About Business Leadership

The main goal of the dinner event

The main goal of the dinner event is to provide the employees and their spouses a chance to get to know one another, socialize, and feel better connected. Since they are more exposed to the outside world than employees who spend the most of their time at work, it is clear that spouses and their children may have trouble adjusting to the new environment. To minimize conflicts of interest and from turning the event into a meeting to close commercial transactions, the goal of the dinner party should be made clear to the guests (Warneke & Schneider, 2016). Therefore, the employees should elaborate to their spouses the sole purpose of the dinner event to allow them to be comfortable with the theme and what to expect during the event. Consequently, the couples would be free to interact and share their experiences in the new environment and help each other through suggestions on how to cope up with the setting. The next step in preparing for the event is to select the time and a date that works with the schedule of both the employees that their spouses to ensure that they avail themselves. The guest list should include the locals who can take advantage of the dinner to acquaint the employees and their spouses with the new environment and give them survival tips concerning the unique culture they are in and how to cope up with it. The location for the dinner party should be convenient to all the guests (Warneke & Schneider, 2016). Notably, space should be enough to handle the participants, and the place should be easy to decorate, clean-up and provide refreshments at a relatively cheaper cost. Finally, the delicacies served during the event should be well prepared and if possible include the local meals to usher the new employees and their spouses to the local traditions.

To motivate the team and their spouses

To motivate the team and their spouses to interconnect better and break the cultural barriers, they should be encouraged to take time and learn a few phrases of the local language. Learning simple aspects such as few greetings can help to interconnect with the local people. Encouraging the team to learn the culture of the locals is crucial since they are the ones who end up making the potential clients of the business (Nasser & Rouhana, 2015). Therefore, the clients need to feel more comfortable and help the employees to identify the values and the likes of potential clients and thus boosting their working relationship. Also, motivating the team and their spouses to be accommodating to the new way of life is crucial in ensuring that they cope up without difficulty for the sale of the business and for the prosperity and satisfaction in their new way of life. The activities at the dinner event that might enhance the adaptation process include giving an opportunity for the team to share the experiences of their culture to enlighten the rest on what to expect from them. Also, collecting suggestions from the group and their spouse on how to correlate with each other despite the cultural differences would help to chart the way forward for the team for the sake of doing business together as one (Nasser & Rouhana, 2015). Understanding the cultural values of the team members and their spouses along with that of the local community is the first step towards overcoming the cultural challenges involved. Secondly, developing the right competencies would be crucial in ensuring that a person acquires the right attitude, a frame of mind, and skills that enable him or her to develop a tolerance for cultural ambiguity, possess a reduced ethnocentrism and adopt a cultural flexibility.

References

Nasser, A., & Rouhana, A. (2015). Cross-cultural Training: Its Effects on the Satisfaction and Turnover of Expatriate Employees. SAM Advanced Management Journal, 13(2), 4-7. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1470595813485382

Warneke, D., & Schneider, M. (2016). Expatriate compensation packages: what do employees prefer?. Cross Cultural Management: An International Journal, 18(2), 236-256. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13527601111126049