The Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research - Houston
page 14
To submit an articles of Intercultural Interest, please contact Andrea Brooks.
BY DAVID C. WIGGLESWORTH
In recent years, we have been finding that more attention is focused on technology transfer between nations. In prior years, it was commonly believed that we, in the United States could train anyone, anywhere, to do anything. All we had to do was to replicate the U.S. training program at overseas locations. Go with films, flip charts, programmed texts (in English), slide/tape presentations, language laboratories and lots of sophisticated hardware and by George, we could do the job! If the training group was thought of as progressive, it might consent to translating the materials into the local language and might provide some relatively fluent speakers of the language.
Things have changed. More and more of us in the profession are sharing our views about cross-cultural training. Harris and Moran have written Managing Cultural Differences. Pierre Casse’s book Training For the Cross-cultural Mind is into its second edition, and Fred Casmir’s anthology Intercultural and International Communication is becoming more known. Others are talking and publishing and our profession is beginning to seriously apply our learnings to cross-cultural technology transfer.
The importance of cultural values, beliefs and knowledge in the development of training programs, at practically all levels, is now acknowledged though not universally practiced. I have seen our profession grow in this area in the over 30 years that I have been a practitioner and I continue to see great strides being made. While cross-cultural technology transfer has been applied in training programs related to manufacturing “widgits,” military hardware, and some service industries, an area that until recently has been ignored is that of the cross-cultural transfer of management technology. Experiences in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East clearly convince me that real man-agement development needs exist worldwide.
On a recent trip to the People’s Republic of China, the need for cadre (management) development was clearly and repeatedly iterated. In conversations with representatives of the Chinese Enterprise Association (CEMA) with leaders in industry and government, and with university professors this theme was constantly articulated. The Chinese have experienced Russian, U.S., European and Japanese approaches to management development. Additionally they have experimented with their own approach (developed out of necessity upon the abrupt departure of their Russian advisors).
Now studying diverse foreign management styles, the Chinese appear to be looking for some sort of an amalgam that will help them to be more effective managers while still retaining respect for and application of societal and governmental values.
It is value systems that play a major role in any management development program. Within the United States, the value system of a corporation will often impact the type of management and management development programs of that corporation. In other national, ethnic, or linguistic cultures diverse value systems play an even more important role.
Culture Shock
In Patterns of Problem. Solving, Rubenstein gives us a perspective on the
criticality of value systems:
“On a sea voyage, you are traveling with your spouse, your child, and your
mother. The ship develops problems and starts to sink. Of your family, you are
the only one who can swim and you can only save one other individual. Who do
you save?”
In Western countries: 60 percent of those responding save the child; 40 percent
save the spouse; and none save the mother.
In Eastern countries: 100 percent save the mother. The rationale—you
can always remarry and have more children—you cannot have another mother.”
In China, I was asked how could they (the Chinese) adopt management development programs from the U.S. that are based on democratic beliefs and values when they are not a democratic country. The questioners, having suffered through the “cultural revolution” once, were not anxious to take risks that might be condemned later.
The value systems of one culture may have significant implications in the application of management technologies from another culture. The Asian reluctance to say no to round-eyed individuals, the lack of the imperative verb structure in a language, the inappropriateness of looking someone directly in the eyes are only surface indications of underlying cultural differences impacting management development.
In Asia and in the Middle East, I have found that professional development programs that are task oriented, that build on the professional (career) discipline (i.e. engineering, chemistry, etc.) are more likely to be effective in the implementation of cross-cultural management technologies.
Through culturally adaptive team building (including aspects of values clarification and communication styles), a groundwork can be established for peer coaching, counterpart training, and role modeling that offers a reasonable chance of attaining the appropriate management-development objectives.
A few years ago, I was privileged to serve as a consultant member of an international engineering monitoring task force for a liquefied natural gas plant construction project in Southeast Asia. The task force represented the Asian owners and financiers in interfaces with the Western contractor, vendors, and related companies. The task force was multinational in composition. During my extended association with that task force a professional development program (PDP) was developed for host country engineers and managers who would be in charge of the operation of the LNG plan upon its completion.
Every three months, a group of six engineers/managers would be sent to the task force in California for a 90-day assignment as professional working members of the task force. They served with Western counter-part engineers/managers developing specific knowledge of equipment, plant design, operation, and management.\
Through planned and sometimes unplanned (such as those unscheduled events that occur whilst traveling around the world together) team-building activities, through the planned enhancement of technical skills, from vendor-shop observations and training programs, through intimate and intensive interfaces with Western colleagues, and through attendance at management-development programs offered by the contractor, the participants began to develop new perspectives and some of the desired/requisite attributes for the effective assumption of cross-cultural management activities.
A continued effort was in place when they returned to job-site in their country to reinforce these attitudes and skills. It was here that they had opportunities to practice transcultural-management techniques with Western counterparts now serving in subordinate roles.
Making the Program Effective
The total PDP activity was ongoing, with a new group enrolled each ninety days. It needs to be pointed out that much of the success of this program came about from the willingness of the task force members to willingly participate. The non-Asian engineers were selected not only by compatible professional disciplines; but also by criteria related to their prior off-shore/international experience; of their understanding (or at least awareness) of the client’s culture, national goals, and life styles; and by their willingness to work at making the program effective.
The Asian engineers were selected on the basis of their tenure with the sponsoring organization, their political clearance, and their professional expertise.
In this professional development program, it would have been helpful to us to have had a better understanding of their “technology” of technology transfer receipt, a subject addressed recently by Andrew G. Klemmer in his International Training Memorandum. Understanding how these engineers/managers processed new information might have aided us in our efforts. The Charles Colenaty design perception cards (DPC) Test which provides this sort of data was at that time unknown to us. We thus had to rely on our broad-guaged observations and experientially based intuition.
In the post PDP evaluation we were able to determine that considerable growth/learning had occurred and that when the LNG plant was commissioned these engineers and professional managers were able to assume responsibility for major phases of the plant operation.
The approach to this individualized program was based on accepting where they were at that particular moment in time and space; applying U.S./Western models where appropriate; and to synergize new approaches and solutions as required. This synergistic approach has been described by Adler and Moran and will be further expanded upon in a new book by Moran and Harris.
Numerous examples from the Middle East, Latin America, Africa and other Asian countries could be related here, space permitting. It would seem to me to be of more value to summarize an approach to cross-cultural management technology transfer that has experienced success.
1. FIND OUT WHERE THEY ARE—If all the individual can do is repair a
bicycle and he/she is scheduled to become a plant manager, start with what
they know and build on that, going from the known to the unknown.
2. FIND OUT HOW THEY LEARN—Are there cultural, religious, or national
beliefs, customs, practices, or value systems that may impact the technology
transfer.
3. BE WILLING TO LEARN FROM THEM—The task may be facilitated by understanding
their perceptual base. Knowing how they perceive may help us to understand
how they learn. The aforementioned Colenaty DPC test is insightful in this
regard.
4. KNOW YOUR TRAINERS— Where possible find empathetic professional peers
rather than training generalists. Individuals who have been exposed to other
cultures, who are technically competent, and who are willing to share.
5. STRUCTURE EXPERIENCES—Develop, coordinate, and facilitate task oriented
team building activities based on real (not artificial) professional needs
of the proj
ect. Create jointly-shared experiences in external training programs, contractor/client
orientations, vendor-shop observation programs, etc. Allow social intercourse
to develop naturally by creating a supportive climate rather than forcing dinners
and parties on all concerned.
6. MONITOR PROGRESS— Keep tabs on individual progress, problems, and
interests. In regard to individual interests, in one of the PDP series there
were two Indonesians of the Islamic faith. They were scheduled to go to Europe
for a vendor-shop observation and then on to the Middle East to view a construction
project, and then to return home. By coordinating with their superiors in Jakarta
and with the help of the contractor’s personnel in Saudi Arabia, it was
possible for these participants to go to Mecca and make the Hejira.
7. CREATE OPPORTUNITIES FOR REINFORCEMENT—Once they return to the job
at home, follow-up with positive reinforcement through role models, recognition,
and by sending them new publications, articles, models, etc. of interest that
may be pertinent.
8. REWARD—Provide certificates, books, medals or whatever may be appropriate
to recognize and reward each individual. Providing their superiors with up-dated
comments and documentation relative to their achievement is another way of
providing recognition and reward.
A Long Way to Go
I believe that there are no instant panaceas in this world of ours (no matter what the television tube may tell us). The approach described above is not intended to be prescriptive. Rather it reflects some experiences and reflections that may be of interest to others.
Management Development in the West is no where near the zenith of excellence that we often pretend it to be. While not at the nadir, we still have much to learn.., maybe we can learn from those we are trying to train. Werner Heisenberg (one of the founders of “Quantum Theory”) once suggested: “It is probably true quite generally that in the history of human thinking the most fruitful developments take place at those points where two different lines of thought meet. These lines have their roots in quite different parts of human culture, in different times or different cultural environments or different religious tradition: hence if they actually meet, that is, if they are at least so much related to each other that a real intersection can take place, then one may hope that new and interesting developments may follow.”
This may be the essence of cross-cultural management development and cross-cultural technology transfer.
From ASTD Training & Development Journal © David C. Wigglesworth.
He may be reached at: dcwigg@earthlink.net
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