Road To Hell

Individual Assignment

Digvijay Kanwar, 1374688

 Digvijay Kanwar
1374688

This truly turned out to be a road to hell for both of them and it once again installs my faith in the

importance of being cultural sensitive.

Please show where the mis-communication and misunderstandings are happening between Matt

Rennalls and John Baker?

If one had to examine the COI chart for both Rennalls and Baker, under the communications

section, one obvious thing to jump out would be the style of communications. Rennalls

according to me is a very indirect communicator which might be a common characteristic of his

society; on the other hand Baker was true to his western heritage and had a very direct way of

communication. This difference, I believe stemmed all the misunderstanding between both of

them. Baker in the exit interview “complemented” Rennalls for his ability to “rise” in the

company and society even when though his country had experienced only a short span of

economic growth and exposure. This did not go well with Rennalls who being an indirect

communicator obviously looked for the meaning behind these comment and presumed that Baker

was trying to insult his people and his civilization. This was the core reason for the mis-

communication which occurred between Rennalls and Baker. Another thing which was causing

the miscommunication was the difference in power distance perception. Baker obviously

expected the power distance to be small and hence tried to become “friends” with Rennalls

where as for Rennalls it would have been a mark of disrespect if he treated his boss as an equal.

But baker perceived this gap between their friendship as a result of Rennalls racial views about

expatriates.
 Digvijay Kanwar
1374688

How would you describe John Baker’s management style regarding his cross cultural

adaptation and his relationship with Matt Rennalls? How should he have provided feedback to

Matt Rennalls so that it was useful and insightful?

Baker according to me had a direct and more western style of management. He really did try

hard to help out Rennalls better assimilate within the company; he even tried to establish a

greater bond with him by performing out of office activities like playing tennis. But I believe

Baker lost his understanding of the situation and his cultural sensitiveness somewhere along the

way. Baker felt that because of Rennall’s western education, he had similar understanding about

dynamics of relationships. What Baker viewed as Rennalls acceptance of the western culture was

actually him just being cordial. As in societies with greater power distance, the subordinates are

expected to agree with the supervisors and engage them in extracurricular activities of their

choice.

I believe that the exit interview should not be had been so demanding and Baker should have

slowly disseminated his ideas and thought to Rennalls over a long period of time. I do not expect

that anyone within a matter of hours would change their whole cultural perceptions about things.

Baker should have first made Rennalls comfortable by talking about his family and other not

serious topics. As Rennalls is from a high context society this would have put him at ease. After

establishing the fact that Baker only wanted what was best for the company and for renellas, he

should have shared his views in a very indirect fashion. In the end I would have kept the

discussion open and offered him any help that he would require to express himself. I think this

way he would have been able to communicate with Rennalls more effectively.
 Digvijay Kanwar
1374688

What would you do to help both Rennalls and Baker increase their Cultural Intelligence?

Baker and Rennalls both have to work hard on improving their Cultural Intelligence. Baker

should have been mindful and insightful in not being so direct with Rennalls and on the other

hand Rennalls should have realized that his superior is from a different culture and hence has a

different style of communicating.

But I believe out of the two Baker needed more work. As mentioned in the book, he needs to be

mindful and build knowledge base of Rennalls’s culture by going out more and participating in

the local culture and traditions. He should be more observant and try to discover the hidden

signals of the culture as some time they can be more important than things that are obvious. I

would offer Baker to read the “Cultural Intelligence” book and ask him to map himself and plan

out a road map for himself. Using the stages from the Cultural Intelligence book he has to work

hard and improve on his development stage. His foundations are weak and he has still not come

out of the reactive phase. He still perceives and judges Rennalls from an expat mindset. Baker

has to advance to the recognition phase and then finally move into accommodation phase, this is

the stage when he would truly be able to rise above the difference and immerse himself in

Rennalls culture.

In the short run I suggest that both of them should find the “middle path”. It would be so much

easier for Baker and Rennalls to first understand and agree that a cultural difference exists

between them. They should then work jointly towards coming and reaching a middle path which

would be closer for both of them and much more realistic to achieve.