INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT

COURSE: MULTICULTURAL MANAGEMENT 924-MMGT

ASSIGNMENT 2

(THE ROAD TO HELL CASE ANALYSIS)

PROGRAMME: IEMBA

STUDENT: AKINJIDE ODUNLAMI

PROFFESOR: GUILLERMO JIMENEZ

FEBRUARY 2014
Background

The “Road to Hell” case describes interactions between an expatriate chief engineer
and a national worker in the Caribbean Bauxite Company of Barracania in the West Indies.
John Baker the chief engineer had acquired vast international experience working in several
countries in Europe, Asia and Africa. He prided himself with having a very good
understanding of the psychology and how to get along very well with regional staff of the
companies he had worked in, especially in the developing countries. Having been recently
promoted to the position of production manager in one of the company’s enterprises in
Canada, John Baker who from the onset had been grooming Matthew Rennalls one of the
regional staff was now making the final preparations for him to take up the position of chief
engineer as his successor.
Matt Rennalls a first-class honors graduate of the London University was considered
one of the brightest Barracanian prospects on the staff of Caribbean Bauxite. He represented
the new generation of nationalistic well-educated Barracania’s professionals. His time at the
London University contributed in making him especially sensitive to political, racial and
equality issues particularly when it involves his culture and western influence. The young
engineer was a technically sound professional as he had quickly mastered the technical
aspects of his job; his ability to tackle assignments was impressive. Matthew was very
popular with all ranks of Barracanian staff and had good rapport with his expatriate senior
colleagues. He was however perceived as being very racially conscious and sensitive to any
sign of condescension on the part of the expatriates.
Against the background already summarized above, John Baker went ahead to have a pre-
departure or a farewell discussion with Matthew intending to offer him some advice and
encouragement. Contrary to his expectations, the meeting turned out to be a management
disaster.

Case Analysis
The “Road to Hell” case illustrates the kind of problems that could arise in
organizations when cultural differences are not taken into full consideration. Even though as
in the case of Mr. John Baker the chief engineer actions may have be taken out of very good
intentions, the outcomes may not be as desired because of different cultural perceptions. The
saying goes that “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”.
What went wrong?
From the narration of the case, John Baker, an expatriate from the western world had
recognized from the moment he joined the Caribbean Bauxite Company of Barracania that
Matt Rennalls was a man with sensitive racial consciousness, thus should have carefully
planned his farewell discussion taking into account this consciousness and sensitivity.

Some of the things that went wrong in the discussion could be highlighted as follows:

1. It appeared that John Baker did not inform Matt about the subject of discussion so the
discussion started somewhat abruptly which already made Matthew a little bit
uncomfortable. Furthermore, Baker was too direct in his opening statements.

2. John Baker sounded a bit patronizing and condescending right from the beginning of
the discussion as he emphasized that he was older and more experienced thus should
be able to offer help to Matt in form of some advice. Matt became visible tense after
hearing these statements.

3. John Baker in trying to advice Matt about his interpersonal relationship with the
expatriates was again too direct and could be said to even be accusative going by the
following statement “I have noticed that you are friendlier and get on better with your
fellow Barracanians than you do with Europeans”. He went further to sight a
complaint from one of the expatriates, Jackson about Matt to buttress his point. This
shouldn’t have been the case, Baker should have treated this as an isolated case and
tried to listen to the side of the story from Matt before taking a position. When Matt
attempted to offer an explanation that Jackson was a difficult person even with fellow
expatriates and went further to offer an apology and re-assurance about his
relationship with expatriates, Baker did not show that he was convinced neither did he
say anything to support him. The statement by Matt that “it is quite extraordinary isn’t
it, how one can convey an impression to others so at variance with what one intends?”
should have been taken more seriously.

4. Despite knowing much about Matt's political views, racial issues sensitivity and
intolerance to any discrimination of value of his country and people, John Baker still
developed their discussion from his own western perspective. He presented personal
 and historical suggestions that were not meant to be offensive but which were totally
inappropriate from Matt's point of view. John Baker kept highlighting and
emphasizing the superior position of European staff in the company.
He put in straight to Matt that “until the company has trained sufficient people of your
caliber, Europeans are bound to occupy senior positions here in Barracania” and
seemed to be saying “for your own good if you want to succeed in this company even
here in Barracania you better learn to cooperate with the Europeans”.

5. Perhaps after John Baker had made his points and Matt had responded earnestly to
reassure him, the interview should have ended there. By saying “My impressions may
be wrong but I would like to remind you about the old saying ‘what is important is not
what is true but what is believed’”, Baker betrayed that he had a stereotyped mindset
and probably a bias about Matt.

6. In the effort to push his point further, Baker again became patronizing as he
commended Matt for being able to bridge the gap between his culture and that of the
western world in terms of overcoming the “big challenge” of operating successfully in
a developed and modern economic, commercial and social environment that the
Bauxite company represents. He highlighted that the European culture had a 200 to
300 year advantage of development while “you and your forefathers have had only
some 50 or 60 years in this commercial environment”.

7. John baker did not notice that things had gone horribly wrong. He probably took it for
granted that Matt was beginning to see from his point of view. He was likely blinded
by his own subconscious cultural discrimination and prejudice.

In summary John Baker though he set out with an intention to help the young
engineer and put him on good stead to succeed in his new position ended up having a
very disastrous conversation with Matt Rennalls. He spoke from a position of trying
to help however there were elements of condescending attitude which triggered the
racial sensitivity in Matt Rennalls resulting in him feeling insulted and somewhat
bullied. Mr. John Baker did not demonstrate what is referred to as Cultural
Intelligence in his discussion. Looking critically at the case, perhaps John Baker was
also guilty of what he was trying to help Matt from; racial discrimination.
Repairing the Situation?
The damage done in this case is not only to the feelings of Matt Rendalls but there is
also the potential damage in reputation of the company and damage to the good relations the
company had with the government of Barracania. The situation is made worse with the fact
that Matt Rennalls is the son of a serving minister in the government of the day; the minister
of finance and economic planning. Though the company had excellent relations with the
government particularly because of their regionalization policy, this issue could quickly erode
the reputation and relations mileage already acquired.
In order to repair the situation, I would recommend the following:

1. Invite Matt to another discussion with the MD and the chief engineer, John Baker.
Baker should unreservedly apologize to Matt and set things in the correct
perspective explaining that his intentions were far from insulting him or his fellow
countrymen. The MD should reassure Matt of their best intentions as a company
and emphasize the respect they have for Matt and Barracanians generally. He
should then try to convince Matt to withdraw his resignation and stay in the
company.
2. Having had a discussion with Matt, the company should then develop a strategy to
reach out to the minister of finance and also engage the government generally in
order to give the reassurance that the company is not a racially intolerant
company. The strategy should also address how sustainably win back the
confidence of the minister and the government.

Avoiding a Future Occurrence

To avoid this embarrassing and potentially damaging situation from reoccurring,
Continental Ore the parent company of the Caribbean Bauxite Company should take
the following steps on a global basis wherever they have a footprint in the world.

1. Continental Ore, as the parent company of Caribbean Bauxite Company, should do a

diversity audit. This should be a good way to get a good, solid picture of what is
going on. This could help avoid possible public complaints or problems like lawsuits
related to discrimination. In a diversity audit, an audit team visits the company and
conducts individual interviews randomly with about 10% of the employees. The
identities of the respondents are kept as confidential and the results of the audit
 released to the management of the company. This will help the companies to be pro-
active in dealing potential diversity issues.

2. Introduce a diversity and inclusiveness campaign in the company globally to raise the
awareness of employees about cultural diversity and potential damages that could
occur through behaviors that suggest cultural discrimination.

3. Put in place an awareness training program to introduce the employees particularly

management staff to cultural diversity and cultural intelligence.
Cultural intelligence within a social context is the understanding of social behavior. It
is argued that a person’s motivation to engage and understand other cultures is tied to
his or her immediate social context as well as social history. The social context is with
reference to the present and anticipated set of social contacts and interactions that a
person will gain over time. A person’s social history refers to the social contacts and
interactions that have already been experienced and influence a person’s existing
beliefs, values, and norms. The social history that we refer to is captured to a degree
by the values that a person holds as well as his or her existing motivations. One’s
experiences form a partial basis for efficacy expectations, and these experiences
reflect the social surroundings in which the experiences were gleaned. Social history
refers to the general cultural context that a person has experienced and assimilated
over time.

References:

1. Case Study - The Road to Hell – Organizational Behavior and Human Resource
Management part 4
2. Managing Multinational Teams: Global perspectives, Advances in International
Management Volume 18 - by Debra L. Shapiro, Mary Ann Von Glingow and Joseph. L.C.
Cheng