Global Interactions: What We Can Learn When Things Go Wrong
As business organizations become increasingly global in their structure and marketing, they face communication problems resulting from cultural misunderstandings.
Task. Based on what you have learned in this chapter, describe several broad principles that could be applied in helping the individuals involved understand what went wrong in the following events. What suggestions could you make for remedying the problems involved?
a. An advertising agency manager, new to his post in Japan, gathered his team for an old-fashioned brainstorming session in the boardroom. A big presentation loomed, and he expected creative ideas from his staff. Instead, he was met with silence. What went wrong? How could he coax ideas from his staff?
b. J. Bernard van Lierop, a businessperson from Salem, New Hampshire, guided a group of Japanese to a Wisconsin hospital on a business trip. The hospital director threw a handful of his business cards on a table for the Japanese to pick up. "It's so American to dispense with this formality," said Mr. van Lierop. Why might the Japanese be offended?
c. China banned a Nike TV commercial featuring U.S. basketball star LeBron James, who was shown in a video game setting defeating a cartoon kung fu master and a pair of dragons.
d. The employees of a large U.S. pharmaceutical firm became angry over the e-mail messages they received from the firm's employees in Spain. The messages weren't offensive. Generally, these routine messages just explained ongoing projects. What riled the Americans was this: every Spanish message was copied to the hierarchy within its division. The Americans could not understand why e-mail messages had to be sent to people who had little or nothing to do with the issues being discussed. But this was accepted practice in Spain.
e. As China moves from a planned to a market economy, professionals suffer the same signs of job stress experienced in Western countries. Multinational companies have long offered counseling to their expatriate managers. But locals frowned on any form of psychological therapy. Recently, China's largest bank hired Chestnut Global Partners to offer employee counseling services. Chestnut learned immediately that it could not talk about such issues as conflict management. Instead, Chestnut stressed workplace harmony. Chestnut also found that Chinese workers refused one-on-one counseling. They preferred group sessions or online counseling. What cultural elements were at work here?