In a study involving 11,500 business leaders, the Corporate Leadership Council discovered the absence of cross-cultural skills as an impediment to both individual leaders and their companies. Leaders who had low intercultural skill rates were less likely to be identified as a high-performing leader on a global scale as their counterparts who had higher skill rates. Cross-cultural training can help leaders and companies overcome the obstacles created by a lack of knowledge of how other cultures tackle tasks.
Cultural training provides advantages for organizations as well as individuals. When an organization has an effective cultural training program in place, they are better able to:
Globalization data continues to show increasing activity. International people flows experienced the sharpest decrease due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but most travel buyers report increases in bookings and spending for 2023 and expect this year-over-year growth trend to continue. Nearly 60% of travel buyers expect more travel in the coming year, with two-thirds anticipating increases in business travel spending.
While the COVID-19 pandemic temporarily reduced trade and capital flows, it caused a spike in the growth of international data flows. The growth rate of international internet traffic doubled in 2020, and it continued growing at 20% to 30% per year in 2021 and 2022. More than twice as much data crossed national borders in 2022 compared to 2019.
Most types of international flows are at or near all-time highs, and the weakness of some flows, such as trade, in late 2022 and early 2023, primarily reflects slowing global economic growth following large interest rate increases aimed at curbing inflation.
As corporations increasingly operate across borders, they require employees to have the skills necessary for them to succeed in foreign locations. By 2020, one of the most sought-after skills an individual can have will be cross-cultural competency. According to the University of Phoenix Research Institute’s Future Work Skills 2020,
“Successful employees within … diverse teams need to be able to identify and communicate points of connection (shared goals, priorities, values) that transcend their differences and enable them to build relationships and to work together effectively.”
By implementing an intercultural training program, companies can develop a workforce with the cross-cultural competence necessary to succeed in new, developing, or established markets.
The current, increasingly globalized business environment requires multinational corporations to have a flexible workforce—one that is capable of working with people from other countries both virtually and in-person. Cross-cultural training helps employees develop greater awareness of other cultures and their norms as well as skills needed to effectively collaborate with diverse individuals. This, in turn, will ensure your organization is prepared for and aligned with the global environment.
As organizations continue to expand their operations throughout the world, they tend to struggle with how to transition from a “local” to a “global” talent model. In the past, many organizations believed that simply bringing talent from headquarters to their new global offices would ensure success.
The most successful organizations leverage talent in the areas they have expanded their operations. Cross-cultural training can help new market leaders effectively manage their global workforce on both a local and global level to better manage risk, increase sales, reduce expenses, and respond to changes in the market quickly.
Just as intercultural training can yield benefits for individual workers and their employers, it can also produce positive results for international assignments. With intercultural training, global assignments have a better chance of success.
While there is no way to guarantee that an international assignment will be successful, companies can take proactive steps to increase the likelihood of positive results. With cross-cultural training, employees on assignment will learn the cultural norms, practices, and core values of their new location. By adopting these practices, employees can better adapt to a culture and create positive experiences that lead to better business results.
Cultural training can also teach employees how people in the new location expect to be communicated with in both professional and personal settings. With this knowledge and awareness, employees will find it easier to forge strong working relationships, increasing the likelihood of successful international assignments.
Intercultural training can help increase a company’s assignee adjustment rate to their new country because it prepares employees and their families for living in a new location. It’s important for both employees and their families to have the tools they will need to adjust, such as understanding language and communication styles, adjusting to new routines, and creating an action plan for successful adjustment. Cross-cultural training is critical because a person’s ability to adjust to a new work environment has a positive relationship with their job performance and a negative relationship with early return rates.
One of the top reasons for assignment failure is partner dissatisfaction. Partners typically engage with the local population and culture directly and need social support to do so successfully. Cultural training helps the whole family understand the social norms in the country they will be moving to by sharing foundational information about living in their new culture.
Additionally, cultural training can provide advice on how to create a network of social contacts. A strong social network is necessary for the employee, their partner, and their children to adapt to their new environment.
Many multinational companies fail to prioritize the importance of cultural competency until they experience a financial loss that results from their employees’ lack of cultural awareness. Companies can minimize or avoid future losses due to a lack of cultural competency by recognizing and adjusting to the cultures that exist in the markets they compete in around the world, beginning at the executive level.
Employees need to know more about different cultures than just the protocols they should follow in certain situations. They need ongoing cultural training to help them succeed in today’s globalized business environment.
To implement an effective intercultural training program, business leaders should ensure the program has:
According to Volume 14 of the Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, “The ability to determine causation with validity and reliability is essential to demonstrating the value of a [training] program.” Even though the cost of cross-cultural training is typically less than one percent of the expenses related to international assignments and relocation, many business leaders have difficulty justifying the cost because they aren’t easily able to determine the return on investment (ROI).
While calculating ROI normally involves solving a relatively easy mathematical equation, the equation becomes more difficult when applied to intercultural training in the workplace for a variety of reasons. Fortunately, many models exist that can be used to calculate the ROI derived from cross-cultural training.
In general, the purpose of cross-cultural training is not to make employees experts about specific cultures and ways of life. Instead, the goal is to provide them with the tools they need to be effective and respectful in the different cross-cultural situations they will experience at work or while abroad and teach them to be effective members of a multicultural team.
In his book The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies, Scott E. Page discusses how groups that include different cultures, perspectives, and thought processes produce outcomes that are superior to those produced by like-minded, less diverse groups. Page’s findings underscore the direct relationship between work performed by diverse groups and the ROI a company can expect on its investment in cross-cultural training.
When working with a new culture, people generally learn by comparing new experiences with their own culture, observing, and imitating.
After comparing, observing, and imitating, individuals must then make a decision to do one of the following:
Aperian can help ensure your employees make the right choice.
Our goal is simple: to give your employees the tools needed to succeed when working globally—whether that be on assignment, working with a multicultural team, or managing a globally dispersed team. It’s important for every employee to have access to cultural training, regardless of organizational level. Our programs are customized for individual contributors, people managers, as well as executives.
Aperian creates both virtual and in-person learning environments that set your employees up for success. We partner with clients in over 60 countries and facilitate cross-cultural training programs across all industries.
The Aperian platform is home to all of our cultural learning experiences, including the GlobeSmart Profile, GlobeSmart Guides, and a variety of self-paced learning modules. Start a free trial of the platform or talk to someone on our team to see how Aperian can provide your organization with positive and engaging cultural learning experiences that help your people and your business succeed.
