Question

Please answer these questions.

What are the major issues related to international T & D

How Can the effectiveness of global virtual teams be improved?

How can global leadership be developed?

How does one acquire a global mindset?

What is the role of cross-cultural preparation in the international assignment?

How can MNEs overcome barriers for knowledge sharing across borders?

Please write more than 500 words and give references.

Thanks,

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Answer 1

What are the major issues related to international T & D

1). Improving learning effectiveness

“Quality is defined by what participants learn and can do after training,” notes Ann Gretter, CEO of HEi, a training company in the Washington, DC, area. “Selecting or developing training that is closely aligned with improvement of job performance is crucial to realizing a return on training investment, and a cost-effective training delivery medium that works well for the target audience is equally important.” Doing both requires some up-front analysis:

• Articulate learning outcomes you want participants to realize
• Understand the context in which the trainee will perform
• Recommend a delivery method–classroom, web-conference, web-based, simulation, etc.– that best accomplishes the desired learning outcomes

2. Expanding library of content and training programs

Changing skill requirements and new delivery methods can make it difficult to keep up with demand for corporate learning assets. That’s why Gretter suggests having an educated instructional systems designer on your team or at your service. A qualified ISD can procure existing or develop new content and training programs to keep your global workforce primed for maximum performance. “The instructional designer is as important to the development of good training as your subject matter expert,” she says. “Be sure to include an ISD with practical and cost-effective training development experience.”

3. Delivering consistent service across a global organization

“Analysis of the target audience, the nature of the training content, and whether the training is focused on knowing or doing are some of the criteria to consider when selecting training for a global workforce,” Gretter notes. This ensures that the content is correctly translated and that concepts are appropriately captured regardless of language and cultural differences. Localized web-based or web conference training is the best medium to reach a geographically dispersed target audience.

4. Reducing development cycle times

Getting new programs up and running quickly doesn’t have to be so hard. Select a professional translation company with capabilities for quick and easy file exchange, a reputation for predictable and fast delivery, and an established process for change orders. Work with them to develop internal practices so you can create a workflow that improves velocity. According to our poll, T&D managers identify potential vendors through direct contact (59%), industry associations (41.3%), industry-specific social networks and communities (34.5%) and trade shows and conferences (34.2%).

5. Increasing product knowledge amongst employees

If employees don’t understand how to use training products and technology, or if they aren’t familiar with them, the learning won’t stick. “Use tools that they are already comfortable with to develop training,” Gretter counsels. “For example, for several of our clients, that tool is PowerPoint. So we ensure that the training development tool is compatible with PowerPoint.” Speaking of familiarity, don’t overlook the value of making learning content available on mobile devices. For new products and technology, be sure to walk employees through the process of signing in, using, and signing out.

How Can the effectiveness of global virtual teams be improved?

Following are some ways to improve the effectiveness of global virtual teams:

1. If possible, hold a face-to-face kick off session where teams discuss the goals, tasks and roles of team members. This may seem costly, but the investment will speed the ability of the team to establish professional and personal bonds … and build trust. The session should be professionally facilitated so the team can keep on task and leave with clarity of roles and purpose.

2. Establish ground rules for behavior. This is especially important for remote teams. Discuss expectations like: keeping commitments, honesty, timely responses, being fully present at teleconferences, raising potential problems, and forewarning team members of absences.

3. Talk about cultural awareness. Most of us still have a lot to learn about working effectively cross-culturally. Key points to discuss among team members include working styles, communication styles, assumptions, and understanding. Plan for taking the time to really listen and understand each other. Pay particular attention to how different cultural styles handle agreements -- make sure you are clear on what your conversation really means. Some cultures say “yes” when they mean they “understand,” but are not committed. Consider ending each discussion with a review to clarify what was just discussed. For teams that are new to this, consider a session on cultural sensitivity training.

4. Take time zones into account. Think about the impact of scheduling and make sure you consciously discuss and plan for mutual work times. In addition to routine teleconferencing and videoconferencing, you must have dialogue in between scheduled sessions. Planning the guidelines for these ad hoc conversations is important -- you will need to make commitments on mobile phones and “awake hours.” Respect each other’s time and rotate schedules to ensure everyone bears the brunt of the time differences.

5. Build social rapport. Sharing a team picture, weekend plans and personal anecdotes all are common for co-located teams … but often forgotten in virtual situations. It is important to be a personal, as well as a professional, team member.

6. Discuss conflicts before they happen. Identify potential areas for misunderstanding and define actions steps to minimize or eliminate issues.

7. Assess your individual comfort zone with respect to uncertainty and complexity. With the time pressures all of us face, juggling unanticipated issues can be a challenge, to say the least. Make it a personal goal to enhance your flexibility and patience.

8. Acknowledge contributions and celebrate milestones. It is too easy for team members to begin to feel invisible and unrecognized. Make sure you have a plan to keep team members visible to each other and the larger organization.

9. Consider service-level agreements between all parties. As a group, set expectations and measures of success, and plan for reviews to troubleshoot and resolve issues.

10. Consider getting a coach for the team leader. The technical process complexities and deliverables often take precedence over the pure leadership needs of virtual teams. Often a coach can significantly increase the speed to productivity and success of virtual teams.

The key to making virtual teams work can be summed up in a single word -- trust. Team members need to develop trust in one another. It’s the glue that holds them together. The more you can build trust by following these steps, the more likely your virtual team will succeed.

How does one acquire a global mindset?

1. Recognize your own cultural values and biases.

The cycle begins with discovering and analyzing your own values and biases, which are rooted in a variety of cultural influences that span your life. You might complete a cultural values assessment to not only get to know yourself but also see how you compare to other cultures across various dimensions like communication style and hierarchy. This step is particularly helpful if you are about to begin a global project or take a business trip to a new country or even when you’re interacting with diverse colleagues in your own office. Developing a strong self-awareness has shown to foster a non-judgmental perspective on differences, which is critical to developing a global mindset.

2. Get to know your personality traits, especially curiosity.

There are five specific traits that affect your ability to interact effectively with different cultures:

• Openness
• Flexibility
• Social dexterity
• Emotional awareness
• Curiosity

Ask yourself how open you are to different ways of managing a team. Are you flexible enough to attempt a different feedback style? How easy is it for you to strike up a conversation with people from foreign countries?

While these traits are all important, curiosity is critical, because we can all find easy ways to be more curious, and curiosity is what leads us to ask questions, which lead to the insights we need to understand the idiosyncrasies of global work. If you’re not naturally curious, you can train yourself to engage in “curiosity conversations” to learn more about the people around you. A simple chat on the differences between what’s familiar in your part of the world and in their part of the world can go a long way toward integrating and ironing out any salient differences. People are usually willing to talk about their society’s norms at large, if not their own personal habits.

3. Learn about the workplace and business expectations of relevant countries and markets.

The third step transfers your attention away from yourself to learn about the typical workplace habits, expectations and best practices in other countries and cultures. (It’s important to note that cultural norms are not stereotypes but high-level tendencies.) While you can’t know everything about every culture, you can certainly access on-demand insights on how to do business effectively from a variety of online resources and digital learning platforms.

Can you schedule meetings during lunch time in Mexico? Do you know when the weekend is in Saudi Arabia? How should you establish credibility during a meeting with a potential client in Japan? You can also widen your base by seeking work that will expose you to countries or markets important to your role and career.

4. Build strong intercultural relationships.

Just like when learning to speak a second language, it’s helpful to immerse yourself with people from other parts of the world to develop a global mindset. These relationships facilitate valuable learning about what works and what doesn’t. The ability to form relationships across cultures is not a given, but the more positive intercultural relationships you develop, the more comfort you’ll have with diverse work styles and the less you’ll resort to stereotyping. How often do you approach people from different cultures when at networking or social events?

To build your intercultural or global network, it helps to find cultural mentors or coaches who can give you feedback on what to do better. You can also use intercultural learning platforms to gain country-specific insights into appropriate and effective trust-building activities so that you don’t unknowingly stifle your efforts with the wrong approach.

5. Develop strategies to adjust and flex your style.

What has made you successful in a domestic or local context likely won’t help you reach the same level of success on a global scale, which is why learning to adapt your style is often the hardest part of mastering a global mindset. This step involves expanding your repertoire of business behaviors by learning to behave in ways that may be unusual to you but highly effective when interacting with others.

For example, imagine how much relationship-building time you need to factor into your schedule when your new peer from India makes a business trip to visit you. Is a lunch or two enough, or do you need to extend an invite to show them around town on the weekend? If it feels excessive or inappropriate to you, it may be a good sign that you’re going beyond your personal comfort zone, that you’re flexing your style and that it may indeed be the right thing to do.

In any case, one of the benefits of developing strong relationships with colleagues from different cultures is that you can test your approach and ask them for feedback on how your style would be received in their part of the world. Discussing cultural differences with your global colleagues is a great way to build trust and develop personal strategies for success at the same time.