Event of resistance
One of the notable events of resistance during the Four Season’s takeover in Paris is evidenced by the perception of the selected expatriates in its new property in the country. Some of the managers that were chosen to work in Paris understood the cultural differences between the United States and France. Subsequently, the workers developed the perception that managing the firm’s property at Paris would be quite challenging.
Therefore, in order to function optimally in the new location, the expatriates were required to be accustomed to the French laws, national idiosyncrasies, and business culture. However, most expatriates were not familiar with the French labour laws. Furthermore, the expatriates perceived the probability of experiencing challenges in the course of executing their managerial duties. They appreciated the inherent antagonism between the lower-level employees and the top management in France. This perspective made a substantial number of the potential expatriates to perceive working in the host country as a threat to the organisation’s norms and culture, hence complicating the managerial role in France.
Similarly, Four Season’s has established its operations in Thailand. However, the cultural differences between the home country [Canada] and the host country [Thailand] present a potential source of resistance amongst its service staff. For example, the Thai’s appreciate social interdependence as opposed to Canadians who are relatively individualistic. This situation is illustrated by the high individualism index in Canada [80] as opposed to Thailand [20] according to the Hofstede cultural index (Mohammed & White 2008). This aspect shows that the expatriates working in Thailand might not collaborate with the workforce recruited from the country. Such an occurrence might compromise service delivery within the organisation.
Staff motivation
Despite the underlying situation, the General Manager at Four Season’s would have increased the likelihood of success by adopting effective management practices. One of the aspects that the firm should consider involves employee motivation in order to strengthen its organisational culture (Pride, Hughes & Kapoor 2013). In a bid to achieve this goal, the General Manager should have considered the motivator and hygiene factors.
First, the firm’s management should have integrated the concept of task delegation. This move would have increased the level of job satisfaction. Task delegation would have provided the lower-level employees with a sense of recognition in the organisation’s operation. Moreover, incorporating task delegation would have increased the employees’ job responsibility, hence promoting personal growth (Daft & Lane 2008).
One of the major challenges encountered by the organisation in acquiring the French firm relates to the existence of national culture differences between the host and the home country. However, the firm should have designed an extensive training program focusing on the national culture differences between the two countries. This approach would have played a fundamental role in providing the workforce with adequate knowledge of how to deal with the cultural differences.
Consequently, the employees would be in a position to adapt to the new working environment. Cultural training would have enabled the organisation to establish an enabling environment for working (Nelson & Quick 2014). Moreover, civilization education would have paved a way for the General Manager to develop ample appreciation of the main country’s traditions. Consequently, the top management would have been in a position to adjust its organisational policies, values, and norms in order to consider the prevailing cultural differences.
Reference List
Daft, R & Lane, P 2008, The leadership experience, South-Western Cengage, Mason.
Mohammed, U & White, G 2008, ‘Culture and conflict management style of international project managers’, International Journal of Business and Management, vol. 3, no. 5, pp. 1-9.
Nelson, D & Quick, J 2014, Organisational behaviour, Cengage Learning, New York.
Pride, W, Hughes, R & Kapoor, J 2013, Business, Cengage, New York.