Cross-Cultural Literature Review Essay

Introduction

The following literature review will take account of some of the well-known and more recent research on the following themes; Hong Kong and Chinese Culture, Short Term International Assignments and Pre-Departure & Cross Culture Training. The first two themes will set the scene as to why pre-departure & cross cultural training might be important and effective or indeed might not be effective as previously thought when embarking on an international assignment to conduct international business in the foreign host country and its culture.

Hong Kong & Chinese Culture

According to Tylor (1881) culture is such a complex phenomenon involving morals, laws, beliefs, knowledge, customs and other characteristics adopted by society overtime that distinguishes them from other cultural societies. Hofstede

The following cross cultural training system proposed by Tarique and Caligiuri (2003) can aid the training and development of international asignees, which include; “Identify the type of global assignment for which cross-cultural training is needed; Determine the specific cross-cultural training needs (from the organization-level, assignment-level, and the individual-level); Establish the goals and measures for determining cross-cultural training effectiveness; Develop and deliver the cross-cultural training program; and Evaluate whether the cross-cultural training program was effective”. By implementing such a cross cultural training system, organisations can continuously development and improve the training system and tailor it to the specific needs of assignees and various assignments on a global scale through feedback and monitoring the effectiveness of the system for improved future training, which may contribute to the success of international assignments and in turn reduce international assignments