Global People Management Report
Question 1)
If you were a consultant to a company looking to becoming more international, how would you explain the differences between a universalist approach and a contextual approach to managing global talent to the company’s HR manager? Please use real life or hypothetical examples to support your arguments. Question 2)
Explain any 3 theories from the culturalist perspective (Lessons 2 & 3). Please use real life or hypothetical examples to explain the theories chosen.
Question 3)
Originally from China, Jin had recently started a new job as a management consultant in New York City and was immediately placed on two different project teams with individuals from the U.S., Germany and the Netherlands. Jin was keen on making a positive impression, but felt ill-equipped to do so, especially in this mostly Western multicultural team environment. Jin’s fellow consultants would express their opinions with assertiveness, confidence and enthusiasm. They would speak out of turn, often interrupting each other, and sometimes speaking over each other.
In China, communication was very different and had more of a turn-taking quality: one person would speak — typically the most senior member of the team — and others would politely listen. After that person had spoken, others could contribute as well, though always in ways that would not threaten the “face” of their superior.
Jin’s different communication style showed up on his performance review — as a liability. His manager used words such as “lacking confidence,” “not a team player,” and “not willing to contribute to team discussions.” But Jin had thought he was all of those things —confident, a team player and willing to contribute to group discussions — and even made efforts to adapt his style when working with this Western-dominant team.These efforts went unnoticed. Jin felt hurt by the news and wanted to figure out where things could have gone wrong. He wanted to succeed in his new position, but felt hindered by the team culture. He felt embarrassed about making a cultural mistake and about his linguistic ineptitude, frustrated and resentful about having to adapt in the first place, and also alienated from the group.
Having read the above mini-case study, how could Jin’s manager have made use of the global assignment cycle to guide his team to avoid the above situation.
Question 4)
In your own words, please summarize your individually chosen article for lesson 8 (Recruitment & Selection). Next, please discuss how your article connects with the material covered in lesson 4 (Comparative view).