Answer Happy

Fred Bailey gazed out the window of his 24th-floor office at the
tranquil beauty of the Imperial Palace amid the hustle and bustle
of downtown Tokyo. It had been only six months since Fred had
arrived with his wife and two children for this three-year
assignment as the director of Kline & Associates’ Tokyo
office.
Kline & Associates is a large multinational consulting firm
with offices in 19 countries worldwide. Fred was now trying to
decide whether he should simply pack up and tell headquarters that
he was coming home or whether he should try to convince his wife,
and himself, that they should stay and finish the assignment. Given
how excited they all were about the assignment to begin with, it
was a mystery to Fred how things had gotten to this point. As Fred
watched the swans glide across the water in the moat that surrounds
the Imperial Palace, he reflected on the past seven months.
Seven months ago, Dave Steiner, the managing partner of the main
office in Boston, asked Fred to lunch to discuss business. To
Fred’s surprise, the business they discussed was not about the
major project that he and his team had just finished; instead, it
was about a very big promotion and career move. Fred was offered
the position of managing director of the firm’s relatively new
Tokyo office, which had a staff of 40, including seven Americans.
Most of the Americans in the Tokyo office were either associate
consultants or research analysts. Fred would be in charge of the
whole office and would report to a senior partner. Steiner implied
to Fred that if this assignment went as well as his past projects,
it would be the last step before becoming a partner in the
firm.
When Fred told his wife about the unbelievable opportunity, he
was shocked at her less-than-enthusiastic response. His wife,
Jennifer (or Jenny as Fred called her), thought that it would be
rather difficult to have the children live and go to school in a
foreign country for three years, especially when Christine, their
older daughter, would be starting middle school next year. Besides,
now that the kids were in school, Jenny was thinking about going
back to work, at least part-time. Jenny had a degree in fashion
merchandising from a well-known university and had worked as an
assistant buyer for a large women’s clothing store before having
the two girls.
Fred explained that the career opportunity was just too good to
pass up and that the company’s overseas package would make living
overseas terrific. The company would pay all the expenses to move
whatever the Baileys wanted to take with them. The company had a
very nice house in an expensive district of Tokyo that would be
provided rent free, and the company would rent their house in
Boston during their absence. Moreover, the firm would provide a car
and driver, education expenses for the children to attend private
schools, and a cost-of-living adjustment and overseas compensation
that would nearly triple Fred’s gross annual salary. After two days
of consideration and discussion, Fred told Steiner he would accept
the assignment.
The current Tokyo office managing director was a partner in the
firm but had been in the new Tokyo office for less than a year when
he was transferred to head a longestablished office in England.
Because the transfer to England was taking place right away, Fred
and his family had about three weeks to prepare for the move.
Between transferring responsibilities at the office to Bob Newcome,
who was being promoted to Fred’s position, and getting furniture
and the like ready to be moved, neither Fred nor his family had
much time to find out about Japan, other than what was in the
online encyclopedia.
When the Baileys arrived in Japan, they were greeted at the
airport by one of the young Japanese associate consultants and the
senior American expatriate. Fred and his family were quite tired
from the long trip, and the two-hour ride to Tokyo was a rather
quiet one. After a few days of just settling in, Fred spent his
first full day at the office.
Fred’s first order of business was to have a general meeting
with all the employees of associate consultant rank and higher.
Although Fred didn’t notice it at the time, all the Japanese staff
sat together and all the Americans sat together. After Fred
introduced himself and his general idea about the potential and
future directions of the Tokyo office, he called on a few
individuals to get their ideas about how the things for which they
were responsible would likely fit into his overall plan.
From the Americans, Fred got a mixture of opinions with specific
reasons about why certain things might or might not fit well. From
the Japanese, he got very vague answers. When Fred pushed to get
more specific information, he was surprised to find that a couple
of the Japanese simply made a whistling sound as they breathed and
said that it was “difficult to say.” Fred sensed the meeting was
not achieving his objectives, so he thanked everyone for coming and
said he looked forward to them all working together to make the
Tokyo office the fastest-growing office in the company.
After they had been in Japan about a month, Jenny complained to
him about the difficulty she had getting certain everyday products
like maple syrup, peanut butter, and good-quality beef. She said
that when she could get the items at one of the specialty stores,
they cost three or four times what they would cost at home. She
also complained that since the washer and dryer were much too
small, she had to spend extra money by sending things out to be
dry-cleaned. On top of all that, unless she went to the American
Club in downtown Tokyo, she never had anyone to talk to. After all,
Fred was gone 10 to 16 hours a day. Unfortunately, while Jenny
talked, Fred was preoccupied, thinking about a big upcoming meeting
between his firm and a significant prospective client, a top-100
Japanese multinational company.
The next day, Fred, along with the lead U.S. consultant for the
potential contract, Ralph Webster, and one of the Japanese
associate consultants, Kenichi Kurokawa, who spoke perfect English,
met with a team from the Japanese firm. The Japanese team consisted
of four members: the vice-president of administration, the director
of international personnel, and two staff specialists.
After shaking hands and a few awkward bows, Fred said that he
knew the Japanese gentlemen were busy and he didn’t want to waste
their time, so he would get right to the point. Fred then had the
other American lay out their firm’s proposal for the project and
what the project would cost. After the presentation, Fred asked the
Japanese what their reaction to the proposal was. The Japanese did
not respond immediately, so Fred launched into his summary version
of the proposal, thinking that the translation might have been
insufficient. Again, the Japanese had only the vaguest of responses
to his direct questions.
The recollection of the frustration of that meeting was enough
to shake Fred back to reality. In the five months since that first
meeting, little progress had been made and the contract between the
firms was yet to be signed. “I can never seem to get a direct
response from Japanese,” he thought to himself. This feeling of
frustration led him to remember a related incident that happened
about a month after this first meeting with this client.
Fred had decided that the reason not much progress was being
made with the client was that he and his group just didn’t know
enough about the client to package the proposal in a way that was
appealing to the client. Consequently, he called in Ralph Webster,
the senior American associated with the proposal, and asked him to
develop a report on the client so that the proposal could be
re-evaluated and changed where necessary.
Jointly, they decided that one of the more promising Japanese
research associates, Tashiro Watanabe, would be the best person to
take the lead on this report. To impress upon Tashiro the
importance of this task and the great potential they saw in him,
they decided to have the young Japanese associate meet with both
Fred and Ralph. In the meeting, Fred and Ralph laid out the nature
and importance of the task, at which point Fred leaned forward in
his chair and said to Tashiro, “You can see that this is an
important assignment and that we are placing a lot of confidence in
you by giving it to you. We need the report by this time next week
so we can revise and represent our proposal. Can you do it?”
After a long pause, Tashiro responded hesitantly, “I’m not sure
what to say.” At that point, Fred smiled, got up from his chair,
walked over to the young Japanese associate, extended his hand, and
said, “Hey, there’s nothing to say. We’re just giving you the
opportunity you deserve.”
The day before the report was due, Fred asked Ralph how the
report was coming. Ralph said that, since he had heard nothing from
Tashiro, he assumed everything was under control but that he would
double-check. Ralph later ran into one of the U.S. research
associates, John Maynard. Ralph knew that John was hired for Japan
because of his Japanese language ability and that, unlike any of
the other Americans, John often went out after work with some of
the Japanese research associates, including Tashiro. So Ralph asked
John if he knew how Tashiro was coming on the report.
John then recounted that at the office the previous night
Tashiro had asked if Americans sometimes fired employees for being
late with reports. John had sensed that this was more than a
hypothetical question and asked Tashiro why he wanted to know.
Tashiro did not respond immediately, and since it was 8:30 in the
evening, John suggested they go out for a drink. At first Tashiro
resisted, but then John assured him that they would grab a drink at
a nearby bar and come right back. At the bar, John got Tashiro to
open up.
Tashiro explained the nature of the report that he had been
requested to produce. He continued to explain that, even though he
had worked long into the night every night to complete the report,
it was just impossible and that he had doubted from the beginning
whether he could complete the report in a week. At this point,
Ralph asked John, “Why didn’t he say something in the first
place?”
Ralph didn’t wait to hear whether John had an answer to this
question. He headed straight to Tashiro’s desk.
Ralph chewed out Tashiro and then went to Fred, explaining that
the report would not be ready and that Tashiro, from the start,
didn’t think it could be. “Then why didn’t he say something?” Fred
asked. No one had any answers, and the whole episode left everyone
more suspect and uncomfortable with each other.
Other incidents, big and small, had made the last two months
especially frustrating, but Fred was too tired to remember them
all. To Fred, it seemed that working with Japanese both inside and
outside the firm was like working with people from another planet.
Fred felt he couldn’t communicate with them, and he never could
figure out what they were thinking. It drove him crazy. On top of
all this, Jenny laid a bombshell on him. She wanted to go home, and
yesterday was not soon enough. Even though the kids seemed to be
doing all right, Jennifer was tired of Japan—tired of being stared
at, of not understanding anybody or being understood, of not being
able to find what she wanted at the store, of not being able to
drive and read the road signs, of not having anything to watch on
television, of not being involved in anything. She wanted to go
home and could not think of any reason why they shouldn’t. After
all, she reasoned, they owed nothing to the company because the
company had led them to believe this was just another assignment,
like the two years they spent in San Francisco, and it was anything
but that!
Fred looked out the window once more, wishing that somehow
everything could be fixed, or turned back, or something. The
traffic below was backed up. Though the traffic lights changed, the
cars and trucks didn’t seem to be moving. Fortunately, beneath the
ground, one of the world’s most advanced, efficient, and clean
subway systems moved hundreds of thousands of people about the city
and to their homes.
Identification of the case issues Proactive response Hypothesis Further considerations Identification of legislative issues HR impact Risk identification Issue resolution Action Using the above thought cycle as a guide, we are able to consistently analyze the case study: Stage Analysis Identification of Fred and his family were persuaded to take a new promotion and the case issues: transfer to Japan. There were generous perks and benefits provided to Fred as a reward for making the transition from one country to another, Fred was unable to communicate effectively with all staff (both American and Japanese) and not able to understand work/cultural behaviour differences. Jennifer (Fred's wife) is very unhappy and wants to return home. Overall, office productivity and the work transition has not been successful for Fred. Hypothesis: Fred and his family did not receive any preparatory cross-cultural training, resulting in an unsuccessful transfer to a new culture. Identification of In this case there are employment contract and legal obligations related legislative issues: to the transfer and promotion, which may be applied under the principles of common law. Risk identification: If cross-cultural training and support is not provided, the transfer will be a failure for both Fred and his family. Everyone will be impacted by the negative repercussions of a failed transfer, including the hosting branch of the company located in Tokyo and the home branch located in the United States Action: For Fred to be successful, immediately provide a cultural mentor/coach for both Fred and Jennifer. Engage a "host" family to connect with Fred and Jennifer to increase social connections for both themselves and their children. Arrange for Japanese language classes for the family Provide daily, weekly, and monthly progress reviews for Fred on cultural practices that promote successful interactions in Japanese culture. Issue resolution: Fred and his family are better able to integrate into a new culture and work culture with support and guidance from experienced host country mentors/coaches. HR impact: In this case, it is critical for the Human Resources department to set up pre-cultural training programs and on-site cultural mentoring relationships, as well as provide ongoing support in the host country. Further The organization must determine whether or not it wants to pursue an considerations: "assimilation" strategy for employees when they are living and working in another country. Proactive Human Resources to establish on-site cross-cultural training sessions response: (both formal and informal) to ease workplace cultural communication issues and improve understanding of differences in working relationships in Japan.
Question 21: Why is Fred thinking about leaving his three-year assignment as director of Kline & Associates' Tokyo office after only six months ? (1 Point) O Apathy. Inability to meet organizational demands. Culture shock. High performance quota. O None of the above. Question 22: Which of the following methods would you recommend for cross-cultural training for Fred and his family? (1 Point) O Environmental, cultural and language training. O Role-playing and situational awareness. Marriage counselling. On-the-job training None of the above Field experience would have been worthwile for Fred and his family. Question 23: (1 Points) O True O False Question 24: Fred would score quite low for cultural toughness, since no real significant differences exist between Japanese and American culture. (1 Points) 1 True False Question 25: : (1 Point) Job toughness in Fred's case should not be an issue and would be scored low, since Fred was evidently capable and competent with what he does. True: The job's were similar and the working environment as well. True: He was used to working in culturally different contexts. False: Though he was good at his job, the context in this case would make the transition difficult. False: Fred was not good at his job, but he was aware of Japanese culture. None of the above. O Describe how you would design a cross-cultural training program for Fred and his family. Question 26: : (5 Points) 5