"United Flight 2020 to Honolulu and Los Angeles is now boarding. Please have your tickets and boarding passes ready for the attendant at the gate."

Bob Underwood picked up his briefcase and started toward the jet way. He paused momentarily to look around the passenger waiting area and, as had been the case so often here in Sydney, he saw nothing to indicate that he was in a foreign country. Certainly the accents were different than in the United States, but the language was English and readily understandable. This superficial familiarity, he concluded, was one of the main reasons he had had such a difficult time adjusting to his job at MedScope, Ltd., in Australia.

MedScope was one of three foreign subsidiaries owned by the parent company, MedicoSupplies, Inc. whose headquarters were in Houston, Texas. Bob was on a two-year assignment at MedScope after working in the management information systems (MIS) department in Houston for five years.

As he settled back in his seat on the plane, Bob thought back to the day he arrived in Sydney almost eight months ago. Bob and his family had left Houston on a hot, humid July day and arrived 30 hours later to find Sydney in the middle of winter. That juxtaposition of seasons probably should have alerted him that there would be many differences between the United States and Australia. Instead, during the taxi ride to their hotel through Sydney's modern buildings, everyone seemed to have the impression that they had simply arrived in a different U.S. city.

Bob's boss at MedicoSupplies had encouraged Bob to apply for the position of IS director in Sydney. Pete Jacobs thought that this international experience would enhance Bob's chances for promotion at MedicoSupplies, because he would then have knowledge of a subsidiary's operations. Reluctantly, Bob applied for and obtained the Sydney position. His wife and children had not been enthusiastic about the move to Australia. Bob's daughter, Sara, was in the seventh grade and loved her school; his son, Jim, was in the fifth grade and just had earned the pitcher's spot on his Little League team; and Bob's wife, Marie, worked part-time as a medical technician. After several long family discussions, Bob convinced Marie and the children that this move was extremely important to his career.

During the first few weeks at the Sydney office, everything seemed to go well.  Bob met with his new staff during the first week and asked for their help in orienting him to the Australian operations. In this meeting, he outlined his background and industry experience, described his goals for the two years he would be managing the Australian MIS department, and assured them that he had an open door policy and was always available to talk with them on an individual basis.

"I'm looking forward to your working with me to accomplish the company's goals for Australia," he concluded. "Thank you for meeting with me today."

Bob's family had more difficulty making the transition to living in a foreign country. When they first arrived in Sydney, the family lived in a hotel apartment for three weeks while they searched for a house. When they leased a comfortable house in a Sydney suburb similar to their Houston house, Marie spent several days visiting schools and looking for the right one for Sara and Jim. Although state-supported schools were located in their neighborhood, a friend in the United States who had lived in Australia several years ago advised Bob and Marie to find a private school for the children. Deciding on schools and sorting out the equivalent grade levels and subjects proved more difficult than Marie expected, and she asked Bob to spend some time with her talking with school headmasters. Although Bob always had been closely involved in decisions regarding the children, he was reluctant to take time away from the office at the beginning of his tenure in Sydney and left these decisions to Marie.

Colleagues at MedScope organized a welcoming party for the family soon after their arrival, and Bob's boss's wife invited Marie to lunch and the theater. The family had no permanent social group at first, however, and activities that they had enjoyed in Houston were less readily available in their new city. Jim, in particular, missed his Little League team and asked once if he could go back to Houston arid live with his grandmother. Bob decided to be patient and hope that Marie and the children would adjust to their new situation after a few weeks.

Over the next six months, Bob stayed busy learning the Australian company's MIS operations and looking for ways to improve them. Before he left Houston, the MedicoSupplies vice president of operations, Jason Blanchard, had met with Bob to discuss his assignment in Australia. Jason had made it clear that he believed MIS is a technical area and that it can and should be uniform throughout the company's subsidiaries.

"What we need to do," Jason had said, "is find the most efficient and productive methods, and then put those in place in Medicosupplies companies, wherever they are located."

Bob's only experience in MIS was in the Medicosupplies U.S. headquarters office and with a similar company in Dallas. His models, then, for his new assignment were U.S. models, and when he got to Sydney, he began looking for similarities and differences between the U.S. and Australian operations.

One thing Bob noted immediately was fewer management levels among employees in Australia; in fact, the organizational hierarchy was remarkably flat compared to the U.S. structure. Bob found himself responding to requests and receiving information from technicians as well as managers, and from supervisors as well as heads of departments. At one staff meeting to examine the workflow design in the department, several technicians attended with their managers and participated fully in the discussions. When Bob asked one of the managers after the meeting if this was a standard procedure, the Australian manager assured him that it was.

"No one knows more about workflow design than Rob and the other technicians," the manager said. "We wouldn't have made as much progress as we did if they hadn't been involved in today's meeting.  And we certainly want their support for any changes we might decide to make."

While Bob understood the manager's reasoning, he was uncomfortable having so many people involved in what he regarded as sensitive management discussions. When the same topic appeared on the meeting agenda later that month, he asked specifically that only designated managers attend. And to keep the meeting within a reasonable time frame, Bob limited the discussion on each point to 10 minutes. When this second meeting was over, he felt that much more had been accomplished with fewer participants and in less time.

About three months after arriving in Australia, Bob's boss, Emily Zortan, the general manager of MedScope, asked Bob what decision the MIS department had made regarding new software and equipment for the sales department. Bob's predecessor had amassed several files of material and information from numerous suppliers, and he had secured bids from five companies for the purchase. After reviewing the files and the bids, Bob recommended the Trujex Company in Hong Kong. Their bid was lower than three of the other companies, they promised a shorter delivery time, and Bob knew something about their product from conversations with managers in the U.S. and London offices of MedicoSupplies.

Later that month, Frank Ricardo, one of the systems analysts in Bob's department, came to Bob's office and asked if he had time to discuss a pending purchase for one of the company's departments.

"If you mean the purchase of a new system for sales," Bob said, "I've already taken care of that. Emily asked for my recommendation a few weeks ago and I told her we'd go with Trujex."

"But you didn't ask me or any of the other analysts which system we would recommend," replied Frank.

"Well, no, but I had all of the information I needed in Preston's files. He had bids from five companies, plus a mountain of information on seven or eight companies. Surely you and the other analysts gathered that data for him, or at least recommended the companies to contact."

"Yes, we did," Frank said. "But we hadn't finished discussing the advantages and disadvantages of each system, nor had all the technicians given their opinions.  Preston was planning to meet with us several times before giving Emily the department's decision."

"I think I had all the information I needed," Bob stated, with a note of finality in his voice. "1 reviewed the files thoroughly and recommended Trujex based on sound reasons. I'm sorry you and the others didn't have the opportunity to discuss it further, but I felt that a timely decision was what Emily wanted."

As Frank left the office visibly upset, Bob wondered again how Preston had accomplished anything if he had held frequent meetings with all or many of his staff members to go over seemingly straightforward procedures and decisions.

In an effort to decrease his span of control, and to achieve Jason Blanchard's objective of putting the most productive and efficient methods in place, Bob worked for the next several weeks on a reorganization plan for MedScope's MIS operations. As soon as he thought he had a good understanding of the company as a whole and of the specific functions of the MIS department, Bob put together a plan that encouraged specialization among the department's employees. He divided the group in four, assigning each of the four groups to one of the company's functional areas: administration, finance, research, and marketing. Under his scheme, each of the four groups would concentrate on the MIS needs of its designated functional area and thus become more proficient in serving that group of users. Moreover, fewer managers would report directly to Bob as head of the department and he would have more time to devote to planning.

When Bob finished the reorganization plan, he called his top managers to a staff meeting.

"The purpose of our staff meeting today," Bob began, "is to discuss an opportunity for all members of this department to hone their skills by specializing more than they are doing now. I've seen this type of plan work in other companies similar to MedScope and I think you'll agree it has some distinct advantages over the present arrangement."

He passed out copies of the new organizational scheme and spent the next 20 minutes explaining his rationale for the plan. Bob also explained that this plan was still in the draft stage and that he welcomed ideas from the group on refinements and changes. Finally, he asked the managers for their comments and reactions. No one said anything.

After a few minutes of uncomfortable silence, Bob said, "I'm sure you'll want to take this plan back to your offices and give it some thought. And perhaps discuss it with some of your key people. Why don't you take a couple of days to look at it and then call or memo me with your suggestions."

Two days later, Emily Zortan called Bob to her office for a meeting. She began by saying that several people from Bob's department had called to ask her for letters of recommendation because they were applying for positions in other companies. Emily was anxious to know what Bob thought the problem might be.

"This has never happened before," Emily explained. "I've never had several people come to me with this sort of request. People leave MedScope, of course, to take better jobs somewhere else. But this is too many people all at once. What do you think is going on, Bob?"

"I don't really know," Bob said. " Actually, I'm astonished. No one has complained to me or given any indication that there's a problem. I'm pretty good about recognizing dissatisfaction among my employees, or anticipating problems that may occur. But I haven't seen any evidence of that here."

"How well do you know your employees, Bob?" Emily asked. "I realize you've only been here for eight months and that you've been busy settling in at work and at home. But have you joined them for their Friday get-togethers after work, or gone with them on some of their Saturday excursions? Preston was always talking about what a tight-knit group the MIS department is and how many social activities they organize."

"I did go out with some of them after work a couple of times," Bob replied, "but I have been pretty busy helping Marie and the children adjust to our new situation. And I've always found that it's a good policy to maintain a certain amount of distance from one's employees."

"Oh, there is one thing that I know might be a source of irritation. Jack Strath mentioned that he had requested three weeks vacation time for a trip to Bangkok and Singapore, and that you had asked him to take only two weeks instead. Any reason for asking him to cut his trip short?" Emily asked.

"Yes," Bob explained, "I thought that three weeks is too long a time for a key manager to be away. He's working on several critical projects that need to be completed in the next three or four months."

"If I recall correctly," Emily said, "Jack has an excellent assistant who could take over in his absence. That would be good experience for a mid-Ievel manager, don't you think?"

"I suppose so," Bob conceded, " although it's unusual for a senior manager like Jack to take three weeks off."

Emily looked puzzled. "My suggestion is that you give Jack the three weeks he requested. He's worked extremely hard this year and deserves a respite. And whatever the problems with other employees, I'm sure we can work them out,"

Emily continued. "Maybe there's just a simple misunderstanding here. Probably you and I should have spent more time when you first got here, talking about our management style and philosophy here, and about the differences between Australia and the United States. Why don't you think about this and plan to meet with me after you get back from Houston in a couple of weeks."

"Right, I'll give it some thought and see if I've overlooked something. Perhaps I've stepped on somebody's toes without realizing it. I do have a tendency to get caught up in enthusiasm for projects and forget that others may not share that same enthusiasm."

"Have a good trip to Houston, Bob, and we'll talk when you get back," Emily said as she walked him to the door.

As Bob's plane left the runway at Sydney, he thought back to this conversation with Emily and began to review the events of his last eight months at MedScope. What had he done wrong? He knew he was a good manager; his previous bosses all had given him excellent performance appraisal reviews. They always mentioned his technical expertise, his planning skills, and his department's productivity as evidence of what a good job he was doing. Yet, Emily regarded the potential department turnovers as an indication that something was seriously wrong in his department at MedScope. Bob decided he would talk with Pete Jacobs when he got to Houston and review his activities in Sydney. Maybe Pete would be able to help him see where he had made mistakes.

Catlin, Linda B. and Thomas F. White (2001).  International Business:  Cultural Sourcebook and Case Studies.  Thomson
        Learning / South-Western Publishing. Pp 62-66.