Karen Leary Case

1. What is your evaluation of Chung's performance?

Chung has been operating under what he feels are the established norms for his culture. Ted's relationship with the Taiwanese client exhibits the Chinese management principles of paternalism, particularism, and insecurity. The patron-client relationship is based in a sense of mutual obligation, where the client is expected to defer to Ted's expertise and Ted is expected to trade the account responsibly. (Moorhouse, 2005) Ted also used social networking to establish himself in the community which is expected in the Chinese culture. By attending events Ted increases his “visibility and prestige” which contributes to the face that is needed to be considered a trustworthy business partner in the Chinese community. (Moorhouse, 2005) Karen had trouble understanding these differences in culture which is the root of the problem in this case. As stated in the case study Ted was in his early forties were stable and responsible. Karen admitted that she didn’t really know the whole person (referring to Ted) but wrote it off to the fact that he was Asian and she was not. Karen would not be described as someone with much “Cultural Intelligence” defined by the text as “the ability to accurately interpret ambiguous cross-cultural situations” (Robert Kreitner, 2008) Figure 4-2 in the text defines the differences between Low and High-Context cultures with China being a very High-Context culture and North American countries being Low-Context. Below list the traits of each type culture:

High-Context Low-Context

Establish social trust first Get down to business first

Value personal relations and goodwill Value expertise and performance

Agreement by general trust Agreement by specific,...

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... Hawaii we have lived in only Hawaii and Guam. She has danced hula since the age of 4 and competitively since age 7. A couple of years ago we went to see my family at Christmas, on Christmas Eve we all went to the family church. While sitting together during the service I noticed Megan kept looking around and seemed uncomfortable. I asked her if something was wrong and she turned to me and asked “Daddy, why is everybody in here white?” She has grown up in such a multi-cultural lifestyle she is out of her comfort zone when she is placed in an environment of a single culture.

Moorhouse, A. (2005, November). International Management Organizational Behavior. Retrieved October 16, 2008, from University of California Berkley: http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~matran/Files/proKarenLeary.doc

Robert Kreitner, A. K. (2008). Organizational Behavior. New York: McGraw- Hill Irwin.