Case Study 1.0

What is the problem statement of the case study ?

What is the phenomenon/content topic (of expatriation experience)importance to context IHRM.?

Case Study 1.0

Simon Jones has worked for Trigon Offshore for seven years as Area Manager, based in Bombay, India. Prior to working for Trigon Offshore, he was Project Manager at a diving company, Sub-H20, for six years, also based in Bombay, India. Trigon Offshore is a leading sub-sea engineering contractor to some of the worlds largest oil companies. It has bases in India, Australia and the US. Its head office is in Aberdeen, Scotland, from which it coordinates its North Sea operation. Jones is extremely good at his job. During his 13 years in Bombay he developed an aptitude for the different corporate practices required in India. In August, 1992, convinced of his worth to the company, Jones superiors in the Aberdeen Head Office promoted him to the position of Regional Manager for South East Asia. Trigon Offshore regarded Jones as their Asian expert and so this appointment was deemed a logical progression in his career. Due to its location at the hub of South East Asia, Kuala Lumpur was chosen as the ideal city from which to coordinate operations. After thirteen years of living in Bombay, Simons wife Alice was delighted to be moving to Malaysia, a country with a much higher standard of living. It would also mean being 43 much closer to their home country of New Zealand. In addition, the couples two children, twins Lulu and Ruby, were nearly of school age. Alice was confident that a better school for the girls would be found in Kuala Lumpur than in Bombay. Simon and Alice settled in well with their family in Kuala Lumpur. The apartment complex was extremely lavish and accommodated mostly other expatriate families who were very welcoming and friendly. Lulu and Ruby enrolled in the British Alice Smith School, and seemed happy. Alice began to make friends with other women in the apartment complex, and there soon began a round of cocktail evenings and dinner parties. Thirteen years of business experience in India had taught Simon to be a shrewd and knowledgeable deal-maker. He negotiated for himself a substantially improved salary package. His deal included the rent on the apartment, the girls schooling, airfares home twice a year and the salary of a maid. Habibah was duly hired; not only did the children love her, but she proved extremely informative as to how and where to get things done in Kuala Lumpur. She also cooked a very good curry laksa! In addition to Habibahs services, Simon was also able to hire Mohammed as a driver. Mohammed was to be shared between Alice and the office, but in actuality ended up spending most of his working day at Alices beck and call. Given that the girls school was sometimes a 45 minute drive away in Kuala Lumpurs very heavy traffic, Mohammed was seen by Alice as a life saver. After a while, Mohammed was making the trip to deliver and collect the children from school alone. After two months of living in Kuala Lumpur, it could be said that the move had been a success. Closer proximity to New Zealand, a higher standard of living generally, a lively social scene and a good school for the girls all combined to ensure that the Jones family settled in well. However, various problems were fast developing about which Jones would soon become aware. In contrast to India, Malaysia imposes certain restrictions on the employment of expatriates. This is in order to safeguard the development and training of the Bumiputera2 2 A controversial terminology that have been applied to refer to the Malays in Malaysia mainly. It derives its meaning from the Sanskrit word bhumiputra or son of the soil. This terminology was coined in the 1970s by the Malaysian government as affirmative action to create opportunities and defuse interethnic tensions, referred to as the following violence, May 13th incident in 1969, against an election outcome favouring the Malaysian Chinese. The Economics called this policy as racially discriminatory.44 Malaysians, Depending on how much paid-up capital a foreign company declares, there is a limit to how many expatriates can be hired. Depending on how much paid-up capital a foreign company declares, there is a limit to how many expatriates can be hired. Further, expatriates may generally only be hired in areas where there is a shortage of trained Malaysians. Occasionally, however, foreign countries may hire expatriates in key posts, that is posts that are permanently filled by foreigners. The end result for Simon and Trigon Offshore Asia was that they were required to hire more locals in more senior positions than they would have done had this policy not existed. In Bombay, Trigon Offshore hired locals only for lower level positions such as office attendants and junior secretaries. This reflected a bias toward Western employees who, the company felt had more expertise and professional training than currently existed in the Asian work force. Used to operating in Bombay with a virtually expatriate-only staff, the bi-cultural mix took some getting used to for Simon. In addition to overseeing the routine aspects of his subordinates jobs, it soon transpired that he had to be aware of being sensitive to his employees cultural differences. One of Simons project managers was Jane Devine, a Scottish woman for whom this was her first overseas posting. Unused to the heat and extreme humidity in Kuala Lumpur, she was accustomed to wearing sleeveless blouses in the office. One day, Simons secretary approached him, obviously apprehensive and troubled. Others in the office had come to her asking if she could speak to the boss about Ms Devines clothing. Being predominately Muslim, the local employees were offended by the exposure of her upper arms. More damaging, they felt that Ms Devine was demonstrating a high degree of disrespect to her Asian counterparts. Simons response was to call Ms Devine into his office. Attempting diplomacy, he relayed the complaints he had received, and asked if she would mind modifying her dress. Her angry response was that Simon, and by extension, Trigon Offshore was demonstrating sexist and discriminatory behaviour; that women had earned the right and the freedom to wear whatever they wanted, and further that she would be complaining to the head office in Aberdeen. On Friday evenings, it was customary for Trigon Offshore Asia to provide drinks and hors doeuvres for the staff. In the office building, on the ground floor, was a bar whose facilities were used for this purpose. This informal policy extended throughout the Trigon Offshore corporation and was viewed as a means of promoting harmony amongst the staff through social interaction. It was very much a part of the companys culture. Unfortunately no consideration was given to the fact that in the Muslim culture alcohol was forbidden and 45 therefore the patronising of bars frowned on. This caused great offence to the Malaysian staff, who felt they were being excluded. Not only was Simon finding the West/East mix difficult to manage, but also the perceptions and attitudes hed developed in India were not being as well received in Malaysia. With 13 years experience in India under his belt, Simon felt that there was not much he didnt know about the Asian people. With the arrogance and lack of comprehension displayed by many Westerners towards the East, the commonalities of the Asian countries were focused on rather than the differences. In India, Simon had very quickly learned that in order to achieve anything, he had to shout and wave his arms around, otherwise he would not be taken seriously. Over the years, he had therefore developed a very aggressive managerial style. Applying this in Malaysia unwittingly caused great offence. One day Habibah came to Alice and told her that Mohammed was very upset and thinking of leaving his job. Upon further questioning it appeared that Simon had been shouting at Mohammed and treating him in a patronising manner. A quiet dignified man, he was deeply offended by Simons treatment of him. Alice, distressed at the thought of losing a charming and trustworthy employee, assured Habibah that she would talk to Simon about it. Simons entreaties to Jane Devine to modify her style of dressing to accommodate and respect the Muslim culture did not have the desired effect. Devine refused to change her style of dress which escalated the aggrievement of the Malaysian employees. As project manager, Devine was reliant on respect for her authority in order to get her job done. Needless to say, this was difficult for the Malaysians to give in the face of her flagrant lack of respect for their culture. Soon mistakes started to be made, and blamed on the other cultures actions. Simon became very despondent as the situation worsened. Inevitably, the staffs productivity lessened due to a lack of cooperation between the expatriate and local staffs. It soon became clear to Simon that the companys Asian sales were going to be considerably less than the projected figures. Compounding the problem with Jane Devine was the issue of the Friday night drinks in the downstairs bar. The failure of the Malaysians to attend was interpreted as unfriendly and acrimonious behaviour. For their part, the Malaysians felt the serving of alcoholic drinks to be an additional attempt to ostracise them. Unaddressed, the problems facing Trigon Offshore Asia became magnified, turning into a West versus East dichotomy. The office, in effect, became divided along cultural lines.46 On the home front, the situation with Mohammed was difficult. Simon was finding it hard to change 13 years of conditioning in India in order to adapt to what was required in Malaysia. Alice was concerned that if Mohammed was unhappy in his job, then she would not feel safe leaving the children in his care on the daily trips to and from school. This inevitably caused friction between the couple. Also, Simons successes in India started to become a distant memory as the office environment became increasingly hostile, and home life more and more fractious.