To familiarize people wanting to work in their field of specialization as advisors in developing nations with settings, trends, tasks, roles, responsibilities, preparation needed for, and critical incidents affecting their success in such work.

COURSE OUTLINE:

Unit 1.	Settings and “Climate” in Which Advisors Work - An Overview
	a.	Changing nature of technical assistance projects
	b.	Organizations that provide technical assistance for development
	c.	Interlocking relationships of cultural, social, and technological changes that affect the work of the advisor
Unit 2.	Functioning as an Advisor
	a.	Defining terms - advisor, consultant, technician, counterpart
	b.	Myths about being an advisor
	c.	Reasons why the roles of advisors are changing
	d.	Primary functions, roles, and responsibilities of an advisor
	e.	Achieving balance among roles as administrator, technician, program leader, and/or change agent
	f.	Pitfalls to be avoided by advisors - the human element
	g.	Activities engaged in by advisors
	h.	Ten critical problems in providing technical assistance irrespective of institutional setting or organizational structure
	i.	Characteristics of the successful advisor
Unit 3.	Working in Cross-cultural Environments
	a.	My own cultural background and biases - How will my success as an advisor be affected?
	b.	Communicating - How do I make certain I understand and am understood in return?
	c.	Getting things done - Which rules do I dare bend?
	d.	Living and coping successfully in cross-cultural environments
	e.	Dealing with terrorism and political unrest - How do I minimize the risks?
Unit 4.	Overcoming Culture Shock in a Cross-cultural Environment
	a.	Culture shock - what is it?
	b.	What are the symptoms of culture shock?
	c.	How do I minimize and/or overcome culture shock?
	d.	What adjustments must be made after overcoming culture shock?
Unit 5.	Working with Counterparts
	a.	Resolving a basic issue - Are you an advisor or a colleague?
	b.	Developing working relationships with host agency counterparts
	c.	Criticizing constructively - some techniques for doing so
	d.	Developing institutional linkages among counterpart organizations
Unit 6.	Determining Appropriate Strategies for Development Projects
	a.	Identifying critical points in the development process
	b.	Testing the feasibility of proposed changes
	c.	Assessing the effects of economic and human inputs
	d.	Minimizing the consequences of changes - the advisor’s role
	e.	Choosing among and applying seven strategies for change
	f.	Maintaining realistic expectations - some hints for doing so
	g.	Securing consensus on courses of action between the host government or organization and your institution
Unit 7.	Examining Approaches Used by Advisors in Different Situations
	a.	Selected cases - what would you have done?
	b.	Examining critical incidents in providing technical assistance - Why did they “make” or “break” the project?
Unit 8.	Measuring the Success of an Advisor
	a.	What might be danger signals in your relationship with others?
	b.	What objective criteria may be used to assess your success?
	c.	What may be subjective indicators of your success or failure?
	d.	Evaluating the effectiveness of personnel - how do you organize and carry out the process?
	e.	Working yourself out of a job - can you do so?
Unit 9.	Getting a Job as an Agricultural Advisor - Some Hints
	a.	How do I identify and contact potential international employers?
	b.	What do employers seek in employees who work abroad?

COURSE TEXT:

Copeland, Lennie & Lewis Griggs.  Going International.  New York:  Random House, 1985

COURSE EXPECTANCIES:

1.	(10%)	Read materials assigned from the bibliography that you will be provided  (644-0-3);  make oral reports to the class from those readings.
2.	(15%)	Prepare responses to critical incidents encountered by advisors in providing technical assistance that affect the outcomes of development projects.  These may be assigned for class discussion.
		(Do either #3 or #4 below, but not both.)
3.	(30%)	Prepare a paper on "Customs and Manners in . . . . " (A different country is to be chosen by each person who chooses to prepare this paper.) that you and others could use so as to work more effectively as international change agents in that country. Use the outline, 644-4-4, as a guide. It will be due on July 2, 2001. Your paper is to be one in a series of guides for different countries in which TAMU personnel and students are likely to be working on development projects and for which such information does not exist readily in concise form. For example, much information is available to help people who work in Saudi Arabia; thus, a guide for Saudi Arabia is not as essential as a guide for Mali, a country for which little information is readily available to help the person who will be working there. You will be listed as the author for each country. Please turn in two copies of the paper and a 3½” diskette with the paper on it. One paper copy will be kept in the Department to share with people who become involved in international activities and the other will be returned to you with comments.
4.	(30%)	Prepare a paper of "guidelines for success" that you would recommend to a person embarking on his or her first international assignment. Use examples to illustrate things to do or not to do. To prepare this paper, (1) interview at least three people and their spouses, if applicable, who have worked as long term (>2 years) advisors, technicians, or consultants on international development projects, (2) check the literature pertaining to this topic, and (3) consider the points learned in this course. If helpful, you can use 644-0-2c to seek people who would be appropriate to contact.  Make two copies of the paper. One will be kept in the Department to share with people who become involved in international activities and the other will be returned to you. This paper will be due on July 2, 2001.
5.	(15%)	Participate thoughtfully and effectively in class discussions.  All class members have experiences and knowledge from which to draw, even though it may not be international experience.
6.	(30%)	Take final examination on July 2, 2001.  You will be placed in a situation as the advisor in your field of specialization in a bilateral project of technical assistance in a developing nation.  You will be asked to react to seven (7) situations that arise along with a rationale for your decisions based on the principles that have been examined in the course.  This examination may be similar to an "in-basket and out-basket" exercise in that some of the situations for which you develop solutions may be interdependent.

WHEN OFFERED:

First Summer Session every year.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Call Dr. James E. Christiansen

Room 107-D, Scoates Hall

Phone: (409) 862-3002

E-Mail: j-christiansen@tamu.edu

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