Bert Donaldson Mistakes - Team Building - Assignment Example

Expatriate in Team Building Student’s Name Subject Professor University/Institution Location Date Assess Donaldson mistakes. Why they Occurred? Whose responsibility are they? What are the implications of not satisfactorily dealing with Donaldson problem? Multinational corporations experience crises if the expatriates’ assignments fail (Crew, 2004:1). Bert Donaldson an expatriate in Argos Diesel, Europe was assigned the role of team building. His role is to facilitate and implement training strategies for the European managers, enhance teamwork that would influence the way of managing change and creating vision. However in this particular meeting, the keynote address he is to give , of which he is not well prepare d to report on, has promoted the CEO, Frank Waterhouse to do deeper analysis of Donaldson functioning. The span of time he has spent in Argos Europe has not satisfactorily proved his competency as it was expected when he left Detroit for Europe. His commendations are questionable, since nothing in practically reveals his abilities and the expectations. Frank evaluations reveal Donaldson failure, based on relationship and coherence building, emotional intelligence, context adjustments, speed and motivation. The role of Donaldson particularly is that of human resource managers. HR managers attain a sustainable change and competitive advantage through a strategic process of utilizing the people in the organization. However, a change process is always slow and thus, managers need a constellation of enthusiasm, hope and energy if they have to become effective (Walker, Armenakis & Bernerth, 2007). As an expatriate manager, his skills and experience in understanding change, motivation, developing moral purpose, knowledge building, coherence making and relationships have not been realized. Lack of an increased level of commitment from other organizational managers that in turn could lead to positive results is yet to be seen. First, moral purpose inculcated to the members of an organization is an important aspect that every manager should strive to achieve in the organization (Fullan, 2001:8). It occurs naturally if a manager develops his passion for team work and treats members fairly in decision making and implementation of their best strategy towards organizational change. The manager therefore, increases the potential of getting many followers and network teams which acts as agents to start and drive the change. Moral purpose cultivated on members, makes it possible for the organization to make a difference by achieving the desired changes. It also makes it effective for the manager to lead people in solving the organizational problems with an enhanced accountability for solutions. Donaldson role as a manager has failed, since he is not more innovative, to understand the team values, objectives and changes to effectively lead them. The team of managers in Europe therefore seems as a separate team whose expectations are failed by the expatriate. Without such a team, the changes that will result will only be on short-term basis. According to (Mendenhall, 2001) promoting change depends on the build strong relationships between members. This is core if the leader has to attain the organization common goal. Relationship also enhances a continuous communication to facilitate change. For Bert, his relationship with his assistant, Frau Schweri is soar and this due to his reaction to work without consulting. Ursula Lindt has been the central point where managers pour their complaints and since there is poor relationship with her, Bert has not had an opportunity to realize the managers’ experiences. As, much as he is depicted as a “Work Animal”, his transactional approach is not possible without first creating a good rapport. The meetings have been too formal, streamlined and therefore there has not been enough time to let other people understand him as well as him understanding them. A manager through the emotional intelligence, promote positive impact by utilizing people potential to advance change and competitive advantage. It is therefore a process Donaldson has not engaged in, by creating, controlling and maintaining good team relationship. Manager also strives to build organizational change knowledge from social context of discussions and sharing. Team work and collaboration help people share in and across their organization. The process therefore, ends up in a creating knowledge. To attain Argos goal for team building, Donaldson was required from the beginning to embark on enhancing knowledge and promote internal commitment. Knowledge building has to consider at least three aspects, the aim, the need and the outcome in its application. For Donaldson what has failed is an understanding of the current state of managers’ information, the desired knowledge and skills, extent of deviation and solutions to avert the deviation. Without such an analysis his training strategy has become haphazard, unresponsive and too far general. As Castrogiovanni & Kidwell, (2010) argues, continuous training, workshops and seminars on members ensure the human resource manager ability to evaluate the short-term and long-term inputs and outputs. This is also lacking in Donaldson plan and implementation. Knowledge building is done through internal and external consultation. Internal consultation enhances specific diagnosis while the external breaks the constraints in relationship and encourage faster and probably short term results. Both are in need to help him first understand the team and identify the best external consultants, to drive the identified requirements. Knowledge increase team competency as well as that of organization when it is applied. Manager promotes coherence making even in conflict scenarios. He has not possibly evaluated the organization by the alternative possibilities provided in such occasion to enhance collaboration. This is should be a continuous process implemented in stages and demands. A manager achieves it by re-assignment, change of roles, and control to bring about coherence. Argos Europe did not provide preparation, support and training requirements that were necessary for Donaldson. The CEO, Frank Waterhouse has failed to offer assistance to Donaldson before and during his tenure in Europe. Poor orientation, over-emphasis on his past competency and lack of establishing a plan based on research and procedures of change were not established at the beginning. There are negative implications that are seen to result if the scenario is not dealt with. These include lack of long-term changes as there is little values change on the team. Donaldson failed assignment might lead to premature return to Detroit. Direct and indirect costs, in migration costs, loss of market share due to lack of team work to implement, loss of self-esteem, confidence and promotional opportunities on Donaldson, unproductive seminars and training, time loss and increase in conflict between managers. What could the company have done to better prepare Donaldson for his task? As Harvey & Noviceivic (2001) observes, expatriate failure is primarily brought by the error in selection strategy. Apart from technical competence, other important interpersonal factors are held important dear and of great importance in selection. As much as Donaldson was efficient in Detroit, his interpersonal skills could have been enhanced to assist him in cultural adjustment which is the core complaint of Frank, as he acknowledges that it was not given. For managerial function, interpersonal skills are worthy of greater consideration. There was need to offer Donaldson orientation to familiarize with Europe region as well as its operations. By this he could have adjusted to tolerate ambiguity and engage behavioral flexibility. Leaders change their personality traits and relational abilities to function in different demands and environmental variables. The company could have given him an orientation to his audience, cultural values based on communication styles and interrelations and motivational state (Varner, 2002: 8). This would have identified his willingness to acquire diverse patterns of attitudes and behavior. Training world have altered his behavior and attitudes and increase the probability to attain the goals. Increased social support is meant for encouragement, motivation for seeking social network and bear new stressors. Many uncertainties that come with new role are solved by training. Managers in HR departments have shown dynamic and adaptive skills in the face of globalized economy and have therefore, continuously adapted to issues which relate to tolerance for ambiguity, behavioral flexibility and non-judgmental. Interpersonal skills, cultural empathy and low ethnocentrism have also developed in multinational organizations, particularly with the HRM. Pre-departure training on expatriates is a critical step which attempt to ensure that the expatriate are to be effective and achieve success. Due to the difficulties of entry, such training should aim to offers expatriates and their families’ faster adjustments. This impact on career planning while ultimately reverse culture shock. Expatriate adapt to work and life and therefore counseling workshops and consultations for career development are important factor for adjustment. This could have been offered to Donaldson before commencing his task, and particularly due to short duration of his contract in Europe. The aspects in such training include: information giving approaches, affective approach, to address his feelings and immersion approach, the in-depth methods that cover broad range of topics. With this relational skills improve for effective performance. Human resource field depend on managers efficiency in communication. Multilingual expatriates, who know different languages, are therefore effective in multinational corporations. However, it is hard to get competent managers in this. Non-verbal communication and extra-lingual features can develop easily and promote effective functioning in such cross-cultural contexts. Common sign language, such as hand and body movement, facial expressions are important to and Argos Europe would have enabled Donaldson to adapt since he is not competitive in European languages. Argos could have offered cultural orientation for cultural conditioning. In socialization process, it is good to understand that people’s cultures are programmed in them (Weech, 2001:62). Since there are many factors that shape culture, they do not therefore appear over night or simply chosen. Culture shape process that occur over time and this creates relative stability, reflect organizational collective knowledge , structure which shares values, norms, behavior and patterns (Dowling, Festing, & Engle, Sr., 2009). Organizational culture provides a system which members use to define good from evil and right from wrong, or good from evil. This is encountered by expatriates when they come to other cultures. The extent or differences in culture orientation had to be evaluated and implement to resolve and counter it. Most managers are expressing dissatisfactions with trainers brought by Donaldson. Issues concerning their introduction and personality come up. Time keeping and deeper knowledge for feedback are needed in some parts of Europe. Preparation would have enhanced his appreciation for essential cultural differences and this is to facilitate interactions and his movement across Europe departments (Handin & Steinwedel, 2006: 22). However recognition of it was neglected, and cultural insensitive and inappropriate behaviors and attitudes has largely stemmed from ignorance and misguided beliefs. Donaldson has adapted his way as the best; one way fit all, whether at home or far from home to him. Social etiquette was not to be assumed as its neglect largely created loopholes since it was not considered and developed. This involves issues of appearance of managers and his network teams involved in facilitating change. Appearance aspects such conservative clothing, dressing alike are seen in Argos Europe. Greetings depends on palms shape, precision, relevance and ranking introduction are also to be trained. Others are orientations on verbal and non-verbal communication, workplaces behaviors, gender sensitive issues, meetings, humor, social behaviors, transport, gifts, entertainment and holidays (Simoff & Sudweeks, 2007:94). What does this case suggest about company’s current policy for recruiting and preparing expatriates? Their policy is based on the idea of universal approach to management. This means they expect a global leader to have the transformational and transactional capabilities irrespective of region or culture; according to the case study, Argos Europe outsourcing largely depend on external recommendations (Altinay, 2006:117). Past performance is the vital guide for selection. Policy build on assumption that expatriates can acquire multicultural adaptability and context behaviors and therefore assumption on preparation; Poor developed structure, processes of orientation, induction and planning; no consideration of individual divergences from what the company needs and expect from them; the extent of preparation depend on expatriates own adjustments and evaluation and assessment procedures are not communicated Assumption that, successful international managers share common characteristics and therefore over-emphasis on independent implementation; this does not communicate the system, time, procedure, and people to be used in facilitation. The extent of control is limited, and expatriates are independent to do what is fitting for there is little preparation procedure Insensitive to impediments of mobility, without realizing the obstacles in the company culture, mentoring, motivation, direction and alternative considerations lacks Long and short-time goals; the policy does not set the goals and the aspects of time, to achieve. Social life; there is no set policy to cater for expatriates family and social life Policy suggestions As Altinay, (2006:122) observes, the aspects of selection criterion should include: Clear defined selection criterion; External and internal recruitment strategy; selection based on both external recommendation and company’s internal criterion. This is to promote expatriate’s self evaluation, assessment and dynamism. Clear defined measure of performance and appraisal; set the elements and variables identifiable for competitive training, such include interpersonal skills, language proficiency, team work , self-drive and evaluation Training for selectors; specific training considerate of special needs and expectations Nominations based on reputation and networking Utility; provide both short-term and long-term mutual benefit between company’s strategic objectives and that of the expatriates career Panel discussion, to engage an active mentoring and monitoring; provide assistance before, during and after selection to get the interests, attitudes and behavior incorporation Reporting and communication; based on expatriates expectation and the quality of companies input Long-range planning; plan outcomes as well as effectiveness have to be stretched over a specified duration to avoid haste and untimely evaluation Assessment and evaluation; self and company’s at various level to promote training continuity Balanced; the training should be wholesome in social, professional and cultural aspects. 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