Cross-Cultural Leadership Training: Managing the Cross-Cultural Challenges of the Nigerian Priests on Mission in the United States with a Predeparture Training

The issue of cross-cultural movements of professionals within organizations in the 21st centurys network-style of the global organization has created the question of how to prepare professionals to meet the demands of satisfactory service in a culture different from their home culture. The absence of the cross-cultural preparation of the professionals is causing cross-cultural maladjustments among many professionals and the Nigerian Catholic priests who move from Nigeria to the United States face this reality. Given the shortage of priests in the United States the U.S. Roman Catholic Church recruits many priests from overseas and a significant number of these priests are being recruited from Nigeria whose culture is very different from the U.S. culture. The work of these well-educated priests helps to solve the priest shortage problem but is creating new challenges in some Catholic parishes because of cultural differences. The priests continually face cross-cultural challenges to succeed in their pastoral work. There is little research on the cross-cultural challenges and other experiences of these priests in adjustment and in carrying out their duties. This qualitative study investigated the cross-cultural experiences of Nigerian priests serving in the United States. Interviews with some Nigerian priests serving in the four different geographical regions of the United States yielded important discoveries that comprised of some common challenges and some common strategies to facilitate adjustment. The findings indicated that a cross-cultural preparation before arrival to the United States could reduce the cross-cultural maladjustments and its effects on the pastoral works of these awesome priests. The discoveries influenced the recommendation of Kolbs Learning Theory to design a pre-departure cross-cultural training for Nigerian priests. The study offers an invaluable contribution to the tools that will help expatriates for cross-cultural adjustment and intercultural relations when they work in a foreign environment.