Critical Incidents

1. Individualism vs. Collectivism

Individualism describes the human characteristic way where the individual self is
prioritized rather than a social institution such as a family, workplace or society. It
is typical of an individual who is relatively individualistic to separate professional
ambitions to personal, which is the case for Monsieur LeBec.
While Monsieur LeBec is clearly oriented towards individualism, Wayne Calder
shows a preference towards collectivism where members of a group are expected
to look after each other. This automatically leads to a misconnection between the
two of them.
In order to fix the relationship with his French coworker, we believe that Wayne
Calder must adapt to the local culture and not ask personal questions. He should
maintain the relationship strictly professional in order to avoid this kind of
situations.

2. Long term orientation vs. Short term orientation

Tom Bancroft, in this case, is interested in fulfilling his social obligations and
takes care about immediate gratification than long-term fulfillment. He shows a
preference towards solving the problems in the present, honoring the time frame.
Such attitude of Tom is in contrast with the culture orientation of Romanians, who
does not neglect the importance of building relationships.
The solution we considered the best is for Tom Bancroft to embrace the
hospitality of Romanian people and leave for the moment his focus on work. He
should build a relationship with his coworkers, as this is usually the habit in this
type of cultures.

3. Individualism vs. Collectivism

The type of reward technique that Jim was applying in the USA, does not work
accordingly in Beijing. The American culture is very I focused, meaning that
they focus more on furthering themselves and their careers rather than
furthering their department or group. On the other hand, China is a highly
collectivistic culture thinking as a group versus individually. This different
approach is what makes Jims reward technique inefficient in Beijing.
We believe that Jim should think of a reward that would not only satisfy
individuals, but also the group as a whole. Such rewards include: increasing the
medical insurance for each employee or their holidays when overall sales reach a
certain point. This type of bonus would engage employees in

4. Power distance
Power distance is the extent to which less powerful people in an organization will
accept and expect power to be distributed differently. It mainly handles the issue
of sue how a society handles inequalities among people.
On one hand, Sue, an American, expresses a preference towards distribution of
power and is interested in consulting each decision with the rest of the group. On
the other hand, Li Chang and Hong Liang are used to a centralized decision
making. This means that they accept a hierarchical order and a lot of power
distance between subordinates and superiors is accepted and normal. This is a
reason why the Chinese employees did not express their opinion regarding the
debated issues.
We believe that Sue should learn more about the Chinese culture in order to try
to combine the two ways of thinking. We consider that if Li Chang and Hong Liang
are temporarily put in a leading position, they may be inclined to express their
opinion as they would be in the top of the hierarchical order.

Dumitru Alina Mihaela

Group 951 REI ASE
Team no 2