. 1.Make a list of information you would need to acquire about the employees of VT Korea prior to the American expatriate managers arrival

Background Information: Vance Tech Vance Tech, headquartered in Long Beach, California, has approximately 1,600 employees, with 400 working primarily in executive and divisional management, marketing, project management, finance and HR at headquarters and the rest working in a manufacturing/distribution facility and a customer service center near Detroit, Michigan or an R&D center in San Jose, California. Vance Tech was born through the merger of Advance Systems and Vanderman Technology Enterprises, both of which were firms that developed technology for a broad range of applications. Advance Systems had ties to the automobile industry, and as advanced computer systems, wireless, bluetooth and internet technology began to emerge as necessities in the auto industry, Vance Tech became specialized in that area, fueled by its ties with major American car manufacturers. With 35 years of history, a firm base in its two large domestic customers, satisfied employees in 3 different US cities, and a well-respected management system in place, Vance Tech was poised for strong growth as it finalized the purchase of Jaewon New Technologies. Jaewon New Technologies Jaewons founders Hongjae Kim and Jongwon Lee were both top managers at Hyundai Motors before the 1997 economic crash hit East Asia, taking its deadliest toll in Korea, where unemployment shot upwards of 25% after the country had achieved unmatched economic growth for over a decade. Kim and Lee lost their jobs and decided to take their knowledge and life savings to the Guro Technology Park, where they would be welcomed with open arms and tax breaks as entrepreneurs. There the two of them experimented with LCD, GPS and wireless technologies until they landed a license agreement for several of their patented technologies with the newly merged Hyundai-Kia Motor Group in 1999. Pressure from Hyundai to keep innovating and the remarkably speedy recovery of the Korean economy helped them to grow to 60 employees. In 2009, with US auto sales down, Jaewon faced some financial trouble, and Kim and Lee sold the firm to a Japanese firm. The Japanese firm brought in a new management system and 8 Japanese expatriate managers, but the company struggled to regain its footing in the industry, losing 30 employees. During this time, business with Hyundai fell considerably, but new contracts and license agreements with Nissan and Toyota made up for a portion of the lost revenues. In 2014, another Korean tech firm saw the opportunity to do R&D outsourcing for Korean and Japanese auto manufacturers, so it bought out Jaewon from the Japanese firm and replaced the Japanese managers with new Korean management. The employee count was back up to about 50 with business improving very slowly as the firm held onto loose contracts with 4 car makes in Korea and Japan. A lot of question marks surrounded the sustainability of the firm until an international consulting firm brought Vance Tech in for negotiations, which eventually led to Vance Techs acquisition of Jaewon New Technologies. Developments: VT Korea In October, 2015, Vance Tech incorporated its new wholly owned overseas subsidiary in Seoul as VT Korea. The task now was to turn this firm into a relevant R&D center that could adapts its Asian proprietary technologies for Vance Techs US customers, as well as adjust the US technologies for Asian customers. While Vance Tech was ready for amazing business results, the firms executive management was completely unprepared for the organizational behavior challenges the firm would face in integrating its resources in its new subsidiary. _____________________________ In order to ensure that the new corporate vision and management system were adopted and acted upon effectively at VT Korea, Vance Tech HQ decided to send American expatriate managers to Seoul. Believing that the Japanese firm that had previously owned Jaewon probably overwhelmed the Korean employees by sending in 10 Japanese managers, Vance Techs CEO decided it would be best to send perhaps just 5 American managers for temporary assignments until the new subsidiary is soundly established. Moreover, to ensure that these American managers were most effective, they would have to know about the employees at VT Korea before they arrived.