What would you do if you were in Jeff’s position? Choose one of the options given below. Check your answer with your instructor.

1. I would implement the individual incentive programme. After all, everyone responds to individualized monetary rewards. The programme would be based on the success of the Australian employees who produced more effort since they had been recognized for their individual work.

And it would improve consistency between the international operations.

2.

a) I would recognize that the individual incentive programme alone would not be effective, given the communitarian orientation of some Asian staff.

b) I would allow the company employees in Asia to choose a group-oriented incentive system in Asia and those working in the more individualistic parts of the world to choose a system based on individual incentives.

3. I would discuss the idea further with the HR staff, asking them to tell me what aspects of the incentive programme they thought would be worthwhile. I would then implement a worldwide programme in which one of the major individual incentives is based on how people support the group.

4. I would introduce a consistent plan worldwide that rewards the group, but which makes the team responsible for looking after individuals either who do not optimally support the group’s production goals or who support individual inventiveness.

The dilemma below explores the issue of reconciling a cultural dilemma in a business environment (adapted from Trompenaars, 2000: 31–32).
Jeff Mate was the human resources director of an Australian company in household appliances. In the last couple of years, Matehold had internationalized its operations. First, some activities had been transferred to the Mid-West of the USA and some research and development work was being done in the UK because of its excellent education system. Sales were promising, especially in the Pacific Rim markets. A subsidiary had been set up in Japan to develop operations there.
During an international human resources meeting, Jeff raised the question of the need for greater consistency among his colleagues. In the past, the Japanese had worked in Japan and the Americans had worked in the US. Now, however, multicultural teams were slowly being formed, with US, British, Japanese and Australian employees working together. The US HR manager and Jeff proposed an individual incentive system worldwide that would increase the staff’s productivity. Mr Kataki from Japan saw big difficulties in implementing the individualized bonus system in the light of the predominantly team-oriented value system of the Japanese.
This led to a heated discussion involving all the HR directors present.
In the evening, Jeff was asked to make a decision that would be respected by all.