that they may face. In case of US and Pakistan, the differences that exist are broad and deep in effects on the working patterns and performance of the expatriates. The US firms and policymakers, however, ignore the fact to a large extent that foreign rules, cultures and norms may affect the performance of even the best possible leader. This lack of emphasis on cross-cultural training before moving expatriates abroad may cause greater harm to the success of the firms in the foreign countries as well as affecting the performance of the expatriates. A research suggests that no more than 30% of the American expatriates receive prior cross-cultural training before departure (Goldstein and Smith, 1999). Most of the American firms believe that expatriates who are working efficiency will keep the same trend when moved abroad. This thinking denies any effects of the cultural, social, moral or ethical differences that exist. American firms tend to educate the expatriates about the cultural differences that exist between American and Pakistani culture. The religious matters are of immense importance to the Pakistani people and Americans are given proper lectures to avoid any activity that may challenge the social or religious beliefs of the country. The American firms also follow a rather practical approach in training the expatriates by acknowledging them rational and flexible ways to handle situations as they arise. It is quite impossible to teach every step in the training program, however, guidelines on dealing with the situations may be helpful. The language barriers need to be resolved by proper language introduction and training programs. It is less popular in practice due to the belief that experience brings knowledge about cultures and languages. The basic bookish knowledge is provided to provide a starting point to the expatriates Shim & Paprock 2002). The cross-cultural training emerges and grows from the idea that it brings a confidence and urge in the individuals to adjust and flourish within the new culture. The cross-cultural training is used by various socially responsible and huge firms in America to provide expatriates with proper guidelines to be followed in the new culture like in Pakistan. These training programs follow a systematic approach to develop a gradual understanding, satisfaction and knowledge of the new culture. The practical application and experience of expatriates further develops the concepts of expected behaviors form people and the behaviors that people of the new culture expect from them. Such programs helped the American expatriates to follow and learn the values and expectations of Pakistani and other cultures (Black and Mendenhall, 1990). Bibliography: Abbott, F. (1968). Islam and Pakistan. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press. Abbott, F. (1968). Islam and Pakistan. Ithaca, N.Y: Cornell University Press. Bano, G. (1994). Women in Pakistan. Bruxelles, Belgium: European Institute for South and South-East Asian Studies asbl. Black, J. S., & Mendenhall, M. (January 01, 1990). Cross-Cultural Training Effectiveness: A Review and a Theoretical Framework for Future Research. Academy of Management Review, 15, 1, 113-136. Boudreaux, D. J. (2000). THOUGHTS on FREEDOM-American Culture. IDEAS ON LIBERTY. 50 (4), 4-7. Goldstein, D. L., & Smith, D. H. (January 01, 1999). The analysis of the effects of experiential training on sojourners' cross cultural adaptability. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 23, 1, 157-173. Shim, I.-S., & Paprock, K. C. (March 01, 2002). A Study Focusing on American Expatriates' Learning in Host Countries. International Journal of Training and Development, 6, 1, 13-24. Read More