Introduction
When change initiatives are made with regard to the context of concerned stakeholders then chances are that success will be achieved. Conversely, if one simply transplants one’s values into another culture, things can go wrong as was the case in the situation under analysis.
Case analysis
The expatriate manager suffered from a problem that is common amongst most leaders in the corporate arena; he presumed that there is one single leadership approach that can work universally. However, this may not be automatically true; any international manager needs to know that national and cultural differences have a huge role to play in organizations. Consequently, one’s values determine one’s reaction or attitude towards change. A majority of leadership theories have been developed in the western world such as Australia, North America and Europe. Consequently, US-based managers should not assume that these theories can work everywhere. Although they may be effective in certain societies, one should go through the trouble of first finding out what kind of society one is dealing with and what drives them. This expatriate manager had skipped that part before instating change within his organization (Latta, 2009).
Nonetheless, studies carried out in leadership across various parts of the world have shown that certain universal functions do exist. At the end of it all, in situations that need change, what is needed is leadership to steer people in the right direction and the willingness to accept that change. In this case, the expatriate US manager had fulfilled these fundamentals but an exception arose because a cultural difference existed between him and his subordinates. Leadership in essence can be understood as the practice of influencing a group/ others. However, because of varying cultural contexts, the attitude to influence and the method of carrying out that influence may vary. In the US context, this particular manager would have influenced people very well using achievement and individualism (AIQS, 2010). However, because he was working with a Japanese team, ascriptive or collective values would have worked better. It should be noted that work-related values are highly dependent on culture. The expatriate manager hailed from what may be considered as the most individualistic society on earth. He was therefore driven by the need to reward individual traits. In Japan where collaboration and collectiveness are highly valued, the American way of doing things was highly divergent from their culture. Members of the Japanese team were still in need of rewards; they may also have valued task completion and high productivity. However, their way of achieving this was more group-oriented. The US-based manager would therefore have been better off changing his tactics (Doh and Luthans, 2008).
Several studies on the US versus Japan workplaces have concluded that the former country’s nationals have an internal locus of control while the latter country’s nationals have an external locus of control. In other words, Americans tend to believe that they are in control of their own destiny at work and they usually dwell on themselves and what they can change. This expatriate manager in the video clip appeared to be uncomfortable with the loss of control (JAN, 2010). On the other hand, Japanese nationals are driven by an external locus of control. They believe that responsiveness and harmony are vital and that leaving control to some external factor is the order of the day. Therefore, a good work ethic is defined by a concern for the other. In this regard, the manager had contradicted their locus of control and this was the reason why productivity went down.
Conclusion
The expatriate manager used values from his culture to make a change in his organization yet the people who were to be affected by the change came from a different setting. He should first have learned about the expectation and values of his subordinates before exporting or changing his leadership approach.
References
- Latta, G. (2009). A process model of organizational change in cultural change. Leadership and Amp Journal, 35(5), 67
- Doh, J. & Luthans, F. (2008). International management: culture, behavior and strategy. NY: McGrawhill
- Australian Institute of quantity surveyors (2010). Impact of international management. Project planning journal, 4(13), 25
- JAN (2010). Role of culture in international management.