Charles Martin In Uganda: What to

Do When a Manager Goes Native

Presented by:

Arshi Tandon 1176

Devashish Mishra 1182
Gitika Agarwal 1186
Hitesh Kakkar 1190
Describe Ugandan cultural attributes
that might affect the operations of a
foreign company doing business there.
• The culture of Uganda is made up of a diverse range of ethnic
groups
• 2/3rd Ugandans being Christians- evenly split between Roman
Catholics and Anglicans. Presence of large number of Muslims,
adherents of various animistic religions, popular tribes. Cultural
values, norms, rituals and practices are different for each of these.
• Official language- English
– Bantu-speaking people- East, Central, Southern Africa
– Nilotic languages- North
• Issues of tribal rituals- For instance, two tribes living close to the
Bujagali falls, proclaimed the river was home to sacred spirits.
The leader believed the dam site to be tribe’s Mecca.
• The religious caretakers held a strong position in decision making.
For a huge fee they sacrificed a sheep, 4 goats, 2 cows, and a slew
of chickens, pinning them down on hot coals while 40 diviners
prayed and danced. Also, blood was sprinkled on sacred trees.
• The tribal customs, if offended, could lead to hostile environment.
• Other existent realities in Uganda also became in-sync in the
natives making them a part of their cultural behavior:
– Nepotism being the norm, govt. is very much corrupt.
– Business at Uganda moved very slowly. To speed up one need to indulge in
tips in advance (bribes). People would settle for the max they could get from
the deal. This now became their cultural attribute only.
– Ugandan history of political instability was a concern
How would you describe the respective
attitudes of Martin & Green :
ethnocentric, polycentric or geocentric?

What factors do you suspect of having

influenced their respective attitudes?
• Ethnocentrism reflects the conviction that one’s own
culture is superior to that of other countries
• Polycentrism reflects when an organization or
individual tends to believe business units in different
countries should act like local companies
• Geocentrism is between the extremes of
polycentrism and ethnocentrism, there is an approach
to overseas business practices that integrates
company practices, host country practices and some
entirely new practices
• Green is geocentric due to the following reasons:
– Being VP of his company he knew his company was driven by
Christian philosophy which had shaped company’s mission and
culture. He can be seen as ethnocentric from a management
perspective.
– Concerned about Martin’s lifestyle being inconsistent with HG’s
culture. He considered Martin’s ways as normal and legal in Uganda,
but feared it to be unethical in a US organization from a
management’s perspective as they had their businesses around the
globe. A negative international publicity and close connection with
government officials a cause of concern for him
– Polycentric approach- He believed that to do successful business in
foreign country one has to compromise to some extent with foreign
culture and govt. regulations (not as far as Martin’s controversial
actions were concerned) but not at the cost of the image of its parent
company.
• Martin is Polycentric due to the following reasons
– Although being an American, he was fascinated by Africa through a
course in its pre-colonial history taken up by him after high school. He
thereby graduated from African Studies and also worked in Kenya.
– He developed a disdain for western managers who isolated themselves
in expatriate ghettos. He believed in “Don’t draw attention towards
yourself, and above all, learn and respect the culture”
– Showed an interest in working in African assignment since very
beginning
– Comfortable with African natives and preferred living in middle class
Ugandan neighborhood
– Martin paid an increased amount of $10,000 to repeat the ceremony of
appeasing the spirits. This shows that to some extent he believed in
African tribal rituals.
Who was right Green or Martin, about
Martin’s controversial actions in
facilitating the project? How might
things have turned out if Martin had
not been a member of project team?
• Martin was right for his controversial actions in facilitating the project due
to the following reasons
– Being a graduate in African studies he had knowledge and interest
about Uganda and working practices there
– Although business in Uganda moved at slow pace but he learnt that
paying tips could quickly speed up the task
– Lived in middle class Ugandan neighborhoods and held job hiring
through mentioning it to local people and listening to their
recommendations
– Participated in tribal rituals which allowed the work to continue
– The preconstruction phase of the project required government
approvals which was taken care by Martin through his actions. These
approvals were one-time and were necessary for the project to
commence.
• If Martin had not been a member of project team then
– He completed his work within time which would not had been the case if he
was not there
– Work would have been slow and would take a month’s time even to get a
phone installed in office
– Nepotism being a practice there had to be practiced to speed up things like
import clearances
– If he wouldn’t have hired a specialist in African religion or didn’t participate
in their rituals then it would be difficult to displace the villagers
– Hence the assigned tasks could not have been completed in allotted time and
budget
– His understanding of Ugandan culture gave him an edge to perform the
preconstruction phase work which any other employee of HG would not
have been able to accomplish.
In the next phase of the project-
constructing the dam itself- should HG
employ someone whose main function
is that of liaison between its corporate
culture and the culture of its host
country? If so, is Martin the right
person for the job?
The work of being a liaison between its corporate culture and the culture of its host
country was taken care in the preconstruction phase where the preliminary approvals
and setup was required.

In the second phase, a person with technical knowledge is required who can deal
with the construction project. HG can employ some experienced person having an
engineering background or well versed with the construction details.

Martin due to his knowledge and experience of working in Uganda, can be retained
by the company for a period of 6-8 months so that he may make the new project
manager well versed with the situations and dealings in Uganda.

Martin is not the right person for the job as a project manager as he was an MBA, not
having knowledge of construction work. Moreover his controversial actions were
unfit for HG’s culture and could pose bad publicity and ruin their foreign businesses
around the globe.
Thank you!!