The Illusion of Invincibility by Paul Williams & Paul Williams

Author:Paul Williams & Paul Williams [Krebs, Andreas & Williams, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781642501445
Publisher: Mango Media
Published: 2019-07-28T15:03:01+00:00

Different Countries, Different Values

American anthropologist Clyde Kluckhohn once came up with a compact definition of values: “A conception…of the desirable…”

Values differ depending on where we happen to be in the world, and psychology students learn that they are “aspects of the social construction of reality.” The guiding values of a three-hundred-strong community in rural Minnesota are different from those prevailing in a fashionable district in Oakland, California. In other words, you don’t have to fly halfway around the world to find yourself in a place where different values apply. Nevertheless, in an international context, questions about values arise that play out way beyond our Western norms.

What Would You Do? Two Heavyweight Dilemmas

The head of a Eurostoxx 50 company in China, relatively new in the post, told us about two of his most difficult and memorable challenges concerning values.

First, some background information: In Chinese manufacturing companies, employees have to seek prior approval from their manager before taking time off to attend their own wedding or for socially related health reasons, because they are entitled to take one day additional leave.

After a happy and very positive discussion about her planned promotion, one young employee asked for a day to think things over and one day’s leave which, of course, was approved. The day after her holiday, she came into the office of the China head, beaming with pride, and confirmed that she would gladly accept the promotion and was now able to commit 120 percent to the company. At the same time, she asked, retrospectively, for one-day special leave for her abortion. A promotion was more important for her than starting a family and she essentially considered it her duty to take this step, because the firm would now require even greater commitment from her in this new role.

How would you deal with such a situation? Are you ready and willing to face up to cases of conflicting values like this, or would you seek to delegate such a case? Anyone active in an international leadership role must be able to handle values dilemmas like this and, nevertheless, make the right decision. But what is “right” in this case? Perhaps you would like to put the book down for a moment and think it over.

Here is another equally dramatic example. A local manager at the Chinese subsidiary of a European company had misappropriated and gambled away around $150,000 in client funds and salaries. According to Chinese law, embezzlement on this scale is punishable by the death penalty. The European manager responsible for the local Chinese business called his boss, the Head of Region Asia and asked for advice. How should he deal with the situation? Should he report this employee to the authorities and perhaps be party to his execution? What would you have done in this situation? If one were to try and sweep the case under the carpet, the impression could be created within the company that you can get away with even bigger misdemeanors. After all, everyone in the organization knew about this case.

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