6. Potential Problem Areas Lack of Cultural Familiarity. Family Relations and Bonds. Career needs of Spouse. Education of children. Relation development with local community. Coordination with Headquarters. Language and technological barriers. Adaptation to weather and food. Future uncertainty and repatriation.
27. Ex-Pat selection Although its Ananda management’s decision whom to send, however we suggest to follow our selection pre-assessment questionnaire. Selection Criteria Cultural adaptability. Extent of Social exposure Stress tolerance. Job skills. Family’s adaptability.
28. Customized Training Cultural Training Area Study Cultural Assimilators Language training Adaptability development Sensitivity training Field experience
29. 1–12 Length of training Level of rigor HIGH Immersion approach Assessment center Field experiments Simulations Sensitivity training Extensive language training 1-2 months+ 1-4 weeks Moderate Affective approach Culture assimilator training Role-playing Critical incidents Cases Stress reduction training Moderate language training Less than a week Information-giving approach Area briefings Cultural briefings Films/books/videos Use of interpreters ‘Survival level’ language Low 1 month or less 2-12months 1-3 years+ Length of stay
30. Customized Training cont. Business Training Developing and maintaining relationships Costa Rican business etiquettes Team building and team management Negotiation skills Do’s and Don’ts of business in Costa Rica.
31. Take Home Resources Spanish Media. Costa Rican cultural media. Media for business etiquettes. Training books, brochures and media.
32. Training for the family Basic Language. Cultural awareness and etiquettes. Social Networking. Hobbies and interests. Career guidance. Educational differences and options.
33. Follow Up Language General issues faced Family and personal issues counseling. Effectiveness and meeting the objectives.
34. Repatriation Assistance Long term career goal planning Clear communication about pre and post project status. Proper utilization of skills. Counseling for Re-entry cultural shock. Counseling sessions before repatriation begins.
35. Conclusion Expansion requires huge amount of investment. No or inadequate training will put this investment in a huge jeopardy. The success of our training program is not backed by mere words, but with numbers and results.
37. Ευχαριστω ありがとう Спасиб Благодаря 谢谢 Dank u Dankie Gracias Grazie Thank you ขอบคุณ Faleminderit תודה Cảm ơn Merci Obrigado Multumesc
38. 1–21 Length of training Level of rigor Budget HIGH Immersion approach Assessment center Field experiments Simulations Sensitivity training Extensive language training 1-2 months+ High Moderate 1-4 weeks Moderate Affective approach Culture assimilator training Role-playing Critical incidents Cases Stress reduction training Moderate language training Less than a week Information-giving approach Area briefings Cultural briefings Films/books/videos Use of interpreters ‘Survival level’ language Low Low 1 month or less 2-12months 1-3 years+ Length of stay
Editor's Notes
As per our telephonic conversation we are just summing up the important pointsWe have experience of successfully helping expatriates to settle in Central America. Therefore, we strongly believe that our expertise can make this endeavor a sure success.
Costa Rica is a eco-friendly nation and promote a balanced life style for its citizens.Costa Rican government has tax exemptions for eco friendly projects and is welcoming foreign investments and provides special leverage to promote more foreign investments.The picturesque of Costa Rica matches well with the back ground of Ananda Spa and matches the goals of Ananda spa as mentioned in your mission statement..Costa Rica has a very low quotient on crime rate and is politically stable. So it provides the appropriate relaxing atmosphere and the government is also promoting eco tourism so we can get help from the government in promoting your product.
In order to succeed on an international assignment, it is imperative that the employee understand how the local culture will impact them. Loss of cultural cues often results in frustration and feelings of incompetence. These are the most common issues an expatriate and/or his/her family may face. Every culture has something which is not acceptable to other cultures. For example, for Costa Rican males its very common to comment/compliment over females physical looks, however that would be offensive to an Indian female. The money and experience involved in the project may lure everyone for this expatriate position. But, as India is a family oriented country, the expatriate may soon start missing his parents or hometown.The expatriate’s spouse plays a crucial role in the potential retention and effectiveness of the expat in host locations. There is high probability of expat’s declining if spouse’s career, children’s education and their social life isn’t taken into consideration. For any business development, relationship development is the key. However, relation development is different in India than Costa Rica as people there are more conservative than Indians. Costa Rican online banking is one of the major ways of dealing with the bills. However, the websites are totally in Spanish. So language and technological barriers may prove to be a bigger issue than it appears. coming back from such an important and then working at the same position where he left may make him feel being under used. An efficient training program would consider this.
These attributes are common to every expatriate travelling to any part of the world. Many of these attributes can be judged in the office by the employees’ performance and behavior with colleagues. However, there are many other attributes which can’t be judged at all in office and are usually neglected by most of the companies while selecting their expatriates. For example, the company can judge the employee’s technical skills, familiarity with goals and mission, managerial skills, interest in overseas experience, etc. but attributes like behavioral skills, cultural empathy, family situation etc. can’t be judged at all and special assessment techniques are needed to judge these.
GeertHofstede’s dimensions gives us insights into other cultures so that we can be more effective when interactingwith people in other countries.Uncertainty Avoidance: Costa Rica exhibits low level of tolerance for uncertainty than India i.e. they avoid business deals where risk is concerned.Power Distance: Costa Rica’s low PD indicates the authority is not accepted as it is accepted in India. Therefore, if the expatriate thinks that he can order employees in Costa Rica the same way, he is taking orders from his boss in India, he may end up destroying the whole project.Masculinity: Low level of masculinity indicates low level of differentiation and discrimination between genders.Low Individualism: It refers to tendency of people to look after themselves and to neglect the needs of society. Low value specifies that society is collectivist as compared to individualist.
These stages are faced by any expatriate travelling to any country of the world. The purpose of a training is to save the expatriate from going into distress, which eventually leads to the failure of the project.Our training program is designed by keeping each and every stage in consideration. Neglecting any of these stages in training leads to the results which are not acceptable.
We design and customize various training programs as per company’s requirements to meet the individual challenges of the employee and offer the necessary tools for the international assignee or expatriate to achieve success during the overseas assignment.Our “Road to success” Program i.e. plan of action to manage and to lead successfully in the new environment involves:Pre-assessment questionnaire: Before even selecting an expatriate, the company should know where he stands, and how much he is capable of handling the pressure and stress involved.Customized training program: It allows the company to select/drop any training module according to the needs and requirements of the project, expatriate, management and budget constraints.Appropriate training to the family, Spouse career counseling: This is necessary because we don’t want the expatriate to fail because of the his/her family’s incapability of adjusting in a totally new environment and society. Also if the company is sending an expatriate to a new location, it becomes their liability to assist his/her spouse with their career as his/her performance would be affected by the situation arouse because of spouse’s unemployment.Take home resources(for self and for family)Follow-up in Costa Rica for the employee and the family: Training is given using simulations, but the real experience can be totally different from that. Therefore, we provide follow up, thus making sure that the expatriate or his/her family is not facing any issues.Additional assistance in repatriation phase: more than 50% expatriates quit their jobs within 3 years of return. Therefore, assistance is needed so that they don’t face reverse cultural shock. This assistance includes counseling with returning issues, future issues as well as family’s re-settlement in the parent country.
The selection of personnel for overseas assignments is a complex process. Therefore we provide five categories of selection criteria : Cultural adaptability, Extent of social exposure, Stress Tolerance, Job kills and Family’s adaptability. Our criteria enables prejudging such capabilities of candidates for assignments in order to avoid many problems and considerable expense that can lead to expatriate failure.
Cross-cultural training results in the expatriate learning both content and skills that improve interactions with host-country individuals by reducing misunderstandings and inappropriate behaviors. Our training technique include:Area Study : documentary programs about the country’s geography, economics, sociopolitical history and so forth.Culture assimilators : which expose trainees to the kinds of situations they are likely to encounter that are critical to successful interactions.Language training: to improve expat’s negotiating ability by making him familiar with host country language.Adaptability development and sensitivity training: improves the adaptation to local conditions and successfully managing stress.Field experience: exposure to people from other cultures within the trainee’s own conutry.
Business training is equally essential so that the expat has knowledge about how business is done in host country. Working with the host country’s employees in collaboration requires basic understanding of their perceptions and business approach. Costa Rican people value family bond and expect the same in business too, so building relationship in business is very importantThough Ticos are very friendly but titles are very important and they prefer using the last name while addressing.Decision making process is quite slow so while negotiation the expat needs to be patient.As the power distance is quite low in Costa Ricans they are very comfortable in team based work so the expat needs to be a team player.
Everything can’t be taught in a class without a self-study. Our practice material is selected keeping in mind, the perquisites required by the expatriate and the objectives of the project.We also take a pre-departure assessment to judge the effectiveness of the training and readiness of the expatriate to venture abroad.
Indians value the relation and share a close bond with family and relatives. So for the expat to succeed we also need to focus on their family too.Majority population in Costa Rica speaks Spanish, and the family should be aware of the basics of the language.There is a huge difference in both cultures and the expatriate’s family should be aware of this difference to survive in Costa Rican society.Expatriate would be there for business but his/her family would be facing the society more than him/her.Hobbies and interests keep one busy and helps them to engage themselves. Our training would assist them in finding a parity between their interests and what Costa Rica have to offer.Career of Expatriate’s spouse is equally important. Our training program will assist them in growing in Costa Rica.There is a huge difference in educational systems of India and Costa Rica. We would assist the children and parents to understand and adjust with this difference.
According to our firm, one of the biggest reasons of failure of these kind of projects is the lack of follow-up. Due to this lacking, expatriates and/or their families usually feel left alone. We provide a 3 month follow-up through regular conversation, therefore making sure that they face no issues due to cultural shock.
Re-entry cultural shock can be equally devastating as the cultural shock, if there is no adequate training. According to a survey, if expatriates don’t have proper repatriation training, 20% of them quit their jobs within one year of their return and 50% leave within 3 years.(Frazee, 1997)Over 75% of repatriates perceive re-entry position to be demotion.Our repatriation counseling begins 2-3 months prior to repatriation.
In case of any further questions, you may contact LJDT constancy LLC at contact@LJDT.com
