Kiana Knox

OGL 350

Professor Ghoreishian

2, December 2021

Module 7 Extra Credit

1. What were some of the cultural misunderstandings that occurred at this meeting?
- Some of the cultural misunderstandings that occurred were one about
Fernando’s daughter's quinceanera which is a very important event in Fernando's
culture but Tom doesn't understand that and thinks it's just a silly birthday party.
Another one to me is when Tasleem suggests that they all talk and get to know
one another insce this is their first time meeting each other and Tom thinks they
just need to get straight to business and there is no need for the small talk. The
difference with this a lot of those European cultures or just cultures other than
ours really value building that bind and getting to know one another where Tom
doesn't see the value in that. Another one occurred when Tom asked Sachiko to
talk about why their market is so strong in Asia and Sachiko is confused why he
asked her especially since he is the leader but what is happening here is since
she is “Asian” he assumes to ask her but he shouldn't have done that just
because she is asian doesn't mean she has all the insights for why it's so string in
Asia. He should have made her just provide the insights for Asia just because she
is the Asia Pacific Manager.
2. How did each of the participants view the interactions that took place? (Tom, Omar,
Sachiko, Tasleem, Fernando)
- Tom: He is struggling with understanding his new coworker and he has had a lot
of managerial experience but he doesn't see eye-to-eye with Tasleem and what
she wants to do. He doens believe it's important to get to know one another but
for his cultural views, they are under a lot of pressure to perform well and get
their work done so he doesn't see the need to sit around, chit chat and drink
alcohol. He also fels tah Fernando has a lack of commitment which is putting
stress on him already then finds out the reason why he was thought not to show
as because of his daughters birthday party, which he also views is not an
important thing to miss over the meeting. He was upset that Sachiko was unable
to give the advice to the others like he asked for because to him everyone can be
a leader and the boss doesn't need to be just the boss so he wanted more than
just picking out her favorite restaurant from her. With Omar he was more
 disappointed when he failed because he wasn't direct with him and he
understands that he didn't want to disappoint him but now he questions his
competence. He then finished talking about when dealing with other cultures you
can't rely solely on words, you need to understand their demeanor and their way
of saying this so getting those culture coaches to help you understand their ways
will help you in the long run.
- Omar: In his country it is very important to please your boss. At the last minute
Tom asked him to put together some spreadsheets that Omar was not able to do
and he is frustrated because Tom never asked him if he was able he just
basically demanded him to do it which if he asked he would have expressed that
it would have been very difficult to accomplish. He was upset to be put in the
position to disappoint him especially at the first meeting when he wanted to talk
to him about it later and have some good news along with it.
- Sachiko: She was very surprised that her new boss asked her to give advice to
the group instead of him because her beliefs are that he is his responsibility and
not hers because he is the superior in the group. She was made very
uncomfortable and they unfortunately lost respect from the others. She would
have been happier to give him advice privately but not in front of the others.
- Tasleem: She came in thinking since it was scheduled at a restaurant that they
would actually get to know one another and not be so business oriented. She
views restaurants as a place to build relationships and if he wanted to talk just
business, he needed to choose a more appropriate setting. He also states that
building relationships in business is very important and getting to know them
before you work with them is crucial.
- Fernando: He understands that by taking this job there was going to be travel
involved but he is frustrated because the meeting was planned last minute
without any consideration to his personal life. His daughter's quinceanera was
that week and now he has to miss it because there was no communication which
if there was he could have moved the family event and because Tom has no
consideration for anything other than business and all he wants is a balance
because his family is more important to him than the job.
3. If you were Tom, the team leader, what would you have done differently to ensure a
healthy and productive meeting?
- If I were Tom, I would have come more prepared with everyone's different cultural
background so I didn't go in there doing/saying the wrong things. I also would
have provided more communication prior to the meeting to also ensure that
everyone was able to make the trip without messing up anything in their personal
lives because we all have other things going on. I also would had made sure that
everyone would eat since we did have it at a restaurant so maybe start off with
business talk while the food is being prepared and when it gets there find a good
stopping point or wrap it up and use the rt of the time to bond with one another
and start building those relationships since they re a new team.