University Cross Cultural Management: Brett Jones Case Study Analysis

This assignment presents a comprehensive analysis of a cross-cultural management case study involving Brett Jones, a project manager for Hydro Generation (HG) in Tanzania. The case explores the challenges arising from cultural differences and work ethics discrepancies between HG's co...Read More

Running head: CROSS CULTURAL MANAGEMENT
CROSS CULTURAL MANAGEMENT
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author notes

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Table of Contents
Script for Podcast...........................................................................................................2
Reflective Report...........................................................................................................3
References......................................................................................................................7

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Script for Podcast
The case of Brett Jones, working as project manager for Hydro Generation (HG) in
Tanzania is presented to discuss the cross cultural management aspects. In this case study, the
company authority are in grave concern as the manager is busy in nativizing himself with the
Tanzanian culture. This manager tries to accommodate himself with the life style and
working culture of the country he is posted. The negotiation and communication with the
local community is main strength of Brett. The problem is that, the work ethics and culture of
the country is in great contrast with that of the work ethics and core culture of HG. The
positive thing of the work process of Brett is that he has been successfully doing his work
with limited resources and on time. Therefore, the achievement of this young manager should
not be neglected. This is the art of the job outcome that make Steinberg think of bringing
Brett back from the country project.
The challenges that HG is facing in Tanzania is directly linked to the cultural
differences and work ethics. The country is not a developed one and is having high
employments ratio. The rituals of the state is considered to be an integral part. The work
strategy of Brett is to make utmost use of the resources available at the country part and make
it through the use of the local people. This is the reason that Brett concentrates on
communicating with local people in all aspects possible. Another strong point of the work
culture of Brett is his negotiation power. The natives of the local community are pleased with
offers that Brett is making to them.
A country like Africa is quite sensitive one in context of cultural preservation and
ethnicity. Brett was able to understand the thing and he started to live with the people so that
he can understand the demand of these people. He was able to negotiate with the local youth
about the work opportunity. It is quite evident that Brett has been able to communicate with

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the local people. The negotiation in a country like Africa need to be different from other
developed countries. The cultural aspects of the country make it sensitive ground and Brett
has been successfully managing the negotiation in all aspects, money or fame is never going
to be a useful trigger for negotiation in Tanzania. This is the reason that Brett decided to
make himself a part of the cultural structure of the place. As the availability of labours were a
big challenge, Brett negotiated and communicated with the people to suggest their relatives
and known persons for the job roles.
There are some negative side of this approach by Brett. In the higher level, Brett
might be the prey to corruption as the officers might ask for higher payments for providing
the services. This is the time when Brett again have to show his negotiation skills in order to
make the deals possible in reasonable prices.
Reflective Report
Cross cultural management is an important subject in business as the influence of
globalisation can be seen everywhere. Negotiation nd communication are the key to business
success in interaction business (Holden, Michailova & Tietze, 2015). There are two main
reasons behind this statements- first, the companies need to understand the measures of cross
cultural communication while dealing with international companies. Secondly, negotiation
plays an important part in sealing the business deal in minimum costs possible (Ting-Toomey
& Dorjee, 2018).
According to French (2015), wrong kind of business communication in the business
can cast negative impact on company reputation and authenticity. The issue with HG
Company was that it was the forts project of HG in Africa. The country is completely
different in its cultural context. Therefore, starting a business here and making it working is a
great challenge for any company. This is all the more applicable for the case of Tanzania

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where the community life in at the heart of any action. Communications can be verbal and
non-verbal (Lewicki, Barry & Saunders, 2016). It is evident that Brett has used both the
verbal communication with direct interaction in Swahili language. At the same time he has
used the power of non-verbal communication by giving importance to the cultural rituals and
adopting the lifestyle (Bird & Mendenhall, 2016). The theory of non-verbal communication
in the cross cultural management is in work here. Brett has been able to gain the trust of the
local people and that is the way he was been able to go through all the obstacles in the place
and giving positive result to the company.
On the other hand, Brett was able to do the negotiation with the local people and local
government in an effective way. The communication has helped him building the background
of an effective negotiation (Thomas & Peterson, 2016). In the case study, negotiation has
been done in two context. First is the employment and the second is in achieving support for
the project. The labour issue was sorted with the help of the local people. The hiring process
of Brett was questioned by many of the people in the organisation including Stenberg. The
fact is that no other medium would be appropriate other than appointing the local in the
project. It was the good negotiation decision by Brett that he asked the local for being the
employees as the labour costs will be reduced. As the people were ready for getting the job,
Brett was definitely able to make them participate in lower wages. There was some
compromises done by Brett in order to gain trust of the local people, but all of these were
fulfilled by the negotiation and communication process.
The work was assigned to our group and we all participated in this according to our
job roles. The first thing we did after the allocation of the task, is to divide the task among
ourselves. As we have to work as group in order to complete the assignment, each and every
member of our groups were assigned with specific parts. I have been given the part of
negotiation and communication in the context of cross cultural communication. After

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finalising the role we started to work individually in our own project responsibilities. I have
first analysed the case study in details. This was the first part of my study where I also read
some of the articles and books in order to understand what negotiation and communication
actually means in cross cultural communication. Next step was to note down the important
part of the case study. These information actually helped me to build my idea and notion of
the whole matter. I have gone through some other example of cross cultural managements
case studies in my internet searches. The notes that I have made for the assignment were very
helpful in building the project. After the third day, the members of our group decided to meet
once in order to discuss our progress. The meeting played an important role in rapport
building as well as knowledge building. One of the member of our group has almost
completed his task by the time of our first meeting. We were all impressed by his work and
we took some tips of how to work smartly and effectively. At the same time, one of the group
member did not even started to work in her project. This was a great concern for us as we felt
that she would not be able to complete it on time and our project will be suffering for that.
Managing the time was another problem for the group work. There were huge amount
of work but the time allocated was minimum. Again all the members of our group were not
equally active. Some of the group member have created problems as they were not been able
to finish on time. Again, the communication among the group was not strong at the first time.
The group member do not knew each other and the working process was not the same for
each and every member of the group. There was no leader in our group at the first meeting.
Then we decided to have a team leader which I think was a good decision for the group work.
The worm of the team member was to assign the time and detailed work to the rest of them.
After the second meeting I gained new enthusiasm to work as I was very clear about what I
have to do. Also the communication among my team members began to be effective

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gradually and we all started to share each other’s opinion and idea of how the task should be
done.
There are some part of the group work that I would like to change if in future I get the
chance to do same kind of work. First thing that I like to change would be the selection
process of the group members. It is quite natural that individual would have separate
personality and working process. The problem in my group was that this gap between the
personalities was huge. If I get a chance again, I will chose my group carefully so that
likeminded people can work together for better result. The second thing would be
communication increase. The experience of this group work has influence me immensely. I
would be able to be more interactive in the group meetings. I would try to build connection
with my group members from the very first day so that ideas can be channelized. The third
thing I would like to do in my next task is to improve my presentation skill. I have learnt that
presentation is an important part of any project as that is the ultimate result we are looking
for, I would like to improve my language skills and the way I present the data collected. I can
take the help of my team member in the process as they can be my audience. This way I
would be able to shun my skills as well. Last but not the least is the time management.
Managing the time more effectively would be my major priority for the next project. All
these things I would like to improve in my next chances and would try to gain better insight
of the subject and presentation.

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References
Bird, A., & Mendenhall, M. E. (2016). From cross-cultural management to global leadership:
Evolution and adaptation. Journal of World Business, 51(1), 115-126.
French, R. (2015). Cross-cultural management in work organisations. Kogan Page
Publishers.
Holden, N., Michailova, S., & Tietze, S. (Eds.). (2015). The Routledge companion to cross-
cultural management. Routledge.
Lewicki, R. J., Barry, B., & Saunders, D. M. (2016). Essentials of negotiation. McGraw-Hill
Education.
Thomas, D. C., & Peterson, M. F. (2016). Cross-cultural management: Essential concepts.
Sage Publications.
Ting-Toomey, S., & Dorjee, T. (2018). Communicating across cultures. Guilford
Publications.