Who Should Attend

Employees preparing for an assignment in Angola and their partners

Benefits of Attendance

This seminar aims at significantly improving the ability of the participants to meet the challenges of living and working abroad. The objective is to enable them to identify the stumbling blocks that lie ahead and to be able to adapt and integrate in Angola.

At the end of this training, participants will have acquired insights and techniques to:

• Be aware of their own cultural baggage
• Understand Angolan context and the culture
• Analyse situations in which misunderstandings may arise and identify ways of communicating more effectively
• Reduce and manage the symptoms of culture shock
• Understand another mindset, different work practices, decision-making processes and negotiating styles
• Strike the right balance between personal et professional lives

Training Approach

• A cross-cultural approach of International Mobility
• Country specific trainers
• Personalized and familiy focused action plan
• Access to the Nomad’ Network, an exclusive online tool for Akteos’ clients and experts:  find resources, exchange experiences, knowledge and insights

Programme Outline

Module 1 : Successful personnal integration in Angola

1. Cross-cultural awareness : the key to a successful expatriation

• Taking stock of one's own cultural baggage
• Culture shock and the integration process
• Identifying and going beyond cultural stereotypes

2. Key aspects to Angolan culture

• Angola: a huge, multi-faceted country
• A multiethnic but relatively uniform population
• A substantial international community in the multiethnic urban areas
• The impact of poverty
• The post-war nation
• Exponential growth and a subsistence economy
• The educational system and its problems

3. Angolan values and behaviour

• A culture in which community-mindedness and a respect for age are both key aspects
• Changing traditions after 30 years of war
• The relative transformation of the role of women
• A significant musical and artistic tradition
• Time as a power-enhancing strategy
• Mediation as opposed to confrontation

4. Practical day to day information

• Focus on the host town or city, transport, administration, housing, security
• Hygiene and health: a highly precarious health situation
• Social life, leisure activities, schools, extracurricular activities, sport

Module 2 : Successful professionnal integration in Angola

1. The Angolan corporate world

• Angolan companies: a clear hierarchical structure
• The “Angolanization” of executive staff.  A work ethic to be instilled
• The market, employment and turnover
• Women within the company and the importance of intermediaries
• The power of the state and the authorities, the national bureaucracy

2. Effective communication with the Angolans

• The emphasis on verbal communication
• Friendly and informal interpersonal relationships
• The ambiguity of life as a western manager in Angola
• The special characteristics of Angolan Portuguese

3. Working with Angolan teams

• The special characteristics of corporate life in Angola
• Angolan executive staff and their relationship with expatriates
• Responsibilities and decision-making: patience and firmness
• Maintaining trust and confidence: dealing with touchy people
• Recruitment, loyalty building, training, knowledge transmission

4. Successful meetings and negotiations with Angolans

• Long term preparations
• Identifying decision makers
• The special characteristics of Angolan contracts and their implications

5. Final handy tips

• Social standards, gifts, business cards, dress code, etc
• Sensitive subjects: politics, history, religion
• Humour: a double-edged sword