Geert Hofstede identified several dimensions in which cultures vary. Use the Five cross-cultural values to explain how they apply to the effectiveness of Tammy's CEO.

lll'il'hat factors are affecting Tammy nding her voice? Dr "I'llta Elna, Director, thacltymg But a public speaking course? Me? Tammy Nguyen didn't really see herself as much of a public speaker. After high school, she'd studied at the University of Melbourne on a scholarship and won several academic prizes. She then worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers in Melbourne, before making a career change to management consulting in her late Ellis, a change that led to her working for Eain E; Company in New 't'ork and Hong Kong. lust last year, her father had been diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer, so she returned to Melbourne to provide more practical support to her parents. The situation caused Tammy to seek another career change, to a role involving less travel and management pressure. Her new role was as chief operating ofcer of a charity that supports the provision of education programs for disadvantaged girls in the South-East Asian region. Despite the substantial pay decrease that was involved in the move, Tammy had been attracted to the role partly because she wanted to use her professional skills to *give something back' to people less privileged than herself. She'd been working at its headquarters in Melbourne for six months. Tarn mfs work involved regular telephone and Skype meetings with team leaders and service providers in the countries where her organisation's programs were delivered, and she had very positive professional relationships with all of the m. tn the Melbourne office, however, she felt that she was constantly sidelined in decisionmaking. The office had a small management team, and none of the other team members had an Asian background. The CED, a man around Tammy's age, had a habit of talking over her in management meetings, and he never seemed to act on any of her suggestions. The other managers in the organisation were all women, but none of them had ever intervened on Tammy's behalf. Tammy sighed. The situation WE causing her considerable stress at a time when she felt least able to handle it. It felt like she was being somehow shoe-horned into problematic stereotypes about 'Asian women', and that was making her angry and upset, too. She'd never felt this way in other workplaces. For the rst time in her career, she was questioning her own judgement. Should ljust walk may from this? No, that's not me: l'd much rather nd a wasr of taming the situation around. As Tammy turned the situation over in her mind, it seemed to her that she was in the middle of a perfect storm of potential pain points in contemporary Australian workplaces. It was almost cliche, but there it all was: gender, cultural backgroundfdiversity, leadership styles, work-life balance and well-bei ng. Plus, of course, there was the dissonance between her satisfying international experience and her dissatisfying experience in the Melbourne ofce. 111ere had to be a solution. But what? Last night, she'd gone out for a burger with her best friend, Hirwin, who ran a company that designed training packag. Even though Tammy had premised herself that she wouldn't mention how frustrated she was feeling about work, in the end it had all come tumbling out. Eirwin had told her that, for the mere price of extra fries, he'd have a ponder about her predicament over night and get back to her in the morning. His email was waiting for her when she woke up. He'd obviously had quite a ponder: 'To my way of thinking, approaching this problem through the prism of voice is one way to understand your options without artificially splitting off any of the intersecting variables that are in play. Analysing your situation solely or primarily in terms of gender, for example, runs the risk of obscuring the very real differences between your expectations and approach and those of the other women who are managers in your workplace. is another example, analysing your situation solely or primarily in terms of your work-life balance as inuenced by your family obligations [and, by the way, please give your dad my level runs the risk of feeding entrenched stereotypes about both women [for example, as being inclined towards caring and helping rola] and Asian-Australians {for example, as being more family focused and averse to confrontation than Anglo-Australians}. But it can really effective to use one of these variables as an entry point to the larger whole. I know of an excellent organisation that runs a development program for women who are motivated to improve their professional impact through better spoken praentation. The program breaks down anxiety, builds condence and enhanca poise by using gender as the entry point for interrogating the complexity of factors that contribute to a lack of condence and blockages around ind ividuals finding and owning their authentic voice in a range of contexts such boardrooms, lectures. public presentations and media performanc. The types of things program participants do are: reading poems and short essays; learning about the role of silence and listening; hearing other participants' ston'a; reflecting on their own experiences, expectations, hopa and disappointments; engaging with peers from outside their particular sector; and getting a better understanding of how to calibrate their voiced expression and reactions in challenging situations. It could be worth a go, Tam. At the very least, you'd get an opportunity to constructively and imaginatively reconsider your perceptions of self, including in relation to others. PS thanks for the fries!' Tammy blinked blearily at the message. She was open to anything that might help. But o public speaking course? Me