READ case study below BEFORE answering the question. The questions is as follows...

Analyze Martin's behaviors using three GLOBE cultural dimensions to explain why Green finds those behaviors different from his expectations (e.g., using the lens of power distance, uncertainty avoidance, gender egalitarianism, and institutional collectivism, how Martin behaviors and Green's assessment show differences between Ugandan and American cultures).

ANSWER: (simple response in paragraph format 175 words max)

Charles Martin in Uganda: What to Do

When a Manager Goes Native

James Green, a vice president at U.S.-based Hydro Generation (HG), was pondering a specific question: Should he retain Charles Martin for the construction phase of a major dam project in the African nation of Uganda? (See Map 5 for the location of Uganda in Africa and of the dam project in Uganda.) Martin had already completed his assignment on the preliminary phase of the project, and Green couldn't deny that Martin's results had been highly satisfactoryhe'd finished every task on time and within budget.

Green, however, was a little concerned with the means by which Martin tended to achieve his ends. In Green's opinion, Martin was too eager to accommodate Ugandan ways of doing business, some of which ran counter both to HG's organizational culture and to its usual methods of operating in foreign environments. In particular, Green worried that some of Martin's accommodations with local stakeholders might have unforeseen repercussions for the company's presence in Uganda.

He also knew the philosophy and values of founder and current CEO Lawrence Lovell who had been instrumental in shaping HG's mission and culture. A devout Christian and regular attendee of the National Prayer Breakfast, Lovell believed strongly that business activities, though secular, should embody Christian values. As a manager, he believed subordinates should be given full responsibility in making and implementing decisions, but they should also be held accountable for the results.

Martin, however, wanted to stay in Uganda, and HG would be hard-pressed to find someone else with his combination of professional training, experience with HG, and familiarity with the host country. (Martin, though only 29, had already proved effective in using his knowledge of local development issues to disarm critics of the power plant.)

Hiring Martin to handle all preconstruction operations represented a new approach for HG. In this capacity, Martin, who'd been transferred to Uganda a year and a half earlier as project liaison specialist, had been given a threefold task:

1.To gain local support for the project by working with both Ugandan authorities in the capital of Kampala and villagers in the vicinity of the construction site.

2.To set up an office and hire office personnel to take charge of local purchasing (including lower-level hiring), clearing incoming goods through customs, securing immigration permissions for foreigners attached to the project, overseeing the logistics of getting materials going from the airport in Kampala to the dam site, and keeping inventory and accounting records.

3.To help foreign personnel (mainly engineers) get settled and feel comfortable living and working in Uganda.

Martin was also responsible for establishing an operating structure that would spare incoming managers the hassles of such mundane start-up activities as obtaining licenses, installing telephones and utilities, and finding local people to hire for the wide range of jobs that would be needed. In addition, although HG specialized in power plants (it had built plants in 16 countries and retained ownership shares in about half of them), the Uganda project was its first African venture.

Now, dam construction anywhere requires huge amounts of capital, and projects often face opposition from groups acting on behalf of such local parties as the people who will need to move because of subsequent flooding. Thus to forestall adverse publicity and, more importantly, activity that could lead to costly work stoppages, HG needed as many local allies as it could get. Getting (and keeping) them was another key facet of Martin's job.

Martin, though still young by most standards, was well suited to the Ugandan project. After high school, he'd entered the University of Wisconsin, where he became fascinated with Africa through a course in its precolonial history. Graduating with a major in African studies, he served with the Peace Corps in Kenya, where he worked with small business start-ups and took side trips to Ethiopia and Tanzania. Although he loved working in Kenya, Martin developed a disdain for the Western managers and workers who isolated themselves in expatriate ghettos and congregated in the capital's first-class hotels. His own creed became "Don't draw attention to yourself and, above all, learn and respect the culture." At the end of his Peace Corps stint, Martin was determined to return to and work somewhere in Africa. After earning an M.B.A. at the University of Maryland, he took a job with HG, where he worked for two years on project bidding and budgeting. Both when he was hired and when HG became involved in the Ugandan project, Martin made sure his superiors knew he wanted the African assignment.

Not surprisingly, HG saw the advantage of someone who possessed both a home-country corporate perspective and a knowledge of the host country's economics, politics, and culture. In Uganda, a country of about 25 million, English is the official language, but many people speak only an indigenous language, mainly Bantu or Nilotic languages of the Bugandas, Langos, Acholi, Teso, and Karamojong tribes. Although about two-thirds of Ugandans are Christians (about evenly split between Roman Catholics and Anglicans), there are large numbers of Muslims and adherents of various animistic religions.

Since gaining independence in 1962, Uganda has had a largely unhappy history. The ruthless dictatorship of Idi Amin included mass murder among its policies and, more recently, Uganda has been forced to absorb huge numbers of refugees fleeing bloodshed in Rwanda, Zaire, and the Sudan. Nepotism is the norm, and the government is considered one of the most corrupt in the world. On the positive side, foreign companies that want to do business in Uganda aren't heavily regulated, and because less than 5 percent of the population has access to electricity, the Ugandan government strongly favored the HG power plant project.

Now, 18 months later, Martin was completing his liaison assignment for the preconstruction phase of the project and Green was reviewing his performance. Specifically, he was concerned not only about some of Martin's business practices but also about certain aspects of his lifestyle, not the least of which was his participation in local tribal rituals. HG had no formal guidelines on the lifestyles of expatriate managers in its employ, but the company culture tended to encourage standards of living that were consistent with the values of a prosperous international company.

With what HG paid him, Martin could certainly afford to live in one of the upscale neighborhoods that were home to most foreign managers working in and around Kampala. Martin, however, preferred a middle-class Ugandan neighborhood and declined to frequent the places where fellow expatriates typically gathered, such as churches and clubs.

As far as Green was concerned, not only was Martin's lifestyle inconsistent with HG culture, but also his preference for isolating himself from the expatriate community made him of little use in helping colleagues adapt to the kind of life that would be comfortable for them in the alien environment of Uganda.

As for Martin's business-related practices, Green was ready to admit that business in Uganda usually moved at a leisurely pace. It could take months to get a phone installed, supplies delivered, or operating licenses issued. Martin, however, had quickly learned he could speed things up by handing out tips in advance. Nor could Green argue that such payments were exorbitant: In a country where per capita GDP is about $1,300 a year, people tended to take what they could get.

It was also a fact of local life that unemployment was high and so-called job searches were generally conducted through word of mouth, especially among family members. Martin had developed the practice of mentioning openings to local people and then interviewing and hiring the relatives they recommended. In a country like Uganda, he reasoned, such family connections could come in handy.

Hiring the niece of a high-ranking customs officer couldn't hurt when it came to getting import clearances.

To Green, however, although such practices were both normal and legal in Ugandan business dealings, they bordered on the unethical in a U.S. organization. He also worried about a variety of long-term practical consequences. For instance, what if word got out that HG was paying extra for everything (and, inevitably, it would)? Wouldn'teveryonestart to expect bonuses for every little service?

What's worse, if word reached the higher echelons of the Ugandan government, HG would probably find itself dealing with people in a position to demand large payments for such services as, say, not finding some excuse to delay the project. Not only would these payments start to get costly, but they might be illegal under U.S. law. What about adverse international publicity that could negatively affect HG's operations in other countries?

Finally, Green wasn't comfortable with Martin's hiring practices. He had no reason to doubt the competence of any given hiree, but nepotism comes with risks. An employee's close connection with some government official, for example, might encourage the employee to participate more actively in the extortion process. What if a woman hired to work on import clearances decided to go into business with her uncle the customs officer to charge a little extra for every import approval? In addition, given Uganda's history of political instability, the company ran the risk that today's friends in high places might be tomorrow's enemies of the state.

Then there was the issue of the tribal rituals. The dam would displace about 700 villagers, and during early negotiations with the Ugandan government (and before Martin's transfer to Uganda), HG assembled a resettlement package that included the renovation of schools and health centers in the new location. HG executives understood that the package, valued at millions of dollars, was acceptable to the people who were affected. Shortly after Martin's arrival, however, two tribes living close to the Bujagali Falls site of the dam proclaimed the river home to sacred spirits. One leader likened the site to the tribe's Mecca.

As news of the claims reached the international press, worldwide support for the tribes began to grow. With permission from HG headquarters, Martin hired a specialist in African religions, who advised HG to work with the religious caretakers of the falls to find a solution.

When contacted, the official caretaker revealed that, although the spirits could not be moved, they could be appeased at the right price. For a fee of $7,500, he sacrificed a sheep, two cows, four goats, and a slew of chickens, pinning them down on hot coals while 40 diviners prayed and danced. For the finale, blood was sprinkled on some sacred trees. Unfortunately, the spirits were not appeased. It seems that Martin had not participated in the ceremony. So Martin paid another fee of about $10,000 to repeat the ceremony, in which he took part, evidently appeasing the spirits.

Green was concerned about Martin's part in the second ceremony, which he himself considered pagan and probably a sham. Granted, Martin's participation had allowed work to continue, but Green worried the episode could not only damage HG's image but also could offend Uganda's Christian majority and the many Christian missionaries in the country.

On top of everything, Martin's participation might be construed in some quarters as a mockery of tribal customs, thereby contributing to a hostile environment for HG.

Having thoroughly considered the Charles Martin case, James Green now had to make decisions about staffing the next phase of the project. He knew he needed to transfer a number of technical personnel to Uganda, and he'd already begun interviewing senior HG managers for the position of project director. But he was still left with one critical question: How much would the new director benefit from the presence of an American who, like Martin, could be a valuable source of advice about Ugandan culture? And if he had to have someone in that role, was Martin still right for the part?