Cross Cutural Management

QUESTION 1:

Asses the mistakes Donaldson has made. Why have these occurred? Whose responsibility, are they? What are the implications of not satisfactorily dealing with the Donaldson problem?

ANSWER:

CEO Bill Louin made a mistake in appointing Donaldson as manager of the European operations. Indeed, this manager has a very good CV, with a great reputation within the United States, a great knowledge of the American mentality. Nevertheless, this manager has very limited knowledge of the global market. Indeed, he demonstrates this throughout the case.

Donaldson behaved badly from the very beginning of his arrival at the station. Indeed, he does not manage to understand the mentality and especially the rules that govern his colleagues. He reacts inappropriately in the sense that he simply does not understand the problem. He is anxious, irritated and above all perplexed by the different cultural situations before him. That is why he makes several errors of assessment.

First, he uses an American management style in his management and to create a team. Even if Europe and the United States are part of the Western world, cultural differences are very important. It did not consider the aspects of cultural differences between employees, which is why it sent the same questionnaire to all employees, ignoring different cultures. Even if its initial goal was noble: to bring all employees together.

Another mistake was not informing all employees of the appointment of consultants. In addition, Donaldson, who has a very American mentality, is results-oriented and has therefore tried to implement this work method for his employees. However, employees are not very receptive to this type of method.

Donaldson is a hard worker, but that shouldn't have prevented him from spending more time with his employees and understanding their problems, to better understand their desires. A significant gesture by the employees would have been for Donaldson to learn a few words in each language to build a relationship of trust and to tell its employees that it is fully integrated into European culture. In addition, Donaldson was not ready in time for an important event because he thought his summary of the company's progress would not be what he hoped to be. All this shows that Donaldson had a lack of consideration for certain company events.

At the national level, cultural conflicts arise from different linguistic, ethnic, and consumer differences. On an organizational level, cultural conflicts arise from head offices abroad, from foreign entities. The purpose of human resources is precisely to reduce cultural conflicts.

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