How to improve expat effectiveness
14 Dec 2009
In support of a recent workshop for the Expat
Center Amsterdam, we (ProBoards) conducted a
small-scale survey among our audience. The two
main conclusions of this survey were:
› expats are active on all organizational levels of
the companies they work for, from the Board to
line management;
› regardless of the organizational level, all
expats are confronted with a gap in business
culture, which diminishes their effectiveness.
This second conclusion is confirmed by
international research. This means that the gap
in business culture as the main obstacle to
expat effectiveness is a global phenomenon.
International research also shows that when
trying to eliminate or at least to diminish this
main obstacle, it is not enough to focus only on
the expat. A wider perspective is required in
order to improve effectiveness.
Rule 1. 80% of expat effectiveness depends on business team support.
One cannot expect expats to be productive in total isolation. He/she needs all the support the team members can provide; from implementation of job tasks to communication with peers and clients.
Rule 2. Team members need excellent business culture competencies.
Because the gap between business cultures is the main obstacle, all team members (including the expat) need competencies to build bridges across this gap. We define a business culture as the way a group of people is used to earn a living (e.g. to collaborate in a team, to serve clients or to close deals with business partners).
Business cultures come in all shapes and sizes. Examples are project team cultures, specific organizational cultures (e.g. Shell, Philips), local cultures (e.g. City of Maastricht), economic sector cultures (e.g. Banking sector) or national cultures (Dutch, Chinese or American). Business culture competencies are those competencies necessary for bridging the cultural gap. Examples are the ability to:
› observe and become aware of one’s own and other people’s culture
› build productive relationships with people of
other business cultural backgrounds
› identify commonalities between two or more
different business cultures
› appreciate other values and norms
› integrate some of these other values and
norms into your own value system
› create a new common business culture
Rule 3. Team managers need international leadership skills.
To facilitate this process of bridging the gap,
team managers need to act as facilitators or coaches. They need to create a team atmosphere of open-mindedness, empathy, dialogue, shared values, inclusion and team learning.
Rule 4. 80% of team effectiveness depends on organizational support.
What applies to an individual also applies to a team. One cannot expect a team to be productive in total isolation. It needs all the support it can get from members of the Board, line management and staff departments.
As a staff department, Human Resources can support these teams by helping the team members to develop business cultural competencies. Management Development programmes or Corporate Social Responsibility programmes could include special training provided by internal or external experts. Individual or team coaching is a very effective tool to develop business cultural competencies.
How to create awareness of differences?
An important step in developing these competencies is to create awareness of cultural differences within your own and other team members’ business culture. This is the first of a four-step process for which we have designed a Coaching Model.
For more information on our services and the benefits to expats and international teams in improving effectiveness, feel free to contact us.
About the author
by Daniel Le Gras
International Business Coach
legras[at]proboards.nl
www.ibcoaches.com
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