C48IB – Intercultural Issues in Business and Management 

Case-study scenarios – AY 2021-22
 
 
You are required to write a 2,000-case study (±10%) on one of the five topics /
scenarios below. You will find guidelines and a template on Canvas.

 
Scenario #1: 
 
John is a UK manager who has been tasked to lead a team on a new and exciting
project, starting in September. Team members are located in Australia, Malaysia and the
UAE (Abu Dhabi). The team is quite diverse, with colleagues from India, Germany, the
US and Poland. John is preparing thoroughly to lead this new team. He consults the
relevant cultural guides for expats and notes down the characteristics of each culture,
trying to anticipate the cultural issues that may arise in managing this team.
He learns that Polish and German employees don’t like small talk, as opposed to
Americans, and that employees from India are used to hierarchies and transactional,
top-down leadership styles. On the basis of this information, he is planning his first Skype
meeting with them in August, and he is going to set the rules early on, give everyone
precise instructions and monitor the project’s development closely. He has already set
out the targets and deadlines and plans on sticking to them strictly to ensure
consistency.   
 
Do you think John’s approach will be successful? What advice would you give John for his
August meeting, and in preparing to manage the new team? Please use relevant
academic literature, refer to the case study guidelines and follow the given template.   
  
Scenario #2: 
 
Wei is Chinese and works for a large company in Guangzhou. The company is in the
process of negotiating a business deal with a potential partner in the US. The initial
meetings took place in Guangzhou, but the actual negotiation and signing of the deal
would take place in the US company’s headquarters in Denver, Colorado. Wei speaks
English, which is why his boss decided to send him on the trip.  
 
Wei arrived for the meeting tired after a very long flight. The American colleagues were
very friendly but keen to start the meeting, as they were operating on a strict schedule
and agenda. Wei had brought gifts for the team and made sure he handed each gift to
each colleague individually with both hands. He was surprised to see that the US
colleagues did not have a gift for him. They introduced themselves with a handshake and
went in the boardroom. During the negotiations, Wei listened attentively to the proposals
put forward by Ben who was leading the US team, but did not make any comments. Ben
was explaining their position over and over again and Wei would nod but say nothing.
They stopped for lunch and Wei noticed that the US team discussed other work matters.
In the end, Ben was frustrated at Wei’s prolonged silences and lack of engagement and
Wei was put off by the fact that Ben didn’t seem to care about him, but only about the
deal. The partnership did not materialise.   
 
What went wrong?  Please use relevant academic literature, refer to the case study
guidelines and follow the given template.   
 
  
Scenario #3: 
 
Recepee Co. is a trading company in Malaysia with more than 100 employees. The recent
staff survey of Recepee Co. shows that 50% of employees are dissatisfied with the

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company, and 30% of them intend to leave the company in near future.  One of the
company’s largest projects is seriously behind schedule as a result. Samira is recruited as
a project manager to resolve the situation. Samira calls the first team meeting and
notices that the team is diverse in terms of gender, age, ethnicity and religion. She
emphasises that despite people’s difference in cultural backgrounds they must all work
together to deliver the project. She sets ground rules by setting hard deadlines and
micromanaging people to make sure that they understand tasks and deliver them on
time. Two team members inform her that one of the deadlines falls within a Hindu festival
that is celebrated in their community and they cannot deliver the tasks on
that week. Samira dismisses this and says that the company cannot accommodate
individual requests (these are the only Hindu colleagues in the company), and will only
respect national holidays. Another team member complains that she cannot work with
her colleague because he constantly undermines her and asks her to do all the menial
tasks, keeping the important tasks for himself. When asked about it, he says that, as a
young woman, his colleague cannot possibly have the experience to take on important
tasks and it’s best if she sticks to simple tasks for this important project. A third team
member complains that she is always asked to write the minutes of meetings, but she
has already declared that she is dyslexic (HR are aware of this). Samira reprimands the
team for making excuses and urges everyone to pull themselves together to deliver the
task, or there would be penalties.   
 
The team disengage from the project, ignore Samira’s requests for meetings and
updates, and two of them quit. In trying to replace the colleagues who have left the
project, Samira misses every single deadline and the project fails.   
 
Identify the problem(s) and analyse the contributing factors to the problems in this case.
Suggest solutions using relevant academic literature, refer to the case study guidelines
and follow the given template.   
 
  
Scenario #4: 
 
A luxury fashion retailer in France wants to negotiate a new business deal in Japan. They
start the conversation by email in English, but they quickly realise that they’d rather
speak their own languages, as the lingua franca brings disadvantages to them and there
are frequent misunderstandings. They agree for the French delegation to fly to Tokyo
and negotiate with the help of interpreters. The French manager, Delphine, calls for a
meeting and she is informed by the Finance team that hiring a professional French<>
Japanese interpreter for three days together with flights, accommodation, expenses and
their fee would cost EUR 4,000 in total. Gabriel, one of the French employees, completed
a Japanese elective course during his final year at university, and offers to interpret
during the negotiation. Delphine, agrees to use Gabriel as the interpreter to lower the
cost and they fly to Tokyo. When they meet the Japanese delegation, Delphine gives her
hand to the Japanese manager, Mr Nakamura, for a handshake. Mr
Nakamura bows instead and gives Delphine his business card with both hands. Delphine
takes it and gives it to Gabriel. Mr Nakamura looks offended. During the negotiation
process, Gabriel is unfamiliar with some of the business terminology and has to ask for
clarifications constantly. Mr Nakamura’s interpreter has to step in and clarify important
information. Gabriel is confused and feels out of his depth. Delphine points to some
charts and graphs that show the company’s performance, hoping to save the deal, but Mr
Nakamura ignores it. Delphine is also frustrated because Mr Nakamura is
mostly silent and it is not clear to her whether he is interested in the deal at all. Mr
Nakamura is not impressed with the French delegation and their lack of respect, and does
not sign the deal.   
 

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What went wrong in this scenario? Identify and analyse the problem(s) with references to
relevant academic literature. What advice would you give Delphine for future cross-
cultural and multilingual negotiations?  
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