International trade and across-borders investment have accelerated strongly over the last decades. Business goes beyond the country borders, and never before have we seen that the world became so closely interconnected. Thus resulted that more and more corporations and organizations facing increasingly culturally diverse groups to manage and to deal with, internally and also externally. Hence it indicates the increasing needs of systematic development of intercultural competence and sensitivity for leaders and professionals at all level. Recent studies and best practice examples on building intercultural competence and sensitivity for different target groups, incl. senior leaders and young professionals will be presented. Subsequently different learning and development approaches will be discussed, highlighting on the examples from Germany, China and other Asian region.

1. Developing Intercultural Competence and Sensitivity to Make Global Business More Effective:
An Actions Oriented Learning Approach
by
Prof.
Dr.
Hora
Tjitra
&
Daisy
Zheng
Global Learning Track
Cologne, October 14th 2010

2. Excellence through Culture, Talent and Change
IJV: Building High Performance Team in the Top Management_v1.0 / 2010-08 2
14 years in Germany
7 years in China
Born and grew up
in Indonesia
Prof. Dr. Hora Tjitra – Cross-cultural and Business Psychology
Dipl.-Psych.,Technical University of Braunschweig
Organizational Psychology and Human Resource Management
Dr.Phil.,University of Regensburg
Intercultural Psychology and Strategic Management
Executive Education,INSEAD
HR Management in Asia

3. Excellence through Culture, Talent and Change
Developing Intercultural Competence and Sensitivity_v1.0 / 2010-08
Index
3
1 Why do we need intercultural competence? 4
2 Understanding Intercultural Competence & Sensitivity 11
3 Developing Intercultural Competence & Sensitivity 15
3.1 Preparation for International Assignment 16
3.2 Developing Intercultural Competence of Young Professionals 20
3.3 Developing Intercultural Sensitivity of Global Managers 30
3.4 Other Approaches 35

4. Developing Intercultural Competence and Sensitivity_v1.0 / 2010-08
Why do we need
Intercultural Competence
& Sensitivity?
4

5. The world is flat ...
5

6. The world is flat ...
6

7. Excellence through Culture, Talent and Change
Developing Intercultural Competence and Sensitivity_v1.0 / 2010-08
Most of the High-Tech Product is a Global One
7
sourcehttp://blog.chinatells.com/2010/08/4575

8. ... and need
“intercultural competence”
Global Leader
8

9. 9
Who are “GLOBAL LEADERs” ?

10. “Global Leader” - A Working Definition
Global Leader /
International Manager
National Leader /
Local Manager
10
Chairman of
Telkom Indonesia
CEO of Siemens
CEO of
China National Petroleum
President
of World Bank
CEO of Lenovo
President of US
US Secretary of State

11. Global Leader ≠ World-Class Leader
Superior / Boss
Internal PartnersExternal Partners
Team members / Employees
Who are the stakeholders of the organization?
What are the impacts of their decision?
Power
Influences
Impact
11

12. Excellence through Culture, Talent and Change
Developing Intercultural Competence and Sensitivity_v1.0 / 2010-08 12
Decision Makers
& Corporate Strategist
HQ
Employee
Headquarter
Expatriate
Local
Employee
Third National
Employee
Foreign Offices
Tjitra, 2000
The Player in a Global Business Environment

13. Developing Intercultural Competence and Sensitivity_v1.0 / 2010-08
Understanding
Intercultural Competence
& Sensitivity (ICS)
13

14. WHAT is
Intercultural Competence and Sensitivity?
“To be effective in another culture, people must be interested in other cultures, be sensitive enough to notice cultural differences,
and then also be willing to modify their behavior as an indication of respect for the people of other cultures ”
(Bhawuk and Brislin, 1992)
Intercultural Competence
Technical
knowledge & skill
Motivation
Stress tolerance
Respect for
differences
Harmony
preservationSelf Control
Awareness of
communication
symbols
Language skill
Verbal &
non verbal
expression
Attribution
process of
information
Cultural empathy
Intercultural
Sensitivity
Intercultural
Communication
Competence
14

15. Developing Intercultural Competence and Sensitivity_v1.0 / 2010-08
Intercultural Competence = Cross-cultural Adaptation
? ? ?

16. Is Cross-Culture Adaptation a Universal Value?
Andere Länder, andere Sitten.
Allá donde fueres,
haz lo que vieres.
À Rome,
fais comme les Romains.
郷に入っては郷に従う.
Lain ladang lain belalang,
lain lubuk lain ikannya.
入乡随俗
16
Tolerance?
Differences Harmonization?
Heightened Sensitivity?

17. Developing Intercultural Competence and Sensitivity_v1.0 / 2010-08
Preparation for
International Assignment
17

18. Excellence through Culture, Talent and Change
Developing Intercultural Competence and Sensitivity_v1.0 / 2010-08 18
When to Use the Training: International Assignment
• Developing expatriate-profiles
and conducting selection
• Preparation of the expatriates and
their families (e.g. cultural
awareness training, etc.)
• Conceptualization of an escorting
system during the assignment
(e.g. coaching, mentoring, etc.)
• Return planing and
reintegration seminar
• Internal marketing to motivate
employee for international assignment
Marketing
Selection
PreparationSupporting
Reintegration
International
Assignment
Different types of cultural awareness training is helpful for each stage of the circle
10% - 50% of expatriates returning early from their assignment.
Expatriates’ difficulties are costly for MNCs, ranging from $250,000 to $1 million.
(Eschbach et al., 2001)

19. Excellence through Culture, Talent and Change
Developing Intercultural Competence and Sensitivity_v1.0 / 2010-08
General Cross Cultural Awareness Training Design
19
Lunch
Dinner
Break
Break
Day 3
… on the Way
to Cross-Cultural Synergy
Personal Charter
& Learning Plan
Day 1
Critical Situations
in Working Places
My understanding of others:
Self and other perception
Culture & Management:
Working in International
Environments
Cultural Encounter
Situations
Learning in Action
Short Lecture & Discussion
Joint Dinner
Case Study:
Cross-cultural Leadership
Day 2
Communication
Across Cultures
Role Play:
“First Meeting”
Case and Role Play:
Conflict Management and
Team Building

20. Excellence through Culture, Talent and Change
Developing Intercultural Competence and Sensitivity_v1.0 / 2010-08
How Effective is a Cross-Cultural Awareness Training
in Developing Intercultural Competence?
20

21. 21
“I hear and I forget,
I see and I remember,
I do and I understand.”
Learning is a process whereby the learners study their own actions and
experience in order to improve performance.
While classroom learning focuses on presentation of knowledge and skills,
action learning focuses on research into action taken and knowledge
emerges as a result that should lead to the improvement of skills and
performance.

22. Developing Intercultural Competence and Sensitivity_v1.0 / 2010-08
Developing
Intercultural Competence
of Young Professionals
22

23. Excellence through Culture, Talent and Change
Developing Intercultural Competence and Sensitivity_v1.0 / 2010-08
International Employability: German-Chinese Culture Program
23
Program background:
• An applied research and learning program, collaboration project between RheinAhr Campus of
FH Koblenz (Germany) with the School of Psychology, Zhejiang University (China).
• The program is funded by the BMBF as part of the German-Chinese Scientific Year Program.
• Getting to know the culture-specific conditions of studying and working in China and Germany.
• Defining central competencies necessary for German and Chinese employees to be successful
in the foreign job market.
• Defining central competencies necessary for German and Chinese students in the foreign
science context.
• Developing cultural sensitive assessment procedures.
• Designing intercultural media for assessment and learning.
Main objectives of the program:

24. Excellence through Culture, Talent and Change
Developing Intercultural Competence and Sensitivity_v1.0 / 2010-08
Program Overview
24
Best Practice Discussion
• Company visit in order to learn from the real-world
• Round table discussion with senior professionals
Classroom Learning
• Cross-cultural communication and management
• Intercultural competency and sensitivity
• Applied I/O psychology in international environment
Social Learning
• Knowledge search, screening and acquisition on internet
• Experience sharing and group cooperation via web 2.0 tools
Action Learning
• Work in Chinese-German multicultural team
• Tasks focused on I/O psychology application in international environment
Culture Experience
• Ten days in China & Ten days in Germany to explore Chinese and
German culture and lifestyles
One month One month

25. Excellence through Culture, Talent and Change
Developing Intercultural Competence and Sensitivity_v1.0 / 2010-08
Knowledge Acquisition through Classroom Learning
25
• International study and
management research
• Working in multicultural
environment
• Effective communication across cultures
• Conflict management across cultures
• Intercultural competencies in German-Chinese cooperation
• Intercultural assessment and training for German-Chinese cooperation
• How to apply the assessment center technique in MNCs
• Human capital in German-Chinese cooperation

26. Excellence through Culture, Talent and Change
Developing Intercultural Competence and Sensitivity_v1.0 / 2010-08
Action Learning: Chinese-German Group Work
26
Video-based Learning and
Assessment
Development of InterculturalAssessment Tools
Best Practices inRecruitment
Intercultural Impression
Management

27. Excellence through Culture, Talent and Change
Developing Intercultural Competence and Sensitivity_v1.0 / 2010-08
Social Learning through Web 2.0 Platform
27
Program website:
information release, program agenda update, tips sharing, etc.
Online discussion forum via web 2.0 platform:
Chinese-German group work communication, result report,
experience, reflection and feedback sharing, etc.

28. Excellence through Culture, Talent and Change
Developing Intercultural Competence and Sensitivity_v1.0 / 2010-08
Exploring Culture and Lifestyles
28
Exploring Chinese culture
Living in German culture

29. Excellence through Culture, Talent and Change
Developing Intercultural Competence and Sensitivity_v1.0 / 2010-08
Learning from the Real World: Company Visit & Discussion
29
SAP Labs, China
BOSCH, China
(round table discussion with GM)
BMW, Germany
Giesecke & Devrient, Germany
SAP AG, Germany
(round table discussion with
former VP of SAP AG)

30. Excellence through Culture, Talent and Change
Developing Intercultural Competence and Sensitivity_v1.0 / 2010-08
Various Result from Intercultural Competence Accelerated Learning Project
30
Above averageBelow average Performance average
Monocultural
teams
Intercultural
teams
Intercultural
teams
• Normally intercultural
teams show either a
below or above
average performance.
• This results amongst
other things from the
handling of different
cultures.
Adler, 1997
Current Productivity Potential Productivity Process Loss
Intercultural Team Performance Curve

31. Excellence through Culture, Talent and Change
Developing Intercultural Competence and Sensitivity_v1.0 / 2010-08
Reflection & Feedback from Participants
31
• It is very cool to sit on a round table and have dinner together.
• The traffic jam not only occurs in big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, but also in smaller cities, e.g. Hangzhou, Ningbo, etc.
• In Germany, everything has its rule and everything should be done in order.
• In China, advertisement pictures could be different from the real product, esp. some product declare the differences on the
ads. While in Germany, it is considered as illegal.
Explore another culture by experiencing it
Commonalities and differences across cultures
• I found that the Chinese and Germans have a lot in common, it is not that hard to communicate with each other. Meanwhile,
the problems or dangers in cross-cultural situations are much bigger than I expected before.
• There is a big difference in understanding the gesture between Chinese and German.
• Chinese people try to avoid a dispute or an argument.
• Young Chinese are not as shy or indirect as I thought before, but they are still more conservative than us (Germans).
• Germans are more direct in showing their emotions than us (Chinese).
• China is a hierarchical society, even nowadays China is less hierarchical than ten or twenty years ago, we are still more
hierarchical than Germany. Sometimes the “face saving” also links with hierarchy issue, but Germans never consider about
this, which is quite different from us.
• Chinese people have the habit to establish relationship in workplace during the leisure activities, while the Germans prefer to
differentiate workmate and playmate clearly.

32. Developing Intercultural Competence and Sensitivity_v1.0 / 2010-08
Developing
Intercultural Sensitivity
of Top Managers
32

33. Excellence through Culture, Talent and Change
Developing Intercultural Competence and Sensitivity_v1.0 / 2010-08
Intercultural Competence:
The Underlying Impact on Business Performance
33
OBJECTIVE
Improving communication and cooperation between Chinese and foreign parts
& Achieving common understanding on organizational vision and strategy
BACKGROUND
- Chinese-European joint venture with main business in high-tech industry, has more than 5000
employees and an annualized yield of about 4 billion yuan.
- The surge capacity from business, intensive industry competition, and ineffective cooperation
and communication between Chinese and foreign staffs became the big challenges to the business
development.
EXPECTED RESULT
- Understanding organizational situation clearly from different perspectives
- Exploring challenges the organization faced and identifying critical ones
- Discovering influencing factors for different challenges
- Developing action plan for the future implementation

34. Excellence through Culture, Talent and Change
Developing Intercultural Competence and Sensitivity_v1.0 / 2010-08
Cultural-Based Organization Diagnostic, Strategic Workshop
and Follow-up Solutions
34
• We took cultural impacts into consideration during the whole process of the project, especially
the cross-cultural differences between Chinese and Western cultures.
• Employees from different levels of the organization took part in the organizational flash analysis,
in order to build strong foundation for the strategic meeting of top management team.
Preliminary
Study
Flash
Analysis
Strategic
Workshop
Project / Team /
Individual
Coaching
Effective ...
Agreed on Objectives Analysis & Agreement Implementation Performance Improvement
Organizational Analysis and Critical Challenges Exploration

35. Excellence through Culture, Talent and Change
Developing Intercultural Competence and Sensitivity_v1.0 / 2010-08
We Found Out ...
35
Mis-Understanding
Inappropriate
cultural expectation
to the counter part
Different
cultural background
and orientation
Inefficient
intercultural
collaboration
• Differences in cultural
values, social norm and
traditions
• Different working styles and
decision making processes
• Cultural differences have big
impact on communication
and cooperation
• Difficulties in local
adaptation, incl. politics,
business practices, social
influences, personal
relationship, etc.
• Different understanding of
“being professional”
• Diverge in management
concept and practice
• May not know that the others
do not know
• May not know how much the
other can understand
• May not know what you can
do to help the other
understand you

36. Excellence through Culture, Talent and Change
Developing Intercultural Competence and Sensitivity_v1.0 / 2010-08
Participants’ Reflection:
36
demonstrates their significant clearness about the organizational strategy
and willingness to cooperate between Chinese and foreign parts
Understanding across cultures
• It is important for me to get the awareness how cultural differences
influence our communication and understanding. It will be helpful for
the cooperation with my foreign partners in the future work!
• I realize that cross-cultural issues influence on our working approach,
team spirit, organizational strategy, and action agreements.
• The seminar is wonderful! It creates an open and free atmosphere to encourage
the communication between the Chinese and foreign parts.
• I enjoyed the open communication during the plenary discussion very much. I
hope we could keep the openness from now on to get much better performance
and achieve our goals more effectively!
Open communication
• I feel we are a team, a team of this company.
• The feeling of “We are ...” gives me the confidence to solve our current problems
and also the success in the near future.
• We begin to get common understanding in organizational strategy and development.
Clear strategic vision
Our participants said ...

37. Developing Intercultural Competence and Sensitivity_v1.0 / 2010-08
Other Approaches to Enhance
Intercultural Competence
37

38. Excellence through Culture, Talent and Change
Developing Intercultural Competence and Sensitivity_v1.0 / 2010-08 38
Cross-Cultural Coaching - Fit for China (18 hrs coaching)
• Individualized Assessment and Coaching approach:
... a one-on-one development process formally contracted between a coach and a management-level client to help achieve
goals related to professional development and/or business performance (Valerio & Lee, 2005).
Biography &
Personality
In-Depth
Profiling
Interview
Interviews
w. Superiors
around 9 months
Short Lecture
Overview on China
Coaching discussion
Critical Incidents
Behavioral Coaching
Intercultural
Competence
• Facts and Figures about
China
• Short history and recent
development of China
• Business and management
practices in China & APAC
• Recent cross-cultural
studies on Chinese
consumer behaviors
• 3 hours classroom
• Coaching discussion on
case studies and critical
incidents in different
management areas in
China and APAC.
• Coaching discussion on
personal experiences in
China and APAC in the first
month
• 4 * 90 min either f2f
or phone or email
• Observation on the real
culture encounter
situations, e.g. meeting or
daily interaction in the office
and/or private
• Coaching feedback on the
observed situations.
• 4 * 90 min either f2f
or phone or email
Behavioral Coaching
Feedback &
Development Plan
• Coaching feedback on the
assessment
• Coaching on the creating
development plan
• 90 min in-depth interview
2*45 min interviews with
superiors
90 min feedback
90 min development plan

39. Excellence through Culture, Talent and Change
Developing Intercultural Competence and Sensitivity_v1.0 / 2010-08 39
Global MBA / EMBA Program

40. Excellence through Culture, Talent and Change
Developing Intercultural Competence and Sensitivity_v1.0 / 2010-08 40
An International Management / Leadership Program
Jun. Jul. Aug. Sep. Oct. Nov. Dec. Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr.
Flashanalysis&Materialdevelopment
Nine-months Action & Web-based Learning
Assessment
& Profiling
Team Coaching
& Profiling Individual Coaching
Individual & Team Development
Creating
aspirational
organization (1)
Action
Learning
Kick-Off
- Event 1 -
3 Days in Singapore
- Event 1 -
3 Days in Singapore
Managing
social network &
enterprise knowledge
- Event 2 -
3 Days in Germany
Multiple Modules Classroom Learning & Benchmarking Study
Leading
transformation &
diversity workforce
Benchmark
Study
- Event 4 -
4 Days in China
- Event 4 -
4 Days in China
Developing
Corporate Strategy &
Technology Innovation
Creating
asp. org.
(2)
- Event 3 -
4 Days in Switzerland
- Event 3 -
4 Days in Switzerland
Final Presentation
& Graduation
- Event 5 -
1 Day in Indonesia
Knowledge
Acquisition&Possession
Knowledge
Utilization&Optimization

41. Developing Intercultural Competence and Sensitivity_v1.0 / 2010-08 41
✓ What did your organization do in ensuring the success
of its internationalization process (global business)?
✓ How effective were so far those interventions?
✓ What were the barriers and challenges in doing more
in this respect?

42. Thank You
contact us at htjitra@zju.edu.cn
http://horatjitra.com
Global Learning Track
Cologne, October 14th 2010
http://twitter.com/htjitra