The Misadventures of an American Expatriate in Europe - Case Study Example

The misadventures of an American expatriate in Europe Name: Course: Tutor: Date: The misadventures of an American expatriate in Europe Globalization Q1. One type of international organizations featured in this article is a multinational enterprise. Multinational enterprises are profit-making corporations that operate in several countries (Campbell & Craig, 2005). This is Pharma First International. The company is a multinational enterprise since it is a profit-making organisation, which operates in various countries across the two continents of Europe and North America. Pharma First operates internationally as Firma First International, with a subsidiary in Europe called Pharma First Europe, which is wholly owned by the Pharma First international. In addition, there are other types of governmental organisations mentioned, like the American Embassy in India (Deardorff, 2009). Q2.a The human resource management approach adopted by the Pharma First International headquarters was aimed at transferring technical expertise to the new acquisitions in Europe. The company aimed at retaining the current crop of employees in the new acquisitions, while at the same time, sending a few expatriates who would be used to implement relevant policies in line with the company’s international policies. This is the reason why Jason and Mike were each given some strategic role to ensure that the company’s goals and core-values would be adhered to the core (Goldsmith, 2003). The company also needed to ensure that there would be real transfer of knowledge and management style from the American branch to the new acquisitions in Europe. This is the reason why Jason was sent to Munich in an attempt to gloom new leaders who would take over and be in charge of operations one he had left (Harvey & Griffith, 2002). This he tried to do for the first six months in Munich. The intention of the company was that there would be able leaders from Europe who would be able to take over the management and running of this company once the European branch was effectively established. Although it may have failed to materialise at the end, it was initially an exceptionally bright idea (Campbell & Craig, 2005). Q2b. Pharma First International internalization strategy and the headquarters approach concerning Internal Human Resource Management and internal assignments seem not to work together exceptionally well. While the internalization strategy aims at making the firm to extend beyond the current borders and reach new frontiers there is no corresponding approach that ensures that ensures that there is an adaptation of the local management approach. The management seems remarkably much interested in creating a unified international firm, but their habit of sending and using foreign employees who are not aware of whatever is happening on the ground serves to pull down the unification effort (Harris, 2005). It would be prudent for the firm to make use of the local management experts who have a wide knowledge in the operation of the works of the local subsidiaries in foreign countries. Although their effort to bring in experts seems commendable at first, the idea fails when the expatriates fails to understand the culture in this place of the world. It would have been wiser for their management teams to do more research before assigning international assignments (Kew & Stredwick, 2005). International staffing at PFI Q1. While Mike seemed to have an excellent working record in many places outside the United States, his mode of operation in Europe suggests otherwise, and he seems not to be a suitable candidate of the expatriation position. This can be simply figured out from the way he develops relations with the employees who were in Europe (Worthington & Britton, 2009). Perhaps, the strategies he adopted were meant to be good. This can be seen from the fact that he tried his level best not to impose any foreign or strange ideologies to the people who were directly answerable to him. He tried to get their opinions on many things and to understand what they thought about the company. In doing this, it is likely that he was interested in seeing the input of these people being incorporated into the running of the company. Nevertheless, however meritorious the intentions were, things did not turn out as he had anticipated. He failed to understand and correctly read the mood of his juniors. He did not manage to interact freely with them and some of the things he tried they terribly failed (Campbell & Craig, 2005). Form this; Mike was not suited to bring together the various subsidiaries in Europe in order to form one network. This role required that a person able to integrate well with the other concerned staff. In addition, he would need to be the uniting the factor for the different units (Margaret, 2006). Q2. Mike’s position is a post that requires a team-builder to work in collaboration with other European heads in order to bring together the European subsidiaries into one network. The position requires one to coordinate the working of various heads, and formulate policies that will serve to consolidate the production process so that each subsidiary will specialize in their most efficient line of production (Troester & Mester, 2007). The ideal candidate for this position should be a person with excellent networking skills, who can easily be able to form a working relationship with other people irrespective of their preferences and mode of operation. The person should have some excellent understanding of the functioning of the company and in addition, to this, should have a deep commitment to learn the new techniques. In addition, the person should be able to mobilize support for difficult policies to be made, as well as being quick to learn when things are going wrong in the company (Moran & Youngdahl, 2008). The positive side of Mike is his desire to take into consideration the opinion of others while working. Mike does his best to get the opinion of other staffs and to understand their views about the goals of Pharma First Europe operations. He tries to get them talking about their aspirations and ambitions for the company, which he intends to put into consideration. A respectable administrator should be able to listen to other people’s ideas. He also seems to have a burning desire to succeed (Tarafder, 2004). The negative side of Mike’s profile is his inability to change his point of view. He seems too rigid when faced with a differing opinion and when confronted by Jason, he seems to be determined to have things work his way and even when the French subsidiary raised objections, he accuses them of complaining. He also seems to have a problem with time keeping because he is working late and does not keep time in the meeting. His social behaviour is wanting, since he is used to staying in the office rather than join other staff for lunch. Q3. As an external consultant, I would advise the American headquarters to find a native European for the position of Mike. This would help to boost morale among the subsidiary heads, as well as making them own the process. The process of creating the European network should then be entrusted to a secretariat consisting of several indigenous staff and some expatriates. This would be useful in making coordination easier, as well as developing cooperation and understanding between the two cultures. This would enable Americans to work freely in Europe without the restrictions of culture or fear of the unknown. The process of product specialization in the European subsidiaries should be enforced with more consultation with the respective heads. This would help to avoid different subsidiaries clinging to their products even when they do not make economic sense. The branches should be allowed to come up with strategies that can improve the performance of their production lines so that they will not feel short-changed when certain production lines are closed when they consistently make losses (Gancel & Hills, 1997). Intercultural dimensions & adjustments Q1 Mike is taking a sandwich from his office while the rest are taking lunch from the cafeteria. This habit that is particularly common with Americans while their Europeans counterparts value the sharing is derived from sharing of meals together. This shows a vast intercultural divide. Mike refers to the European managers with their first name, which angers them. This is due to the fact that the Europeans are not used to being referred to in their first name and this makes them a little uncomfortable while Mike, an American, has certainly no problem with this. Mike goes to the meeting five minutes late. This makes the other people uneasy and in fact aids in showing how incompetence he is. At some other instance, we see the managers not happy after Mike has taken longer to conclude a meeting. This shows an intercultural dimension in that European are exact time keepers while Americans will not mind getting into a meeting late and leaving a little bit late as well. Q2 His family is having a difficulty in adapting to t0 stay in this new environment. Being a country that speaks German, Mike’s wife has a lot of difficulty in adapting to t0 life as a homemaker because she cannot get herself employed due to the lack of mastery of the German language. His son too cannot find a school because he can only speak English and thus risks suffering from retrogressive growth and developing some antisocial habits. The representatives from the various branches were not cooperative. The representatives of the various countries gave their excuses of not being in the meeting for the four days as was earlier intended. This leaves Mike with a hard decision to make so that the agenda of the meetings can be satisfactorily met but his decision angers some of representatives and they become uncooperative in return. Mike thus has a lot of difficulty trying to sell the idea of unifying the various branches to an already de-motivated audience who do nothing but complain. There was a lot of expectation on Mike to give results just as he had done in Richmond. This was an unusually substantial challenge to Mike because the ware no chances to waste. Jason and other people from the Headquarters thought that since Mike had been successful in Richmond, he would have no difficulty in unifying the branches together and thus placed a lot of expectation on mike, which made him to work under immense pressure with no room for any small mistakes, which would affect the whole process. Based on his past achievements, Jason did not bother to help him (Mike) with the planning of the meetings and this is well shown, as he does not even attend the first meeting on the same. Mike has a challenge of understanding the European work environment, which is quite different from the HQ. The employees in Europe are not used to everyday rounds of supervision by management as Mike usually did. They are also not used to being referred to in their first names as Mike did and this annoyed them and made them feel demoralised. The European managers also thought that Mike’s ideas were outdated and that they stood no chance of being implemented to give any concrete results. Q3 Mike assumed that having earlier succeeded in Richmond he could as well succeed in Europe. He did not first carry out a research to find out what may and what may not work out in the case of the European regions. He dictated his ideas without any consultations and this resulted in animosity from the European managers who turned out not cooperative. Mike did not ask for any help, especially from Jason, after he realized that the European managers were not cooperating with him. This could have made the situation easier to deal with as the two could have come up with a more realistic and workable plan of action. Mike could have given the managers a chance to give their views on how they thought the whole process could have been undertaken so as to attain the desired results. This could have given him more freedom to supervise and as well make the various managers feel that they are part and parcel of the whole project. Q4 Mike is not the only one to blame for this situation. The errors that Mike committed could have been avoided if Jason and people from the headquarters had played their roles efficiently. When Mike was sent to Germany, he went there, as an assistant to Jason and thus Jason has to take responsibility for what happens. If Jason was more in touch with Mike and if he had also not placed a lot of expectation on him, the whole on the mess that they found themselves in could have been avoided as the right consultations could have been made in time so as to avoid the setbacks that they had already encountered. Strategies that work in certain situations do not always work at others as the situations, though seeming similar, are somehow different. This should have been realized earlier by Jason and thus he should have placed down the necessary measures to ensure that what worked for Richmond might not necessarily work for the European managers and thus make them adequately prepare for any eventuality. Q5 A market study is always vital. The American HQ should organise and carry out a study on the European managers to get what they primarily need in such a project. This could have as well helped them in planning and coming up with an up to date model on how to carry out the whole project of merging the various subsidiaries to come up with an improved block. The American HQ should as well check on various other people who had may be tried a similar venture in the past and the various challenges that they experienced and solutions that were applied in order to remedy the situations (Bush et al 2001). Jason’s decision Due to the fact that the managers from the various subsidiaries view Mike as an incompetent fellow, would be wise to let him leave so as to boost the morale of the managers and thus improve on their response as this will make them feel that their issues have been addressed and hence they can now work comfortably. Jason should strive to create a rapport with all the present managers with the view of fostering peace and togetherness, which in turn results to team building. With a well built team it can thus be easier to know who can be the best in forging and working towards the achieving of the common network, that is who the best team leader can be and thus enable him to know who to lead with. Jason should appoint a leader from one of the European representatives. This should follow immediately after the departure of Mike. This should be so because the other representatives will feel that one of their own is now leading them and thus he understands them better and hence an opportunity to get them working towards the realization of the goal of achieving a European network. Jason should give room for suggestions on the way it can be best done. By doing this Jason will give each and every European manager who is present a workable reason in order to achieve their goals and targets that they shall be trying to achieve. This will make everyone present to work on their suggestions and thus make them busy and hence making it easier to achieve his goal with minimum supervision. Open Question In this case, the role of European managers needs to be put into consideration, bearing in mind that the success or failure of a firm largely depends on the effectiveness and decision making ability of the leadership (Tarafder, 2004). In the case of Pharma First International in Europe, the managers were the ones who developed a lot of discontentment with Mike’s management style. They seemed not to find anything praiseworthy with Mike, thus made him lose the authoritative power in the continent. These managers also did not bother to raise their concerns openly to Jason, leading to a situation where things were stalling but Jason thought that work was progressing well. It should have been the managers’ concern when policies were failing and when nothing seemed to be working (Bush et al 2001). Pharma First International had an ambitious plan to penetrate the Russian market. This is what Jason devoted a lot of his time trying to accomplish. The move seemed to draw all the attention of Jason from European operations; hence, he was unaware when Mike was running a poor show in Europe (Capon, 2009). However, the strategy that Jason adopted was extremely intelligent, since in order to penetrate the otherwise difficult to crack market, he opted to collaborate with a local university. This would give the company a chance to find means to set up a production plant (Wexler, 2005). References Bush, V., Rose, G., Gilbert, F. & Ingram, T. (2001). Managing culturally diverse buyer-seller relationships: The role of intercultural disposition and adaptive selling in developing intercultural communication competence, Academy of Marketing Science. Journal, vol. 29(4), p391-405, Campbell, D.J & Craig, T. (2005). Organisations and the business environment. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. 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