Application Of Project Management In Intercultural Training

With the acceleration of economic globalization, more and more expatriates with different cultural backgrounds have opportunities to meet each other. The global economy and shifting political tides make it necessary to have intercultural understanding. Historically the focus of intercultural training has been on preparing an individual to work in a new culture, but today's organizations tend to assign their employees to work in a multinational environment and move from country to country. This challenge has aroused a heated discussion about how to prepare expatriates for such challenging assignments. Accordingly,the research on intercultural training has become a very hot field and the literature has been growing tremendously rich both at home and abroad. Research has revealed that intercultural training is more unique, complex and diverse; much intercultural training is in the form of specific projects.Therefore, in order to improve the effectiveness of intercultural training, this paper introduces the concept of project management to intercultural training.The paper first gives a review of the related theories, including the theory of intercultural training and the theory of project management.Then the paper analyzes the diversity of intercultural training and intercultural models. Intercultural training can be divided into formal and informal, external and internal, on-the-job and off-the-job, culture specific and culture general training. The thesis introduces five models of intercultural training. They are Intellectual Model, The Area Training Model, the Self-Awareness Model, the Cultural Awareness Model and the Multidimensional Model.The paper discusses the application of project management in intercultural training. (l) Design the program. We should evaluate trainees'needs, provide them with related human resource interventions, identify the key points of the training program, and adopt scientific strategies as well as the situational method. (2) Conduct the program. We should make timely adjustment of the programs based on the trainees'acculturation level. (3) Evaluate the program. We should set proper criteria and investigate whether trainees make use of what he or she learns in his or her life.Finally, the paper introduces a case to illustrate the application of project management in intercultural training.The application of Project Management in intercultural training can make the training process be controlled and evaluated easily.The main innovations of this paper lie in: (l) Reviewing the latest researches in this field,which is of use for other related research. (2) Addressing the practical models about intercultural training and discussing the advantages and disadvantages in application. (3) Introducing the concept of Project Management to improve the effectiveness of intercultural training.