Road to Hell

1. CASE SUMMARY

The “Road to Hell” case study is a story between two identities with different backgrounds and characteristics. John Baker is an English expatriate who preferred working overseas and was a chief engineer of the Caribbean Bauxite Company of Barracania. Baker had a lot of experience working especially in understanding the psychology of regional staff until he was being promoted to a new company in Canada. His final task before leaving the old company was to assess the interview with the successor, Matthew Rennalls. Matthew is a young engineer who represents the new generation of Barracanian. After completing his studies at London University, he is very sensitive with political matter and racism. Baker in the beginning of his interview with Rennalls encouraged him by listing his good points which were his technical abilities. The meeting between these two characters end up with a negative outcome. Rennalls thought that Baker tried to insult him. As a result, Rennalls gave his resignation letter in the company instead of accepting the post as a chief engineer. Hence, this incident not only puts Baker puzzled about what he might have said wrong but also puts the future of the company’s relations with its regional staff and authorities in risk.

1. PROBLEM STATEMENT

The mistake that John Baker did was he made a statement that Rennalls interpret them as an insult and the reason that he did  not realize this mistake when it happened was because
to him, the statement was not an insult, but instead a positive compliment. There is some reason for this miscommunication in which it was due to few factors, the first factor is Cultural Dimensions.

2.1. DIVERGENT CULTURAL ASPECTS

We have concluded that the main reason for the conflict between Baker and Rennalls was because of the differences between their cultures. Barracanians have a high level of communitarianism while the European society is highly self-absorbed, as is the rest of the Anglo-cluster. The other thing about main cultural difference, other cultural aspects they indeed both gave a similar value to social stratification and tend to be motivated by competition. Based on the character of both Baker and Rennalls we can see that they are the total opposites in which one is emotional and the other is neutral. Barracania is a very emotional nation while the European is neutral. This explains why Rennalls feels the need to express his unhappiness with Jackson’s and Godson’s attitudes than the English expatriates. It is also why they find him to be quite rude to them.

2.2. MISCONCEPTION IN THE WAY THEY COMMUNICATED

Other than that, there is a difference in their communication style. One is specific and the other one is diffuse. Rennalls is rather distant and hard to reach and communicate with, and this is due to his scatter culture. It is generally harder to get into the public relation with this kind of people because they are more into privacy which naturally make them more cautious. This might be discouraging to people from specific cultures like as Baker since they do not think it is going to be hard to gain someone’s trust. The other factor could be Trompenaars’ related cultural dimensions in which we will discuss about high context and low context communication. From this study case we can consider Barracanians as high context communicators as different to the Europeans who are usually low context communicators. This explains the miscommunication Baker had. In his native style of communication, Rennalls needs to use the context of the communication to find the true meaning behind what he is told. On the other hand, Baker’s words are exactly what he intends to say. Since there is no hidden meaning to his words, Rennalls’ search to find it is bound to create a misunderstanding like the one in the present case study.

2.3. INEFFICIENT MOTIVATION STYLE

Another problem is the inefficient motivation style. People are always arrogant about poor people management and lack of communication skills. From that case we know that Baker claimed that he had innate knack for getting along with regional people, yet he demonstrated clearly that he did not have a knack for working in a multicultural environment when he used phrases such as you and your forebears and people like you. Baker had to show how much experience he had, which made Rennalls very uncomfortable. One may question that being Baker assistant for two years, would Rennalls know how much experience Baker had. The fact that Baker viewed Rennall racial consciousness as a debit also indicated that Baker has not made the real connection with Rennalls. Throughout the interview, Baker failed to determine the real cause of Rennalls being rude to Mr. Jackson. Toward the end of the interview, Baker mentioned specifically that Europeans are bound to occupy senior position in Barracania. Potentially, what Baker was saying to Rennalls was this, if you dont treat expatriates well, you wonget anywhere. To Rennalls, this was a threat more than a friendly reminder.

2.4. BAKER EMPHASIZED A LOT ON EUROPEAN EMPLOYEES BEING MORE EXPERIENCED

In this case, John Baker made a mistake which is being racist and criticizes Rennalls that his people do not own as much experience in the commercial trade as the Europeans or Americans do as excellent. He said that “My ancestors have all been brought up in this environment "or “the past 200 or 300 years and I have therefore been able to life in a world in which commerce has been part and parcel of my being. It has not been something revolutionary and new that has suddenly entered my life. In your case the situation is different because you and your forebears have had only some 50 or 60 years in this commercial environment.” Statement of John Baker makes Rennalls thought that John Baker tried to insult him without consideration the character sketch of Rennalls. John Baker did not realize that he actually insulted him because he was no intention to insult but Europeans are being direct and no hidden word. The objective was to have a smooth transition or his replacement of his position with harmonious workplace culture of dignity. But the way that he uses was a threat more than a friendly reminder from Baker.