Accepting a job in a foreign country can be exciting and adventurous, but problems can occur. One may have to make adjustments to personal cultures, business cultures, and team working issues. However, in this case study, Ellen Moore, unfortunately experiences all of these pressing issues when she takes a job in South Korea. Coming from the United States, Ellen was blind to the Korean culture and way Koreans did business, but she did her best to acquaint herself with it. However, when it came to understanding the company culture of the Koreans she did her best to adjust, tippy-toe, and navigate potential land mines. When it comes to teamwork that was established in Korea, Ellen had to do her best to fit in …show more content…
One of the reasons why is a vast majority of women do not want to take a job position in a foreign country because they could be looked down at or even mistreated. However, men will select another man to go on an international assignment before a woman. The author brings up a great point, “Men in the company’s host country tended not to select women for international assignments to protect them from imaginary difficulties in foreign countries” (Lane, 2009). It can be pointed out, even men within a business community are very aware of the problems a women face when taking an international …show more content…
Yes and no. If the company did give her the training, she would have been better prepared on the issues she faced while she was in Korea. Ellen would not have to learn the culture and customs on the fly and devoted more time to the group and the project. However, with all of the train she could have received, she would have still faced the problems of the Confucianism culture. Even though the Koreans said they would welcome her with open arms was a mask on how she was really going to be received by her male counterparts. Another option is the removal of Jack or Ellen. Ellen was picked because of her impressive resume and Jack, who is a consultant. Losing a consultant for either party would be bad, but the two sides could survive. More work would have been done by the other consultants with the loss of one or both of the employees. In this case, a upper manager should have meet with the two and ironed out their differences. Ellen had to adjust to the Korean’s way of doing business, and she had to understand their culture within a company structure. Ellen was going to run into problems just because she was a woman and the Korean business culture has a tendency to look down at women in the workplace. However, more problems occurred that more of less was because of Jacks doing. Having a clear communication channel could have helped, but the real root of the problem can be found in the Korean’s culture. More or less, the company