A recent survey sponsored by the National Foreign Trade Council and Windham International found that 61 percent of U.S. multinationals offered such programs, but only 67 percent of employees who were offered the programs actually participated in them. In Asia, the acceptance of cross-cultural and language training programs is no better with the exception of a few Japanese corporations, including NEC Corporation, which consistently offer such programs to their international executives and their families. Global competition is too great to wing it when you go abroad. Savvy business people learn about the specific cultural differences for each country where they do business. Moreover, adds Rowland, some enlightened companies provide cross-cultural training to employees who never leave home but need to understand the mindset of the people and companies they deal with overseas.
All companies seem to do better when it comes to providing executive education to senior managers.
Many graduate business schools in the United States have thriving programs that offer management courses to mid-career corporate managers who attend for periods varying from two days to three months. Asian companies and governments also support executive education, often sending senior managers to courses in the United States. In recent years, I have given a number of lectures to delegations of managers from China visiting the United States to learn how American corporations are organized, managed and financed. In Asian collectivist societies, there is a subtle indifference toward foreigners, a lack of interest in those outside the family, nation or ethnic group. This is the opposite side of the coin of cultures that demand strict allegiance to their own group interests.