Karen Leary Case Dear Sirs:

Karen Leary Case

Dear Sirs:

The case involving Karen Leary raises issues of management style, the ability to recognize the value of subordinates, and the need to accommodate cultural differences. Given that one of the reasons for hiring Mr. Chung in the first place was to nurture business in Taiwan, the issue of cultural differences becomes especially important and must be addressed early to prevent creating hard feelings and a bad reputation in the target market. Karen is a good manager, but she needs to develop flexibility to deal with new issues in new contexts rather than insisting on forcing every problem into the pattern she already understands.

The case will be analyzed in terms of specific elements in the behavior of both Karen Leary and Ted Chung and in light of a consideration of management principles and observed cultural differences between American business and business in Taiwan. Such an analysis highlights the need to recognize the differences and to make some accommodation for them in any management actions. At the same time, Mr. Chung must also accommodate certain differences so that management feels comfortable with him, and he may be as unclear about certain realities of American business as Karen Leary is about Taiwanese business practices. Recommendations will be made for how to address the immediate concerns and for how to recognize the need for flexibility in the future.

Yours truly,

Summary

The Karen Leary case will be considered in terms of the actions taken by both Karen Leary and Ted Chung based on details of the interaction between the two, knowledge of the background of the company (Merrill Lynch), and consideration of cultural differences that may have an effect. The situation is that Ted Chung is a relatively recent hire, more recent than many others in the office, and that he is asking for perquisites that only come to more senior personnel. In many ways, he is still untested, and though Karen Leary, his immediate supervisor, knows that he will become an important asset to the company, she also knows that he has not yet achieved the stature that he seems to believe is his due.

Karen Leary has to determine what to do about his request. Her own background is important to the degree that it informs this case and suggests why she reacts as show does and what decision she is likely to make. Her superiors see her as sales-oriented and as having developed an innovative sales and training program. As manager, she also oversees brokers' trades and has been praised for the way she achieves that task. Her superiors are happy that she has increased business by 30%, but some of her underlings are less pleased because she is a hard task master and keeps after them more than they believe she should or needs to do.

Leary hired Ted Chung specifically to gain a toehold in the Taiwanese market and to develop that market more than the company had been able to do in the past. That goal remains important in her thinking, and keeping Ted Chung happy and producing is thus an important consideration. As a new FC, Ted Chung has gone through the same training program Leary has instituted and has started working with clients. However, he also has a rather stiff and formal style which is counter to what Leary is accustomed to, and for a time, she has been closely monitoring his accounts to see what he is doing. He keeps meticulous records and is gaining the envy of other FCs, but he has not yet brought in any new business, though he hints that a good deal of new business is coming.

In spite of finding nothing wrong when she monitors Chung's work, Leary is uncomfortable with aspects of his working style. The client has not raised any objections, and Leary would speak to the client about the issue if there were not a language barrier. In some ways, she seems to be seeking an excuse to change course, given that there has been no apparent breach and no complaint. Chung apparently sees his requests as perfectly normal and understandable, raising the possibility that there are cultural differences which make Chung behave in a way different from the way Americans would act and so raises unnecessary suspicions on the part of his supervisor.

An analysis of this case will include a library search on such cultural differences to see how these may manifest themselves and how they may play out in the work setting, as well as any other data that would help illuminate the issues and suggest a solution. The actions of the two principles must be considered both singly, to see what sense those actions make from their point-of-view, and together, to see what an objective observer might determine about who is being reasonable and who is not and about what action Karen Leary should now take, why she should do so, and how Ted Chung is likely to react.

Karen Leary (A)

The issue between Karen Leary, manager for a Merrill Lynch investment company office, and Ted Chung, one of her financial consultants, is in part a matter of communication differences, but it may also involve cultural differences. Ted Chung has been through the training program set up by Leary, and he has now started handling clients. He was brought into the company specifically because of his ability and his cultural background, because Leary wants to increase business in Taiwan, a market Chung understands. The account he is currently handling is for a Taiwanese firm, and this creates a problem for Leary because she cannot communicate with the client herself because of language differences. Of course, she should have foreseen just that eventuality and either determined to let Chung handle such issues on his own or have made some arrangements for a translator in her office who could get past this barrier and who could be trusted to tell her what she needs to know. It is apparent that she has not thought that aspect of the matter through and is now facing the consequences. At the same time, her fear that something might be wrong is difficult to justify. There has been no complaint from the client, and the account seems to be in good shape and to be properly handled. Her questioning of that fact may relate more to the cultural differences she has with Chung than to any other reason.

Those cultural differences are on display at the moment because Chung has asked for an office and certain other perquisites because he sees himself as generating new business. He has not done so as yet, but he shows great confidence that he will soon do so. For Leary, the problem with Chung begins with the fact that he has a different style than her other FCs. Some of her concerns area legitimate, such as her questioning of his use of risky trades (though they have panned out so far) and the fact that he spends too much time with one account rather than developing more business. Other concerns are more cultural, such as her belief that Chung is too reserved and does not give his help to younger FCs as he should.

Leary's hiring of Chung in the first place does not fit her usual pattern. He is older than the other FCs, and she should have known this would mean he was more set in his ways. She wants him for a specific purpose, to break into the Taiwanese market, but she seems at the same time to expect him to fit in with the other FCs in a way he does not and probably cannot. She is a more hands-on manager than some of the FCs like, and she may be frustrated by the fact that she cannot be that hands-on with Chung and with accounts in Taiwan with clients whose language is out of her reach.

For his part, Chung does not appear to be able to accommodate the different working methods and business attitudes of the American firm. Leary should also have known this. She herself believes that the Taiwanese have not been assimilated into the American system, so it is not clear why she thinks Chung would be. Much of what she expects of Chung is counter to the business culture of his homeland. Hierarchy is more important in that context, which might be the reason for his reluctance to help those younger than he. Business analyst Jack Scarborough states, "Like the Japanese, the Chinese will not challenge superiors publicly but, unlike the Japanese, may be unwilling to do so privately as well" (Scarborough 63). Chung thus will not challenge Leary but may simply continue following his own methods without explaining.