Managing Culture Shock in International Business

This assignment explores the impact of culture shock on employees working abroad. It discusses how unfamiliarity with local customs, professional codes, and language can lead to stress, anxiety, decreased productivity, and even employee turnover. The document proposes strategies for organizations to manage culture shock, including cross-cultural training programs for both employees and their families, highlighting the importance of cultural awareness and preparedness in international business.

Running head: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
International Business
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INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
One of the greatest benefits of globalization is that it enables an integrated approach in
conducting trade, whereby companies from various nations join hands to conduct trade. While
this does invariably result in incredible revenue growth for all the companies involved, more
than often the employees sent to a foreign country, are found to experience what is known as
culture shock. The exposure to a new culture, which is considerably alien to the cultural
background of the expatriate employee, leads to the psychological disillusionment of the
employee that can affect his productivity and efficiency rate (Martin, 2010). Since this implies
employee de-motivation as well as considerable financial loss of the company, the issue of
culture shock deserves much attention.
In the globalized era, multinational organizations often require its employees to move in
to new nations, for the accomplishment of the entrusted professional assignments. However, as
and when an employee moves in to a new nation and altogether a new culture, the unfamiliarity
of the local customs, professional codes of conduct as well as the inability to decipher the
language can lead to emotional stress. Most often, the employees experience a serious form of
culture shock when they move in to a new nation where the culture is very much opposed to the
culture of his home country. For example, an American expatriate employee may not face much
difficulty in staying at Australia, and yet he may experience intense form of culture shock if he is
sent to an Asian country such as India or China. The more distant a culture is, the more serious
can the shock be. Employees experiencing culture shock suffer from stress, anxiety and
depression. These employees fail to stay motivated at workplace, lose productivity, are unable to
stay focused at their works and most importantly fail to socialize with any of the co-workers,
bringing in a complete failure of the professional project he is sent abroad for. The lack of
motivation and the reduction in the productivity level end up landing the organization in trouble.

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Losing all motivation to stay abroad, often the employees overlook their professional
commitments and contemplate the idea of coming back to the home country. Often culture shock
also leads to employee turnover (McFarlin & Sweeney, 2011). Further, often the family members
of the employee are unable to adapt themselves to the foreign culture and their disappointment
and frustration often adds to the discontent and disorientation of the employee. It is important to
note here that accompany spends a considerable amount of money on its expatriate employees,
and hence culture shock can bring in financial loss for the company.
Considering the problem of culture shock, it is important to understand the ways to be
adopted that can help in combating the problem. First of all, the organizations should introduce
various cross-cultural training programs for its employees so that they can become culturally as
well as linguistically aware before landing in a new country. This training session will not only
help the employees comprehend the cultural codes of conduct but also the professional ethics,
such as desirable non-verbal communication and gestures acceptable in that specific country. It is
also advised that these training sessions glorify the home culture of the expatriate as well as the
host culture so that the employees can better appreciate both the cultures, and do not end up
romanticizing their own only (Briscoe et al., 2014). Mostly, the employees are being made
culturally aware. As a result, the family members, especially the spouse of the employee may
suffer from culture shock as well. Hence, the companies should organize training session and
seminars for the family members of the employee as well, making them aware of the educational
opportunities their children will be receiving in the new country or the extra benefits the
employee will receive for relocation. Both face to face training sessions as well as practical,
demonstration sessions will be organized for the purpose (Kovaleski, 2013). At the same time,

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the rigidity of the training session should be depended on the extent to which the host nation is
culturally alien.
When an expatriate employee is sent to a foreign nation, he encounters a radically
different cultural environment, whereby he starts suffering from a sense of hopelessness and
disorientation. Hence, it is the duty of the company to ensure that is employees are culturally
aware to adjust himself in an alien culture, and a new country as a well-informed person. It
should be remembered that the impact of prolonged culture shock can prove to be highly harmful
for the well-being of the employee as well as the financial health of the company.

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Reference List:
Briscoe, D., Schuler, R. & Tarique, I. (2012). Global HRM: International Human Resource
Management (4th Edition). New York, NY: Routledge [extract is pp 281-285]
Kovaleski, A (2013). Managing Culture Shock for Employees in International Business Settings.
Retrieved from http://www.researchgate.net/publication/236610956 [extract is pp. 3-8]
Martin, J, (2010). Key Concepts in Human Resource Management. Retrieved from
http://www.mylibrary.com?ID=328899 [extract is pp. 120-123]
McFarlin, B. & Sweeney, P. (2011). International Management: Strategic Opportunities and
Cultural Challenges. London, United Kingdom: Routledge [extract is pp. 415-17]