A generation ago, when expatriate managers returned home, they unpacked their bags and stored their newly acquired global skills into a file cabinet.
After all, what use did the home office have for experience in an overseas satellite office? Now with global markets, organizations expect managers taking overseas postings to possess international experience before they head abroad. Personality becomes paramount, especially entering a country in which the manager has no first hand experience.
Personnel Decisions International surveyed managers in multiple countries to gauge the five personality traits judged to be most crucial to succeeding overseas. The traits of managers in various countries provided sharp contrasts. Western European countries such as Netherlands, Germany, and France are the most direct and unemotional, and place a lower priority on group harmony.
On the flip side, Saudi Arabia and Japan registered the highest level of concern for group harmony and sensitivity to words not expressed. Asian and European countries generally followed the pattern of their respective peers. Managers in China rated much more introverted than their counterparts elsewhere.
The purpose of the survey, according to Marc Sokol, senior vice president at Personnel Decisions International, is to highlight cultural differences to heighten awareness, not as a means to compare cultures. Such awareness builds empathy in managers as they navigate a new culture.
Given the wide range of personality traits necessary for success in overseas assignments, organizations need to provide an aggressive training regimen to teach employees the cultural dos and don'ts along with an immersive language environment Simply handing an employee a cultural "dummies" guide and a basic phrasebook for speaking with the locals won't be enough.
"The cost of failure is very high," says Sokol. "If you leave it to self- study, then you're rolling the dice."
To minimize risk, a lot of companies are choosing to send individuals overseas for shorter assignments, usually three to six months in duration. The employees do not bring their families with them and obviously do not sell their homes.
There is a four-stage process to acclimation with a foreign culture: awareness, empathy, bridging, and leveraging diversity.
While working in Britain for five years, Sokol had to learn the measure of understatement used by the British when speaking to co-workers. When a co-worker said he was "a bit frustrated," that indicated a high level of frustration and was a warning signal, not simply a conversation starter.
"It's like trying to explain what [Wizard of] Oz is," he says. "By our second year in London we were able to explain to others what life is like there without knowing everything."
Ironically enough, Sokol says that despite, and perhaps because of, the language similarity, the failure rate for expat employees in Britain is higher than in other countries where English is not the first language. A false sense of familiarity inhibits some expats from building networks quickly and overcoming initial cultural barriers.
Aside from diplomatic postings, Sokol says Royal Dutch Shell is a model organization for teaching employees how to get acclimated in a foreign country. Their managers receive deep immersion prior to placement overseas.
