Norway and my Job
You have just secured a highly prized position in Norway which fulfils your career ambitions. However, you have never been to or worked in Norway Nevertheless you have been asked by the senior management to prepare a report by explaining how you are preparing for your new position and career in the enterprise and new country, and to examine how you are going to work effectively with your new colleagues, who themselves come from multiple countries.
In the age of globalisation not only companies have crossed borders but it has also helped the people to find jobs in other countries (Bochner, 2013). This is important for the growth of the professional career of the people who are educated. At the same time when a person crosses a border to find the job, it is always seen that he has to face many kinds of cultural barriers. The biggest problem is of communication. He or she also had to face the challenge when they work in a team as they come from totally different cultural and ethnic background. This report presents the idea regarding the sorts of challenges that I faced when I got the job in Norway. It also showcases the way I am preparing for working in the country.
Norway is one of the best countries for doing job and I got job in a big IT multinational firm. This is a dream job for me as the job is capable of fulfilling my career ambition. I have never worked in the Norway before but I am highly excited about my job. This enthusiasm has helped me as well as my firm. There will be many kinds of challenges that I will face in my job because of the cultural difference from where I come and the culture of Norway. Since it is a multinational firm having employees from different cultural backgrounds hence I will face challenges in working with other colleagues (Matsumoto & Hwang, 2013). In this regards I am preparing for the job so that I can easily work in the work environment.
There are series of things that I have done to ensure that I would not face any kind of issues while working in Norway (Minkov, 2013). The first and the foremost thing that I am preparing for is the communication barrier. In order to overcome this issue I am preparing to learn the language of Norway. For this I have taken the help of internet mediums as well as have taken the help of one of my friend who is from the Norway. This might take a month time. Since I don’t have much time so I have also purchased a guide that would help me at the initial stage.
My preparation
The second biggest problem that I may face is of cultural difference (Fischer, 2011). Since it is a multinational company hence there are many people from different parts of the world that are working there but most of them are from Norway. I will have to understand their cultural diversity and hence I would take the help of my friend as well as the use of internet will help me in knowing things about their behaviour. Since this is my dream job hence I do not want to miss any chance or make any kind of mistake. In order to make sure that my efficiency at the workplace is up to the mark, I need to understand the organisational culture of company as well (Caligiuri & Tarique, 2012). For this I am reading their sustainability development reports of previous years so that I can understand what sorts of things they are dong for running their business. I am preparing for the mission and vision they have which has team work as an essential component.
The biggest challenge for me will be to work as a team where there will be employees from different backgrounds (Kinloch & Metge, 2014). In order to make sure my effectiveness to work as a team is very high, I am taking help of my seniors who will share the experience that they have while working with multinational culture. I am also taking the training to enhance my team working skills. For this I am continuously attending the seminars and workshops that shares details regarding how to work effectively in a culturally different teams (Thomas & Peterson, 2017). I am also reading the books and journals that are having information regarding the team work culture within Norway. It will also assist me regarding the best ways in which I can adopt the team culture while working with small and large teams.
Along with this, I am also enhancing my skills so that I can work effectively and complete my task on time. I am making my personal objectives that will guide me in doing my work. As soon as I will be trained inside the organisation I will make changes in my personal and professional development plan. I will make sure that it gets aligned with the objectives of the organisation. The changes in the PPD plan will be made after monitoring and evaluating the progress report taking gaps in my working and organisations expectation into account (Moran, Abramson & Moran, 2014). My personal and professional development plan is as follows:
|
Skills to develop |
Current skills |
Activities I will do to achieve it |
Time frame |
Monitoring |
|
Norwegian |
Only English language |
· Talk with my friend from Norway · Classes |
2 months |
Progress Report by friend |
|
Working with teams having members from different counties |
Knowledge about working with small teams |
· Training · Senior managers |
3 months |
Report by managers at workplace |
|
Leadership skills that is capable of managing the diversity in team |
Leadership skills is poor |
· Help from senior managers · Leadership skill development classes |
4 months |
Report card from senior managers |
|
High quality cross cultural communication skills |
Cross cultural communication is poor |
· Reading books by successful leaders · Training from the experienced professionals |
2 months |
Progress report from colleagues and senior managers |
Conclusion
This PPD plan will be changed as per the further requirements and available resources when I will go there. The criteria for making the changes will be the gaps that will be found in the report cards from various sources in between my personal skills and the requirements of the firm from me. Since I have six months before I join the company hence this PPD plan is made for the 4 months. Further changes will be done as per the requirements and hence I have kept the rest 2 months for it. The role of monitoring and evaluation will be very critical in this regards. Since all the colleagues will also be new to the place hence I will learn their experience also so as to build trust worthy relationship with other members of team. It will help me to work in a far better way in a team so as to achieve the desired goals (Communicaid, 2018).
Apart from things that are mentioned in the PPD plan there are many things that I need work out on. Different forms of communicational skills that are used in the multinational organisation so as to bring smoothness in the work process. Cross cultural behaviour understanding is also a challenge for me as I have to deal with many new people at the workplace coming from different parts of the world (Padhi, 2016). I will have to adopt learning behaviour for a very long time so as to keep myself updated as per the requirement of the industry. In the long run this will help me in achieving the goals that I have set for my career.
Conclusion
From the above based report a conclusion can be derived that since I have got an opportunity to work for a multinational company in the Norway. As I have never worked in Norway hence I will have to face the cross cultural changes. This will make difficult for me to work with the team that are from various parts of the world. I have made a personal and professional development plan in this regards so as to make sure that I am prepared for the opportunity which I have got.
References
Bochner, S. (Ed.). (2013). Cultures in contact: Studies in cross-cultural interaction (Vol. 1). Elsevier.
Caligiuri, P., & Tarique, I. (2012). Dynamic cross-cultural competencies and global leadership effectiveness. Journal of World Business, 47(4), 612-622.
Communicaid, (2018) Retrieved from: https://www.communicaid.com/country/norway/
Fischer, R. (2011). Cross-cultural training effects on cultural essentialism beliefs and cultural intelligence. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 35(6), 767-775.
Kinloch, P., & Metge, J. (2014). Talking past each other: problems of cross cultural communication. Victoria University Press.
Matsumoto, D., & Hwang, H. C. (2013). Assessing cross-cultural competence: A review of available tests. Journal of cross-cultural psychology, 44(6), 849-873.
Minkov, M. (2013). Cross-cultural analysis: the science and art of comparing the world’s modern societies and their cultures. Sage.
Moran, R. T., Abramson, N. R., & Moran, S. V. (2014). Managing cultural differences. Routledge.
Padhi, P.K. (2016) Retrieved from: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/13e4/bea3566870e4c896b79c147d669e32bcf341.pdf
Thomas, D. C., & Peterson, M. F. (2017). Cross-cultural management: Essential concepts. Sage Publications.
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