Cultural Inequalities
Case Analysis
The major issue in the case of AccuForm is the cultural inequalities that actually have not been recognized. There is a big difference between the value perception of the German partner DynaCoat and the Hong Kong CreaseFree. At the very beginning the case speaks about the corporate social responsibility by the German DynaCoat and the low cost leadership that CreaseFree practices. DynaCoat is focusing on high quality, standardized production while the Hong Kong party is looking to keep the cost low and only meet the basic legal requirements. The joint venture faces another challenge when it comes to the formal business relations that DynaCoat puts in practice and the traditional Chinese guanxi in CreaseFree.
As AccuForm business progresses, the culture of CreaseFree is becoming prominent. Not being able to change or influence the culture of most of the employees, the general manager Kim has allowed them to work in the way they choose. He came up with an idea and instead of trying to change the overall culture and habits he determined targets that were supposed to be met by the teams. This ensured the productivity and toned the stress down for some time.
Furthermore, maybe it is the leadership of Kim that needs to be questioned and analyzed. It is certain that he has the experience and knowledge to manage AccuForm but is he applying the right leadership style? Some might find his way of leading a little bit passive as he overlooked the conflicting value perceptions between DynaCoat and CreaseFree. On the other hand, he was aware about the CreaseFree’s informal practices and strongly disagreed with them. Still, not implementing more formal company relation policies might be taken as his weakness and acceptance of CreaseFree guanxi.
I personally, believe that Kim stopped insisting on change in the corporate behavior because he came across a lot of resistance and probably thought it might never happen. His policy for maintaining high level of productivity turned out to be a great success. But still, the fact that he became silent about the initial problem might be interpreted as acceptance from his side. Having in mind that he is a senior manager in the company, it is natural that the employees will follow him and act similarly. If his behavior speaks that ethics don’t matter, he rest of the company will think the same way. Again, I don’t believe that ethics doesn’t matter for him but the solution he found kept the operations high so he disregarded the major problem. As seen in the case later, some of the employees have obviously taken an advantage of the situation.
Case Analysis
The major issue in the case of AccuForm is the cultural inequalities that actually have not been recognized. There is a big difference between the value perception of the German partner DynaCoat and the Hong Kong CreaseFree. At the