What do you think the problems are here that need to be resolved? What would your advice be to Richard about how to resolve this issue.
This case study is all about French Connection and problem faced by Richard during handling an expatriate assignment in Venezuela (Storey, 2014). In this particular assignment, proper emphasis has been given on identifying the problem faced by Richard and suggesting probable solutions to him so that he mitigates the issues as far as possible. Several problems had been identified in the study that gives proper understanding of the situation that there is lack of coordination and communication between Richard and John (Alfes et al., 2013). Here, Richard was given three year expatriate assignment Venezuela as a technical liaison as well as environmental protection manager. Richard had been given responsibility to work for the above position and assignment within the stipulated time frame. To this, John was the local supervisor who had lived in French Guiana and then Venezuela for a period of 20 years. The current segment needs to identify the issues that are faced by Richard at the time of working for the project he was assigned for. He did not get any guidance from the Local supervisor and there was no response to the email sent by Richard (Anderson, 2013). These are some of the unethical and rude behavior noted from the case study that made Richard feel bad. Richard was in turmoil whether he should complain to the HR Director in Montreal. Therefore, Richard feels a sense of injustice as well as lack of fairness in the work that was handled under John supervision. The present segment highlights what need to be done in steps at the time of complaining to HR Director in Montreal (Sparrow, Brewster & Chung, 2016)
The main problem that can be easily identified from the case study is lack of proper communication between Richard and John (Riley, 2014). Firstly, Richard was assigned with an assignment for 3 years. Being a local project supervisor, the main responsibility of John was to guide Richard or listen to him wherever is needed. Here, it can be noted that John is completely ignoring Richard with his ideas (Sparrow, Brewster & Chung, 2016). John should actually behave professionally and tell Richard of what is going wrong with the assignment or any other attributes that needs to be discussed. On the other hand, Richard showed enough courtesy to email John and wait for his response. Richard was in hurry as he has limited time period to complete the assignment that was assigned to him (Renwick, Redman & Maguire, 2013).
Richard had asked that his former manager in Toronto to act as his mentor so that he gets guidance from a known person (Brewster et al., 2016). It was eventually agreed as well by the management but later, there was no existence of this mentor who can guide Richard. As a reputed chemical engineer, Richard had been following the rules as mentioned but there was no coordination noted from John being the local supervisor. The workplace actually becomes miserable or unbearable when someone has rude local supervisor like John (Beardwell & Thompson, 2014). Rude behavior is not acceptable at any organization and need proper attention by the management as well. Richard is a person that has lot of patience and said nothing at earlier stages of time frame. With the passage of time, it is quite obvious that he started getting tension and panic because of his assignment that was given to him (Aswathappa, 2013). He was fully devoted towards his work and wrote mails signifying everything that he feels is correct. Without any response from the local supervisor, it is not possible for Richard to continue in his work and submit it within the deadlines. Cooperation from local supervisor would have helped in boosting the level of confidence as well as motivated him to work for his project in better way. Assistance is needed at every step and without that, employees mostly feels left out and looses interest towards work (Sparrow, Brewster & Chung, 2016). The main role of the local supervisor is to guide, help and cooperate with the engineers who had been given work for a given period of time. Irresponsive or negligence behavior of John had become a serious concern for Richard and he was confused on what to do with the project (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014). John should act in more responsive way to handle the situation of Richard and help him with whatever he needed. Rather, the case was entirely different as John was rude in behavior and gets indulged into unethical practices that are not acceptable in any of the corporate business organization (Reiche, Mendenhall & Stahl, 2016).
Richard should complain to the HR Director in Montreal without any kind of hesitation (Purce, 2014). It is due to the reason Richard has limited period of time and if anything does not work out well, then Richard will be answerable to the Upper Level Management. Richard should fight for justice as he feels that there is a sense of injustice and lack of fairness. Richard was of the opinion that action of John was quite unethical (Budhwar & Debrah, 2013). To this, it is necessary to complain with all the points elaborated to the HR Director so that some warning is given to change the behavior of John with others in the near future. If Richard does not complain to the HR Director, it may happen that his assignment does not even complete as there is no positive response from the local project supervisor (Sparrow, Brewster & Chung, 2016). Without any complain, how the company will or any upper management people know what went wrong during these 3 years of assignment. It is a hard truth that ever one will only show interest in knowing the outcome or results of the assignment and nothing else (Brewster, Mayrhofer & Morley, 2016). As the assignment is going at a slower pace, there is a less chance that assignment will complete within the allocated time. Lack of cooperation from the local supervisor is one of the prime issues that need to be taken into consideration (Paillé et al., 2014).
Richard was a responsible engineer and knows what needs to be done and how. This the reason why he had thought it correct to email his Local Supervisor (John) about what he thought were the five main important goals associated with the assignment. The letter contains the management objectives section of the standard performance review form that he had been using for years in his early assignment in Toronto as well as corporate head office in Montreal. John, on the other hand, shows no interest in responding back to the mail sent by Richard for several months (Sparrow, Brewster & Chung, 2016). This is a case of mere negligence and ignorance towards work that is noted from the behavior of John. It is a courtesy to respond back to any official mail and write the issue over there that what changes are needed or anything else that is important. Without responding to an email for several months, Richard finally found John and asked him about the email. To that, John had clearly answered Richard that to keep working to the deadlines and he will check with the coworkers and other project managers regarding the work (Hoque, 2013). After six months of time span, it was quite obvious that Richard had become anxious as the annual review week for the firm had approached. After asking about the upcoming performance review, John was of the opinion that everything had been taken into account and asked him to make an appointment with his assistant next week as the report had been already sent to the Head Office (Nickson, 2013).
Richard should make an appointment to speak confidentially with HR Director in Montreal. Richard should not be in hurry irrespective of the fact that he has limited time given for the assignment. Still, he should not go to the HR Director in the heat of the moment, rather he should go after proper and careful consideration. Richard should make a report as he has multiple instances of local supervisor (John) unacceptable behavior (Morgeson et al., 2013).
Richard should be prepared to talk with the HR Director in Montreal by documenting in detail of the incidents that interfered with the workplace satisfaction (Marchington et al., 2016). He needs to be more specific in details in terms of dates, time and what was said or done as it is a better way to explain the dilemma in a better way. Richard should also mention about how he attempted to remain patient even after no email response from John. Richard should not hide any information that need to be known to the HR Director. It is needed for Richard to ask for an advice from the HR Director on what needs to be done or find out whose fault is this. He should be ready with concrete data so that John is questioned about his rude behavior with other person in a team. Richard should be polite while communicating with the HR Director and keep the point simple and clear (Marler & Fisher, 2013).
If someone behaves rude, no one will feel like coming to that person even if needed for major reasons. It is for this reason Richard should complain about John to the HR Director who works in Montreal (Sparrow, Brewster & Chung, 2016). Complaining will help in making the HR Director aware of the situation that what is happening at other offices and within the colleagues. The prime motive of every business organization is to keep their employees happy and provide them with a healthy and safe environment (Reiche, Mendenhall & Stahl, 2016). Hence, the HR Director will conduct a one-to-one session with John and Richard separately to understand the matter in a better way. It may happen that there are employees or other managers who are facing problems with John but not communicating to any of the Senior Management. After seeing Richard complain about John, it may happen that HR Director receives other complaints as well. Richard should think of himself as well because he had to face this situation during the tenure of 3 years He was given an assignment to work upon but fails to get guidance or cooperation from the local supervisor. Therefore, Richard should be complaining about behavior of John so that this situation is not faced by any other employee in the near future (Sparrow, Brewster & Chung, 2016).
Conclusion
At the end of the study, it is concluded that the case about Richard had been heard in the particular scenario where he had to face injustice behavior from his local supervisor. In any business organization, effective communication plays a major role that help in bringing two people together. It is known that communication is the only way where people can exchange their ideas, views, feelings and opinion to others without any type of hesitation. In this case, the main problem is the improper or lack of communication between John and Richard. Communication in any form is essential, be it formal or informal. But, lack of communication act as a barrier and lead to confusion in later stages. Behavior of John was not acceptable by any chance as he was too rude while talking or addressing to Richard. Being a local supervisor, he need to be friendly and approachable where people can reach him whenever something is needed. The above study properly justify case study as it identifies the problems and suggest solutions at the same time. Steps have been mentioned that need to be followed by Richard at the time of complaining to HR Director of Montreal. Richard should complain for the unethical and rude behavior of John and keep his point that is valid and concrete in front of HR Director. Therefore, the case study properly had been analyzed and it is now understood what Richard should do in order to get justice.
Reference List
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