Cross - Cultural Training a Review

ROGRAMS designed for preparing people for living in another culture are usually referred to as “Cross-Cultural or Intercultural Orientation Programs.” It seems that the early practitioners and researchers viewed preparing people for international assignment as a process in which one needed to be oriented to the differences in social interactions between the two cultures. It is no surprise that the first book on the topic (Brislin & Pedersen, 1976) was titled Cross-Cultural Orientation Programs, and the tradition has been maintained over the years and people still refer to the field as Cross-Cultural Orientation (Brislin & Yoshida, 1993; Bhawuk, 1990; Paige, 1986). However, researchers and practitioners alike are realizing that we need to do more than orient people to prepare them to live abroad (e.g., we must introduce and practice culturally appropriate behaviors), and the field is being referred to as Cross-Cultural or Intercultural Training by more and more people (Brislin & Bhawuk, 1999; Landis & Bhagat, 1996; Triandis, 1995a; Deshpandey & Viswesvaran, 1992; Landis & Brislin, 1983).