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Cross-cultural adjustment in the multinational training programme
Wei-Wen Chang a
a National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan
Online Publication Date: 01 November 2009
To cite this Article Chang, Wei-Wen(2009)'Cross-cultural adjustment in the multinational training programme',Human Resource Development International,12:5,561 — 569
To link to this Article: DOI: 10.1080/13678860903274331
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PERSPECTIVES
Cross-cultural adjustment in the multinational training programme
Wei-Wen Chang*
National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan (Received 10 April 2009; final version received 15 May 2009)
This study provides an in-depth understanding of the process of programmeme adjustment that occurred in the case of a US-born multinational training programme in Taiwan. Through observation, interview, and material analysis, this article looks at five essential and practical considerations in cross-cultural programme adjustment – spoken communication, material translation, silent communication, local trainers, and empowerment and localization.
Keywords: international human resource development; multinational training programme; cross-cultural adjustment
Today, influenced by the climate of globalization, many organizations conduct their business on an international scale. To meet the need for developing global human resources, organizations have promoted training programmes for their affiliates around the world. Some headquarters of multinational organizations provide one ‘standardized’ curriculum to all its affiliates or training agencies around the world, including identical textbooks, class structure, evaluation procedure, and training process for trainers. In other words, the headquarters generally will cover most of the programme planning, consisting of learning needs assessment, priority setting, programme objectives defining, and method or technique selection. The affiliates or agents’ main responsibility is to implement an identical programme plan and fine-tune the content according to local needs. Yet, in this context, a prominent challenge for international human resource practitioners is the problem of how to make the appropriate adjustments to their training programmes as they transfer them from one nation to another.
From a learning perspective, Burba, Petroske, and Boyle (2001) found that learners’ perceptions of identical instructional behaviours differed based on each person’s cultural background. In another empirical study, Edwards (2002) presented an analytic account of a postgraduate course designed for participants in three nations and found different interpretations of learning networks in different cultures. Therefore, the same as expatriate workers’ need to adjust cultures, expatriate training programmes also need to be adjusted for cross-cultural implementation.
In the field of human resource development (HRD), many studies have explored the expatriate issue and discussed how to help people adjust to foreign cultures (e.g. Black, Gregersen, and Mendenhall 1992; Black and Oddou 1991). These studies
*Email: changw@ntnu.edu.tw
Vol. 12, No. 5, November 2009, 561–569
ISSN 1367-8868 print/ISSN 1469-8374 online Ó 2009 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/13678860903274331 http://www.informaworld.com
provided guidelines and suggestions to help increase people’s cross-cultural competency. In contrast, while more and more training programmes go abroad, literature that helps programmes cross cultures can hardly be found. Therefore, in international human resource development (IHRD), a simple but critical question remains unanswered: How to help a training programme adjust to different cultures? Although some authors have discussed global human resource development (Marquardt, Berger, and Loan 2004) and training across multiple locations (Krempl and Pace 2001), limited empirical data have been collected to explore the process for programme adjustment.
Faced with such a gap in the literature, the purpose of this study was to examine the cross-cultural adjustment of a multinational training programme and to describe in detail the adjustment process and its outcome. Specifically, this study investigated the adjustment process of a US-based multinational training programme in Taiwan and explored programme stakeholders’ views of the influence of the adjustment on programme implementation. In other words, this study examined the issue of how a training programme developed in one country was adjusted to a different nation’s culture. In respect to programme adjustment, this article presents the five key aspects of the findings: spoken communication, materials translation, silent communication, local trainers, and empowerment and localization.
Training across cultures
In the fields of HRD, there are a number of models regarding programme development (Werner and DeSimone 2006). However, on an international scale, there is very little literature that systematically has addressed the steps of programme adjustment. Although many guidelines reminded international training programme-mers to pay attention to cultural environment and adjustment (Marquardt, Berger, and Loan 2004; Odenwald 1993), few provided information with respect to the next important question: How?
To collect ‘know-how’ from practice, Kaeter (1995, 24–6) interviewed HRD people at Texas Instruments, the Coca-Cola Corporation, and Procter & Gamble, and developed their insights into eight guidelines. For example, HRD designers should have knowledge of different cultures, find good partners to help in custom-fitting a common training effort to specific regional and participant differences, and remain globally consistent in terms of course content and criteria for evaluation. Similarly, Zhuoran (1996, 14–15) provided twelve suggestions about how to make training friendly to other cultures. For example, programme designers should modify communication to accommodate cultural difference and consider trainees’ level of acceptance, conduct a thorough training-needs and audience analysis, and include international members on the design team.
Although several of these guidelines seem too general (e.g. have knowledge of different cultures; modify communication to accommodate culture difference), they provide IHRD people with some useful insights, such as taking advantage of local resources, not being afraid of offending the people of another culture as long as the HR people remain culturally sensitive, and paying attention to translation, especially of industrial jargon. In sum, while the theory of international programme development is still underdeveloped, these practical guidelines serve as a framework upon which this study can build.
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Adjustment in a multinational training programme
This study used selected a multinational training programme (MTP) and explored its adjustment from the US to Taiwan. The programme was selected for the following two reasons: (a) the training course was developed in the US many decades ago and has been implemented in over eighty countries, including Taiwan; (b) it used a standardized curriculum and pursued standardized outcomes around the world. The length of the course was about three months and the expected outcomes included improvements in leadership, self-confidence, communication, stress management, and interpersonal relationships. The MTP’s standardization of these themes allowed this study to concentrate on the relationship between cultures and the process of fine-tuned adjustment. Through participatory observation, individual face-to-face interviews (one programme leader and two instructors in the US; one programme leader, two instructors and eleven learners in Taiwan), and training materials analysis (Denzin and Lincoln 1998; Patton 2002), this study found that while using the standardized curriculum, the Taiwanese programme leader made several changes in delivering MTP. These adjustments will be discussed in five aspects, including change in language, change in translation, ambiguity in silent language, cultural buffer, and empowerment and localization.
Changes in the language: from English to Chinese
Taiwan is the first country in Asia that translated the whole programme into Chinese. The changes made to the programme in the process of translation have significant implications with regard to the MTP’s spread in Taiwan. For example, both Hong Kong and Singapore started this programme earlier than Taiwan, but the number of learners has been limited. Every year Singapore has approximately 200 graduates while Taiwan has thousands. The Taiwanese leader believed that the programme’s development in Taiwan has been more successful than in Hong Kong and Singapore because Chinese is used in Taiwan. Therefore, Hong Kong and Singapore have also begun using Chinese in delivering the programme.
The turning point in using Chinese
Not long before the first class in Taiwan was to begin, a flood caused by a typhoon destroyed all the English course materials the Taiwanese training leader had ordered from the US. Because of time and financial constraints, the programme staff started to ‘crazily’ translate the entire course contents into Chinese in order to keep on schedule for the first course. The MTP leader indicated that the change to Chinese resulted in the quick acceptance of the MTP in Taiwan. Their programme grew fast, and the Taiwan office became the most successful sponsor in a short period of time. The leader said, ‘The typhoon and flood became my turning point’.
Learners’ reactions
A Taiwanese learner, Diana (pseudonyms were used for interviewees), mentioned that if this programme were taught in English, class participation would greatly decrease. She stated, ‘If it used English, I would feel more distanced. The interaction and participation would be much less’. Diana pointed out that when communicating
in English, learners worry about whether they are being understood, and whether instructors’ questions, if asked in English, will prevent them from speaking out. People would be reluctant to talk as they had less confidence in their ability to communicate clearly. ‘In such circumstances, people would hesitate. Participation is a main feature of this programme. If English were used, this feature might just disappear’ Diana emphasized. In addition, another Taiwanese learner, Gerald, used a phone conversation with delayed response as an analogy to describe the feeling of communicating in English.
If this programme was delivered in English and then interpreted into Chinese, the flavor of the programme would degenerate. Especially for the deep emotions, even though the meaning was perfectly interpreted, it would still be like a phone conversation in which you always received others’ responses two seconds late; the feeling would be ruined.
Gerald contended that deep emotions could hardly flow out naturally in the second language. No matter how accurate the interpreters translated the meaning, it could not compete with the learners’ native language.
Change in translation: from unfamiliar to familiar
Due to the requirement of standardization, the course textbooks of the MTP were translated directly into Chinese without changing the content. However, some techniques utilized in the translation helped make text materials friendlier to Taiwanese learners.
Adjustment in translation. In the learning manual, widely used Chinese idioms were a technique for translating the learner’s manual and textbooks. Those idioms conveyed the same meaning as the original sentences but brought the language closer to Taiwanese people’s conversational language usage. In addition, in the Chinese version, the English was not merely translated by meaning, but also was conveyed in the form of Chinese idioms. There were, in turn, some English idioms that could not be translated directly. Some examples are included in Table 1.
Table 1. Example of translation adjustment. 5Example 14
English: All the king’s horses and all the king’s men can’t put the past together (English textbook)
Chinese: Even using the force of nine oxen and two tigers cannot pull the past back (Chinese textbook. Translated by the author of this study) Explanation: The force of nine oxen and two tigers comes from a Chinese folktale,
which means great power. 5Example 24
English: My stomach was twisting like a Kansas whirlwind (English textbook) Chinese: My stomach was afflicted (Chinese textbook)
5Example 34
English: No one ever kicks a dead dog (English textbook)
Chinese: Criticism was disguised as a compliment (Chinese textbook)
564 W.-W. Cheng
In the programme textbooks, the unique expressions that could be understood by American people were often omitted in the Chinese version.
Another technique used for adjustment in the Chinese materials was providing short explanations (i.e. annotations). In the English version, the authors often quoted people who were well-known in US society. To help Taiwanese learners understand those people’s backgrounds, a few introductory words often were added before their names. For instance, two words, ‘American philosopher’, were added before Ralph Waldo Emerson; ‘American novelist’ before Booth Tarkington; ‘American theologian’ before Dr. Reinhold Niebuhr; ‘American aeroplanist’ before Eddie Richkenbacker; and ‘American composer’ before Irving Berlin. Those small guideposts helped learners from Taiwan relate more easily to the texts from the US.
Ambiguity in silent language
A US instructor, Janet, shared her experience of interacting with people from the Native American culture, which reflected Hall’s (1960, 1990) theory of a nation’s silent language. She said:
I did a class with Native Americans. That was a different culture . . . one of the parts of their culture was that they don’t necessarily get someplace on time . . . I would have a class that was starting at 12:00 noon and . . . at 12:00 I would have out of 30 people maybe 2 were there . . . Maybe around 12:15 I’d have half of them. If I didn’t start class then, that half would get up to go out and take a break while the other part was coming in. It was very difficult for me.
Obviously, different concepts of time increased the difficulty in this teaching experience. Janet noted, ‘My big challenge was just getting class started before people started taking a break’.
In Taiwan, although no significant conflicts were identified by participants between the silent language embedded in this US-originated programme and that in Taiwanese culture. However, some form of compromise arose in the teaching and learning process. Two examples illustrate this phenomenon:
(1) Age-mixed design. In the standardized design, learners from different backgrounds and ages sat together to share their life experiences, difficulties in work, or significant incidents. Many older Taiwanese learners mentioned feeling uncomfortable sitting in a class with younger learners.
(2) Order of speaking in class. In comparing the MTP classes in the US with those in Taiwan, it was found that Taiwanese instructors had to assign an order for speaking rather than ask for volunteers. A Taiwanese learner, Fred, described the Chinese culture by saying, ‘Our culture is more reserved. You call on me, and I speak; if you don’t call on me, I would never talk’. Kelly similarly said, ‘It is not feasible to ask people to volunteer. We are used to waiting to be called upon’. To respond to such redundancy, some adjustments had been made by instructors. For example, instead of asking for volunteers, a Taiwanese instructor would designate who the first person to talk would be; learners then would take turns, according to their seating arrangement.
Generally, Taiwanese learners’ reactions did not indicate serious conflicts between the silent languages of the US and Taiwanese culture. This study then searched for possible explanations of this finding. After comparing Janet’s situation and that of the class in Taiwan, this study found a ‘buffer’ between the two different cultures in the form of the Taiwanese instructors and teaching assistants.
The cultural buffer: local instructors Instructor training
A standardized 18-month training process was utilized for all the MTP instructors around the world. The process included several stages: be a learner and graduate from the programme, serve as a graduate assistant, attend intensive training, teach in a lab class, and tandem teach. For Taiwanese instructors, the over one year standardized training process helped them (a) become proficient about the programme philosophy, course content, and ways of teaching from the US; and (b) learn how to interact with various kinds of learners in Taiwan. Therefore, the training, on the one hand, prepared instructors to present the course completely, and, on the other hand, gradually shaped a Taiwanese instructor who will become a bridge connecting the course design from the US and the learners’ needs in Taiwan. Hall (1960) used ‘silent language’ to describe the tacit communication among people within a nation. When instructors and learners are from one culture, they may speak not only the same national language, but also a similar silent language which, in this case, helped keep the MTP running smoothly.
Empowerment and localization
Since 1993, Taiwan has maintained the best performance among 150 sponsors of this particular MTP. One reason for its good yearly growth figures according to the Taiwanese MTP leader, was the great emphasis on instructor training and empowerment. In the second year after the programme started, MTP in Taiwan began to develop full-time and part-time instructors in every city and county. The leader pointed out, ‘If I had not encouraged empowerment, now 10 years after the programme started, only one fifth of the graduates probably could receive this programme’. The leader emphasized that developing a team of instructors was an important contribution to the programme’s growth in Taiwan. In addition to training instructors, he also empowered instructors to handle the business in their cities with the assistance from the main office in the north of Taiwan.
Discussion
Spoken and written language
While the MTP used standardized learning materials, course structure, and class activities on a global scale, the training practitioners in Taiwan used Chinese in spoken and written communication to deliver the programme. The Taiwanese programme leader emphasized that he is very glad that he chose to use Chinese, because ‘. . . the content of this programme involves attitudes, feelings, and emotions. No other language is better than the mother language to convey those spirits’. In IHRD, to localize training programmes, scholars suggested that foreign trainers learn the 566 W.-W. Cheng
(primary) local language (e.g. Odenwald 1993), be wary of translation (e.g. Margaret 1995), modify communication (e.g. Zhuoran 1996), or make a programme more ‘user-friendly’ (Marquardt and Engel 1993). Compared to these suggestions in the literature, the MTP in Taiwan took a more extreme strategy: changing the whole programme into the learners’ native language. This strategy brought four benefits to the programme development in Taiwan. First, people who did not know English could attend. Second, many learners could use their native tongue to express emotions and feelings. Third, according to the Taiwanese MTP leader, the public would not view this programme as having been imported from outside their culture. Finally, Chinese materials helped recruit local trainers, so even people whose English was limited could attend instructor training and become trainers.
Regarding written communication, while the people of at least 75 countries are familiar with the English language (Crystal 1997), only 4000 words in the English dictionary are most commonly used (Chaney and Martin 1995). Therefore, a common language based on English should be free from idioms, colloquialism, and slang. This study also found that when translating English materials into Chinese, some slang and idioms were either omitted or translated into local-oriented phrases.
Silent language
Hall (1960) identified the silent language of nations. People use silent language to communicate; multinational programmes use it, too. In the case study, the unspoken words existed between the lines, in instructors’ behaviours, and in their expectations of learners. The issue, at this level, involved more than a decision about using English or Chinese. Rather, the challenge was to figure out what the ‘language’ was. This study found that Taiwanese learners felt uncomfortable in the age-mixed class in the MTP. A possible explanation could be found in Pratt’s (1998) study, which suggested that, in Chinese society, people in the upper levels of the hierarchy must assume responsibility for those below. Therefore, older people should set a moral standard and demonstrate benevolence toward the younger generation. This cultural tradition may make it difficult for older Chinese learners to become accustomed to sharing their personal difficulties, problems, and weaknesses with younger classmates. Taiwanese learners’ lack of comfort with the class design was an expression of their silent language use.
Weiss (1997, 326) argued that in intercultural communication, clarity relies on ‘a prior intellectual operation: that of reading and interpreting contextual signs’. The task of understanding language in silent communication would be a great challenge for instructors who have had only limited contact with another culture. One strategy to reduce the conflict between the silent languages of different cultures would be to have within the learners’ group some people who were very familiar with the foreign culture of the training programme, and a local teaching assistant to help a foreign instructor. As the US instructor (Janet) suggested after interacting with the Native American class, ‘they [insiders within learners’ group] were definitely my ears to ‘‘how is this going’’’, and if Native American learners ‘have their people who have been through this as my assistants, then I think that helps a lot’.
Local instructors and empowerment
Although the MTP required all sponsors to use standardized course content and structure, it allowed them to develop instructors from their own nations. Instructors
may grow up in the same national cultural context as the learners, share the same history, speak a similar dialect, and may share a common music appreciation. In such design, trainers and learners speak a similar silent language. The findings of this study support Trowbridge and Titus’s (1999) viewpoint, which is based on their experiences in transporting Western courses to countries in Central and Eastern Europe. They suggested that developing high-quality local instructors is an important element for incorporating Western knowledge into local conditions.
In regards to empowerment, Inkeles and Levinson (1969) suggested that ‘relation to authority’ is one of the common issues about a worldwide national culture. Empowerment also enhances enthusiasm, initiative, and involvement. In this case, the idea of empowerment contributed to programme growth in Taiwan in terms of quantity and geography. First, it encouraged the Taiwanese programme leader to develop more local instructors, which speeded the popularity of the programme. Second, the empowerment, in fact, has helped localize the programme even more within Taiwan to learners’ cities or counties. Therefore, learners and instructors may come from the same communities and share similar subcultures.
Conclusion
While many scholars have suggested characteristics of international programme development and advocated the importance of acculturation, how to apply programming in practice is a more urgent issue for many IHRD people. In practice, the challenge is not only how to localize a multinational training programme, but also how to reach similar outcomes in different cultural contexts. In the case study, three components, standardized instructor training, local instructors, and great empowerment, worked together in helping MTP become less alien to Taiwanese learners but still with most of its original design intact. The standardized instructor training process provided opportunities for Taiwanese instructors to become familiar with this programme, interact with Taiwanese learners, and develop their own style of teaching. Second, instructors from local areas had similar cultural backgrounds with learners; it increased their sensitivity to learners’ various needs. Training a foreign instructor to the same level of cultural understanding could take much longer.
The existing IHRD literature often recommends that practitioners ‘adjust’ their programmes in international settings, which seems to become a motto in this field. This study, through practical examples, identified several key aspects of programme adjustment that may apply to other contexts of implementation. These aspects can serve as a framework for making adjustments in cross-cultural settings. While more ‘contextual thinking’ is encouraged in the field of IHRD, this case study provided a contextualized analysis of an adjustment process, to which people can refer prior to transporting a training programme from one nation to another.
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