Plan
The Coca-Cola Company is one of the most notable multinational companies of the twenty-first century. A major competitor in the non-alcoholic beverage industry, Coca-Cola had managed to steadily evolve from its miniature self of 1892 when it was first incorporated, to the global franchise that it is in contemporary society. Coca-Cola's business model is primarily tied to the provision of beverage concentrates as well as syrups to its affiliates that span the entire globe. Through mergers and acquisitions, the Coca-Cola Company has managed to become a multi-billion dollar company with a workforce amounting to over eight-hundred thousand employees all over the globe (Coca-Cola Journey, n.d.). More information regarding this particular company can be found at http://www.coca-colacompany.com.
At the heart of Coca-Cola's business strategy are expansion and competitiveness through mergers and acquisitions. However, for such activities to be effective and successful, it is necessary for organizations to be acutely aware of the importance that culture and communication play in the pursuit of company goals. Each and every culture has a unique way of analyzing and interacting with the external world. In other words, one's culture tends to shape a person's lens through which they interact with their environment. In the context of business, or more importantly, a multinational company, it is essential to gain an understanding of the challenges and opportunities that come with cultural diversity within the workplace. It is vital for a company to acknowledge the differences that tend to arise among employees that work for multinational companies (Bochner, 2013). Geographical distinctions have resulted in differences, in religion, values, language as well as behavior. While a company may choose to ignore such differences, success within the global economy is dependent upon cultural understanding to be able to foster effective and successful communication.
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Cross-Cultural Communication Workshop
The main objectives of this particular workshop include:
To allow the trainees to appreciate the meaning of culture from different perspectives.
The workshop will also strive to equip the trainees with the necessary skills needed for the appreciating cultural stereotypes as well as diversity.
At the end of the training, it is expected that the attendees will be able to acknowledge the role cultural sensitivity and awareness plays in communication.
It will be imperative for the attendees to have a deeper understanding of the mechanics of communication upon the completion of the training
Of greater importance, however, is the fact that the trainees must be able to appreciate the impact that cross-cultural knowledge has on international relations as well as business.
The intended audience for this particular training will be any new employee recruited within any department of the company. As per the data extracted from the human resource department a total of forty attendees are expected alongside six trainers. This particular training shall be announced through emails, with the key targets being the new employees as well as hiring managers. This particular choice is based on the ease, effectiveness, and efficiency of using emails to communicate with company employees across the globe. The training shall be conducted from the 30 th of May, 2017 to 9 th of June, in Tokyo, Japan, with the goal being to provide the employees with a relatively new experience that will be vital in allowing them to experience the multi-national, multi-racial and multi-cultural environment. The importance of this particular exercise will be to expose the trainees to the opportunities and challenges that abound within the global economy. They will be expected to spearhead various projects within their respective departments with the newly acquired skills in an effort to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of the Coca-Cola Company.
Implementation
The attendees of this particular training will be subjected to a four-hour session every day of their stay in Tokyo, except for the last day of the visit. The training will begin with a general introduction to the concept of culture. This particular session will deal with the components, dynamics, and impacts of culture within a business environment. Besides exploring the universal aspects of culture, the trainees will also be taken through the various cultural lenses that can be used to view culture. The second day of training will involve discussions on stereotypes and generalizations that arise as a result of culture. In other words, the trainer will take the attendees through the positive connotations as well as the negative twists that come with cultural biases. The goal will be to ensure that the trainees get to appreciate the commercial value of cultural diversity within the workplace. The third and fourth day of training will focus on communication. The communications expert will take the trainees through lectures on the mechanics of communication, emotional quotient, as well as barriers to communication.
The second lecture on communication will cover communication styles, with the main focus being on helping attendees understand their own styles of communication. The fourth and fifth day will involve further lectures and discussions on communication. The goal of the trainer will be to ensure that the attendees gain a grasp of the impact that effective and faulty communication has on business goals and outcomes (Bochner, 2013). This particular session will delve into aspects such as the impact of faulty communication on operational costs, employee creativity and morale as well as talent attraction and competition advantage. It will also be important for the trainees to understand the impact of beliefs, values, and language on communication. The sixth and seventh day of training will take trainees through clashes that occur in communication as a result of cultural differences. The eight-day will focus on cultural aspects of selected countries, after which conclusions will be drawn.
Workshop Activity
The delivery of the course content will entail trainer presentations, with experts in various communication fields being relied upon. Besides lectures, the trainers will facilitate group discussions where the trainees will strive to solve various practical workplace dilemmas that are brought about by communication inefficiencies as a result of cultural differences. Practical exercises will be relied upon to help the trainees gain insight into dilemmas that occur in real cultural situations. To this extent, the trainees will be paired or divided into small groups to enhance learning outcomes in practical exercises. Lectures by various trainers will use video clips as a delivery method. The content in the video clips will not represent the primary material for the course; rather, it will be used to supporting the lecture content to help the learners to internalize the concepts.
Interactive discussions will also be vital during the training sessions. Their importance will not only be to break the monotony of lectures, but also to accord trainees an ample time to share personal real-life cross-cultural experiences. A crucial part of the training process will measure the progress of the trainees throughout their training period. While this is a learning and relaxation experience for the trainees, it has to be productive as well because it comes at the expense of the company and its shareholders. Questionnaires will come in handy in monitoring and evaluate the progress of the trainees. They will be subjected to a thirty-minute ten-question questionnaire at the end of the day. The purpose of this exercise will be to monitor the progress of the trainees as well as evaluate their comprehension of the concepts being taught. A focused group discussion will be utilized at the end of the training period with its key purpose being to ascertain the degree of competence that has been gained by the group following the cross-cultural training workshop.
Next Steps
Once the training process has been completed, a much greater challenge often arises in the come of ensuring that the trainees get to assimilate their training into their operations within an organization. Part of the responsibility of a trainer is to prepare their learners for the challenges as well as opportunities that come with adopting a new perception regarding the role of cultural identity in communication. Consolidating learning to ensure transfer and assimilation of knowledge and skills long after the completion of training is one way of ensuring that training is expanded into the organization. The first approach or strategy that is observed in consolidating the learning process is that of establishing a social learning platform for the trainees. In this particular case, it will be vital to establish an online forum that will facilitate discussions on various experiences by the trainees within their respective places of work (Chiaburu, Van Dam and Hutchins, 2010). These discussions will not only facilitate the transfer of knowledge gained in practice but also provide sufficient motivation for the trainees to put into practice the skills gained during the workshop.
A major challenge that most trainees report experiencing following the closure of training sessions is the inability to retain the key learning points or the crucial concepts that were highlighted as necessary. In such instances, organizations can develop programs that allow for employees to undertake refresher courses. For managers, this often translates to inabilities and challenges in applying the knowledge gained a factor that is counterproductive to the resources spent on training programs. Refresher courses come in handy in helping the trainees to remember the fundamental concepts taught by providing simple and detailed summaries of the content that was taught. Refresher courses can be coupled up with problem-solving sessions. In other words, the trainees can get to refresh their minds by sling case-studies and scenarios that recount the content that was covered during training.
According to Chiaburu, Van Dam and Hutchins (2010), one of the best ways of cementing knowledge as well as identifying gaps in training is through the follow-up sessions. Follow-ups tend to push individuals to reflect upon their learning experiences encountered during the training period. In the contemporary tech-infused world, one effective approach to follow-ups will be through emails. A monthly email can be set to the trainees with the main purpose of reinforcing key learning points. Follow-up sessions should also allow for the evaluation of the trainees' experience within their respective places of work. Such information can be vital to trainers in enhancing training and delivery approaches for optimal knowledge transfer.
Practice is of greater significance when it comes to cementing newly acquired skills. To this extent, therefore, an organization should ensure that trainees are provided with ample opportunities to practice the skills gained from the training program. In other words, by tackling real-life problems that require the trainees to employ the skills gained, they can appreciate the importance of the newly acquired skills as well as participate in the elimination of existing challenges within an organization. Cross-cultural interaction is vital for any multinational organization in contemporary society. For Coca-Cola, this training will be crucial in ensuring its new employees are up to the responsibility that comes with diverse workplaces. More importantly, it will ensure greater communication efficiencies are realized within the company.
References
Bochner, S. (Ed.). (2013). Cultures in contact: Studies in cross-cultural interaction (Vol. 1). Elsevier.
Chiaburu, D. S., Van Dam, K., & Hutchins, H. M. (2010). Social support in the workplace and training transfer: A longitudinal analysis. International Journal of Selection and Assessment , 18 (2), 187-200.
Coca-Cola Journey. (n.d.). Homepage . Retrieved on 10 March 018, from http://www.coca-colacompany.com/.
