Methods of Cross-Cultural Training II: Culture-Specific Concepts and Evaluation of Training The training of cross-cultural competence and skills, 18/12/01 Julia and Natalie Kohlmeier

Culture-Specific Concepts and Evaluation Of Training 2 Contents 1. What is culture-specific training? 2. Classification scheme for training techniques 2.1 Experiential culture-specific training methods 2.2 Didactic culture-specific training methods 3. Evaluating cross-cultural training 3.1 Purpose of evaluating cross-cultural training 3.2 Evaluation designs

Culture-Specific Concepts and Evaluation Of Training 3 1. What is culture-specific training? Culture-specific training refers to “information about a given culture and guidelines for interaction with members of that culture”. (Brislin & Pederson, 1976) This training is “specific to a particular culture”. (Triandis, 1977)

Culture-Specific Concepts and Evaluation Of Training 4 Contents 1. What is culture-specific training 2. Classification scheme for training techniques 2.1. Experiential culture-specific training methods - bicultural communication workshop - culture-specific simulation game - culture-specific role play - critical incidents exercise - case study

Culture-Specific Concepts and Evaluation Of Training 5 2. Classification scheme for training techniques by Gudykunst & Hammer, 1983

Culture-Specific Concepts and Evaluation Of Training Experiential culture-specific training methods Bicultural communication workshop participants learn intercultural communication through their interaction with members of the other culture in a small group setting three phases: 1. examination of critical incidents 2. nationals from both cultures meet in small groups and complete tasks together 3. summary, analyses and evaluation of the experience

Culture-Specific Concepts and Evaluation Of Training 7 Culture-specific simulation game provide interactive opportunities to practice new behaviors and experiment with new attitudes and points of view nonthreatening and nonjudgemental environment does not involve interaction between members of the two different cultures trainees learn about cultural differences when they participate as members of the culture and when the simulation is debriefed

Culture-Specific Concepts and Evaluation Of Training 8 Culture-specific role play skill building two participants take on characteristics of people other than themselves learn how to interact in specific situations with members of a specific culture participants who are not actively involved in the role play function as observers and look for certain things related to the objectives of the training often involves interaction between members of the two specific cultures

Culture-Specific Concepts and Evaluation Of Training 9 Critical incidents exercise confronts participants with conflict situations they can expect to encounter in interacting with persons from another culture brief descriptions of situations in which there is a misunderstanding, problem or conflict arising from cultural differences discussed in groups with members of both cultures the exercise is to find an explanation

Culture-Specific Concepts and Evaluation Of Training 10 Case study written description of a realistic situation sufficient detail of the perspectives of the different characters possible for the participants to analyze the problems involved and to determine possible solutions followed by a set of questions is designed for developing ways of approaching complex or stressful situations

Culture-Specific Concepts and Evaluation Of Training 11 Contents 1. What is culture-specific training? 2. Classification scheme for training techniques 2.1 Experiential culture-specific training methods 2.2 Didactic culture-specific training methods - area orientation briefing - language training - culture-specific assimilator - culture-specific reading

Culture-Specific Concepts and Evaluation Of Training Didactic culture-specific training methods Area orientation briefing factual information about the specific country and the attitudes of the country’s people geography, climate, politics, educational system, customs, law in form of a lecture

Culture-Specific Concepts and Evaluation Of Training 13 Language training necessary to indicate an interest in the people and the culture to facilitate the successful adjustment to the host culture teachers incorporate experiential techniques (role plays) into language teaching

Culture-Specific Concepts and Evaluation Of Training 14 Culture-specific assimilator trainees are sensitized to behaviors, norms, attitudes and values of another culture by reading a series of episodes that are labeled as problem situations trainees try to find the right interpretation of the behavior among several different possibilities once trainees have chosen a possible interpretation they get feedback

Culture-Specific Concepts and Evaluation Of Training 15 Culture-specific assimilator Advantages: trainees can work through the assimilator on their own (disc or book) can be used with people from most cultures less dependent on having people from the target culture available

Culture-Specific Concepts and Evaluation Of Training 16 Culture-specific reading to read culture-specific books to gain knowledge of a specific culture

Culture-Specific Concepts and Evaluation Of Training 17 Contents 1. What is culture-specific training? 2. Classification scheme for training techniques 2.1 Experiential culture-specific training methods 2.2 Didactic culture-specific training methods 3. Evaluating cross-cultural training 3.1 Purpose of evaluating cross-cultural training 3.2 Evaluation designs Classical design Time 2 Training Group Only design Time 1/Time 2 Training Condition design

Culture-Specific Concepts and Evaluation Of Training Evaluating cross-cultural training 3.1 Purpose of evaluating cross-cultural training to help in the development of more effective cross- cultural training methods justification for current or projected cross-cultural training programs (Blake & Heslin, 1983)

Culture-Specific Concepts and Evaluation Of Training Evaluation designs Classical design a pool of businessmen are randomly assigned to training and control groups only the training group participates in CCT the dimensions of success of all participants are measured at Time 1 (before training) and at Time 2 (after training) the program impact is the degree to which change from Time 1 to Time 2 differs between training and control group “pretest - posttest control group design”

Culture-Specific Concepts and Evaluation Of Training Classical design Drawbacks: if trainees from the training group are members of the same organization as those in the control group there is a possibility of contact between the participants the two groups should be comparable

Culture-Specific Concepts and Evaluation Of Training Time 2 Training Group Only design only a training group participates in the CCT program dimensions of success are measured after the training there is no measurement at Time 1 and no control group

Culture-Specific Concepts and Evaluation Of Training 22 Drawbacks: this design makes it very difficult to estimate the CCT impact intercultural competence of the participants is not measured before the CCT

Culture-Specific Concepts and Evaluation Of Training Time 1/Time 2 Training Condition design there is only a training group dimensions of success are measured at Time 1 as well as at Time 2 there is no control group CCT impact is the change from Time 1 to Time 2 among the trainees “one group pretest-posttest design”

Culture-Specific Concepts and Evaluation Of Training Evaluation designs Conclusion There is no ideal design that is applicable to all CCT evaluations. The evaluator must select a design to meet the requirements of the specific CCT evaluation. This depends on the foci of the evaluation.