Case Study: The Foreign Assignment When responding to a case study or scenario, the HR practitioner should use a consistent, fact$-$based, problem$-$solving approach. The development of this skill will allow the HR practitioner to respond to issues as they arise using an analytical methodology in order to explore possible solutions. Fred Bailey gazed out the window of his $24$th$-$floor office at the tranquil beauty of the Imperial Palace amid the hustle and bustle of downtown Tokyo. It had been only six months since Fred had arrived with his wife and two children for this three$-$year assignment as the director of Kline & Associates$$ Tokyo office. Kline & Associates is a large multinational consulting firm with offices in $19$ countries worldwide. Fred was now trying to decide whether he should simply pack up and tell headquarters that he was coming home or whether he should try to convince his wife, and himself, that they should stay and finish the assignment. Given how excited they all were about the assignment to begin with, it was a mystery to Fred how things had gotten to this point. As Fred watched the swans glide across the water in the moat that surrounds the Imperial Palace, he reflected on the past seven months. Seven months ago, Dave Steiner, the managing partner of the main office in Boston, asked Fred to lunch to discuss business. To Fred$$s surprise, the business they discussed was not about the major project that he and his team had just finished; instead, it was about a very big promotion and career move. Fred was offered the position of managing director of the firm$$s relatively new Tokyo office, which had a staff of $40,$ including seven Americans. Most of the Americans in the Tokyo office were either associate consultants or research analysts. Fred would be in charge of the whole office and would report to a senior partner. Steiner implied to Fred that if this assignment went as well as his past projects, it would be the last step before becoming a partner in the firm. When Fred told his wife about the unbelievable opportunity, he was shocked at her less$-$than$-$enthusiastic response. His wife, Jennifer $($or Jenny as Fred called her$),$ thought that it would be rather difficult to have the children live and go to school in a foreign country for three years, especially when Christine, their older daughter, would be starting middle school next year. Besides, now that the kids were in school, Jenny was thinking about going back to work, at least part$-$time. Jenny had a degree in fashion merchandising from a well$-$known university and had worked as an assistant buyer for a large women$$s clothing store before having the two girls. Fred explained that the career opportunity was just too good to pass up and that the company$$s overseas package would make living overseas terrific. The company would pay all the expenses to move whatever the Baileys wanted to take with them. The company had a very nice house in an expensive district of Tokyo that would be provided rent free, and the company would rent their house in Boston during their absence$.$ Moreover, the firm would provide a car and driver, education expenses for the children to attend private schools, and a cost$-$of$-$living adjustment and overseas compensation that would nearly triple Fred$$s gross annual salary. After two days of consideration and discussion, Fred told Steiner he would accept the assignment. The current Tokyo office managing director was a partner in the firm but had been in the new Tokyo office for less than a year when he was transferred to head a long$-$established office in England. Because the transfer to England was taking place right away, Fred and his family had about three weeks to prepare for the move. Between transferring responsibilities at the office to Bob Newcome, who was being promoted to Fred$$s position, and getting furniture and the like

ready to be moved, neither Fred nor his family had much time to find out about Japan, other than what was in the online encyclopedia. When the Baileys arrived in Japan, they were greeted at the airport by one of the young Japanese associate consultants and the senior American expatriate. Fred and his family were quite tired from the long trip, and the two$-$hour ride to Tokyo was a rather quiet one. After a few days of just settling in$,$ Fred spent his first full day at the office. Fred$$s first order of business was to have a general meeting with all the employees of associate consultant rank and higher. Although Fred didn$$t notice it at the time, all the Japanese staff sat together and all the Americans sat together. After Fred introduced himself and his general idea about the potential and future directions of the Tokyo office, he called on a few individuals to get their ideas about how the things for which they were responsible would likely fit into his overall plan. From the Americans, Fred got a mixture of opinions with specific reasons about why certain things might or might not fit well. From the