Case study: Young, Confident & Moving Too Fast

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beliefs and values “rooting” Joanne and Julia to their self-concept

Julia just graduated top of her class with a Master’s degree in Social Work. Having

studied the program at the University of Chicago, Julia has become an effective practitioner,

mostly through the experience, skills, and knowledge offered in the program that is applicable in

settings of different varieties. She gained real-life experiences and has become quite passionate

about finding new resolutions at her new job. She is motivated and confident to start a social

work career in a small not-for-profit organization. Julia's motivation and self-confidence at her

new job stem from her experience in the University of Chicago social work program, where her

classmates and professors highly appreciated and praised her for her skills. Her past experience

could explain her passion for social justice issues, including housing and poverty. This passion

motivates and drives her at her new job (Cultural Intelligence for Leaders: V. 1.0., 2012).

Julia reports to Joanne, who is a seasoned manager for the local not-for-profit company.

The organization provides temporary shelter for homeless individuals. Despite being a new

employee, Joanne recognizes Julia's efforts and sees herself in Julia, but with different beliefs

and values. Being a seasoned manager, Joanne appreciates Julia's ability to take on more

obligations and responsibilities and respects her for her hard work. However, she fails to

understand Julia's drive and passion, which makes her not trust Julia's decision, as seen in the

donor meeting. Joanne believes she knows what is best for Julia since she has more experience.

She micromanages Julia probably because she felt overwhelmed and needed more time to learn

when she was starting her career. Her management style is limiting to Julia, which according to

Joanne, is a way of protecting her from burning out quickly. Joanne generalized and undermined

Julia's passion which she thought would make her burn out quickly, just like her when she was

starting out or other new employees.

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Suggestions for Joanne and Julia

One suggestion for Joanne would be to establish open communication with Julia.

Through open communication, she can understand Julia's motivation and drive. This will make

her more appreciative of Julia's hard work and avoid misunderstandings and miscalculations.

This will also remove frustration on the part of Julia, as Joanne will trust her decisions more and

give her more responsibilities to allow her to learn. Being a supervisor or manager, open

communication will allow her to understand Julia's working style and align it with the culture of

the organization. A suggestion for Julia is to adapt to the organization's culture instead of ending

the appointment. People may not understand her drive, which can be solved by open

communication through which she can freely express herself and her determination. Adapting

will also enable her to understand more about her responsibilities and how she can grow on it.

She needs to focus on building relationships with her superior, to be able to gain her trust.

Using the cultural intelligence principles to resolve the intercultural situation

The misunderstanding between Julia and Joanne is because of generational and

intercultural differences. Generalization is the main problem in this case which leads Joanne to

micromanage Julia to presumably protect her from early burnout. Julia views Joanne as a barrier

to her career goals, while Joanne thinks that her experience makes her better. Cultural

intelligence covers the behavior, motivation, strategic thinking, and knowledge of culture (Ang et

al., 2007). The principles are covered in an ABCD model, which means Acquire, Build,

Contemplate, and Do. In Acquire, Joanne needs to be more open by becoming more emotionally

and culturally intelligent. This will make her understand Julia's drive. In the Build principle,

Joanne will have to build her cultural intelligence to be able to manage people of the younger

generation without micromanaging them. In Contemplate, Joanne will have to think of the best
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managerial style to align with Julia's working style. For instance, occasional meetings with Julia

will help to improve their relationship without feelings of micromanagement. In the Do

principle, Joanne needs to change her perception of people in Julia's generation, which will also

bring changes to her management style to become more flexible.

References

Ang, S., Van Dyne, L., Koh, C., Ng, K. Y., Templer, K. J., Tay, C., & Chandrasekar, N. A.

(2007). Cultural intelligence: Its measurement and effects on cultural judgment and

decision making, cultural adaptation and task performance. Management and

organization review, 3(3), 335-371.

Cultural Intelligence for Leaders: V. 1.0. (2012). (n.p.): (n.p.).