Globalization has come to stay as an irreversible process. To come to terms with it and thrive in this environment, understanding and acceptance of other cultures is imperative. This understanding and acceptance is essential to be able to communicate effectively in a cross-cultural environment. Bholanath Dutta, in the paper, "Communication in Cross-Cultural Context", examines various issues related to cross-cultural communication.

In the existing fiercely competitive environment, cost cutting is the norm of the day. Downsizing and restructuring are some of the measures, which the corporate resorts to. Quite often the human side of these measures become obscure and are pushed into the background by some other issues which appear more important to the company. Franco Gandolfi examines the `softer' side of downsizing of an organization, in the paper, "Surviving Corporate Downsizing: An Australian Experience".

English is one of the main international business languages and in the context of Indian management education, it is one of the critical components. English language skills, both spoken and written, have been found to be an area where there is immense scope of improvement among the Indian students. Teaching English language is a major challenge faced by the faculty of management education institutions. This is especially so because of the mental blocks in the students. In the paper, "Training and Evaluation of Oral and Written Communication Skills: A Critical Analysis of a B-School Approach", T Latha Chakravarthi and T Kalyana Chakravarthi offer a model that could be implemented in the area of English language teaching in management training.

When it comes to choosing a career, most of the students are influenced by various extraneous factors. These include parental pressures, peer pressures, the market conditions and a host of other factors. More often than not, while deciding on his/her career, the student does not take into account the innate strengths, weaknesses, aptitudes, attitudes, values, etc. This leads to either the student ending up as failure or being extremely uncomfortable in the chosen career. In the paper, "Career Decision-Making: A Tool for Progress", Sree Sai Lakshmi and Catherine Joseph examine the process of decision-making while choosing a career.

Counseling is an intricate process which results in the counselee arriving at a decision/course of action to deal with an existing problem. The counselor plays a key role in the whole process of counseling. Do all persons make effective counselors? This question is an important issue for introspection for all practising counselors. The counselor's own personality has an effect on the style of counseling and the relationship between the counselor and the counselee and hence the outcome. A mismatch between the required personality and the existing personality could result in a burnout on the part of the counselor. Madhavilatha M, in the paper, "What Makes the Counselor Effective?", examines these issues.

Business environment is always in a state of flux. This is because of the pressures created by competition, non-conducive policies of the government and many other factors. Even if these external pressures were not there, a company would by itself create own benchmarks to improve productivity and increase profits. All this exerts immense stress on the workforce which has to come to terms with the most fearsome prospect, `uncertainty'. There are many more factors which cause stress among the employees. To manage such a workforce is a challenge which places lot of demands on the managerial skills. One of these skills is counseling. Counseling at workplace is now an inescapable necessity. In the absence of trained counseling professionals, managers have to take upon themselves this responsibility. In the book review, "Counselling Skills for Managers", Rachna Sharma deals with counseling at workplace.

- T D Prasad
Consulting Editor