Who Should Attend ?

Employees preparing for an assignment in Kosovo 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 Kosovo.

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

• Be aware of their own cultural baggage
• Understand Kosovar 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 Kosovar mindset, 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 Kosovo

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 Kosovar culture

• Historical background: a turbulent thousand-year history
• From the Ottoman empire to Yugoslavia
• The scars left by partition and ethnic warfare
• A recent micro-state which has received immense international attention
• A fragile economy with the impressive resources

3. Kosovar values and behaviour patterns

• Origin and ethnicity: decisive factors
• National identity
• A male-dominated, family-based society
• A strong sense of community
• Hospitality and sociability
• Concept of time and space
• Ways of thinking and reasoning.  Communication styles
• Attitudes to risk and uncertainty

4. Practical day to day information in Kosovo

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

Module 2 : Successful professionnal integration in Kosovo

1. The Kosovar corporate world

• The influence on business of the region’s communist past
• The role of foreign investment
• Differences in working methods and the notion of quality
• The marketplace, employment and staff turnover

2. Effective communication with the Kosovars

• The importance of networking
• Verbal communication and pitfalls to be avoided
• Communication styles and methods
• Serbian and Albanian: identifying the language to avoid causing offence

3. Working with Kosovar teams

• Local management and company culture
• Responsibilities and decision-making
• Recruitment, loyalty building, training, knowledge transmission
• Motivating, delegating, providing feedback and handling conflicts

4. Successful meetings and negotiations with the Kosovars

• Forging relationships, identifying decision makers
• Anticipating obstacles: consultation and compromise
• Time and deadline management
• Attitudes to contracts and their 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