Mr. Thomas was senior vice president of a major oil company that had recently purchased a competing company and was now about to merge the two businesses into a single large international firm. His company sent Mr. Thomas to Kenya for an indefinite time so that he could institute all of the major changes needed to make the operation work smoothly and be profitable. He wanted to make a good impression and establish friendly relationships with all his staff—a staff composed of people from many parts of the world. Mr. Thomas called his new employees into his office individually so that he could build rapport with them on a one-to-one basis. Below is a summary of some of his encounters, none of which produced the results Mr. Thomas wanted.

As an employee from China was leaving the office after a very productive visit, Mr. Thomas said, "It was nice working with you. You remind me of all the people I worked with when I was in Japan."

Mr. Thomas noticed a strange look on the face of the assistant manager from Germany when he said, "Remember, this is an informal company. No suits and ties, and we will call everyone by their first name."

When the worker from Saudi Arabia arrived for the one-on-one meeting, the first thing Mr. Thomas said was "How are your wife and family?"

The administrator from Bolivia was reminded that this new company "runs a tight ship" and that "all work has to be completed on time."

Mr. Thomas told his new American administrative assistant that one of her duties would involve preparing coffee for all the executives.

What went wrong?