50 Activities for Achieving Cultural Competence

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Expatriate Role Analysis

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GaryM.Wederspahn,InterculturalBusinessSolutions

Boulder,Colorado,USA

Purpose

• To help prospective expatriates visualize key interpersonal roles and relationships with

key host-country counterparts

• To make them aware of the specific attitudes, knowledge, and skills required to manage

these cross-cultural relationships successfully

• To enable them to establish individual learning objectives for acquiring appropriate

attitudes, knowledge, and skills

• Alternatively, to help designers of cross-cultural training activities to assess the learning

needs of prospective expatriates

Targetaudience

Expatriates, frequent international business travelers, and others with important cross-border

business relationships; 2 – 10 participants is ideal

Time

90 to 120 minutes for the whole activity, roughly distributed as:

• 20 to 30 minutes for the introduction and reading of the handout

• 15 to 20 minutes for the demonstration of the exercise

• 30 to 45 minutes for individual participant work on the exercise

• 20 to 30 minutes for the brainstorm, summary, and wrap-up

Materials

• Four sheets of flipchart paper per participant

• Broad-tip felt markers

• Masking tape, push pins, or other adhesive products

• Handout 1, “Tanya’s Challenge,” including charts and diagrams, for each participant

∗

Courtesy of Gulf Publishing Company. From Intercultural Services: A Worldwide Buyer’s Guide and Sourcebook

by Gary M. Wederspahn; © 2000, Gulf Publishing Company, Houston Texas, 800-231-6275. Intercultural Business

Solutions™

50ActivitiesforAchievingCulturalCompetency

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• List of culture-specific learning resources for participants that will assist them in learning

more about the new place in which they will be working, and how they will work in this

new environment. These should be prepared in advance and can include in-company

resources and contacts as well as books, videos, or online resources that provide such

information

Procedure

1. Explain the purpose and objectives of the exercise. Describe and discuss how important it

is for expatriates to understand the implications of their cross-cultural roles and

relationships. Solicit a few examples from the participants.

2. Distribute Handout 1 and instruct the participants to read it and to study the charts and

diagrams. Ask them to picture their own key roles and responsibilities as expatriates.

3. After the participants have read the handout, ask for a volunteer with whom to conduct an

actual role analysis, as a demonstration of the technique for the group.

4. Conduct the exercise by interviewing the volunteer to obtain the information needed.

Explain the instructions for the exercise while demonstrating it. (See instructions below.)

5. Distribute the flipchart paper, pens, and other materials.

6. Instruct the participants to follow the instructions and the examples of the handout and the

demonstration, while doing their own individual exercises.

7. Circulate among the participants (with training assistants, if available) to answer questions

about the process.

8. When the participants have completed the exercise, brainstorm and record on a flipchart

the cross-cultural role requirements and learning needs they have discovered.

9. Summarize what has taken place, and wrap up by:

• recommending items that the participants can use to fulfill their requirements (use the

learning resources list you prepared in advance for this);

• encourage the participants to save their flipchart sheets and to update them as they

learn more about their roles and relationships in-country.

Instructionsfortheexercise

1. On the first sheet of paper, the participants draw a diagram consisting of a ring of four or

five circles, with one circle in the center. Remind them of the diagram used in the case of

Tanya and Filipe. They place their own names in the central circle and label each of the

other circles with the names of those cross-cultural counterparts most important to their

success. They indicate relationships with close counterparts by positioning those circles