Birkenshire Corporation: The Pink Towels

內容大綱
On March 7, 2012, one day before International Women’s Day, all female staff of Birkenshire Corporation, a British organization in China, received an email from the human resources department about a pink towel gift set being given to all female employees of the company in celebration of the day. This act sparked a lively discussion among the female staff about various gender issues and cultural customs such as society’s expectations for professional women and cultural connotations of colours. The decision faced by management was whether to respond to the issues raised in the staff email thread, and, if management responded, how and when the response should be delivered.
學習目標
This short case is suitable for inclusion in courses on international business, international human resource management, and cross-cultural management in multinational corporations. It can be used for sessions in any postgraduate and MBA-level courses focusing on issues of cross-cultural communication. Upon successful completion of this case, students should be able to<ul><li>assess various perspectives in a subtle and complicated scenario of cross-cultural communication;</li><li>understand how staff members coming from diverse cultural and professional backgrounds interpret messages and gestures in completely different ways;</li><li>understand how conflicts can easily occur as a result of misperceived hostility in heated discussions;</li><li>evaluate options for dealing with cross-cultural conflict in the workplace; and</li><li>develop a plan for management to deal with issues raised by multicultural staff and to resolve future conflict.</li></ul>
涵蓋主題
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