How to be prepared for the experience called China? Pamela Lau did an interesting scientific research about pre-departure training for expats planning to go to China.Though there is some literature questioning the effect of pre-departure training (Kealy and Protheroe, 1996; Selmer et al, 1998), it is clear that according to expatriates, pre-departure training is relevant. With the data obtained, statistical tests were conducted to create a deeper understanding of the needs of expatriates that are sent to China by their companies. Pre-departure cross-cultural training
It was quite surprising to find that only little less than half of the respondents received pre-departure training, although they were all working for MNEs. This goes against most studies done on the effectiveness of pre-departure cross-cultural training (Forster, 2000; Romero, 2002; Waxin and Panaccio, 2005), even though they have mentioned that many companies still do not provide pre-departure training. There are several reasons that come to mind when trying to uncover the reasons for this low training provision rate. The first reason could be that the expatriate has already been to China before, and already is familiar with the Chinese culture or at least already has formed some expectations. However, from the respondents that did not receive pre-departure training, only half (9 managers) had been to China before.

Another possible reason is that the expatriate has been on previous other foreign assignments. The company then could have decided that it is not necessary for them to have pre-departure training. Waxin and Panaccio (2005) mention that international experience is a moderator on the effect of cross-cultural training. This fact also is mentioned by some expatriates who noted that the extent to which some companies provide training or expatriates want or need pre-departure training depends on the previous foreign experiences of the expatriate manager. However, from the results it can also be seen that even though the expatriate is familiar or somewhat familiar with the Chinese culture, they still think pre-departure training is useful. As one respondent stated: “Even I would have benefited from a language refresher course and my degree is in Chinese”. Also, it should not be forgotten to mention that it might as well be that the company does not provide standardised pre-departure training, but provides the support after arrival in the host country. This is the case for Shell, which would explain why none of the respondents from Shell received pre-departure training. It should be noted however, that some of these respondents did indicate that they would have liked to receive pre-departure training.

The training elements that were found most important by the expatriates based on their own personal experience in China were 1. Culture, 2. Guanxi and 3. Language. This importance was not completely reflected in the actual training they received, where Language had been neglected. Companies should not ignore language training (Weiss and Bloom, 1990; Hutchings, 2005). According to Brislin (1993), using the host country’s language has a positive influence on expatriate adjustment and facilitates cooperation of the employees. From the results we can see that some companies do not provide any kind of language training at all, although it is considered an important element of pre-departure training by the expatriates who have been on assignment in China. KIT does provide information on language background in their trainings, but actually learning the language has to be done in a separate optional module. It is up to the HR-department to take this result very seriously and include it in the pre-departure preparation.

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Pamela Lau