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SMR Forum

F.T. Murray is Presi-dent of FAM Associates and Adjunct Pro-fessor of Management at Connecticut State University. Dr, Murray holds the B.S. degree from Manhattan College, the M.P.A. degree from New York Uni-versity, and the Ph.D. degree from California Western University.

His consulting inter-ests extend over a wide spectrum of organiza-tional issues, including productivity, motiva-tion, reorganization, managing change, and accelerated develop-ment of managers, He specializes in diagnos-ing the roots of unsatis-factory performance.

Dr. Murray’s articles have appeared in such journals as Business and Society ReWew, Humań Resource Management, and Training and Deveiopment /ournal.

sonnel who don’t fail? A look at what Japa-nese multinationals do to keep their failure ratę so Iow provides food for thought.

The Japanese Approach

ajapanese managers and technicians do not set out on foreign assignments before their companies have thoroughly prepared them for the demanding task of working and liv-ing in an alien culture.³ Japanese, like Amer-icans, are attached to their homeland and enjoy living there. Leaving Japan to work and live elsewhere, their companies recog-nize, is much morę than a relocation; it’s a change with the impact of a dislocation. Therefore, with the same thorough, system-atic approach used in attacking issues of ąuality and productivity, most Japanese companies have worked out comprehensive programs that ease this transition and equip their expatriate personnel to perform well in unfamiliar surroundings.

9    Normally Japanese companies make over-seas assignments at least a year before actual departure. Assignees, in the year previous to departure, as part of their work, learn the culture, customs, and ways of doing business in the country for which they are des-1 tined. Generally they learn the language as well.

10    Such thorough pre-departure preparation is only the beginning. From the moment of arrival in the country of assignment, the new Japanese manager or technician has a mentor who is responsible for helping the newly arrived manager with any problem. Mentor-ing is not limited to the first few months of the assignment; it stretches out over a year or two until the new manager has become well acclimated.

11    In a person's performance appraisal at the end of the first year overseas, the company demonstrates its understanding that most of 1 the first year is consumed in learning about the new country and adjusting to the way business is done there.

12    Meanwhile, the Japanese manager on a foreign assignment doesn’t have to worry

about his futurę in the company and wonder about whether or not they’ve forgotten about him back in corporate headąuarters. He knows that his foreign assignment.is an in-tegral and necessary step in a career plan preparing him for futurę responsibilities.

Japanese managers and technicians, de-spite their insularity and strong attachment to their homeland, perform well on overseas assignments. What their companies do for them is:

—    Eąuip them with the intercultural skills necessary to maintain a high level of performance in a different and demanding envirGnmer.t

—    Minimize the personal stress that results from encountering unanticipated situa-tions and strains.

—    Reduce the feeling of alienation from the company that inevitably accompanies foreign assignments.

—    Ease the readjustment of both employees and family upon their return to Japan.

Success Factors

The primary reąuisite for success in an over-seas assignment is managerial or technical job competence. American and Japanese companies, as their actions demonstrate, agree on this. There are, however, two other reąuisites for success in working overseas. One can be called e//ectiveness skills, which empower the expatriate to successfully translate his managerial and technical competence; in effect, this means that he re-shapes his skills so that they fit a different set of relations with subordinates, business asso-ciates, and customers — as well as dealings with the regulatory, political, and market en-vironment.⁴

No one is born with such skills. Everyone has to learn them. Proficiency in the home country constitutes a good groundwork for learning them, but skills that get the job done in one country lose something when trans-planted to a country with different values,

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