S. But these were things that were perfectly normal and accepted in Uganda. Green needed to have a conversation with Martin and tell him what a good job that he thought he was doing and together they should have come up with some guidelines and rules for how things were going to be done. If there was a business practice that Martin was doing that Green did not agree with then he needed to find out if there was any other way that this could be accomplished. It may have been that Martin did not feel that he had any other choices but to do it the way he did in order to make the project successful.
With the knowledge that Martin had with African culture he was definitely the perfect fit for his job. He did a very good job and managed to lead the project to successful. If the company had not had Martin in this position is it likely that it would not have gone as well as it did. It is not often that a person can be dropped into a foreign culture and adapt to it as well as it seems that Martin did.
4. In the next phase of the project -- running the power plant- should HG employ someone whose main function is that of liaison between its corporate culture and the culture of the host country? If so, is Martin the right person for the job?
It would definitely be a good idea for HG to employ a liaison between its corporate culture and the culture of the host company. Because there is such...
Because of the success that Martin has had with the first phase of the project and his report that he has built with the natives he is the perfect person to fill this position.
If Green has reservations about some of Martin's business practices then they need to have a conversation in order to put a plan into place that they can both be comfortable with about how certain things will be done and carried out. This discussion will allow both sides to defend their ideas and a plan can be devised that consists of the best practices that work for this project and this company.
Martin's knowledge and experience is invaluable and should not be cast aside just because he doesn't do things exactly the same way they would be done in the U.S. The fact is the project is not in the U.S. And sometimes in order to be successful doing business abroad companies must adjust their practices to be better in line with the host country in order to be successful.
Works Cited
"International Management." 2011. Web. 20 September 2011.
Sinkovics, Rudolf and Holzmuller, Hartmut. 1994. "Ethnocentrism -- A Key Determinant in International Corporate Strategy Formulation?" Web. 30 September 2011.
