What to do when a manager goes native transcript

This document is a transcript of a podcast discussing the case study on what to do when a manager goes native in cross-cultural management. The podcast explores the issues and theories related to the case study and provides insights on how to handle such situations.

Students ID Number
(Do not include student name as
anonymous marking is
implemented)
MEN18457709/ JUR16423358/ ORC16423328/ ARG16423343/
MIN16423096
Programme Title Business Management and Entrepreneurship
Module Title Cross-Cultural Management
Module Code (listed on Moodle
and in LTAFP) QAB020N504S
Module Convenor Joy Umekwe
Coursework Title What to do when a manager goes native transcript
Academic Declaration:
Students are reminded that the electronic copy of their essay may be checked, at any point during their
degree, with Turnitin or other plagiarism detection software for plagiarised material.
Word Count 1249 Date Submitted 18/03/2019
What to do when a manager goes native podcast
Joel: Hello my name is Joel and you are listening to the cross-cultural management podcast
on what to do when managers go native. I would like to introduce Donatas, Marta, Antonella

and Nedko. We will discuss current issues in the case study relevant to Cross-cultural
management theories.
Based on a US Hydro Generation (HG) organisation whose vice president Graham Steinberg
has been appointed to take a vital decision: Does he send Brett Jones who was the appointed
project manager in preliminary assignments and construction phase, to carry out the operation
phase as project liaison specialist?
There are two issues in the case study highlighted that will be discussed using theories to give
a reflection of how Grahams decision can be implemented.
The initial issue is Brett Jones behaviour contradicts organisational culture.
Despite Brett’s behaviour adhering to organisation organisational values, his task to gain
local support for the project from the community may prove more beneficial in adhering to
project requirements and getting support from the locals. According to Hofstede (1983),
national culture power distance index is capable of putting forth a reason as to why it may be
advisable to focus efforts to authorities as opposed to the villagers.
The Tanzanian power distance index is at seventy indicating people accept hierarchal order.
Moreover, they accept influence by people in power such as the authorities to the villagers.
Donatas: The power distance index can also be identified as a form of leadership according to
House (2004) GLOBE nine-dimension theory. It identifies leadership as an ability to enable
people to contribute towards organisational success. It could be the reason why Brett
demonstrated a nepotistic approach to hiring relatives of people in authority as this would
enable him to have increased control over the project team and the local community.

Tanzania is within GLOBE`s cluster of countries set to Identify any universally accepted
leaders’ behaviour, attributes and organisational practices. Furthermore, how do national and
organisational cultures affect accepted and effective leaders’ behaviour.
Changing managers could confuse subordinates in a high-power distance society like
Tanzania and could affect leadership of the project. Moreover, this may be why Brett has
chosen a particular employee pool related to people with authority to maintain be seen as the
leader of the project.
House’s 9-dimension leadership theory links to Hofstede’s power distance theory indicating
followers are expected to obey their leaders without question. This explains as to why focus
towards authorities as opposed to villagers may be more effective when gaining local support
for the project.
Joel: Another dimension from national culture to consider is the long-term orientation.
Tanzania scores a value of thirty-four indicating a normative, short-term oriented culture
where the community is more likely to exhibit great respect for traditions as opposed to
economic pragmatism. This may empathise on why Brett has demonstrated unethical
managerial approaches such as Bribery to meet the project requirements as this may be
required in showing a level of respect for tradition.
Donatas: Tanzania being a normative, short-term oriented culture also links to GLOBE`s
Future orientation theory suggesting more people live for the present than the future. This can
provide an additional reason to Brett’s demonstration of nepotistic work ethic assuming the
societies collective mindset would provide loyalty when hiring close relatives.
Marta: When taking into account Tanzanian national culture and Bretts leadership style
Herzberg’s (1959) theory on motivation can provide reason to why Brett has used such
behaviours. Furthermore, give reason to why staff turnover is high for the project.

According to Herzberg’s two factor theory motivator factors result in satisfaction while
hygiene factors prevent dissatisfaction. The case study signals hygiene factors fuel societies
motivations as there is a focus for dissatisfiers such as pay and interpersonal relationships
hence why Brett jones uses bribery and nepotism to achieve better productivity of project.
Motivator factors such as creating a sense of achievement, growth and promotional
opportunities may influence and bring peace at mind to all stakeholders of the project.
Moreover, increase satisfaction to raise the effectiveness and efficiency of the project.
Motivator factors can be recommended to reduce the employee turnover for the project.
However, introducing this method of motivation could have an inefficient effect due to the
societies short term-oriented culture mindset of people living for the present than the future.
Moreover, to improve employee turnover focus towards utilising motivators for people in
authority may prove beneficial when motivating the workforce and gaining local support
indicated by the power distance index.
Joel: The second issue involves the additional fees given to tribal leaders, that are increasing
the cost of the project.
The Tanzanian long-term orientation score can also give reason as to why tradition could
induce unethical factors such as bribery. Assuming a western point of view Brett paying
additional fees for a project that was already signed and sealed seems preposterous
considering that this was not foreseen in the project plan and could negatively affect the
project scope.

Antonella: The long-term orientation score can be clearly seen impacting tradition whereas
the individualism score relates better to Halls high-context and low-context communication
theory. The Tanzanian individualism score is at twenty-five indicating a collective society
also where loyalty is paramount and over-rides most other societal rules and regulations.
Moreover, in collectivist societies offence leads to shame and loss of face.
This provides reason as to why Brett was willing to pay tribal leaders without dispute.
Furthermore, is relative to Tanzania’s high context communication culture where people rely
on nonverbal cues communicating without a great deal of back ground information.
Moreover, emphasis is placed on looking for meaning and understanding in what is not said
in such things as body language, silences and pauses as well as gaining relationships though
methods of common ground empathy within discussion.
According to Halverson (1959) high and low context cultures often display tendencies
relative to factors such as association, interaction, territoriality, temporality and learning.
Indicated by these factors high-context cultures appear to prefer personal bonds and informal
agreements over meticulously worded legal documents which also supports Brett’s reasoning
behind paying tribal leaders despite the fact something had already been set up with the
government.
Nedko: It appears that payment to tribal leaders was a must do factor effected by national
culture tradition and relates to Berger and Luckman’s theory that people take moral standards
from the society they live. Moreover, organisations have legitimacy according to the degree
to which they are consistent with the morality of the society in which they operate. This
provides more reason to why Brett seemed humble about additional fees ready to pay without
negotiation.

According to Snell (2004) ethics is issues that relate to fairness and justice. Socialist Max
Weber suggests societies based on traditional authority maintain focus of doing things the
way they have always been done to maintain stability of societal norms. Moreover, this
indicates cultural ethical relativism is at the forefront of decision making for project. Brett
may have had an interactional stand point to the way the request was presented to him by the
tribal leaders and felt obliged to respect tradition for the sake of not being offensive which
could bring shame losing face.
Resolving cross-cultural ethical conflict and Issues in cross cultural management will be
difficult due to the tradition and high context communication resulting in negligence of
employee duties and a high turnover rate. Moreover, Bribery and nepotism can be seen as
corruption assumed to be unethical. A recommendation can be to install ethical values
introducing employee training and an ethics committee focused towards improving job
satisfaction and reducing employee turnover.

Bibliography
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