CRITICAL INCIDENTS

1. George Burgess was a chief engineer for a machinery manufacturer based in St. Louis. His
company had recently signed a contract with one of its largest customers in Japan, to upgrade
the equipment and to train mechanics in St. Louis for a three-month course under Georges
supervision. Although George had never lived or worked abroad, he was looking forward to the
challenge of working with the group of Japanese mechanics, for he had been told that they
were all fluent in English and tireless workers. The first several weeks of the training went
along quite smoothly, but soon George became increasingly annoyed with the constant
demands they were making on his personal time. They would seek him out after his regularly
scheduled sessions were over for additional information. They sought his advice on how to
occupy their leisure time. Several even asked him to help settle a disagreement that developed
between them. Feeling frustrated by all these demands on his free time, George told the
Japanese trainees that he preferred not to mix business with pleasure. Within a matter of days
the group requested another instructor.
Which is the cultural difference implied here and how should have George done in a
different way?
2. Wayne Calder, a recent Harvard MBA graduate and one of his organizations most innovative
planners, was assigned to the Paris office for a two-year period. Wayne was particularly
excited about the transfer because he could now draw on the French he had taken while in
school. Knowing that his proficiency in the French language would be an excellent entre into
the French society, Wayne was looking forward to getting to know his French colleagues on a
personal level. During the first week in Paris, an opportunity to socialize presented itself. While
waiting for a planning meeting with top executives to begin, Wayne introduced himself to
Monsieur LeBec. They shook hands and exchanged some pleasantries, and then Wayne told
LeBec how excited his family was to be in France. Wayne then asked LeBec if he had any
children. LeBec replied that he had two daughters and a son. But when Wayne asked other
questions about LeBecs family, his French colleague became quite distant and
uncommunicative. Wayne wondered what he had done wrong.
Explain this breakdown in communication. What should have Wayne done in a different
way?

3. Tom Bancroft, the top salesman of his Midwestern U.S. area, was asked to head up a
presentation of his office equipment firm to a Latin American company. He had set up an
appointment for the day he arrived and even began explaining some of his objectives to the
marketing representative sent to meet his plan. It seemed that the representative was always
changing the subject and persisted in asking lots of personal questions about Tom, his family
and interests. Tom was later informed that the meeting had been arranged for several days
later, and his hosts hoped that he would be able to relax a little first and recover from his
journey, perhaps see some sights and enjoy their hospitality. Tom responded by saying that he
was well-prepared to give a presentation that day, if possible. The representative seemed a
little surprised at this, but said he would discuss it with his superiors. Eventually, they agreed to
meet with him, but, at the meeting, after chatting and some preliminaries, they suggested that
since he might be tired they could continue the next day after he had some time to recover.
During the next few days, Tom noticed that though they had said they wanted to discus details
of his presentation, they seemed to spend an inordinate amount of time on unimportant details.
This began to annoy Tom as he thought that the deal could have been closed several days
ago. He just did not know what they were trying to do.

Which is the cultural difference implied here and how should have Tom done in a
different way?

4. Peter had worked for several years in an advertising agency before joining a small Boston
bank as a human resource manager. In the week after he joined, the bank was acquired by a
Japanese bank. Senior Japanese staff arrived and soon exerted their authority. Peter noticed
three aspects of their behaviour that seemed to him strange at least, in terms of his previous
experience. He was not sure how to explain them. First, relations between staff at all levels
were relatively formal, and responsibilities to superiors were differentiated rigidly. Second, all
the Japanese were male, and were patriarchal in their relations with female employees. Third,
the Japanese management showed no interest in long-term planning, and discouraged their
American subordinates from strategic planning.
What factors explain these strange behaviours?
a) The industrial culture of banking
b) The Japanese culture (compared to American culture)
c) The Japanese economic policy
d) Some other factor in the marketplace.
Discuss your answer, and decide what response(s) Peter should have made:
a) Train the American staff to understand Japanese cultural values
b) Train the Japanese staff to understand American cultural values
c) Start looking for another job
d) Nothing
e) Some other. Explain.
Then, six months after the purchase, the Japanese management announced that they were reselling. It then became clear that this had always been the main purpose in making the
purchase, and that management had not wished to invest in strategic planning that might
prejudice the sale.
Suppose that you had been Peter, and you had known about this planned resale at the
time of the original acquisition, how would you have responded?
(Source: Mead, Richard, International Management: Cross-Cultural Dimensions, 3rd Edition, Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2005, pp.
22-23.)

5. A leading Thai university collaborated with a leading American business school to introduce an
MBA program. The American school contributed its syllabus and all courses were taught by the
visiting American faculty. The students, who were almost all Thai, were expected to reach high
levels of English language competence before registering. The schools had equally well
equipped computer rooms, where many students prepared their assignments. Because the
same program was being taught in both schools, the assignments inputs were identical. In the
American school, each student worked alone at a computer, in silence, not talking to his or her
neighbours; any disturbance was resented. In the Thai computer room, students gathered in
groups around computers, noisily discussing the output with each other and other groups near
them; there was no question of being overcrowded; many computers were unused.
How does the American behaviour reflect American culture?
How does the Thai behaviour reflect Thai culture?
In what respects is the new technology inducing a shift in the two cultures?
In what respects is it not inducing shifts in the culture?
You are Human Resource Manager in the Thai subsidiary of an American multinational
company. Headquarters has decided that you should introduce new information technologies
currently in use there. You have been asked to research how this might influence
structural relationships in the workforce. What questions do you need to ask?
(Source: Mead, Richard, International Management: Cross-Cultural Dimensions, 3rd Edition, Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2005, p.
230.)

6. Proverbs as cultural clues

Read the following proverbs corresponding to two different cultures (proverbs in groups 1, 3
and 5 correspond to one culture, and proverbs in groups 2, 4 and 6 to another one) and then
answer to the following requirements:
a. Identify the universal ideas promoted by the different sets of proverbs.
b. Identify the countries described by these proverbs and justify your choices. For
each group of proverbs (Group 1-6), identify the corresponding cultural dimension
according to Hofstedes research and justify your choice.

(Source: Sronce, R., Li, L., 2011. Catching flies with honey: Using Chinese and American proverbs to teach cultural dimensions.
International Journal of Management Education 9(2), 2011, p. 9.)