Who Should Attend ?

Employees preparing for an assignment in Romania 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 Romania.

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

• Be aware of their own cultural baggage
• Understand Romanian 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 Romanian 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 Romania

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 Romanian culture

• A major central European country
• The ambiguity of a multiethnic society
• A deep divide between the cities and countryside
• A prestigious historical heritage.  The challenge of European integration
• The reality and complexity of corruption

3. Romanian values and behaviour patterns

• A patriarchal society with a Latin culture
• An orthodox but not particularly religious population
• A people proud of their identity.  A sense of community-mindedness
• Appearance and the overt signs of wealth.  Cooking and the art of living.
• The absence of barriers between public and private life
• Emotions and tantrums as part of daily life
• Only a limited grasp of time and deadlines.
• Reasoning based on subtlety and irony.

4. Practical day-to-day information in Romania

• 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 Romania

1. The Romanian corporate world

• The role of the state and the authorities
• Centralisation and the concentration of decision-making powers
• An important and formal hierarchical structure
• Scant regard for performance.  Favouritism and nepotism

2. Effective communication with the Romanians

• Interpersonal networks: a vital aspect of Romanian Life
• The Romanian language: some useful pointers
• The Romanian French-speaking community: the myth and the reality
• Implicit communication. Romanian humour

3. Working with Romanian teams

• Effective management: listening, supporting and asserting
• Asserting your authority: knowing how and when to say no.
• Promoting responsibility and valuing people as individuals
• Conflict resolution: tempers, manipulation and storms in teacups

4. Successful meetings and negotiations with the Romanians

• Meeting decision makers
• Maintaining close personal relationships
• The written contract: set in stone
• Time management and reliance

5. Final handy tips

• Caution, patience and humility
• Social standards, gifts, business cards, dress code
• Sensitive subjects: the Roma population, the communist era and Dracula
• Humour: a double-edged sword