Page 134 - DMGT548_GLOBAL_HRM

Unit 7: Training and Development

the host countries, and whether there is any need to learn the languages to facilitate cross- Notes
cultural success (Black and Mendenhall 1991).
The “quantity” of an individual’s previous experience involve not only all his past experience
with the host culture, but also all his previous interactions with a culture similar to the host’s.
The “quality” of the individual’s previous experience refers to the intensity of his cultural
interaction with the host culture or a similar culture. Intensity is measured by the frequency and
degree of involvement of the interaction.

Degree of Interaction = (Frequency of Interaction with Local Nationals) x (Importance of
Interactions) x (Nature of Interactions)
The more frequent the trainee is expected to interact with the local nationals, the higher the
intensity of interaction. ‘Where the interactions are numerous and significant, interaction
intensity is high. The nature of the interactions plays a part in determining its intensity too. In
this connection, the literature on communication has supplied reasons to believe that novel,
two-way, unique, face-to-face, long-term, and informal cross-cultural interactions would be
more trying than the opposite (Jablin, Putnam, Roberts, Porter, 1987).
Job novelty, the third important situational factor, is task-related. The more novel the new
assignment is, the greater the assistance needed to help produce effective behaviour. This means
that more rigorous training is required. Stewart (1982) suggests that to estimate the degree of
job novelty relative to a specific trainee, three job characteristics should be considered: (1) extent
of similarity in job demands between previous jobs and the new; (2) extent of similarity in job
constraints between previous jobs and the new; (3) extent of similarity in job autonomy and
authority between previous jobs and the new.
In view of the fact that maladjusted spouses and children can directly influence the expatriates’
success or failure in the host country, the novelty of the foreign culture and the degree of
expected interaction with the culture ought to be assessed in much the same way as is done for
the expatriates (Black and Stephens, 1989).
Black and Mendenhall (1991) integrate the notions of culture novelty, interaction, job novelty
and CCT rigor by reasoning that high culture novelty, interaction and job novelty make the
process of attention, retention and reproduction slower. It is necessary to add rigor to the
training programs because it can capture attention better, deepen retention and facilitate
reproduction proficiency. Correspondingly rigorous CCT methods are therefore selected. To
add, it has been shown that job novelty is relatively easier to adjust to than culture novelty and
a high degree of interaction with the host culture (Black and Stephens, 1989). And since it is
possible to quantify the respective dimensions, CCT programs can be customised for each
trainee.
This means that a trainee who faces a highly novel job will receive relatively more training that
will increase his technical competence. Likewise, where the degree of interaction is high, learning
in this area heeds to be enhanced by emphasising on training topics such as interpersonal skills
and perception. Where the degree of culture novelty is high, topics, such as country studies need
emphasis. Thus, the trainee receives more assistance to more effectively acquire and emit the
kind of behaviour that will contribute to impressive cross-cultural performance (Black and
Mendenhall, 1991).

Black and Mendenhall (1991) do not distinguish between cognitive and affective engagement.
However, it is noted that affectively engaging training methods (for example, sensitivity training)
are surely more rigorous than the cognitively engaging ones (for example, area studies). In
comparison with cognitive, information-gathering programs, affective and immersion-oriented
programs require more personal involvement of participants, especially when the need for

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