6 Responses

1. cross-cultural training
   There are many books on this topic: useful ones include Mind your manners by John Mole (very practical) and Riding the waves of culture by Fons Trompenaars (thought provoking and practical as well). But it all depends on what you mean by “frameworks” and what kinds of cross-cultural experience you’re talking about. Does it involve people working in different countries, or dealing with customers from other countries, or working in international virtual teams? And these are only some of the possibilities. If you would like to email me with more specific details I could give more targeted advice based on the work I have done with international businesses.

2. Multi-cultural frameworks
   I agree with John – it depends on who, what, why. In addition to Trompenaars and Mole, there are a couple of other sources you could try. I am a member of an organisation called SIETAR (Society for Intercultural Education, Training And Research) which is a good source of information on theoretical frameworks. We have developed cross-cultural exercises for global teams, which add an experiential element to the theory. Please contact me if you want more info about SIETAR or to discuss the exercises further.
   regards, Jan Emerton

3. Multi-cultural frameworks
   I agree with Peter -it depends on who, what, why. In addition to Trompenaars and Mole, there are a couple of other sources you could try. I am a member of an organisation called SIETAR (Society for Intercultural Education, Training And Research) which is a good source of information on theoretical frameworks. We have developed cross-cultural exercises for global teams, which add an experiential element to the theory. Please contact me if you want more info about SIETAR or to discuss the exercises further.
   regards, Jan Emerton

4. Is it cross-cultural or multicultural?
   Hi Melissa,

   Please allow me to offer some personal thoughts regarding your situation.

   It is evident that many organisations are just coming around to or certainly still dabbling in the likes of Hall, Trompenaars, Hofstede, Lewis,etc. From our experience, we have found that this is not sufficient as the rate of change over the last ten to fifteen years tends to have left many forward-thinking global organisations piecing together trendy individual HR initiatives on top of old systems like a very bland and basic meal with an unbalanced selection of exciting and seemingly tempting
   condiments. As it may be guessed, in many cases, the outcomes are likened to a serious case of heartburn while the malnutrition caused by the bad diet has seen no sincere long term cure. These organisations and the human has-beens that constitute these organisations are very often left worse off
   than if they were left to their own devices in the first place.

   We have members of Hi-Touch Consulting who are currently involved in the research, planning, design, implementation, operation and support of holistic multicultural, multifunctional, multisited teams. We are providing humans at various levels of the organisations with transferable tools and skills – real long-term solutions – as opposed to overloading them with information about the other side (the ‘when to bow
   and when to shake hands’type of information)

   You are welcome to contact me for more information or take a look at http://www.hitouch.cjb.net.

   Sherwyn Singh
   Human in Training
   sherwyn@bigfoot.com

5. Frameworks for cross-cultural issues in internatio
   I too am searching for frameworks for providing training for global assignees, and am keen to make contact with others working in this field. Access to such resources in New Zealand is limited. I have my own fraework, developed informally over many years as a practitioner in the recruitment, selection, preparation, management and re-entry of staff and volunteers internationally, but would love to have a discussion with others about different approaches and lessons learnt.

6. Frameworks for Cross Cultural Training
   I’d really like to network with anyone working in this field. Contact me on mildredhall@paradise.net.nz