The intrigue of international assignments: if you're prepared, career advancement, leadership opportunity and a diversified experience can be yours

Black Enterprise, May, 1996 by Cassandra Hayes

IN 1994, WHEN BELINDA MILLER EMBARKED on a two-year assignment as director of human resources for Swissotel Beijing, she envisioned an alluring experience awaiting her in a country rich with history and culture. For the most part, that proved to be true, but her international sojourn was not without a few bumps.

Miller, a Norfolk, Va., native, was shocked one day last year by the reaction of a Chinese employee to a piece of innocent advice that she had given. "I calmly explained to her how she could have handled a particular situation better. She became extremely upset and started crying," recalls Miller, whom hotel employees respectfully call loaban, or boss.

Although Miller spoke to the woman as she would to any American employee, she quickly learned to use a subtle, more Socratic approach. "I had to phrase things differently, such as `Have you thought about what is the most effective way to perform this task?'" It was a lesson she would not soon forget.

Being sensitive to cultural differences and nuances is just one aspect of an overseas assignment. Today, recognizing those differences is crucial, now that more and more companies target fast-growing foreign markets while requiring their managers and executives to have international experience.

According to a survey by the National Foreign Trade Council, the number of Americans working overseas, most commonly referred to as "expatriates," jumped 30% in 1995. Of the 74 companies the NFTC polled, 71% said they expect this growth to continue. While the vast majority of American expatriates are male, the percentage of women venturing overseas has increased substantially in the last four years, from 4% to 12%. Many of those who work abroad, like Miller, see an international assignment as an exciting, rewarding, sometimes even glamorous career move. Still, gaining those new-found business and management skills may come as a culture shock for the uninitiated. It can also mean a loss for the company that doesn't utilize the skills of these wayfaring employees upon their return.

PREPARING FOR THE JOURNEY

Three factors are necessary for a successful assignment overseas, says Martin F. Bennett, senior partner at Bennett Associates, a cross-cultural and global management training firm in Chicago. First, you must evaluate if an international assignment is right for you: Then, be sure to get cross-cultural training. And finally, you must utilize and apply those skills after your return.

Both employee and company must be clear on the reasons why the assignment is being undertaken and what is expected. It's also important to determine how an international experience fits into your lifestyle and career plans, emphasizes Bennett. The successful expatriate is an open-minded flexible individual, someone willing to take risks. In other words, you need more than just professional and technical skills to thrive--you must also have the ability to adapt to different cultures.

That's where cross-cultural training is important. Yet, despite the increase in the number of overseas assignments, many U.S. firms don't provide employees with cultural and language education. A recent survey conducted by Runzheimer International, a Rochester, Wis.-based management consulting firm, found that only 42% of the 54 multinational companies polled had any formal training program for acculturating expatriates with their host country.

Even those employees who are independent and well traveled should get some form of cultural or language training before departing, according to Bennett. For example, some expatriates may expect America's strong work ethic to cross all borders. As a result, they may misinterpret the more relaxed attitude towards work seen, for example, in many European countries as laziness. "The key to global competency is to develop the skills to cope, and that means integrating into the dominant culture and realizing how to properly interpret and analyze behavior," says Bennett.

READING THE SIGNS

Miller certainly had her job cut out for her in China, the leading destination for international assignments among emerging countries. The 35-year-old Wharton School of Business graduate landed the job of recruiting, training and managing employees--a job traditionally held by ethnic Chinese--quite by accident.

In 1991, Miller was wooed away from her job as a director of travelers cheques marketing at American Express by the Swiss hotel firm. Working as a marketing advisor at Swissotel locations throughout the U.S., Europe end Asia, she was assigned to China for a six-month stint in 1994. Her mission: to develop strategies to increase hotel revenues and make the five-star Swissotel Beijing attractive to the international traveler. Her ideas were so impressive that after five months, she was asked to stay and implement them. With a $1.5 million annual budget, one of Miller's main areas of focus was to train the property's more than 1,000, mostly Chinese, employees in the art of first-class customer service.