Hidden agenda for cross-cultural training: understanding refugees’ cross-cultural experience through the capability approach

Abstract

Cross-cultural training (CCT) is important for facilitating more effective interaction in a foreign country, yet theoretical development around CCT rarely captures modern-day migration trends, such as the refugee crisis. Building on the fact that refugees require extra cross-cultural support, as they rarely have sufficient time and resources to prepare pre-departure, we bring the humanitarian context to the field of international human resource management in general and to CCT literature in particular. Through a multidisciplinary review, we offer a theoretical model based on the capability approach to understand existing studies and guide future research. We especially examine the target social groups for CCT, the various components of the training, engagement by receiving community stakeholders, and the relationship of training to individuals’ cross-cultural experiences in a foreign country. CCT is vital for refugees to rebuild their lives and careers in a way that enhances their substantive choices and freedoms to achieve what they value in their new country, and our review suggests scholarship has more work to do to reflect contemporary trends in its theorizing of CCT.