8/11/2019 PDF Crack 288

1/1

fundamental to our success. Knowing how to give our customers what they expect

consistently, wherever we operate, regardless of local conditions is our challenge.13

He sees language study as opening the door to deeper cultural understanding, that

speech patterns, thought patterns, and behavior patterns (for example, of customers)

are interlinked. And, therefore, language study is a link to better understanding(and interacting with) the customer.

Indeed, the ability to speak two or more languages (a skill held by many Europeans,

for example), is finally being seen as important enough, in at least some American

firms, that some chief executives are even working on learning a second language.

For example, Du Pont chief executive Edgar S. Woolard, Jr, took a crash course in

Japanese and a number of his executive colleagues (at Du Pont and at other firms

such as Eastman Kodak, Citicorp, and General Electric) are also taking cram courses

in second languages. French, German, and Japanese still appear to be the favorites

among Americans attending major language schools, but Spanish probably maintains

a lead in secondary school and university-level language courses and in the number of

Americans that speak it as a second language (and probably second in number of

Americans who speak it as a first language). In addition, Chinese (particularly

Mandarin) has become more popular as firms send increasing numbers of employees

on assignment to China.

John Reed, former CEO of Citicorp, explains this issue from the perspective of

Citicorp, one of the most successful global banks:

There are few companies in the world that are truly global . . . Our most important

advantage is our globality. Our global human capital may be as important a resource, if not

more important, than our financial capital. Look at the Policy Committee, the top thirty or

so officers in the bank. Almost seventy-five percent have worked outside the United States;

more than twenty-five percent have worked in three or more countries. Half speak two or

more languages other than English. Seven were born outside the United States.14

Training everyone in a common language, usually English, has also become popular,

at least in some firms. Such programs (usually referred to as ESL, English as a

Second Language, or ESOL, English for Speakers of Other Languages, programs) not

only help new employees adapt (in the case of recent immigrants into an English-

speaking country, for example) but also help others do their jobs better and increase

worker loyalty and improve customer relations.15 To the extent possible, language

lessons should be presented in terms of workplace situations, which enhances the

trainings immediate usefulness.

Another area of primary concern relates to the language of the training itself. Global

enterprises must make difficult decisions about whether to translate training materials

into the languages of the local (foreign) workforces and whether to provide thetraining, itself, in the language of the local workforce (either through the use of

local trainers or through translators, if the trainers come from regional or corporate

headquarters training groups and they dont speak the local language). If the

decision is taken to provide the training through translators, then the selection of

1

0

11

0

11

0

0

11

Training and management development 269