Why expatriate training is crucial for businesses

Apeejay School of Management (ASM), Dwarka, organised an international guest lecture on expatriate training for its students. The PGDM school’s Human Resource (HR) department invited Professor (Dr) Parth Patel, lecturer (Management) & academic lead for Higher Degree Research (HDR) Peer Mentoring at the Australian Institute of Business, Adelaide, Australia as the resource person for the session.

The topic for the guest lecture was “The International Training of Expatriates in Western Subsidiaries of Emerging Multinational Enterprises: A Knowledge-based Perspective.” The lecture was moderated by Dr Ishita Adhikari, associate professor, area chair -Human Resource (HR) and head-Corporate Resource Centre (CRC), ASM.

Many Indians today are conducting projects at international client sites. Expatriate training programmes expedite the process of cultivating employees’ cultural sensitivity and acclimatise to unfamiliar surroundings. During the webinar, Dr Patel highlighted how expatriate training enabled employees in understanding and adapting to the culture of the host country. And that is what factors into their social and business relationships both. It is critical to acquire essential information about the host country, and nurture the skills needed to adjust to their new living and working environment, he stressed.

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The lecturer further cited several international assignments that failed due to lack of pre and post-training of the expatriates. Research shows an employee’s ability to accommodate to the norms and culture of a new country determines their chances of achieving success in an international assignment.

The guest speaker gave students a glimpse of his recent research work as well.

The insightful session was thoroughly enjoyed by the students, who went on to interact with the resource person and asked many interesting questions. 

“Training of expatriates in MNEs is a topical subject with lots to be investigated and learnt especially in India. And Dr Patel provided tremendous insight into the issue,” Dr Adhikari said.