Human Resource Development Around the Globe
Three-year-old Liu Xiao had never seen a foreigner up close. On February 5, 2003, a tall, blonde, blue-eyed stranger greeted her as she arrived home from preschool. With my limited Chinese vocabulary, I said, “Ni Hao, Wa ei ni” as we met. My “Hello, I love you” was welcomed by the only English Liu Xiao knew. With shrieks and laughter, she ran around the room shouting, “Happy Birthday to you!” Experiencing Chinese culture firsthand and developing “guanxi” (the Chinese word for “relationships”) was an unexpected and wonderful benefit of my business trip to China, where I had gone to deliver a train-the-trainer course in human resource development.
Globalization is a leading and constant topic of discussion amongst many HRD professionals. Yet some feel it may never have an impact on them. Where you fall on the “globalization continuum” may depend on the organization you are with, how familiar you are with globally diverse business cultures, how well you can adapt to the global marketplace and how well you are able to conduct training and development with international business partners.
But whether you work as part of an international organization or as an independent consultant, you will probably soon be dealing with global issues. In the emerging borderless economy, cultural barriers are presenting both new challenges and new opportunities for HRD professionals. The marketplace is becoming increasingly diverse, and business is undergoing a major transformation. As these changes occur, we need cultural as well as business information to prepare our corporate partners and ourselves for the journey ahead. According to Training and Development magazine, culturally competent leadership development is the number one global HR priority, followed by the ability to develop, recruit and retain outstanding talent around the world.(1) In the emerging borderless economy, cultural barriers are presenting both new challenges and new opportunities for HRD professionals.
As HRD specialists, our calling is becoming broader than human resource development. We have an opportunity to create collaborative relationships to foster international understanding and respect in a multicultural world. While national governments have the primary responsibility for maintaining peace, they are limited in what they can actually do to ensure a peaceful world. Individuals and organizations can make tremendous contributions through their actions abroad. I was training in China on September 11, 2001. I saw firsthand how a practitioner could make a global difference. Many of my participants had never met an American before our training. When the buildings fell, we cried together. They saw our grief. They had gotten to know our training team and could put a face on the buildings that had fallen thousands of miles away.
This chapter is about learning to think and act in culturally respectful ways. It offers you a starting point in your quest for knowledge about international HRD best practices and challenges. You will learn about regional and global trends affecting international business development and, therefore, human resource development. You will find information about global trends in workplace learning and performance based on benchmarking studies done in ten regions of the world during the past four years. You will read about cultural differences and suggestions on how to prepare yourself for business abroad—including how to avoid being “The Ugly American.” Finally, you will get a brief overview of seven global regions, their national challenges, cultural differences and HR practices. So grab your suitcase and your passport and let’s start our journey.
Global Business Trends
Globalization is defined as “a universal flow of goods, information and services across political, financial, technical and cultural bounda-ries.”( 2) Over the past decade, there has been a far-reaching move toward capitalism and consumerism around the globe. With the proliferation and convenience of modern technology and the systematic erosion of trade barriers, many companies have developed a global presence—in spite of a slowdown in the U.S. and world economies.
Some U.S. corporations have turned to cheap labor in developing countries to keep prices and expenses in line. As a result, a tsunami of U.S. jobs has swept onto foreign shores. While the U.S. has tried to discourage companies from outsourcing to lower-cost locales such as China and India, the economics of “offshoring” may just be too powerful for business to resist. Human resource departments will have to be able to manage a more cross-cultural, diverse and foreign workforce as this trend continues.
One challenge of globalization is waiting for the building of infrastructures, including electricity, roads and phone lines in developing countries. Beyond this, it is likely that sporadic backlashes against globalization, language barriers, high illiteracy rates and clashing social norms will present even greater challenges.
According to researchers (Rosen et. al., 2000), other trends that will present challenges during this new stage of business include:
• European Integration - The economic integration of Europe and the
euro will solidify that continent’s influence over the world stage.
• American Backlash - Defensiveness against American culture, democracy,
military might and free-market capitalism will undermine the continuing strength
of the U.S.
• Asian Rebound - The hardworking nature of Asians and their social and
family ties, combined with their commitment to education, form a strong impetus
for their economies to rebound.
• China, Inc. - If China continues on its current path, it will become
the largest, most important market in the world.
• Ethnic Conflicts - The number and intensity of ethnic conflicts will
increase and continue worldwide as terrorism continues.
• Economics Versus Environmentalism - As economic development expands
globally, pollution, deforestation and global warming will hasten, causing more
political conflicts.
• Generational Demographics - The swelling population of young people
in the developing countries and the need to educate and create jobs for them,
combined with the growth of the elderly population and the need to take care
of them, will create economic and political challenges for all.
Given all these challenges, the role of human resource development must change. We will need to build and develop the capabilities of the organization to thrive amidst these global issues rather than simply reacting to more traditional issues such as performance management, class size and blended learning approaches—and we have to do it in a culturally responsive way. An HR system that is common practice in your country may be considered offensive in another. Differences in employment laws, compensation packages, job security and learning styles are just a few examples of what an HR professional might face working globally versus locally.
Learning and teaching styles differ among cultures as well as individuals. For example, the entertaining instructional style of the U.S. facilitator does not find a receptive audience in many corners of the globe. A few years ago, I spent some time facilitating programs in the UK. The evaluations had a consistent message: “Too American.” How could it be? I had changed all my business examples! It took me about a week to realize that it was my style and not my content that was “too American.” By easing the British audience into my entertaining style rather than overwhelming them with it, they reacted more like frogs put into cool water instead of boiling water. They were able to bathe in the knowledge, as opposed to hopping out of the classroom, overwhelmed by my “Americanism.”
The bottom line for global companies—no matter where they’re based—is the need for the development of globally literate leadership. New educational strategies are needed to cultivate global leaders. By helping leaders build core competencies for success in the global marketplace, we will become indispensable to businesses and surely give them the return on investment of training dollars that organizations are looking for.
Trends in Workplace Learning and Performance
Organizations and workers need to cope with changes, create new tactics for prolonged corporate success and increase knowledge and skills to compete in a global environment. Given these needs, is it any wonder that workplace learning has grown in importance?
Since 1997, the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD), an international association of performance-improvement specialists, has been collecting benchmarking data to measure and compare worldwide patterns in workplace learning.(4) ASTD’s latest State of the Industry Report, compiled by Brenda Sugrue, was published in December 2003. Two hundred seventy-six U.S. companies and 192 non-U.S. companies, representing ten different regions of the world, shared their data. The companies included agricultural, manufacturing, transportation and finance/insurance organizations. The measurement kit focused on a common set of definitions and metrics. Note that the report is based on a sample of organizations that, by participating, have demonstrated a strong interest in HRD. There is no way for ASTD to know how closely these samples represent training practices within each region.
U.S. Trends
• Training hours per employee have increased since 2001.
• Delivery via learning technologies increased in all study organizations
in 2002. It is expected to have increased in 2003 as well. This trend helps
organizations train across multiple locations locally and globally.
Surgue, Brenda. State of the Industry, American Society for Training and Development,
2003, www.ASTD.org
• The employee groups receiving the largest percentage of training expenditures
were customer service and production employees.
• There was a big decline in the percentage of expenditures that went
to training executives and senior managers.
• The percentage of training delivered via classrooms is projected to
continue its decrease to below sixty-five percent of training delivered.
International Comparisons
• Organizations in Africa and Australia/New Zealand have consistently
trained the highest percentage of eligible employees (ninety percent in 2002).
Japanese and Latin American organizations consistently trained the lowest percentage
(around sixty percent). U.S. organizations trained an average of seventy-nine
percent of employees.
• In 2002, Japanese organizations were the biggest users of learning
technologies, delivering twenty percent of training via technology compared
to fifteen percent in U.S. organizations. Organizations in Latin America delivered
the smallest percentage of training via technology, at around three percent.
• When converted to U.S. dollars, organizations in Middle Eastern countries,
Australia/New Zealand and the U.S. consistently spent the most dollars per employee,
while African and Latin American organizations consistently spent the fewest.
• Mentoring and coaching programs were used by seventy-five percent
or more of the firms in all regions, except for the U.S., where sixty-nine percent
of the organizations employed this practice.
Other HRD practices that were measured in this study included job rotation, use of task forces, employee access to key business information, employee involvement in business decisions, total quality management (TQM) and self-directed work teams. Fifty percent or more of responding organizations across all regions reported using all six of these HRD practices.(5)
• TQM was used most frequently in the Middle East, where ninety-two
percent of respondents reported its use; it was used least in Latin American
organizations, where seventy percent of organizations reported using it.
• The most popular compensation practice used was incentive compensation.
Australia/New Zealand organizations use knowledge- or skill-based pay. This
was also heavily used in Asia.
• Use of annual performance reviews was almost universal. The only two
regions that did not report 100-percent usage were the U.S. and Europe. The
use of peer review varied by region and was least used in Chinese organizations.
Now that you have had a brief overview of global HRD trends, let’s talk about cultural differences and how they may affect you as an HR specialist.
Cultural Impact on HRD
“Culture is the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the people of one category of people from another,” says Geert Hofstede, a Dutch interculturalist. Each nation indoctrinates its members with a common array of behavioral norms that leads to sets of national behavioral characteristics. These characteristics permeate every aspect of life, including behavior in the workplace, and impact the way organizations do business.(6)
When we look at individualism vs. collectivism, for example, we know there is a difference between the East and the West.(7)
During every stage of education and “programming” in the West (Europe, U.S., Canada), people learn to accept personal responsibility and view themselves primarily as individuals. Conversely, at every stage of personal development in the East (Japan, China, Singapore), people learn to see themselves as small parts of a larger society and emphasize the importance of group agreement and a consensus approach.
Language often reflects cultural differences, even among nations that share a common language. When Donna Baylor of Transition Seminars taught in the UK, she referred to her purse as her “fanny pack.” After a few days, someone finally informed her that she was using a dirty word. Cynthia Hernandez Kolski of Communication Education says that when she went to Mexico to teach stress management and communication skills, she had to be very careful with her communication. Even though she speaks Spanish, she realized that literal translations and conveying her intended meaning resulted in two very different messages.
Another important difference is how verbosely or concisely a particular culture speaks. In Italy, for example, the ability to speak well using a large volume of words is a sign of being intellectual. In other countries, however, being talkative is viewed differently, perhaps negatively; or it may even cause problems. Wei Xian Lin, my co-facilitator and translator while I was training in China, was interpreting a rather lengthy program for me. We were alarmed when we heard a loud thud. Not only had one of our participants fallen asleep but he had actually fallen off his chair. He was out cold! In this case, my verbosity caused a potentially serious problem!
Culture influences approaches to everyday situations in the work environment in hundreds of ways. National characteristics play an important role in determining corporate strategies, incentive programs, personnel policies and training strategies. It is dangerous to ignore these differences. Most organizations know they must invest the time and money to research government rules and regulations and regional market conditions, but in HRD, we sometimes make the mistake of thinking that “people are people” and will all learn effectively through the same learning materials as long as we change the examples. Or we may believe that we can use the same incentive programs overseas that work in the U.S. In order to minimize the potential risks of working internationally, it is important to look first at the people and their culture to understand what drives and motivates them.
Before looking at specific regional characteristics, though, let’s check ourselves and be sure that we are culturally and socially liter-ate—seeing, thinking and acting in culturally mindful ways.
Get Ready to Go Global
Bags all packed, briefcase and passport in hand, we’re ready to go. But are you aware of the “cultural” items in your suitcase that you are about to subconsciously communicate to your unsuspecting global partner? Chances are you don’t. Our culture is the paradigm through which we see the world, and unless we are conscious of it, we probably won’t be able to really see and learn about the culture we are about to experience. For instance, what are some of our collective attitudes that sometimes cause locals to label us “Ugly Americans?”
1. Americans believe in having control over their environment. Problems in
one’s life (such as poverty), they conclude, are due to laziness and an
unwillingness to take responsibility and work harder. This can create an attitude
of superiority.
2. Americans see change as good, leading to development and progress. Many older,
more traditional cultures see change as disruptive to their ancient heritage.
This American attitude can manifest itself as disrespect.
3. Americans are more concerned about getting things accomplished on time than
about developing interpersonal relationships.
4. Equality is cherished in the U.S. The concept of equality is strange to seven
eighths of the world, which view status and authority as desirable.
5. Competition is the “American Way.” Americans believe it brings
out the best in any individual.
6. Informal and casual attitudes permeate every aspect of American life. Bosses
even encourage workers to use first names.
7. Many other countries have developed subtle, sometimes highly ritualistic
ways of informing others of unpleasant information. Americans prefer the direct
approach.
Having said all this, Tom West of The Soliv (Soliv) Group, LLC found it necessary to be a bit of an “Ugly American” just once. Tom and five colleagues traveled to Copenhagen, Denmark, to become certified in a program that they would later introduce into the United States. A major difference between a Danish two-week training program and its American counterpart is that the Danes train well into the night, with a break for dinner. Then they often party for the rest of the evening as a “bonding experience.” The Danes did not realize that this was not part of the American business culture but assumed that with the “relaxed” American attitude that it would be appreciated. The American group could only do this for four days. On the fifth day, the tired group got “ugly” and revolted. “We’re spent!” they bellowed. “We can’t think anymore!” The Danes quickly realized the faux pas and gave the Americans the rest of the afternoon off for sightseeing.
It is easy to get overwhelmed when you think of all the ways you must prepare yourself to go global. Tucker International, a full-service, international HRD company, advises us to gather as much information about current events in that country as possible.8 We also need an understanding of any tensions that exist between our host country and home country. Not only must cultural differences be understood socially but also differences in business practices, laws and governmental policies.
Culture shock is to be expected, and an adaptation period is normal. A few additional points:
• Travel in a spirit of humility with a genuine desire to learn more
about the people of your host country. In each country where I have taught,
I found that sitting down to a family meal with local people gave me a great
insight into the true culture of the area.
• Different cultures hold different concepts of time. Learn to respect
the time concepts of people in your host culture.
• Acquaint yourself with local customs. I remember fumbling with my
chopsticks at a business luncheon in Asia. My host removed them from the table
and replaced them all with forks. I had to watch uncomfortably as my new colleagues
soberly struggled with forks for the rest of the meal. Added to that, I had
chosen a soft drink when it was customary to order the local wine.
• Working with a translator can be difficult. Even if the translator
understands English, he or she may not understand the nuances necessary for
business communication. Be prepared to re-explain a concept many different ways.
• Put aside any preconceived notions and biases about the “American”
way of doing things.
• Research, research, research. Barry Pilkington, while working for
Motorola, was sent to Japan to deliver a series of half-day training sessions
to the Japanese sales reps there. He was informed that everyone would be housed
at a traditional Japanese resort, but he did not research his accommodations.
He was very surprised when the group wanted to cut the meeting short midday
to take baths. He soon realized that they were referring to the traditional
baths fed by the resort’s hot springs. Barry was even more surprised when
the hotel began to distribute room keys and he found out that there would be
six people to a room with a traditional Japanese style toilet! Research, research,
research!
Region-Specific Data
This section serves as a brief overview of seven globally diverse regions around the world. It is designed to increase your cultural awareness, but it is not extensive enough to prepare you to do business in other countries. Prior to any overseas assignment, I recommend that you do thorough research on any organization you will be working with, just as you would in the US. Then do additional research on the host country and its culture. Read books (including novels) to learn about their modern and ancient history and culture, view foreign films, talk to people who have lived in the country and ask them to compare the two cultures, read the local newspaper online, and try to learn some of the language or expressions. People you meet will appreciate your effort.
Here are the seven regions at a glance with more expansive data to follow.
GlobalEDGE Country Comparison Feature, wwwlglobaledge.msu.edu
Canada Can Do
A wide assortment of circumstances challenges the Canadian economy today, including geopolitical tensions, continued sluggishness of the U.S. economy and the 2003 impact of SARS. Despite these factors—and a softer labor market—signs of a healthy economy are appearing. Along with economic recovery will come a growing need for human resource development. The increased employment of knowledge workers and the growing number of Canadian employers who report having difficulty recruiting qualified employees raise questions about what Canada is doing to respond to an apparent employee shortage. It is said that in 2004, seventy percent of new jobs will require a post-secondary education—a university degree will be required for twenty-five percent of these. According to the ASTD State of the Industry Report, seventy-nine percent of employees receive training. Some organizations are looking into “variable pay plans,” which tie a portion of an employee’s income to performance as a means of attracting and retaining qualified candidates. Hewitt, a global human resource outsourcing and consulting firm, surveyed 345 Canadian companies nationwide and found that average salary increases for 2004 are projected to be 3.3 percent overall, which is expected to outpace the inflation rate.(10)
The average age in Canada reached an historical peak in 2001, when it stood at 37.6 years. The aging population means that HR managers are now called upon to provide effective succession planning at a time when fewer and fewer young people live there. Another demographic prediction indicates that by 2011, the net growth of Canada’s population will be entirely related to immigration. HR must be prepared to manage the integration of cultures and diversity in the workplace.
Made in China
By Wei Xiao Lin
Xian, China
China’s entry into the World Trade Organization has brought its labor force unprecedented business and job opportunities. The Chinese government is starting to prepare its workforce to be white-collar professionals. Yet Chinese enterprises did not pay much attention to human resource development until the country carried out “reform and opening up” policies around 1980. The first reform was the era of the agricultural economy, when land was the most valuable resource. Next came the industrial economy , in which capital or money was the most valuable resource; it was necessary for equipment, real estate, and stock purchases. Now under the information economy, the importance of human resources development has become obvious, especially since high-caliber employees are increasingly pulled away from local enterprises by foreign firms. These foreign firms offer salaries that are ten to twenty times higher than Chinese firms can offer. On many public occasions, President Jiang Zemin has emphasized, “Human resources are the most valuable resources in China.” China’s leaders have had to reconsider their HR arrangements, which in the past tightly controlled labor force mobility.
While Chinese enterprises are experiencing increasingly severe competition for talent from foreign companies, training—which is still done only on a small scale there—is usually available only to senior managers and is regarded more as a perk than a targeted training effort. Only in the past couple of years have attitudes toward training begun to change. Previously, enterprises did not think they had the responsibility to train employees, whom they felt should be qualified enough to meet job requirements. They felt it was the duty of employees to train themselves. Some ancient cultural wisdom also holds back training efforts. There is a Chinese saying that goes: “There is no capable soldier under the leadership of a smart general.” Another saying that many believe is: “Birds that sing are very likely to be shot.” Managers did not want employees who were smarter than they were, and employees knew to pretend not to be smarter than their bosses.
Although training efforts in China have increased, they are still applied unsystematically. Most companies don’t have training-development plans and will accept any random training available.
There is little knowledge about how to distinguish the good from the bad or the ugly. According to the ASTD State of the Industry Report, only 5.9 percent of training is done via learning technologies. In addition, most classroom training is strictly lecturing, with little participant interaction. Methods of delivery are changing, but the cost of training technology remains prohibitive for most enterprises. A large number of low-skilled workers must be retrained or let go from the increasingly competitive marketplace. The “Iron-rice bowl” is no longer iron, and workers over age forty are finding it difficult to find or keep jobs.
India Rising
The global market growth in India has only been strong in the last decade, even though India has always had brilliant, educated people. I once co-facilitated a leadership-training course for Infosys Technologies, one of India’s largest software companies and an outstanding learning organization. A student asked his fellow participants to “raise their hands if they had been the top student in their university class.” Every hand in the room went up. According to BusinessWeek, “If India can turn into a fast-growth economy, it will be the first developing nation that used its brainpower, not natural resources or raw muscle of factory labor, as the catalyst.”(11)
It wasn’t until July 1991 that radical economic liberalization measures were launched. Between 1947 and 1991, there was a protected market with strict foreign exchange regulations and lengthy licensing procedures. Then the IT boom occurred in 2000. India now possess some basic underpinnings of a strong, market-driven economy: democratic government, Western accounting principals and the widespread use of English.
Still, this country—with its abundance of low-cost, high-IQ, Eng-lish-speaking brainpower—has its challenges. Only fifty-two percent of India’s billion-person population is literate, and only slightly more than that have electricity in their homes. Tensions between Hindus and Muslims are problematic, and the risk of war with nuclear-armed Pakistan is ever present.
Training and development have grown rapidly in India. Spending on training has tripled in four years. The percentage of employees receiving training has jumped from less than half to nearly two thirds. Since much of India’s business involves Western partners, they feel a strong need to incorporate Western concepts, models and theories. Don Overbey of SunCatcher Productions recently consulted with a company in Mumbai, India. The Indians wanted to operate their new marketing division like the Americans do, so they contracted with Don to recommend a “world-class” Western structure. They adopted his company’s recommendations, but Don was concerned about the cultural differences. The Indians, however, have become proficient at adapting American concepts to fit their culture. That is how they have become so competitive globally.
As a whole, the Indian economy today is following the pattern set by its Western counterparts. The software, telecom and manufacturing industries are feeling the impact of the mild recession. Restructuring and downsizing are the main concerns of the HRD professionals there. Indian organizations see the need to support training efforts and human resource development in order to attract and retain qualified candidates.
Japan’s Workforce Becomes More Fluid
As Japan’s workforce moves from the concept of “lifetime employment” to a more fluid model along international standards, changing jobs in Japan is no longer rare. This is good news for the foreign associate interested in hiring talented, experienced workers. There will still be some challenges, however, since the Japanese view Western business in a negative light. Japanese see a greater likelihood of dismissals from Western companies—compared to Japanese companies—due to an about-face from leaders in offshore international headquarters.
Japan’s economy roared in the 1980s, but the country has faced a slowdown since the 1990s. Despite its current problems, Japan still possesses the fundamentals for strong economic recovery and growth. It has great manufacturing capacity, advanced technology, heavy investment in education—with 72.5 percent of its workforce having attended universities—and a disciplined workforce.(12)
Japan’s strong cultural influences affect its workforce. The emphasis placed on seniority in the workplace is a unique characteristic of the Japanese labor market. It is no surprise that younger workers are opposing that tradition in favor of performance promotions.
Changing the seniority system can help organizations, because younger workers may then be more willing to speak up without the fear of appearing disrespectful. Younger workers can bring their knowledge of communication technology and global business practices to the discussion table. There is also a strong tradition of group consensus that affects corporate decision making. The advantage of involving employees from all levels of an organization in the decision-making process is that it is easier to implement new ideas, even if they take longer to decide upon.
Although lifetime employment had many negative effects, it did provide Japanese companies with workforce security. Guaranteed employment and a secure salary have traditionally promoted employee loyalty. Companies poured significant investments into employee training, feeling secure that employees would stay.
Japan has a 95-to-1 ratio of employees per training staff member. Twenty percent of their training is done via learning technology, and sixty-five percent is done via classroom training. The low ratio of trainers to learners may help to explain a cultural difference in learning styles. The Japanese have a very relaxed learning style. Julie Jacques, director of training and development for a company in Schaumburg, Illinois, recalls the time she was facilitating product and sales training for a group in Tokyo. She says she was quite humbled by the fact that many participants had their eyes closed. Nothing feels worse for a trainer than being perceived as so boring that people are sleeping through her training program! She was relieved when, after class, someone told her that it was quite common for participants to close their eyes. Julie says, “Perhaps it wasn’t my training after all!”
Africa and the Middle East
Africa and the Middle East regions, except for the oil-rich countries, will have to create five to six million jobs each year if current unemployment is to be reduced. Recent downward trends in birth rates have not significantly impacted the labor force yet. Unemployment is running between twenty and thirty percent. The public sector and the informal economy continue to account for most jobs. At least twenty percent of the total population in this area are between ages fifteen and twenty-four, and unemployment has affected youth more than others.(13)
Female workers in the region concentrate in a small number of economic activities, are less mobile and face barriers in many professions. The good news is that current market reforms are creating more jobs for women.
Too many training programs in the region produce poor results. Often funded from payroll contributions, they are costly, supply driven and dominated by governments. They often serve as programs of last resort for educational dropouts. These training programs lack facilities and equipment and are not sufficiently geared to the needs of the market.
Fortunately, things are improving. Nancy Kramer, director of business and industry services at Harold Washington College in Chicago, knows this firsthand. Nancy decided to foster collaborative relationships and international understanding and increase her cultural mindfulness by becoming a Peace Corps volunteer in Zimbabwe. She made a difference in the way training was delivered when she taught “How to Start a Small Business.” When she arrived in Masvingo, she found that local Zimbabwe entrepreneurs wanted to learn everything the American way. But as Nancy began to understand the culture, she realized that American ways were not the best ways in Zimbabwe. She taught the curriculum and invited the local business owners to be guest speakers so they could expand on the reality and application of ideas in Zimbabwe. She utilized role-playing in her classes as well. Once the students learned it, they loved it. Nancy said, “Everyone was a ham. They especially loved pretending to be the manager.” Nancy says that this experience helped her to learn to laugh a lot, especially at herself!
The oil-rich countries in the area paint a different training picture. It appears that organizations in these Middle Eastern countries spend more than any other organizations in the world on training— averaging $989 per employee, training eighty-two percent of their employees and utilizing learning technologies 9.4 percent of the time.
South Africa—Rich in Resources
South Africa has the most sophisticated free-market economy on the African continent. The country accounts for only three percent of the continent’s land mass but generates twenty-five percent of its gross domestic product. Like other developing countries, South Africa has a flourishing international business community operating alongside a large, subsistent, informal business sector. It is experiencing an inflation rate of about ten percent.
South Africa is rich in natural resources yet has a shortage of skilled labor and local capital. Apartheid South Africa spent a disproportionate amount of resources equipping a small section of society, mainly whites. As a result, the country now faces a shortage of skilled labor. This is compounded by what some call a “brain drain” and what others call the “white flight.” According to a South African labor market study, emigration is highest in education, engineering and medicine. The economy is characterized by a racially biased distribution of wealth and skills. Unemployment is at around thirty percent.(14)
What is South Africa doing to retain its skilled labor? Lebogang Lombard, senior HR development manager at diamond company De Beers, says, “We pay people well and invest unashamedly in their development. We also rotate them internationally so they will bring their global experience back.”(15) The government is reviewing the immigration laws to attract skilled labor with expertise. The government has also made a decision to make HIV drug treatments available to pregnant women. Organizations are faced with increasing pressure on retirement funds and medical aid due to a preponderance of AIDS-related deaths.
While ninety percent of eligible employees at South African companies are being trained, expenditures for training—$138 per employee—are lower than those for any other group in the international comparison study done by ASTD.
Europe Unites
The European Union today faces many important issues. The Charter for Fundamental Rights will decide to what extent the EU should attempt to act as one decision-making body on important human rights issues. They will evaluate the right to collective bargaining, the right to fair and just working conditions and the links between productivity and living standards. There is pressure to further deregulate economies in major EU member states, such as France and Germany, to alleviate high unemployment there. Many of the countries want various aspects of the Anti-Discrimination Directive enforced, such as prohibiting discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, religion, disabilities or age.
Another area of serious concern is labor costs. Costs vary greatly throughout the EU; they were highest in Denmark and Germany and lowest in Portugal and Sweden. See www.europe.eu.int for current figures.(16)
The workplace in Europe is facing some major changes. Workforce diversity is increasing, and employee competence is considered to be of primary importance. Learning technologies in Europe account for 7.6 percent of training delivery. Although it makes sense to use this delivery method to train such a wide geographic area, the disparity between the amount of usage in Europe and the U.S. reflects both technology and cultural differences. “The individualistic culture in the U.S. brings an assumption that workplace learners are motivated to learn in order to improve their performance. The collectivist culture of many European countries supports the idea of learning as a social process,” says Jane Massy, a European e-learning expert. Internet access and usage are also lower in Europe than in the U.S., and Europeans have a greater variance of information networks. Multiple language barriers compound their problems.
Where Do We Go Next?
Human resource development experts have a challenging job, given the realities of the U.S. and the global marketplace. Healthcare costs are soaring, workplaces are becoming increasingly diverse culturally, and profits are sagging. Baby Boomers everywhere are aging, and there aren’t enough young skilled workers to plug into the labor force. ASTD reports that organizations with above-average training and development budgets outperform competitors and achieve a higher total shareholder return. Many of the top firms clearly understand this concept. Our skills are needed and our industry future looks bright.
Our HRD challenge, then, is to build world-class organizations by designing training strategies that augment participants’ knowledge about their businesses, cultivate current global leaders and develop new ones, and help companies identify and build the core competencies necessary to excel in the global marketplace. We can continue to use the HRD tools and techniques that have gotten us this far but our focus must be on our end goal and not just on the process to get there. And what is the end goal for HRD professionals? Is a goal of “helping to build world-class organizations” enough? Peter Block, respected author and humanist said in a recent T&D article, “If an organization exists to be efficient and customer focused it that compelling enough to retain and motivate employees? Organizations that have a compelling purpose matter most to employees.”(17) So our challenge may go even deeper. As HRD professionals we possess certain insights and intuitions about people due to our access and observation of employees and management. Maybe our challenge is to push the boundaries and help shape management’s thinking. We have the power to use our understanding of basic cross cultural human behavior to influence organizations to identify and achieve more than being a world-class organization. With our influence they can be a compelling positive “world-class” force.
1. Rich Willins and Shelia Rioux. The Growing Pains of Globalizing
HR, Training and Development Magazine, May 2000
2. Bierema, Laura. The Global Pendulum, TD, 2002
3. Enter the Brave New World: Tends Affecting International Business Development,
Workforce Management, 2003, www.workforce.com
4. Surgue, Brenda. State of the Industry, American society for Training and
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