Reverse Culture Shock

Posted in Human Resource Terms, Total Reads: 264

Definition: Reverse Culture Shock

Reverse Culture Shock term is used for the people who have spent plenty of years away from their home country, have adjusted to the culture of the host country and after returning back to their home country finds it extremely difficult to adjust in the culture and norms of the home country. They suffer from a shock as it is more unexpected and unanticipated. The severity of the shock depends upon the number of years a person had spent in the host country and the culture difference between the home country and the host country.

Due to the advent of the globalization, more and more number of employees are sent to other countries for assignments of longer durations. Recently, this employees working in other countries have increased at a drastic pace and thus there is a rise in the phenomenon of reverse culture shock.

As the number of year spend increases in other country, there is a drastic change in the professional as well as personal life of any person. The older views of looking at the home country changes and the perspective changes towards the family and friends around. Also, the peer group around the person looks at him in a different context as he/she was in an altogether different land and brought some new exotic experience. The most familiar things over the period of time became unfamiliar and thus the person gets confused and frustrated of the change.

Some of the ways to cope up with such a phenomenon includes sharing of the experiences with others, maintaining a style they have learned and building an international perspective, learning to become flexible to unexpected and unanticipated changes and indulge oneself into training courses that helps them to understand how their home country has changed while they were away from it.


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