Developing a Cross-Cultural Training Program for Global Managers

This report details the development of a cross-cultural training program designed to prepare a manager for a global assignment, specifically focusing on a UK-based maritime engineering company (SMC) sending a senior project manager, Mary, to Lagos, Nigeria. The report emphasizes the importan...Read More

Training programme
for a global manager

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY.............................................................................................................................3
Project overview.....................................................................................................................3
Cross cultural training program.............................................................................................3
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS.......................................................................7
REFERENCES...........................................................................................................................9
Books and Journals:...............................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
This report aims to produce a cross-cultural training program in order to prepare a
manager of an organisation (Kour and Jyoti, 2021). It is based on a case study in which an
across culture training program will be established as a new client which is UK based
Maritime engineering Company referred to as Seagate Marine Construction want a manager
who is able to manage populations of the Lagos community. It is identified that SMC
employs 120 people and often works with local contractors in order to build underwater gates
and locks. They recently won a contract of prestigious design construction contract in Nigeria
which will begin in the month of February 2023. They want a manager who is able to handle
all the activities in the new place. For that purpose, SMC appointed Mary as a senior project
manager. It is the first time Mary to gotten a long term assignment and that's why it is very
important to provide a training program on cross-cultural insights. This report included the
stages of the cross-cultural training program.
MAIN BODY
Project overview
SMC is an organisation that wants to prepare a person as a senior project manager so
that they will be able to handle long term foreign assignments of the Lagos community. For
that purpose, SMC is appointed Mary Pretty, so that she is able to do the foreign assignment.
It is identified that Mary put herself forward for this role and it is found in her mid-forties.
She joined SMC 6 years ago and performed very well and that's why she got two promotions.
Now she has two children and because of that, she has worked in the United Kingdom. She
already has experience inside the engineering company as she spent a year as an intern in that
organisation (Hou and et.al., 2018). She also has an experience in Dubai as she worked for a
construction company for 2 years. So it is identified that she has an experience in cross-
culture companies but she has never visited or worked in Africa. This is the main reason that
SMC wants to prepare her and her family for the purpose of the Lagos adventure. This is the
main reason that a training program is established named is a cross-cultural training program.
It is a program where an organisation is focusing on developing across culture training
program so that Marry is able to deal with the situation which will come in the future.
Cross cultural training program
The training program is produced to provide training to the people so that they are
able to overcome the cultural challenges at work (Naeem and et.al., 2020). It is important to

note that cross-cultural training refers to providing training in order to develop the awareness
between people where an individual is able to deal with the culture. There is a requirement
for cross-cultural training programs because SMC wants a manager who is able to deal with
the Lagos community. For that purpose, it is identified that they appointed Mary but they
found that she did not work in Nigeria so that's why she might be facing the problem of
cultural challenges. This is the main reason that they provide a cross-cultural training
program to Mary. For the purpose of making a training program, one important training
model is necessary to use which helps to increase the efficiency of the training program. The
model is ADDIE which is the acronym for analysing, designing, developing, implementing
and evaluating.
ADDIE Model
The ADDIE model is found to be the generic process used by trending developers and
instructional designers (Ran and Huang, 2019). It included 5 important phases that represent
a dynamic guideline for building an effective training and support tool for Mary. Mary has
knowledge of Nigeria and there is a huge difference between the United Kingdom and Africa.
It is very important to develop some important skills and knowledge which help to enhance
the performance of Mary and also able to deal with the cultural differences. For example, the
perception of the individual is different in both countries the United Kingdom and Africa. It
is important for Mary to understand the perception of employees if they want to manage the
work in Africa. In order to deal with such types of differences, it is necessary to use the
model in the cross-cultural training program. So there is a discussion of this model mentioned
below:
Analyse
The first stage of the model is to analyse what was originally conceived to critically
analyse the task which is associated with training. It is very important to analyse the learning
and learners' requirement rather than only performance analysis. That means it is crucial to
understand the requirements of Mary so that a company is able to develop an effective
training program (Cutler, 2018). Currently, it is identified with the help of Hofstede's cultural
dimensions that there is a huge difference between the culture of Africa and the United
Kingdom. So it is analysed that it is important to prepare Mary for the senior project manager
post which is not a small post as she has to handle all the activities in Africa. So it is analysed
that she requires a program which is mainly focusing on dealing the cross cultures as she

belongs to the UK but now she will going to Africa. But there is one positive lookout which
is that she already worked in many countries so she had a little bit of experience of working
in different countries.
Design
It is identified that design phase deals with assessment instruments, learning
objectives, subject matter analysis, exercises, lesson planning, content and media selection. It
is important to understand that design phase is playing an important role in the successful
launch of cross cultural training as it should be specific and systematic. Systematic is refers to
a logical, developing, identifying, and evaluating planned strategies which helps to achieve
the training goals and objectives (Brosnan, Scheeres and Slade, 2020). On the other hand,
specific means each element of a training programme should be executed with attention to
details. It is identified to be an important stage in which the company makes a design for
cross-cultural training programs so that they are able to prepare Mary for the position of
senior project manager. It is very important that the designing stage should be considered a
strategy, structure, delivery methods, assessment, duration and feedback. It is important to
know that the training program should include all the elements that only they will be able to
provide effective training to Mary. For the purpose of designing a face, there are some steps
are mentioned below:

 It is important to document the project's visual, instructional and technical design
strategy.
 It is necessary to apply some instructional strategies which can be according to the
outcomes of my domain.
 Now the next step is to create the storyboard.
 After the creation of the storyboard, it is necessary to design the user experience and
interface.
Develop
After designing, now it is important for the company to develop the course which
should be matched with a design phase. It is found that the core of content has already been
decided in the stage of design so now there is a need to add some details and polish to the
courses. This can be possible with the help of adding graphics (Kowalski, 2018). Mary gets
training in cross-cultural so it is very important to understand the culture of Africa as it is
different. In order to make the process easy, it is very important to use some graphics which
help them to engage Mary with the content. It is very important for an organisation that they
need to carefully select the elements which allow them to present the course according to the
design phase. It is very important to make sure that the development process needs to be
iterative. After the creation of the training program, it is important for the company to make
sure about the training program's effectiveness which includes a test. With the help of testing,
a company is able to know whether this training program is effective or not.
Implementing
Implementing is found to be a very important stage in the training as it focuses on the
execution of the plan or design which they developed for preparing Mary as a senior project
manager in Africa. It is important to know that the plan should be executed according to the
designing phase stages. Then only they are able to prepare Mary and her family for the
Nigeria adventure (Banit and Baranova, 2019). It is identified that Nigeria is unknown to her
and her family and this is the main reason that it becomes necessary to be effectively
implementing the design of cross-culture training programs. It should encourage Mary and
her family that they are able to deal with the cross-culture. Mary is the senior project manager
and that's why they are many responsibilities that will be needed to perform. But due to the
cross-culture differences, they may face problems. This can be overcome only with the help
of implementing effectively a cross-cultural training program. It is important to follow a

procedure for the training which was developed for the learners. It is necessary to cover the
whole curriculum in the training for learners so that Mary is able to develop the necessary
skills and behaviour which help them to overcome the issues due to cross-cultural
differences.
Evaluate
The last stage is evaluation phase which consist of two important parts that are
formative and summative. After the completion of the training program, it becomes necessary
for a company to make sure that the training in should be met. That means it is necessary for
an organisation to make sure that Mary is ready to work in Africa. So this can be possible
with the help of evaluation face which includes formative and summative evaluation.
Formative evaluation is the process which should be present in each stage of these models so
that all unnecessary problems will be dealt with during the performance of stages (Suvorova
and et.al., 2019). For example, the design face for the cross-culture training program faces a
problem that it cannot match with the requirements of Mary. This is the main reason that it
requires a formative evaluation which helps to reduce these types of mistakes and problems.
Summative evaluation is one of the important evaluation processes which consists of
important tests that are defined for the purpose of domain-specific criteria. It is providing
opportunities to take feedback from the users which means companies are able to take
feedback from Mary. She is able to provide feedback about the cross-cultural training
program that it was according to its requirements of Mary or not. With the help of this phase,
the company is able to know what the problems will face by Mary during the training
program.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
It can be concluded from the above discussion that crosses cultural management is an
important process and that's why it is very important for a manager to get skills and
knowledge in order to deal with cultural differences. This report included a program which is
focusing on cross-cultural training. This report included development studies of cross-culture
training programs. It helps a company to prepare a manager for dealing with cross-cultural
differences.
Recommendations:

 It is recommended to Mary that she needs to understand the very big opportunity for
her and there is no need for any fear because she has already experienced dealing with
cross-culture differences. So it is suggested do not feel any worry as there is no
problem.
 It is recommended to her family of Mary that they need focus on encouraging her
motivation of Mary so that she will be able to deal with the problems.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Banit, O.V. and Baranova, L.M., 2019. Cross-Cultural Training of Future Foreign Language
Teachers in the Context of the Adaptive Approach. Adaptive Management: Theory
and Practice. Series Pedagogics, 7(13).
Brosnan, D., Scheeres, H. and Slade, D., 2020. Cross-cultural training in the workplace.
In Understanding Adult Education and Training (pp. 206-217). Routledge.
Cutler, J., 2018. The cross-cultural communication trainer's manual: Volume Two: Activities
for Cross-Cultural Training. Routledge.
Hou, N., and et.al., 2018. Cross-cultural training effectiveness: Does when the training is
delivered matter?. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 65, pp.17-29.
Kour, S. and Jyoti, J., 2021. Cross-cultural training and adjustment through the lens of
cultural intelligence and type of expatriates. Employee Relations: The International
Journal.
Kowalski, S., 2018. HOW TO DEVELOP CROSS-CULTURAL COMPETENCE BY A
COLLABORATIVE CROSS-CULTURAL TRAINING SEQUENCE. In Великие
реки'2018 (pp. 22-25).
Naeem, K., and et.al., 2020. Role of cross cultural training on expatriates overall adjustment
in China and Malaysia. European Online Journal of Natural and Social
Sciences, 9(4), pp.pp-828.
Ran, S. and Huang, J.L., 2019. Enhancing adaptive transfer of cross-cultural training:
Lessons learned from the broader training literature. Human Resource Management
Review, 29(2), pp.239-252.
Suvorova, S., and et.al., 2019. Cross-cultural training programs integration within the model
of multicultural personality development. In EDULEARN19 Proceedings 11th
International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies: Palma,
Spain. 1-3 July, 2019 (pp. 798-803). IATED Academy.