1. Managing across Cultures
MGMT 544:
Managing across Cultures
Professor Xiao-Ping Chen
University of Washington
Spring, 2004

2. International Human Resource Management
Case analysis: AgroAraucania
Randolph & Sashkin’s article

3. Question
Will the same HR practice achieve the same effects in different cultures?
e.g.
Participative decision making
Employee empowerment

4. Case analysis AgroAraucania Problem definition:
How to make TQM work in AgroAraucania?

5. Background
Retail business selling 2,500 different agricultural products and process 6-7,000 tons of seed annually
Located in Temuco, Chile - with 3 out of 4 owners in Santiago
Experiencing high turnover and low morale (36% less than 1 year w/co)
Hired Psychologist to interview company and provide recommendations

6. AgroAraucania Questions:
What happened when TQM was implemented in the local Chilean farm supply company AgroAraucania?
How would you evaluate the effectiveness of group empowerment in AgroAraucania?
What would be your suggestions in making TQM work in AgroAraucania?

7. Discussion of B&D and AA
Why did Bill Lancaster succeed in Black & Decker?
Why did TQM fail in AgroAraucania?
Lessons learned?

8. Can organizational empowerment work in multinational settings?
What is empowerment?
Recognizing and releasing into the organization the power that people already have in their wealth of useful knowledge, experience, and internal motivation
How to make it work?
Share accurate information widely
Create autonomy via boundaries
Replace hierarchical thinking with self-managed teams

9. Can organizational empowerment work in multinational settings?
How to implement it in multinational settings?
Recognizing cultural differences
Power distance
Uncertainty avoidance
Individualism
Career success

10. Can organizational empowerment work in multinational settings?
Key
Power
High
Distance
Low
Share accurate
information
People do not expect to get all information
People expect and welcome information
Create autonomy
Via boundaries
Boundaries are easy to create but hard to widen
Boundaries can be created in collaboration and easy to widen
Replace hierarchy with teams
Hard to replace hierarchy when leader is part of the team
People welcome leader as part of the team

11. Can organizational empowerment work in multinational settings?
Key
Uncertainty
High
Avoidance
Low
Share accurate
information
People like information that clarifies things
People can deal with unclear information
Create autonomy
Via boundaries
People respond well with clear boundaries
People can live with ambiguous boundaries
Replace hierarchy with teams
People want clear team roles
Teams can create their own roles

12. Can organizational empowerment work in multinational settings?
Key
Individualism
High
Low
Share accurate
information
People want information that relates to individuals
People want team-related information
Create autonomy
Via boundaries
People prefer individual-based boundaries
People prefer team-based boundaries
Replace hierarchy with teams
People have difficulty working in teams
People welcome a team-focus

13. Can organizational empowerment work in multinational settings?
Key
Career
High
Success
Low
Share accurate
information
People want feedback on results
People want feedback on processes and interaction
Create autonomy
Via boundaries
People prefer clear task goals
People prefer process-related goals
Replace hierarchy with teams
People want teams to have real goals and responsibilities
People like a focus on team development processes