Who Should Attend?

Employees preparing for an assignment in Equatorial Guinea 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 Equatorial Guinea.
At the end of this training, participants will have acquired insights and techniques to:

• Be aware of their own cultural baggage
• Understand Equatorial Guinean context and culture
• Analyse situations in which misunderstandings may arise and identify ways of communicating more effectively
• Reduce and manage the symptoms of culture shock
• Understand Equatorial Guinean 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 personal integration in the host country

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 of equatorial guinean culture

• A bipartite micro-state in sub-Saharan Central Africa
• Fang and Bubi: a population drawn from different ethnic origins
• Colonisation, slavery and tribal warfare: a history steeped in conflict
• A presidential republic characterised by nepotism
• An economy chiefly based on mining and oil
• Insufficient infrastructure

3. Equatorial guinean values and behaviour patterns

• Importance of the tribe and the family as a social bedrock
• A patriarchal and polygamous social structure
• Equatorial Guinean women: second-class citizens
• Catholic fervour alongside the persistence of traditional belief systems
• A respect for status, age and authority*
• A restricted view of space and a flexible approach to time
• Celebrations and rituals: shared communal experiences

4. Practical day-to-day information

• Focus on the host town
• Transport, administration, housing, security, hygiene and healthcare
• Social life, leisure activities
• Schools, extracurricular activities, sport

Module 2 : Successful professional integration in Equatorial Guinea

1. The Equatorial Guinean corporate world

• A paternalistic corporate structure with tightly supervised decision-making
• The impact of poverty and unemployment
• Privileges, favouritism and discrimination: political control

2. Effective communication with the Equatorial guineans

• Networking and relationships: the many benefits of social interaction
• The importance of protocol and greetings
• The extensive use of tactile and non-verbal communication
• Spanish, French and local dialects

3. Working with Equatorial Guinean teams

• Effective management: charisma, experience and pragmatism
• Defining tasks and determining duties and responsibilities
• Supervising, anticipating and verifying
• Building trust and confidence: integrity and kindliness

4. Successful meetings and negociations with the Equatorial guineans

• Identifying rank and position
• Giving relationships that personal touch
• Proposing and persevering
• Written contracts, their interpretation and implications

5. Final handy tips

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