Proceedings of 8th Annual London Business Research Conference
Imperial College, London, UK, 8 - 9 July, 2013, ISBN: 978-1-922069-28-3
Training for Expatriate Workers: A Module Design in
Curriculum
Wei-Wen Chang
Because of global commitment, many organizations must send their employees
abroad for international assignments. In order to assist these workers in
adjusting to different cultures and accomplishing their goals, expatriate training
programs are deemed to be critical. However, although many studies support
the relationship between expatriate training and job performance, discussions
regarding training program design have been limited. While the literature
suggests that expatriate workers with different missions and locations need
different training content, the curriculum design for different training needs has
received relatively little attention.
Heeding such a gap, the purpose of this study was to explore the curriculum
design of expatriate training. Through questionnaires and focus groups, this
study first collected expatiate training content from 12 organizations in Taiwan
(Stage One). Eight experts with experience in expatriate training were then
interviewed, including three multinational business managers, three
international NGO leaders, and two cross-cultural researchers (Stage Two).
Analysis of the data, the results of this study suggested a module design that
provided training program developers with flexibility to adjust the curriculum for
different types of expatriate workers. Five modules and two dimensions (length
of stay and cultural distance) were identified for expatriate training.
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Dr. Wei-Wen Chang, Graduate Institute of International Human Resource Development,
National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan. Email: changw@ntnu.edu.tw