Preface

The authors developed the idea for this book in order for others involved in designing, deploying, delivering or studying the training of international managers to capture the experience they have gained during more than 20 years of training multi-cultural groups. The principal purpose of the book is to help those involved and interested in this field to see how to maximize the value from training interventions which are aimed at helping international managers become more effective.

The points made in the book are illustrated by examples taken from training courses which the authors have designed, developed, deployed and delivered in all parts of Europe, the Far East, the Middle East, and America.

During the last ten years the authors have jointly developed a methodology for the training and learning process called SUCCESS. It provides a thorough approach to the whole process of training, and has been used in the book as a structure for training international managers from the first indication that there might be a training need, through the design, development, deployment, delivery and evaluation of the training, to the steps that can be taken to maximize transfer of learning to the workplace and the achievement of effective behaviours and results. This methodology is described in detail, with examples of how it will work, including a series of usable tools and models. The third and final part of the book, in particular, is rich in examples of how to make training events come alive in terms of how trainers need to behave to be truly effective in training multi-cultural groups.

The book makes reference to important work in the area of cultural understanding and learning that has been published in the last 30 years and how each part of that work relates to the principles developed in the SUCCESS process.

The key focus in writing the book has been to help students appreciate what needs to be done to deliver effective learning and to provide training and learning practitioners with practical guidance on how to make training and learning really effective in the context of multi-cultural groups.

The authors recognize that this is a dynamic field in which practitioners are developing new approaches every day. They are interested in having a dialogue with those involved in the field of training and learning, and welcome contact either through the Gower website at www.gowerpub.com or direct by e-mail to either of the addresses given on the author pages at the end of the book.

Alan Melkman and John Trotman
2005