Expatriate managers’ success in culturally distant countries often depends on them making sure that they introduce appropriate techniques and approaches which do not run counter to local values. Expatriates who introduce inappropriate techniques often find themselves confronted by employee morale and productivity problems. That was the case when an expatriate production manager in a bottling plant in southern Africa tried to introduce a new stock control system based on total quality management (TQM) principles.

To kick-start his plan, the manager holds a series of shop floor meetings, conducted in English, aimed at explaining to employees how TQM works. But after the meetings he can’t help feeling that the workers don’t really understand the advantages of the system and that he will have problems winning their cooperation.
His suspicions are confirmed when union leaders complain to the managing director that they have not been consulted about the production manager’s plans to introduce the new system. As a result of the complaints the plan is put on hold pending the outcome of management–union talks, and a few weeks later it is dropped.
At this point the manager begins to realize why his attempt to introduce TQM in the company failed. After all, he is more educated than the workers, possesses higher qualifications, has greater technical competence, and his income and social status are much higher. These glaring disparities, he tells himself – plus ethnic and cultural differences – are what really caused his plan to founder.
The production manager rationalizes his failure by telling himself that the gap separating himself from the workforce was probably too wide to be bridged by a few shop floor meetings.

1 Why was the manager unable to win the workers’ understanding and cooperation?
List the likely reasons in order of importance.
2 What would have been the likely effect if the manager had first discussed his plan with union leaders?