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(2021SP1-MGMT-6045-01) Global Leadership Competencies M4A4

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(2021SP1-MGMT-6045-01) Global Leadership Competencies

M4A4. Assignment DUE 4/1 @10pm

Review the case study in Belasen's pp. 175-177 and answer the 5 questions on pp. 177-178. DUE 4/1 by 10pm

Case Study: Elizabeth Visits GPC’s French Subsidiary

Elizabeth Moreno is looking out the window from her business class seat somewhere over the Indian Ocean on Thai Air en route to Paris-Orly International Airport from the Philippines, where she has just spent a week of meetings and problem solving in a pharmaceutical subsidiary of the Global Pharmaceutical Company (GPC). GPC has the lion’s share of the worldwide market in the ethical pharmaceutical products. Ethical drugs are those that can be purchased only through a physician’s prescription. In the United States, GPC has research and manufacturing in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. The company also has subsidiaries in Canada, Puerto Rico, Australia, Philippines, Brazil, England and France. GPC has its administrative headquarters in Pennsylvania. Because of the diverse geographic locations of its subsidiaries, GPC’s top scientists and key managers log thousands of jet miles a year visiting various offices and plants. Its top specialists regularly engage in multi-site real-time video and telephone conferences as well as using electronic mail along with faxes, modems and traditional mail to keep in touch with key personnel. Despite these technological advances, face-to-face meetings and on-site consultations are used widely. In the case of the French subsidiary, nothing can take the place of face-to-face consultations. The French manager is suspicious of figures in the balance sheet, of the telephone, of his subordinates, of what he reads in the newspaper, and of what Americans tell him in confidence. In contrast the Americans trust all of these (Hill, 1994, p. 60). This is the reason GPC regularly sends its scientists and executives to France. Elizabeth Moreno is one of the key specialists within GPC. Her expertise in chemical processing is widely known not only within her company but also in the pharmaceutical industry worldwide. She has been working at GPC for more than 12 years since finishing her advanced degree in chemistry from a university in the Midwest. While working with GPC, she has been given more and more responsibilities leading to her current position as vice president of chemical development and processing. From a hectic visit in the Philippines, her next assignment is to visit the French subsidiary for one week to study a problem with shelf life testing of one its newest anti-allergy capsules. It seems that the product’s active ingredient is degrading sooner than the expiration date. During her stay, she will conduct training for chemists in state-of the-art techniques for testing as well as training managers in product statistical quality control. These techniques are now currently used in other GPC locations. To prepare for her foreign assignments, Elizabeth attended a standard three-hour course given by her company’s human resource management department on dealing with cross-cultural issues. Moreover, she recalls reading from a book on French management about the impersonal nature of French business relations. This was so much in contrast with what she just had experienced in her visit in the Philippine subsidiary. The French tend to regard authority as residing in the role and not the person. It is by the power of the position that a French manager gets things done (Hill, 1994, p. 58). With this knowledge, she knows that her expertise and position as vice president will see her through the technical aspects of the meetings that are lined up for the few days she will be in Paris. French managers view their work as an intellectual challenge that requires application of individual brainpower. What matters to them is the opportunity to show one’s ability to grasp complex issues, analyze problems, manipulate ideas, and evaluate solutions (Hill 1994, p. 214). There are a few challenges for Elizabeth on this assignment. She is not fluent in French. Her only exposure to France and the language was a two-week vacation in Paris she spent with her husband a couple of years ago. But in her highly technical field, the universal language is English. So, she believes that she will not have much difficulty in communicating with the French management to get her assignment successfully completed. Americans place high value on training and education. In the United States, the field of management has principles that are generally applicable and can be taught and learned. In contrast, the French place more emphasis on the person who can adapt to any situation by virtue of his intellectual quality (Hill, 1994, p. 63). Expertise and intellectual ability are inherent in the individual and simply cannot be acquired through training or education. It appears that Elizabeth will be encountering very different ways of doing business in France. While she thought about the challenges ahead, her plane landed at Orly-Paris International Airport. She whisked through customs and immigration without delays. There was no limousine waiting for her at the arrivals curbside. Instead she took the train to downtown Paris and checked into an apartment hotel that was reserved for her in advance of her arrival. After a week in Paris, she is expected back in her home office to prepare reports to GPC management about her foreign assignments. Case Bibliography Hill, Richard, Euro-Managers & Martians: The Business Cultures of Europe’s Trading Nations (Brussels: Europublications, Division of Europublic SA/NV, 1994). Source: This case was prepared by Edwin J. Portugal, MBA, Ph.D., who teaches multinational management at State University of New York– Potsdam. It is intended to be used as a basis for discussion on the complexity of multicultural management and not to illustrate effective versus ineffective management styles. Copyright 1995 by Edwin Portugal. Reprinted with permission.

Questions: 1. What can Elizabeth Moreno do to establish a position of power in front of French managers to help her accomplish her assignment in five days? Explain

2. What should Elizabeth know about high-context versus low-context cultures in Europe? Explain.

3. What should Elizabeth include in her report, and what should be the manner in which it is communicated, so that future executives and scientists avoid communications pitfalls? Explain.

4. How can technical language differ from everyday language in corporate communications? Explain.

5. How does this business trip compare to her previous trip to the Philippines?