Joe Willis: Feeling the Heat in Thailand

Case: Joe Willis: Feeling the Heat in Thailand

A) Joe Doyle, the Canadian president of Fasco Motors, faces many challenges as he attempts to restructure the company's finances and reputation. He must do so in a culturally foreign setting with many recently dismissed high-level management officials having close ties to government and business leaders in the region.

The executive (Willis, Ramsey, and Fyvie) face serious trust issues with local employees, who remain dubious in regards to their true motives in being in Thailand. Normally a simple demission based on performance would not require such an intervention from the parent company. They are also faced with legal challenges regarding their work visas and the fear that such government intervention had upon them. Furthermore, their challenge includes countering the decrease in productivity and teamwork among the employees. As for the employees, they too face challenges, notably their constant fear and uncertainty of loosing their jobs. Given the prolonged absence of Willis and Fyvie due to visa issues, the team remains dubious in regards to the true motives for the parents company being in Thailand. Furthermore, their challenge includes countering the decrease in productivity and teamwork among the employees.

B) Many cultural factors play a major role in creating these managerial challenges. Firstly, Willis, Fyvie and Doyle are respectively from the United States, Australia and Canada; all countries which are relatively low on Hofstede's Power Distance scale compared to Thailand. (The Hofstede Centre) This could make many of the executive team's efforts to build trust among the group by bonding events much less effective by putting employees ill at ease to be in close, casual proximity to their superiors.

These countries also vary greatly from Thailand in the Individualism-Collectivism scale, which the Cross-Cultural Management course-pack differentiates as; "individualists prefer self-sufficiency while collectivists give more recognition to their interdependent roles and their obligations to the group." (p.13) This significant cultural difference plays a major role in the employee's reluctance to rapidly join the remodeling efforts of the new management team as they feel a strong sense of obligation to members