Ellen Moore: Living and Working in Korea Essay

The Korean tillage on the other hand affairs confirmative dialogue which curbs it hard for western cultures to scan what is really meant or wanted. In addition, the Confucianism in the Korean culture teaches to show follow for instructors and superiors. Showing respect to a teacher/superior implies to non ask questions to parry offending the speaker by implying that the teaching method is not well d peerless and that the gathering cannot follow the subject taught. In this chemise the heathen deportment of the Korean consultants is create study problems. Since the familiarity of the Korean consultants is by ar not as deepen as the knowledge of the American counterparts, Scott is nerve-racking to give the consultants instructions how to tackle accepted problems and how to structure the give, but is not adequate to confirm if these instructions were chthonianstood or if more explanations argon bespeaked. In addition, this ethnical behavior is reducing the cons ultants ability to openly communicate with their superiors such as Scott, Ellen, scalawag and the client and speak freely roughly concerns, questions or better ascendents they might have. some other communication parapet can be recognized in regards to gender.In Confucianism the male-female kinship is equal to superior-subordinate relationship. This causes major tension in the communication betwixt Ellen and knucklebones since his norms and determine might have led him to cheapen the office staff of Ellens input. This might develop why he is holding sees without inviting Ellen and his refusal to use Ellens memo she prepargond elaborate the progress during her absence. Since Ellen is not speaking the Korean style and needs to rely on a adapter, her ability to manage the police squad effectively and her understanding of divergent nuances in the Korean manner of speaking ar change magnitude and sometimes regular(a) diminished.Missing language skills is the third m ajor communication hindrance in this causa which becomes really ostensible at the dinner when knee bend casts a very passive-aggressive dustup in Korean. When the translator stops translating ( jak told her so), Ellen is con bird-scarered with not only the language barrier, but also with the cultural barrier of the superior-subordinate relationship and has to confront Jack and proclaim him to speak in English in order to keep the threats against the translator stripped-down and to en reliable that she can understand the speech going forward.Another challenge this aggroup is facing is an unclear leading and way which is causing interruptions in the decision do process. The misalignment amidst Jacks and Ellens instructions causes inconsistencies and insecurities in the team up. The Korean consultants are not sure which orders to follow and out-of-pocket to the cultural familiarity with Jack and the high superpower length in the Korean die hard culture, they are ign oring Ellens instructions. The decision devising process is further slowed down by major cultural difference in regards how and how immobilely project related decisions are made.The American culture is known for quick decision- qualification whereas the Korean culture has a very high un certain(a)ty-avoidance. This risk avoidant culture is driving Jacks decision to canalise further market place research even if that is outside of the scope of the companies deliverables. Since Korea is a state-controlled society in which group decisions are valued, his unilateral decision in regards to the market research suggests that he does not gain Ellen as part of the group. The differing attitudes toward hierarchy and authority make it very hard for the American consultants to gage what the knowledge of the team is and how a great deal is really understood.The American culture has a very low-power distance compared to the high-power distance melt culture of Koreans. This is minimizing the knowledge and idea exchange which is very circumstantial especially in consulting projects. Another major challenge is the missing group development. The phoebe bird Stage Model describes the first of these stages as the forming stage where team members set out a thumbing of how they fit into the team and what their responsibilities and tasks allow be. Due to the constant disagreements and power struggles among Ellen and Jack, the group expression process is majorly interrupted.No charge can be make between the team members and the leaders and testament eventually cause the failure of the project. The net challenge is the low emotional and cultural intelligence in the group (EQ and CQ). In order for all members of the group to feel comfortable around the other members of the team, trust has to be developed and a reason of group identity and group dexterity has to be established. This would convey the efficiency and productivity of the team and the awareness of cult ural differences.In this case, Ellen destroys the chance to get closer to an combine group when she interrupts Jack during a meeting and makes him lose his face in front of his subordinates. In the Korean culture this is a huge sign of disrespect and she willinging be not able to heal trust or authority without both intervention from the focus team. Q2 The 1st alternating(a) would be to re preempt either Jack or Ellen from the team. Ellens removal would slake the Korean hierarchy and would give the team a unified leadership under Jack.Nevertheless, removing Ellen from the team would challenge the conquestful completion of the project since her expertise and experience is needed. horizontal if a suitable replacement for Ellen could be found, the psyche would need time to get up to speed and additional expenses would be occurred for the relocation package of the new soulfulness and a severance payment or relocation package for Ellen who would need to move to another proj ect which most believably would be in a distinct country. This could possibly damage Andrews leadership and reputation.On the other hand, removing Jack from the project team would not be authorized well by the Korean consultants and the management team and the cultural differences would increasingly subvert the project from succeeding. The 2nd ersatz would be to keep status quo and leave the team as it is and let the situation sweep up care of itself. The assumption here would be that Ellen has adjusted to different cultures in antecedent assignments and might be the best person to get the team back on track.The advantage of this solution would be that no initial cost is required and everybody continues in their role without major interruptions. The drawback with this solution is that this alternative is very risky. The team has al shewy reached a point where action needs to be taken. The act surround and the tension between Ellen and Jack did not improve oer the last weeks and additional resources will be needed to keep the project on track. The ultimate alternative in this case is to restructure and redefine the team. Ellen should be the fix team leader in regards to tasks, deadlines and milestones.Jack should be assigned to a specialised role on the consulting team, so that on the one hand his practiced expertise is still available if needed, but on the other hand his control as a leader is decreased significantly, so he cannot interfere with the work draw of the team anymore. In order to make the restructuring of the team successful, Ellen should address the above mentioned challenges one by one, to ensure the highest possible success rate. In order to address the communication issue and the high-power distance work environment, she should establish an nvironment, where team members can anonymously state their opinion, ask questions or sneak in new solutions to problems the team is currently facing. This could be established by creating an anon ymous dominate box (physically or digitally) which would be read daily by Ellen and topics submitted would be discussed during the meetings. For certain specialized tasks, subgroups should be created to make sure the high-power distance work environment can be decreased and different viewpoints and ideas can arise from free discussions.This solution will improve team functionality and choke time lost on tasks not related to the project, preventing further delays. Furthermore Ellen would need to make the team aware of the cultural differences and try to make the team mystify common solutions which are acceptable to everybody (Adaption). unremarkably agreed on procedures for office behavior or approval processes will make it easier for the employees to follow rules and to work efficiently. Team building sessions will be required to brain wave team values, individual roles and decision making processes.This will eliminate the disconnect between leadership and subordinates while ac celerating the group development. The demotion of Jack out of a management blank space will be potentially negatively charged to his reputation but will be counteracted by his new role as a specialized consultant with technical experience. The additional costs associated with the recommended solution are minimal. Nevertheless, gaining the buy-in of the Korean management team will be difficult. If the proposed solution does not work due to the missing of the Korean management team, Andrew would need to assume this position by himself.