GLOBAL AGILITY GOES BEYOND COMPANY CULTURE
Peter Hawthorne, Senior NetExpat Consultant • November 4, 2019
Cultural development permits an understanding of ones own attitudes and values and enables one to understand the variations in attitudes and values in other countries.
As organizations become more global, it is becoming the norm for employees to start working across borders either physically or virtually.
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It has been acknowledged for some time that intercultural development is of critical importance to global assignees who move to another part of the world so they may acclimate more quickly to their new environment and perform effectively in their new role.
However, until now, little attention has been paid to employees who travel frequently to other countries to conduct business or to virtual global teams who work together to share best practice and solve business challenges.
Intercultural development for globally interacting employees is equally, if not more, important to ensure time is not wasted by employees: on misinterpretation of communication; delivering sub optimal outcomes through failure to fully engage all team members.
Too often the argument put forward to not provide intercultural development to globally interacting employees is that if they treat every team member as an individual then all will be good.
Their belief is strengthened further when there is a global organizational culture which encourages all behaviors to be the same across the world.
Unfortunately, this argument fails to recognize that behaviors are the visible part of culture which represents no more than 10% of an individual's culture, the remaining 90% is hidden and comprises the individuals attitudes and values. These attitudes and values have developed over time and have been passed down through generations and inform one's judgement of other countries' attitudes and values.
Cultural development permits an understanding of ones own attitudes and values and enables one to understand the variations in attitudes and values in other countries. This knowledge provides the opportunity to learn how to adapt ones way of working to minimize these differences whilst still recognizing that each individual has their own personality.
NetExpat's approach to assisting global employees acquire cross-cultural competencies takes a blended approach of human support from our top experts with the latest in new technology. Click below to learn more about this approach and services available for global employees and multicultural teams.
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