Abstract:

In a corporate reality characterized by austere competition, high-paced technological advances, and the emergence of capital mobility, the quality of human resources has become an important source of competitive advantage for organizations and countries within most economic sectors (Reich, 1992). In order to develop this advantage, organizations commonly resort to distinctive human resources practice such as employee training. Nevertheless, the latter, particularly within organizations operating on international platforms, faces several challenges due to the fact that they have to develop resiliency as they evolve in a more globalized context. Resiliency is essential to cope with the intensification of international exchanges and the opening of global markets (Shenkar and Luo, 2004), the transfer of management practices (Turbin, 2001) and the greater workforce mobility (Francis, 1995). This landscape implies an increased influence of various national cultures in the life of organizations, leading to important implications for human resource management (Schneider and Barsoux, 2003), including employee training. Therefore, it is imperative to consider the role that national cultures plays in this regard, particularly at the phase of designing training as it is undoubtedly the fundamental core of the training process, which by virtue of its results, consequently impacts training effectiveness and efficiency.

Variations in employee training across cultures have been documented in numerous studies in a multitude of cultural contexts. However, it is worthwhile to note the lack of systemic and empirical literature on the subject. In fact, there are unquestionably no studies to date that have been presented with the aim of examining variations related to all aspects of employee training design across cultures. For these reasons, the present research agenda aims to analyze the influence of national culture on employee training practices, specifically the design phase, by means of data collected from a questionnaire and by examining the phenomenon through the lens of a comparative approach as the pivotal philosophical backdrop of the research. Additionally, we also aim to develop a framework that will assist organizations on the global stage to efficiently manage their training programs in multifaceted diverse settings.

The research will be carried out in public organizations operating in four different countries: Canada, Germany, Morocco and Singapore. The countries are selected according to Hofstede’s (2003) classification and are representative of his four organizational models. To guide the present research, four of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, explicitly those of power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism/collectivism and masculinity/femininity will be the explanatory variables. On the other hand, the design of employee training program, as the dependent variable, will be separated in three elements: 1) Who: organizational actors involved in the training design stage; 2) How: formalization of the training design stage ; and 3) What: outcomes of the training design stage, namely training objectives, content, methods and evaluation.

This paper presents a research agenda addressing the abovementioned research problem. To do so, a theoretical framework and links between the main concepts are outlined. In addition, fifteen hypotheses are proposed to examine the influence of culture on the design of training programs.

Keywords:

Employee training design, National culture, Hofstede model, Culture and training design.