netrashetty
Netra Shetty
Dun & Bradstreet (NYSE: DNB) is a public company headquartered in Short Hills, New Jersey, USA that provides information on businesses and corporations for use in credit decisions, B2B marketing and supply chain management. Often referred to as D&B, the company maintains information about more than 200 million companies worldwide
Unspoken Language– means non-verbal communication, a very important part of communication. It is a communication that uses body movements and gestures such as, raising eyebrows, smiling, hand movements, facial expressions, etc. A failure to understand unspoken language can lead to a failure of communication because body language is not the same in every culture.
For instance, raising eyebrows is a sign of recognition in most cultures, but in some cultures, it’s not. Similarly, making a circle with the thumb and forefinger is a friendly gesture in the US, but it is obscene invitation in Turkey and Greece. Also, thumbs-up gesture is used to indicate that “its fine” in the US and Europe, but it is vulgar gesture in Greece.
Another case of unspoken language is the amount of distance between the persons talking to each other. In Latin America, the distance adopted by parties in a business discussion is 3 to 5 feet while in the US, it is 5 to 8 feet. In the training context, if the trainer gives training in Latin America and maintains a much larger distance than desired in their culture, then in turn, it may result in a regrettable lack of rapport between the trainer and the trainee.
Therefore, using the right body language is very important in cross-cultural training.
Global Training Class – Social Structure
Social Structure refers to basic social organization. It consists of many aspects such as, the degree to which the social organization laid emphasis on the individual, as opposed to the group.
Individualism–
Some countries emphasizes on individual achievement. Western countries emphasize on individual performance, this in turn, leads to high level of creativity, high degree of managerial mobility, entrepreneurial activity, etc. On the other hand, encouraging individualism also make it difficult to work in teams. It may be difficult for them to co-operate which may serve as an obstruction in smooth flow of training.
Group– In most of the countries, group is the primary unit of organizations. Like in Japan, the social status of an individual is determined as much as in by standing of the group. This may lead to better cooperation; on the other hand it suppresses entrepreneurial activity, individual creativity, etc. This in turn, may result, in loss of recognition of individual achievement at work after training.
Therefore, trainer has to keep in mind the factor of the individual and the group while giving training because encouraging a particular individual in Japan might be considered as impolite or vice-versa.
Assumptions – We all make assumptions every day. It may be positive or negative, good or bad. Assumptions influence our attitudes, perceptions. Most people see what they want to see and believe what they want to believe. It some times leads to coinciding and some time clashes. This tendency to make assumptions and forming attitudes regarding certain things can be a big problem in a cross-cultural training. Differences in assumptions can some times be very problematic. As an example, trainer may believe that if the trainees do not question, they understand the content. On the other hand, trainees may believe that if they will ask question, the trainer might think they are dull.
Presumptions can some times result in disrespect, distrust or resistance to change behavior after training. For instance, trainees might misinterpret trainer because of his different accent, appearance, style, or anything. Lack of interest of trainees de motivates trainer to transfer expertise and skills. This can lead to discomfort and misjudging the other’s motives and goals. It is important to analyze the audience on the factors of customs, values, and language in case of cross-cultural training
In addition to reviewing strategic plans, we also reviewed 28 agency annual performance plans to
see how HRM is addressed. As mentioned earlier, performance plans are the yearly operational
plans defining what the agency will accomplish in that fiscal year that will contribute to the
longer-term strategic goals, and how they will measure accomplishment of these performance
goals. Seventy-five percent of the reviewed plans contain both HRM performance goals and
measures. This is not surprising because these operational plans tend to be more process and
budget focused than strategic plans and therefore contain more detail about the resources needed
to accomplish the performance goals. Therefore, administrative functions, in general, are
represented more fully than in the strategic plan.
The development of the performance plan is invariably more functional than overall strategic
planning. At most agencies, each program and administrative function is responsible for defining
its own goals and measures which it then forwards to the planning office for coordination into the
annual performance plan. As with the strategic plans, the HRM goals, strategies, and measures
identified by HR offices tend to focus more on processes or activities than on overall outcomes.
These process measures can be helpful, but because operational goals, strategies, and measures
Unspoken Language– means non-verbal communication, a very important part of communication. It is a communication that uses body movements and gestures such as, raising eyebrows, smiling, hand movements, facial expressions, etc. A failure to understand unspoken language can lead to a failure of communication because body language is not the same in every culture.
For instance, raising eyebrows is a sign of recognition in most cultures, but in some cultures, it’s not. Similarly, making a circle with the thumb and forefinger is a friendly gesture in the US, but it is obscene invitation in Turkey and Greece. Also, thumbs-up gesture is used to indicate that “its fine” in the US and Europe, but it is vulgar gesture in Greece.
Another case of unspoken language is the amount of distance between the persons talking to each other. In Latin America, the distance adopted by parties in a business discussion is 3 to 5 feet while in the US, it is 5 to 8 feet. In the training context, if the trainer gives training in Latin America and maintains a much larger distance than desired in their culture, then in turn, it may result in a regrettable lack of rapport between the trainer and the trainee.
Therefore, using the right body language is very important in cross-cultural training.
Global Training Class – Social Structure
Social Structure refers to basic social organization. It consists of many aspects such as, the degree to which the social organization laid emphasis on the individual, as opposed to the group.
Individualism–
Some countries emphasizes on individual achievement. Western countries emphasize on individual performance, this in turn, leads to high level of creativity, high degree of managerial mobility, entrepreneurial activity, etc. On the other hand, encouraging individualism also make it difficult to work in teams. It may be difficult for them to co-operate which may serve as an obstruction in smooth flow of training.
Group– In most of the countries, group is the primary unit of organizations. Like in Japan, the social status of an individual is determined as much as in by standing of the group. This may lead to better cooperation; on the other hand it suppresses entrepreneurial activity, individual creativity, etc. This in turn, may result, in loss of recognition of individual achievement at work after training.
Therefore, trainer has to keep in mind the factor of the individual and the group while giving training because encouraging a particular individual in Japan might be considered as impolite or vice-versa.
Assumptions – We all make assumptions every day. It may be positive or negative, good or bad. Assumptions influence our attitudes, perceptions. Most people see what they want to see and believe what they want to believe. It some times leads to coinciding and some time clashes. This tendency to make assumptions and forming attitudes regarding certain things can be a big problem in a cross-cultural training. Differences in assumptions can some times be very problematic. As an example, trainer may believe that if the trainees do not question, they understand the content. On the other hand, trainees may believe that if they will ask question, the trainer might think they are dull.
Presumptions can some times result in disrespect, distrust or resistance to change behavior after training. For instance, trainees might misinterpret trainer because of his different accent, appearance, style, or anything. Lack of interest of trainees de motivates trainer to transfer expertise and skills. This can lead to discomfort and misjudging the other’s motives and goals. It is important to analyze the audience on the factors of customs, values, and language in case of cross-cultural training
In addition to reviewing strategic plans, we also reviewed 28 agency annual performance plans to
see how HRM is addressed. As mentioned earlier, performance plans are the yearly operational
plans defining what the agency will accomplish in that fiscal year that will contribute to the
longer-term strategic goals, and how they will measure accomplishment of these performance
goals. Seventy-five percent of the reviewed plans contain both HRM performance goals and
measures. This is not surprising because these operational plans tend to be more process and
budget focused than strategic plans and therefore contain more detail about the resources needed
to accomplish the performance goals. Therefore, administrative functions, in general, are
represented more fully than in the strategic plan.
The development of the performance plan is invariably more functional than overall strategic
planning. At most agencies, each program and administrative function is responsible for defining
its own goals and measures which it then forwards to the planning office for coordination into the
annual performance plan. As with the strategic plans, the HRM goals, strategies, and measures
identified by HR offices tend to focus more on processes or activities than on overall outcomes.
These process measures can be helpful, but because operational goals, strategies, and measures
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