University of Economics Ho Chi Minh city

IBC02 – K43

GROUP MEMBERS:
Nguyễn Thị Ngọc Hà
Đào Bảo Ngọc
Nguyễn Dương Thanh Tâm Subject: International Business
Võ Thiện Thành Lecturer: Ms. Nguyen Kim Thao
Bùi Thị Thu Uyên Group 6

Group 6
1
1. Problem Definition:

In this case, a problem definition concentrates mainly on Cultural

Differences in global environment, which means a Chinese country
manager-Jianguo- has problems integrating himself into a new
culture. This will include following issues:

Jianguo and himself: Jianguo is not open enough in the new global
context, which is a much bigger and broader environment than just
a branch in China.

Jianguo and his colleagues: Jianguo and his colleagues are not very
cooperative with each other as they all have their own pride and
working style. Still, lacking of exposure time is also a problem.

Jianguo and the Deronde family business: senior managers still

show very little care and instructions towards employees. Plus,
prejudices and stereotypes are something common-sense in the
company. Therefore, people who are different from others may find
themselves isolated.

2. Diagnosis and cause-effect analysis:

+ Jianguo and himself:

This mainly focus on problems with his own mindset. Previously as

a country manager in his local region, Jianguo definitely had his
confidence and nationalistic pride in his work with the support by
the hometown’s structure and his in-depth knowledge about not
only China but also Asian markets.

However, when promoted to a higher position in another culture in

the global, with no doubt he was less confident as he was under
higher pressure to live up to the expectation. But the more severe
reason is that he tried to work hard to avoid weaknesses without

Group 6
2
being open-minded to learn new things.

For instance, at the welcome meal, he chose to close himself off to

the experience with a French perspectives on Chinese cuisine.
What’s more, while disfavoured the idea of cooperating with
Parisian dermatologist, he suggested to have a Chinese spokesman
for skincare products aimed at young men. From this, it is clearly
shown that Jianguo is still an advocate for China and he is not
willing to acquire new things in the global area. As a result, he is
largely on his own without the open relationship with his
colleagues, company. And that let him in the isolation of just being
himself and loss in a whole different culture.

+ Jianguo and his colleagues:

Jianguo was promoted to be a senior vice president of global

product development at Deronde International. His erstwhile
competitors are now his colleagues, together they have to come up
with ideas for a new product. However, with merely three weeks of
interacting and working as a team, they did not have enough
chances to break the cultural ice among members. Yves has inside
him a strong typical French spirit with self-assured and loyal
characteristics. The other two are also French and for that reason,
although the three were previously also competitors, they know
each other for so many years that they share a degree of trust.

Plus, in the team meeting a day before the executive committee

meeting, endless suggestions from all corners by Yves, Elise and
Antoine had been given to Jianguo, still, the vast majority reflected
French imagery. And for Jianguo, he introduced a new idea of a
product which, in our opinion, convey a sense of the Eastern style:
a product evokes peony scent from Beijing or a compound that
might give a novelty of fragrance in many parts of Asia. It can be
seen that not only Jianguo but also his colleagues have their own
traditional ground, their own nationalistic pride.

Group 6
3
 As a result, a leader, who is rather conservative than assertive, like
Jianguo, made Yves, Elise and Antoine feel being underrated and
difficult to cooperate productively with their manager.

+ Jianguo and Deronde family business:

Because Jianguo has nationalistic pride while Deronde is a family

business with unmistakable pride in its French identity, he doesn’t
have trust in other foreign partners. Consequently, his perspectives
and ideas to launch the new product are completely in contrast to
other members’ ideas, which means instead of listening, he would
immediately change with “I have some other ideas”.

There’s another indirect problem affecting Jianguo is that when

this company changes to global moves, it doesn’t consider about the
cross-cultural experience. If it wants their country managers to
work effectively and more cooperatively with partners in another
countries, it should conduct an exchange program that these top
managers can be flexibly exchangeable between different areas. By
living and working together, they can break down these barriers
and find more common ground to understand properly and work
more cooperatively abroad. In this case, we can see that Jianguo is
promoted immediately from country manager to senior vice
president of global product development, he doesn’t have enough
time to expose new culture,working style and environment. so it’s
very difficult for him to adapt to this new environment and working
well with other colleges at the meeting.

Instead of this severe situation with lots of misunderstandings, a

CEO like Alain - with supreme authority over the company, should
have shown more support and instructions to his inferiors. In such
a high position like him, he must have foreseen what Jianguo might
experienced when not only being forwarded to another country but
also being in charge of a much heavier role. Jianguo, moving from
regional to global leader, has to be well-prepared in knowledge and
mentally to integrate in such a multicultural environment.

Group 6
4
Hence, Alain needs to give a hand in creating chances for members
to immerse in each other’s cultures and find out the common voice.

Another point is that Jianguo comes from an Eastern country

where staff are expected to defer to the boss’s decisions. Different
cultures defer to authority at different levels. Erin Meyer - professor
at INSEAD and researches doing business across cultures - has this
system that she’s developed from a bunch of research that positions
55 countries up and down 8 behavioral scales. Cultures, for
example, in Scandinavia, or Australia, or Israel, or the Netherlands
where children are really taught from a young age that the boss or
the teacher or the parent is just a facilitator among equals. In those
cultures, people are taught that it’s very appropriate to disagree
with the boss or challenge the boss. While in India or China or
Japan or, even more so, a country like Nigeria or Korea — children
really learn from a very young age to defer to the person in charge.

Additionally, creativity and personal ideas are not very encouraged

in the Eastern workplace, especially when they against the boss.
This attitude of Jianguo made the gap, which was already large
between him and his member, becomes larger: the communication
lacks harmony and working process with no common grounds
encountered cognitive dissonance. Furthermore, Jianguo should
have known that he is no more a country manager for China, he
now plays a role of a global head of product development, works in
France, and his mindsets must be adjusted to adapt to the new
position, the new responsibility.

3. Actions:

Jianguo has been in France just for three weeks but if he keeps
being conservative as he is, he cannot become a good leader with
global mindsets.

Group 6
5
Therefore, he himself has to change on some different aspects.

First of all, he has to understand that he is now working beyond

his country so he should have a wider view outside China by
spending time on learning, acquiring and accepting what new
cultures offer. Once he is open to his mind with new perspectives, a
global approach will help him to become a better global leader in
multicultural environment.

Jianguo should learn to accept even things he dislikes, he should

have trust in family business that helps him be willing to listen
respectfully and cooperate effectively with other partner ideas. By
working in team, they will plan better strategies that meet their
objectives.

Jianguo is living in a company in which the colleagues are

uncooperative and the superior is unsupportive. So he should
prepare himself and adjust his behavior first. Stop being emotional
and doubtful about his boss’s decisions and himself, also. These are
not the traits needed from a leader as it shows immaturity in
behavior. Jianguo must learn how different it is in the working style
between the East and the West. In such a Western geography like
France, with an open-to-opinion workplace, Jianguo has to learn to
play the game with the new rules - being a cooperative leader, listen
and understand his teammates’ ideas. Moreover, he should also
tweak his mindset, stop advocating for China and view the market
as global ground rather than just a Chinese home.

References

Paul, H. (2000). Creating a global mindset. Thunderbird International Business Review, 42(2), pp.187-
200.

Abramson, N., Moran, R. and Harris, P. (n.d.). Managing cultural differences.

Meyer, E. (2017). How Authority and Decision-Making Differ Across Cultures. [online] Harvard Business
Review.

Group 6
6