Cross-cultural training process: the case of expatriates

Business globalization trends raise the new priorities for management theory and practice. Furthermore, being the member of European Union provides new opportunities for Lithuanian companies to reach foreign markets. This situation increases the need of expatriates doing international assignments and working in foreign cultural settings. The goal of this article is - to create an international assignment model based on cross-cultural management theories and practices, which could help expatriates to adopt better to foreign organization cultures. The objectives: 1. To define the possible sources of cross-cultural differences, its impact on business practices and competencies required for the expatriates. 2. To analyze the cross-cultural cycles, expatriate training models and methods. 3. To carry out the research of available services of consultancy companies working in cross-cultural training business. 4. To suggest the international assignment model, which could minimize the cross-cultural gap for expatriates in foreign culture. The article states, that it is very important to inform well the employees who will be sent on international assignment about the challenges they might face in a foreign country. Successfully adopted cross-cultural training model will help the employees to get acquainted with foreign values, rules, beliefs, working styles and adopt better to foreign environment. This might help the expatriates to fulfill their assignments successfully, so organizations can avoid huge assignment failure costs. It is essential for Lithuanian companies to adopt new cross-cultural management practices and prepare better their employees to be fit for global assignments.