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Sloan Management Review Winter 1986

Sloan Management Review Winter 1986

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own training, it gives him a elear under-standing of the skills he must acquire to be successful.

27 To have optimal impact the training should be problem-centered and particu-larized to the country of assignment. Probłems encountered in France are not the same as those met in Zimbabwe. To fit in with Saudis and do business with them a person doesn’t act as with the Japanese. With the profiles previously mentioned the training effort can focus on the situations and probłems that will actually be encountered in Japan, Saudi Arabia, or Cameroon.

23 What will this training look like? Good training concentrates on the acąuisition and practice of skills. It incorporates conceptual and attitidinal training only insofar as nec-essary to underpin and reinforce the skills that ultimately determine whether a person performs satisfactorily or not.

29    The diagnostic profiles provide trainers with the information needed to deveIop cus-tomized training activities, which permit trainees to learn and practice the coping and effectiveness skills their assignment re-ąuires. The profiles indicate whether the skills needed are in listening, negotiation, consensual decision-making, etc. The best training methodology to use in developing such skills consists of analysis and role play of critical incidents, case studies, reality practice, and group discussions.⁶

30    For the most part, the American com-panies who do have programs to train expa-triate personnel limit the training to pre-departure orientation. Japanese companies, however, not only begin training personnel destined for overseas long before departure, they keep a close watch on their expatriate personnel and continue to support them after they have reached their overseas posts. Naturally American companies are not going to blindly imitate the Japanese. But seeing how the Japanese extend the training and support of their expatriate personnel over a protracted period prompts us to ąuestion whether pre-departure training by itself can adeąuately sustain an expatriate through a whole assignment.

3i Usually about six months to a year after arrival in an unfamiliar country, the newness of an assignment has worn thin. The expa-triate, feeling morę acutely the strain of working in a different environment, has reached a personal Iow in his adjustment cycle. This is the time, especially in the case of very difficult and trying assignments, when expatriates and their families can ben-efit from a fresh infusion of support to help them cope with isolation, loneliness, and disappointment.

>2 By giving them an opportunity to gather together and talk about their successes and failures in adjusting to the country, the people, and the    t:n.y get a new

lease on life overseas. They come to a fuller understanding of what has been happening to them and discover new insights on how to cope. With actual experience behind them, they are now ready to sharpen and refine the effectiveness skills specific to their own situ-ation in a specific culture. They may, for example, need to learn morę about how to communicate and develop a unified work group. At this Juncture, work sessions deal-ing with probłems encountered on the job are a very effective training method.⁷

Conclusion: Invesłing for a Futurę

i3 Japanese companies are willing to invest morę heavily in training and supporting their expatriates because they stay longer in overseas assignments than Americans. Cer-tainly, the shorter an assignment, the less sense it makes to invest substantially in training for it. If, however, American expa-triates were better trained for overseas assignments, they might stay longer. The training would enable them to adjust morę suc-cessfully to another culture, Thanks to get-ting a good start through appropriate skills training, they would find themselves pro-gressing in effectiveness and perhaps be-come willing to prolong their stay — particu-larly if they were given assurance that a pro-longed stay would not jeopardize their futurę career. And companies will benefit from

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