Cross-culture Effectiveness

Making the Right Choice
'in a number of surveys the need for the effective management of cross-cultural differences is seen as one of the core competencies for international managers'

As organisations take a more global view of their markets, they are finding that there is an increasing need to interact, negotiate, and work effectively as individuals and teams with people whose values, languages, customs and business practices are different from their own, where misunderstandings can lead to costly mistakes and even business failures.

It is perhaps not surprising, therefore, that in a number of surveys carried out in recent years the need for the effective management of cross-cultural differences is seen as one of the core competencies for international managers.

What is surprising though is that, when selecting people to take up international appointments, whether as frequent travellers working out of their home countries, or to go to live and work in another country, only a few use this as a major selection criteria.

In one particular piece of research, 60% of the organisations questioned put 'sensitivity to different cultures' in the top five of their criteria, but only 25% admitted to giving it the same level of importance in the selection process.
In the real world, what tends to happen is that organisations - often under pressure to fill a vacancy in a hurry - select people with the best functional skills and who understand how the organisation's systems and procedures work rather than those with cross-cultural sensitivity. Very often they will not have developed a model of the cultural competencies required to work in a particular market, or have the means of measuring people's aptitudes and abilities in these areas. They will instead rely on the individual to 'pick things up' as he or she goes along and, for a few people, this can work.

Clearly, the appropriate levels of functional and management skills are essential. However, organisations do need to ask themselves how much more effective would someone be if, as part of the selection process, they were objectively assessed on their ability to manage cultural diversity and provided with the necessary pre-assignment training, coaching and mentoring to help them in managing cultural diversity?

If accompanied during the assignment, their partners and families will also need help to live in the other culture, but this too is so often overlooked. The employee usually has the security of the organisation culture to fall back on, particularly when things are not going well, but the family does not have this in the same way. They, however, are in direct and daily contact with the new culture, often at a less sophisticated level, and needing to manage on a daily basis the frustrations of not being able to get things done. They may need to use local language skills more frequently than does the employee and, in some countries, their life will often seem boring and meaningless. An unsettled family can have an adverse affect on the employee's performance and, in some cases, this may result in family relationships breaking down and the need for early repatriation.

The really successful international manager will fully understand the cross-cultural implications of his or her role at the national, organisational and family cultural levels, and will be able to build on the cultural similarities and reconcile the differences.

At the organisational level, therefore, one of the strategies for achieving international competitive advantage should be to develop market specific criteria for cross-cultural effectiveness; assess and develop people against these, and provide the necessary pre-assignment training and ongoing support for the employee and, if appropriate, his or her partner and family.

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