An Asian engineer is assigned to a US laboratory and almost suffers a nervous breakdown. A US executive tells his staff he’s going to treat them fairly -- and creates dissension (纷争). A Japanese manager is promoted by his British president, but within six months asks for a transfer. Each of these real-life cases involved people who were regarded as superior employees, but were ill-equipped to cope with the complexities and ers of intercultural management. "Multinational companies have studied everything else, now they’re finally looking at culture," says Clifford Clarke, founder and president of the California-based IRI International Inc, one of a small but growing number of consulting firms that specialize in teaching business people from differing cultures how to communicate and work with each other.
"Never show the sole to an Arab, never arrive on time for a party in Brazil, and in Japan, don’t think ’yes’ means ’yes’ , advise US consultants Lennie Copland and Lewis Brown Griggs, who have produced a series of films and a book to help managers improve their international business skills. But simply learning the social "dos" and "don’ts" is not the answer, according to the new culture specialists. The penalties for ignoring different thinking patterns, they point out, can be disastrous. For example, the American manager who promised to be fair thought he was telling his Japanese staff that their hard work would be rewarded, but when some workers received higher salary increases than others, there were complaints. "You told us you’d be fair, and you lied to us," accused one salesman. "It took me a year and a half", sighed the American, "to realize that ’fair’ to my staff, meant being treated equally."
The Asian engineer who suffered in America was the victim of another mistaken expectation. "He was accustomed to the warm group environment so typical in Japan," said his US. manager. "But in our company, we’re all expected to be self-starters, who thrive on working alone. For him, it was emotional starvation. He’s made the adjustment now, but he’d be humiliated if I told you his name, That’s another cultural difference."
The Japanese manager who failed to respond to his promotion couldn’t bring himself to use the more direct language needed to communicate with his London-based superiors. "I used to think all this talk about cultural communication was a lot of baloney," says Eugene J. Flath, president of Intel Japan Ltd., a subsidiary of the American semiconductor maker. "Now, I can see it’s a real problem. Miscommunication has slowed our ability to coordinate action with our office."
That’s why Intel, with the help of consultant Clarke, began an intercultural training program this spring which Flath expects will dramatically reduce decision- time now lost in sure the Americans and the Japanese understand each other.
The Japanese staff complained to the American manager because ______.