Living and working in Cameroon

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Summary

Target audience

Employees preparing for an assignment in Cameroon and their partners

Prerequisite

No prerequisite

Objectives

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 Cameroon.

At the end of this training, participants will have acquired the necessary skills to:

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

Added value

ACCESSIBILITY

All our training courses are accessible to people with disabilities. Each training project will be the subject of a case study by our teams, in order to adapt the training program.

Program

Module 1 : Successful personal integration in Cameroon

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 Cameroonian culture

  • A West African nation with numerous sources of wealth
  • A population comprising 200 different ethnic groups
  • The impact of French colonization
  • A relatively stable economy

3. Cameroonian values and behaviour patterns

  • A profoundly stratified patriarchal society
  • The assertiveness of Cameroonian women
  • Pride and a sense of honour
  • A significant religious and spiritual tradition
  • A flexible approach to time
  • Les Lions Indomptables: a vital part of Cameroon's national identity
  • Humour and irony

4. Practical day-to-day information

  • 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 professional integration in Cameroon

1. The Cameroonian corporate world

  • A friendly yet formal and hierarchical atmosphere in the workplace.
  • The dichotomy between the public and private sectors
  • Low productivity

2. Effective communication with the Cameroonians

  • Explicit communication.
  • The importance of tactile contact in communication
  • The circulation of information.  Networking
  • Deciphering non-verbal messages and ethnic aspects of communication
  • The Cam-Fan-Glais, pidgin and the French language

3. Working with Cameroonian teams

  • Diplomacy, prudence and subtlety
  • Building trust and confidence: an open mind, firmness and discipline
  • Building a group culture in order to create staff loyalty
  • Protecting, supervising and explaining

4. Successful meetings and negotiations with the Cameroonian

  • Meeting the right people
  • Honesty and fairness
  • Persevering and adapting
  • 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

Intra-company coursesDuration: to define
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