The president must determine how to increase business development at the feedmill. The challenge facing him is to have the feedmill's managers adopt attitudes and behaviours that are consistent with a market driven enterprise. This is no easy task considering that the feedmill is a former state-owned enterprise which did not strive to achieve independent profitability.
The decision-maker responsible for evacuating company managers and their families from a crisis situation now faces a political hot-potato due to second-guessing from superiors, peers and subordinates as a result of decisions he made during the evacuation. The employees who were scheduled for evacuation had dispersed and had unilaterally planned their exit itineraries, resulting in the company incurring a $75,000 bill to facilitate the evacuation of a group of employees from another company. Despite the organizational and logistical challenges, all expatriates and their families were safely evacuated. The teaching objectives of this supplement to the A (9A99C001) and B (9A99C002) cases are to expose students to the politics during the post-crisis review of decisions made during those stressful and ambiguous times.
The regional HR manager of a multinational conglomerate faces increasing pressure to evacuate management as the crisis intensifies in the politically unstable country. Concurrently, it becomes increasingly clear that individual managers are making evacuation plans independent of central control, making implementation of a prearranged plan very difficult. The decision to evacuate ethnic Chinese managers and family members is made, and the offer of assistance is extended to all employees. Further logistical challenges in the evacuation plan become more problematic by increased pressure felt by the decision-maker due to the deteriorating situation in the country, as well as an increased sense of desperation among managers both in the country and those abroad with families present. Making matters even more difficult for the decision-maker is the loss of communication with his evacuation team, insufficient cash available to the evacuees, mounting costs to the firm, and an inability to clarify exit documentation requirements of evacuation employees and their families. This is a supplement to the A case, 9A99C001.
<p style="color: rgb(197, 183, 131);"><strong> AWARD WINNER - Regional Asia-Pacific Case Writing Competition</strong></p><br>The regional HR manager of a multinational conglomerate that operates in over 100 countries had to make decisions regarding the evacuation of its senior management from a politically unstable country. In particular, the firm's expatriate and ethnic Chinese managers and their families faced considerable risk. The HR manager is charged with executing corporate policies and plans. Some of the challenges to consider relate to the development and initial execution of the evacuation plan. These challenges are heightened by a decentralized decision-making process entrenched in the firm's structure and culture, as well inconsistent information from numerous sources in the field operations. Moreover, the issue of which employees to evacuate poses a moral dilemma for the decision-maker. Specifically, he must decide what criteria - rank, ethnicity, tenure - should dictate whether an employee and/or his or her family is offered assistance, and of what sort.
The new general manager at a real estate organization needs to devise several action plans to resolve areas in need of change. After spending only one month on the job, she concluded that some changes were badly needed; however, she also knew that initiating any changes would prove to be a considerable challenge. Therefore, she needed to devise these plans while maintaining positive relations with the employees.
The managing director and operations director of the manufacturing arm of a joint venture were experiencing severe difficulties. Transferred three years ago, they shared management responsibilities with other expatriates. The workforce was predominately locals. The performance of the company was not meeting expectations of either of the joint venture partners, a problem especially acute for the managing director, whose father was chairman of the partner's holding company. Problems included high turnover, changing roles with the recent departure of a firm originally in a 3-way partnership, intercultural communications and general confusions as to what to do.
Because of several factors, the employee decided that the raise offered by her company's director of operations was inadequate (see Maria Mancini - Expatriate Compensation (A), case 9A98G007). She had not had an answer to her carefully worded fax, nor to subsequent calls made by her from Hong Kong. Advised by the director's assistant to contact the Human Resources Director, she met personally with him while she was in Italy two weeks later. He surprised her by readily agreeing to her request for a larger raise, but despite this, she had received neither the confirmation letter nor the pay increase. Her work visa renewal requiring a formal contract was due soon and she was concerned about what to do.
An employee has completed nearly one year in her first full time job and faces a decision about a pay increase offered by her headquarters office. A native of North America working in Hong Kong for an Italian fashion house, she unexpectedly assumed responsibilities well beyond her original contract. In addition, both cost of living and inflation in Hong Kong have exceeded her projections. She is concerned that the raise is insufficient for the circumstances and is wondering what to do. (A sequel to this case is available, titled Maria Mancini - Expatriate Compensation (B), case 9A98G008.)
The general manager faces a difficult decision whether to sell the family business to a publicly listed company with the needed resources and experience to bring the firm to the next level of success. Complicated by complex family relations, including the death of his uncle who ran an Indonesian subsidiary and his father's departure to attend to the large losses from this business, he wonders what the best course of action is. Not the least of his concerns is the increased importance of mainland China business to his Hong Kong company and the problematic nature of some of these activities. In addition, he has a personal ambition to practice law, after suspending these interests for several years to serve the family's needs. (A supplement to this case under the same name, case 9A98F003, addresses a number of social and emotional complexities.)
A senior accountant in a large accounting firm, is on the verge of resigning. He faces a sensitive meeting with the managing partner of the new venture practice. A native of Hong Kong, the senior accountant has been given a temporary assignment to audit when he wants to specialize in tax. A serious misunderstanding, partially involving cultural differences, has evolved over this assignment. A companion case, David Shorter, describes the situation from the managing partner's point of view. The pair of cases are designed for use in a role play.
The managing partner of the a new enterprise group faces a sensitive meeting with the Hong Kong native senior accountant who has indicated that he is likely to resign. A serious misunderstanding, partially involving cultural differences, has evolved over his temporary assignment to an audit, when he wants to specialize in tax. The views of a number of other partners and managers involved in the situation are included. Confusion arises over conflicting signals from the senior accountant about his willingness to take on the audit assignment. A companion case, Bob Chen, describes the situation from the senior accountant's point of view. The pair of cases are designed for use in a role play.
A nephew in an Indian family business has prepared a consulting report advocating changes in organizational structure and practices. His North American MBA training has influenced both the content of his recommendations and the process of suggesting them. Both the content and the process violate norms of the Indian culture as well as those of the African culture in which the family business has flourished for 40 years. The problem is what to do given that his actions and report have stirred up deep feelings and conflicts within the family business.
A hotel's personnel director wonders if he should attempt to get even greater employee involvement after setting up Work Excellence Committees. The committees are comprised of union and management representatives at sectional, departmental and top management levels and they provided the coordinating mechanism for the hotel's many productivity activities. The positive end result was progress in labour-management relations.
The director of the international division of a software company has to mediate and resolve a major impasse between one of his project managers and a visiting Chinese programming expert. The Chinese computer expert, a woman of strong views, appears to feel an injustice has been done and is withholding a crucial program which she has completed. The project manager will suffer a significant delay if the computer expert does not relinquish the program and potential sales at a trade show are at stake. (Two sequels to this case are available titled Canada-China Computer Crisis Case, case 9A86C013 and 9A87C016.)
The managers call a meeting of all staff as a strike is threatened over a pay dispute in this rural African company. They learn that the real issue is the disparity between the pay of some workers. This is the sequel to Botswana Uniform Agency (PTY) Limited (A), case 9A79C020.
Two young Canadian women have to deal with the threat of strike in a model factory started up in a rural African village. Cross cultural management problems arise as these two women with different management styles attempt to combine rural African norms, roles and expectations to the task of producing school uniforms in an industrial setting. A strike is threatened over a pay dispute, a result of differing perceptions and expectations in the work environment. A sequel to this case, Botswana Uniform Agency (PTY) (B), case 9A79C021, offers further insight.
The expatriate manager of an international bank faces two major problems. One is internal - how to resolve the inter-departmental conflicts caused by antagonism between two department heads. The other is external - how to cope with government pressures to establish quotas for hiring personnel at every level in the organization. The internal problems of the organization mirror the major socio-cultural-racial tensions in the society.