As an international organization, there is a need to use expatriates on the short-term as well as long-term international job assignments for various reasons. For instance, training and development of employees are necessary for employees to acquire and transfer knowledge and manage the foreign subsidiary. Also, team training and development is essential to fill the staffing needs and to maintain effective communication between team members. Besides, training is necessary for coordination and control of the subsidiaries and the corporate headquarters. It also assists in developing competence in global leadership. As an expatriate, the success in host nations is mainly determined by cross-cultural adjustment to the host country. Hence, it is necessary to improve cross-cultural adjustment, which has been the main focus of many international human resource interventions.
To improve cross-cultural adjustment, cross-cultural training is designed to increase the knowledge and skills of the expatriates to work effectively and achieve necessary life satisfaction in an unfamiliar host culture. As such, cross-cultural training is advocated as a way of facilitating effective cross-cultural interaction and adjustment ( Lenartowicz, Johnson, & Konopaske, 2014) . Hence, the effectiveness of cross-cultural training is mainly reflected by the cognitive, effective, as well as behavioral changes that take place during the cross-cultural training event. Thus, to improve on the effectiveness of cross-cultural training programs and to maximize the changes that take place during training, it is necessary to focus on a systematic approach when designing an effective cross-cultural training program.
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The best approach to administer cross-cultural training is to identify the type of international assignment for which the cross-cultural training is most required. Next, it is necessary to determine the specific cross-cultural training needs and establish the goals as well as measures to assist in determining the training effectiveness ( Lenartowicz, Johnson, & Konopaske, 2014) . Afterward, it is appropriate to develop and deliver the cross-cultural training program and evaluate whether the program will be effective and benefit the team members.
At the organizational level, the cross-cultural training needs will be conducted at the organizational level to ascertain the organizational effectiveness for the cross-cultural training. Next, the training will be conducted at the individual level to identify any special needs that ought to be addressed to determine training needs for a given employee ( Lenartowicz, Johnson, & Konopaske, 2014) . Also, the training will be carried out at the assignment level to recognize the cross-cultural knowledge as well as skills necessary to effectively complete the given assignment.
The difficulties that could be anticipated during the training period is how to establish cross cultural training goals and measures. However, to meet this challenge is important to identify the training goals in detail as well as the measurable terms. These will help to develop appropriate outcomes for the training evaluation. Also, it is necessary to set short-term cross-cultural training goals to assist in bringing about the cognitive, effective, as well as behavioral changes in the team ( Matsumoto & Hwang, 2013) . The long-term goal of the training program is to improve the rate of cross-cultural adjustment which is necessary for all expatriates and would assist in generalizing across assignments. The other long term goal of cross-cultural training is to improve the success of the global assignment.
It is also important to understand some of the challenges that may be experienced during the training period. For instance, workshops are organized at a concise duration for the expatriated to absorb meaningful information that should be implemented in practice. Also, for cultural awareness styled training, more time is spent on understanding the cultural stereotypes as well as surface level information ( Matsumoto & Hwang, 2013) . However, it is highly doubtful that such information realistically characterizes the necessary or anticipated behaviors of most cultural minorities, which are mainly typical of the cross-cultural encounters.
When delivering cross-cultural training, it is necessary to emphasize on cross-cultural leadership since is it is necessary when managing a diverse and complex team in a global environment ( Matsumoto & Hwang, 2013) . This will enable the organization to develop and deploy an effective global leader to achieve a global competitive advantage in the future. Transformational leadership, emotional, as well as cultural intelligence, are the key drivers to effective cross-cultural leadership. Therefore, based on attachment style, relationship competencies as well as openness to new perspectives are essential leadership traits that are linked to cross-cultural leadership effectiveness ( Kassar, Rouhana, & Lythreatis, 2015) . It is a fact that global assignments present employees with various opportunities to enhance their global perspectives and gain further skills and knowledge and propel in the career ladder.
The motivational skills that are necessary when offering cross-cultural training are to ensure that a leader is flexible and adapt the style of leadership to match the context of working. Also, it is necessary to motivate talented employees and to incentivize them to remain loyal to the organization ( Kassar, Rouhana, & Lythreatis, 2015) . However, the motivational factors can vary tremendously. However, in a more individualistic culture, such as the US, it is important to focus on the employee of the month scheme that enables the expatriates to get praised as individuals through online postings. On the other hand, there are obvious signs of status that have been observed to motivate expatriates more depending on the underlying attitudes to the hierarchy ( Strese et al., 2016) . In some cases, a prestigious job title or giving the employee a large office will motivate employees coupled with an increase in salary.
During the initial design of the software, team members will be divided into various groups, such as engineers to handle different software projects. There are essentially two broad ways in which software development organization is structured. These comprise of the functional form and the project format ( Kassar, Rouhana, & Lythreatis, 2015) . However, when using the project format, the software development staff will be divided based on the part of the project which they will be assigned to work. Consequently, when using the functional format, the team will be divided based on the functional group in which they belong. However, different software development projects recruit engineers from the required functional groups where a specific phase of the project should be undertaken and then returned to the functional group upon completion of the project phase.
There are certain challenges with the groups, especially when using the functional group format since it is not very common in the software industry. However, it is not easy to explain the paradox since the project format used offers job rotation to the team members. As such, each team members takes each role, as a designer, tester, or coder. The other problem with the functional format is the fact that when the software organization deals with projects that require the expertise of, then such domains cannot be included in the project at different phases.
When using the functional organization structure, a transformational leadership style is the most appropriate leadership style is transformation since it ensures that the organization is navigated towards improvement. A transformational leader mainly leads through example as well as engagement with team members to ensure that the organization achieves the best performance. In a software project, a transformational leader is the best since a leader needs to be innovative and motivational ( Strese et al., 2016) . It is necessary to use a team-based structure because it improves both individual and group motivation performance. Also, it is necessary to apply a hands approach to leadership that enables team members to gain confidence as well as motivation to fix problems. Therefore, team building is deemed as an important approach that fosters team cohesion and improves employee motivation as well as the organization's performance.
After the software developers leave the group to develop the software, various tasks can be assigned to other group members. However, there are specific tasks within the project that will be assigned to different teams ( Strese et al., 2016) . This is important since it makes the new members' responsibilities clear. Also, it also allows team members to have a clear understanding of the tasks and roles they play within the organization. For instance, it is important to keep administrative services up to date and setting monthly goals for the software project ( Holten & Brenner, 2015) . However, managers should continuously encourage every engineer to stick to the established plan. This is necessary for facilitating product development and testing before presenting the final version to the customers.
The best approach is to ensure that team members work as a group since will enable them to understand all aspects of the process as well as their roles and responsibilities. Also, the transformational leadership style is the best at this stage ( Holten & Brenner, 2015) . As a leader, it is necessary to be smart by identifying the employees' skills and assign them tasks that match their expertise and abilities. Also, it is important to be able to appreciate team members to make them aware of their responsibilities and motivate them. As such, they appreciate employees will enhance group cohesion and encourage them to focus on the common goal of the project.
In conclusion, a manager should develop team building practices that will be used before the team become virtual after the initial four-week meeting at the company's headquarters. However, there are various challenges when developing a virtual team. For instance, team bonding may be difficult to develop virtually. As a leader is it important to instruct team members to take an online test. This will enable team members to gather results and share personality results. Further, a virtual team may find it challenging when they deal with undefined roles. Hence, to deal with this hurdle, it is necessary to make use of role identification by naming each member of the team. Also, to ensure that the team members meet virtually and collaborate, pre-meeting is considered as a best practice that can be used to compensate for the loss of casual discussion. The games can enable the team to have fun and get to know each other virtually and collaborate.
References
Holten, A. L., & Brenner, S. O. (2015). Leadership style and the process of organizational change. Leadership & Organization Development Journal , 36 (1), 2-16. Retrieved from https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/LODJ-11-2012-0155
Kassar, A. N., Rouhana, A., & Lythreatis, S. (2015). Cross-cultural training: its effects on the satisfaction and turnover of expatriate employees. SAM Advanced Management Journal , 80 (4), 4. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/openview/80c5e58299e109bbeeab9d69f4319981/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=40946
Lenartowicz, T., Johnson, J. P., & Konopaske, R. (2014). The application of learning theories to improve cross-cultural training programs in MNCs. The International Journal of Human Resource Management , 25 (12), 1697-1719.Retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09585192.2013.860384
Matsumoto, D., & Hwang, H. C. (2013). Assessing cross-cultural competence: A review of available tests. Journal of cross-cultural psychology , 44 (6), 849-873. Retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0022022113492891
Strese, S., Meuer, M. W., Flatten, T. C., & Brettel, M. (2016). Organizational antecedents of cross-functional coopetition: The impact of leadership and organizational structure on cross-functional coopetition. Industrial Marketing Management , 53 , 42-55. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0019850115003132
