IIMs stress cross-cultural training

The number of IIM students accepting foreign placements has been increasing every year and the students are not worried about going to countries to which they have had little or no exposure, for they have been trained in the skills required to handle different cultures.

This year, approximately 75 students from IIM-B accepted foreign placements which is an increase of 50 per cent over last year's 50 students who accepted such offers. Even the countries that came this year were more diverse, with students going to countries in West Asia, China and, Trinidad and Tobago.

Cross-cultural communications is a field of study that has steadily been gaining importance in IIMs. Taught as part of the communications course in the first year curriculum, students are taught how to dress, how to talk and even how to shake hands. "Cross-cultural studies will include some of the finer nuances of the different countries. For example, we were taught that in the UK one does not wear cream shirts or brown blazers to office as the former is considered dirty and the latter informal. We also learn some handshake techniques," says an IIM-B student.

According to Amarnath Krishnaswamy, head of the communication unit at IIM-B, globalisation has also made this kind of training important as more and more students come across foreign executives right here on the home turf. "We obviously cannot tell them everything about the different cultures but we do tell them the things they need to do differently from India so that they do not make mistakes. This training is not new but it is being highlighted more now," he said. In fact, students are trained in other soft skills also like giving presentations and communication skills.

According to Krishnaswamy, students who come straight after their graduation and even students who have a year or two of work experience need to learn some important things like the difference between selling a scheme to a managing director of a company, compared to selling it to the administrative department of the same company.

He, however, says soft skills training has evolved over the years. Where earlier the focus was on language, it has now shifted to content. "Earlier we taught them how to say it and focused on language, now we teach them what to say and it should change further to what organisations look for," Krishnaswamy said.

Even in the industry, the importance of educating employees about other countries has been growing, specially after Indian companies began to acquire foreign countries and started getting more and more work from outside. "Cross cultural training has started in recent years and companies are steadily increasing the stress on this training," said Karthik K S, MD, e-learning company 24x7.