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Case 1: What Else Can Go Wrong? Essay

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Case 1: What Else Can Go Wrong? Summary Joe Van West is an American who was working as an Operations Manager in Taipei, Taiwan when he got a call offering him a job in Mexico as a President of the Mexican subsidiary of Appliances United. After applying for the job he got approved and moved to the said country. There Van West and his family got help from Antonio Hernandez, President of Manufacturing, with settling down. He and Mrs. Hernandez introduced them to various clubs and influential people. In general The Hernandez contributed a lot to Van West’s accustoming and developed a good relationship. But things did not stay good for long. Because he could not detect certain problems as a threat at the time, he was now facing …show more content…

Now Van West was facing a potential strike he needed to do something so he arranged a meeting with all the people involved. What are the underlying cultural issues contributing to the problems? When dealing with intercultural business a person should be well aware of the characteristics of the culture he is to be in contact with. He should be well prepared to face attitudes not common in his home country. In this case there is an interaction between Mexican and American culture. Van West was eagerly trying to discuss the matter with Hernandez but things never worked out his way. The Vice President would push the issue aside and regard it as not important. To him it was something that could be put off and dealt withlater. He kept assuring Van West that he is capable of resolving the problem on his own. One of the characteristics of the Mexican business culture is that people work in a leisurely manner. Given as they are a Collectivist society, they can take their time to get to know a person and build a relationship with them. This easy-going character may also account for a slower execution of given tasks. In this culture things are expected to be done some time in the near future, without great urgency or specific dateline in mind. This is why even confronted by Van West’s eagerness, Hernandez did not cooperate with clearing the situation at once. As a person from an Individualist society, Van West took matter into his

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