Operating a business in an international zone is not as easy as writing your itinerary. It is complex and your patience will be tested. Determination and abilities to combat challenges are required. One of the challenges in doing business in the global environment is the lack of understanding the simple yet common sense of cultural uniqueness of every cultural setting around the world. When you begin interfacing in that zone - you will be challenged to face its nuances. Operating within a micro-cultural environment with inadequate knowledge is terrifying. Your management and or technical skills for your job are not the only requirement. Demonstrating business acumen in many business facets such as taxation, corporate responsibilities, the laws covering employment and immigration, and hiring practices of people within the culture. Competence to assimilate, learn, interact and immerse into the culture of your target market play a bigger role than anything that you have thought about.
Business owners, individuals who were not culturally oriented will get overwhelmed. Those who have operated in specific country with their independent goals and objectives have experienced huge difficulties in adjusting with their peers at work and at social settings, the work environment, the bureaucracies, the hierarchical differences, the magnitude of cultural barriers in order to fit-in at a given workplace and most of all the lack of cultural awareness. All of these inadequacies have contributed to their failures, low productivity, higher risks of workforce turnover and losing return on investments.
Mobility of workforce has increased in some parts of the globe. Especially in areas where recession was not a big deal but growth and expansion of businesses flourished. Business investors from different countries were equally mobile. People around the world are moving as an effect of recession. There are however, some realities across the globe where jobs and more jobs were being lost as an impact of the global economic recession. Recession is not over yet. Professionals and business practitioners who operate internationally have hands-on experience on these realities. They are great resource about what is happening outside United States and other parts of the world.
On the other hand, Human Resource Business Partners are trying to cope up with the demands of global workplace. Many professionals in the areas of Human Resources Management are challenged with their inadequate knowledge and competence to operate globally. This is because of the US focused operation that they are familiar with. Only very few professionals have taken initiatives in expanding their horizon and acquiring necessary knowledge and competencies in order to operate internationally. These types of competencies are somehow confused among individuals who are working in an internationally operating organization. Oftentimes, they assume that they are internationally competent when they have worked in an internationally operating organization but their function did not touch any logistically strategic actions. These are individuals who will need additional learning about global competencies.
Within United States, there are very few companies that are source of quality education about culture. Effective cultural education is not gained through attending a one day or two days seminar. It is not a time bound program of three weeks or two months. It is a program that will expand through nurturance and the individual has gained certain level of proficiency and have gone through the period of Aculturization. This is an immersion based concept and process. Experiential learning is an ideal technique and philosophical approach in assimilating the cultural competencies through hands-on activity, because that will facilitate a maximum cultural adaptability.
There is a big task ahead by any individual who aspire to be within the globalized world. Increase your Global Competencies in order to demonstrate globally operational leadership and management portfolio of competencies across the globe. An option is by meeting globally experienced professionals in your locale and through discussions; sharing and inquiring on the many unique challenges, highlights of experience, nuances, requirements, and inefficiencies of a given culture however don’t be judgmental. One virtue of learning and immersing to a new culture and environment is by being flexible with open mind.
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