Ellen's General Manager example essay topic

1. What would you advise Ellen to do and why? What should be her objectives? Are there objectives and actions consistent with what you would do if you were in her situation? Even though Bahrain tended to be more progressive than many Middle Eastern countries in its attitude toward women, there were still many inequalities between genders. The current situation is that Ellen's general manager asked her to change her mind about accepting the Account controlling position because of discriminatory practices in Bahrain.

The manager, who is an uncertain avoidance type, stated that Ellen would have troubles traveling alone and clients would not accept her in the future. Ellen's main objectives were to prove that she not only learned and adapted to the new customs but she also fought back for the local women to have some basic equal rights as men and gained the acceptance from her colleagues and supervisors. After all her efforts to make people better understand the power of women and to gain more respect and trust from both male and female colleagues, she should not give up by accepting the position because her general manager dominated her decision. She, who is low uncertain avoidance type, already gave him some reasonable evidence that there were some successful businesswomen who did it before and she believed she was at lower risk of danger than her Western male counterparts in the event of hostility. In this situation, Ellen had four alternatives: 1. Take the Customer Service Position 2.

Fight Back 3. Stay in the Business Planning and Development department and 4. Leave the company. I recommend that Ellen choose choice number 3: stay in the same position until another opportunity comes up while she keeps looking for a new job. She, however, should not fight back (choice 2) because the Bahrain's culture was save face and collectivism. The general manager's superior, the Senior Vice President of EU, ME and Africa might not change the local manager's decision because 1) it might cross the line of authority in the organization and 2) the VP of the region who had a limited knowledge of the region would generally rely on local management's decision.

Moreover, the Bahrain society still had an issue of inequality of gender and nationality. It was a low possibility that Ellen would win this case against the company. And afterward she would have a hard time even staying at the current position. Regarding the last alternative, leaving the company, it might be her future option but under these circumstances would jeopardize her chances of finding work elsewhere because of Bahrain's collectivism society. People would talk about her case via word-of-mouth and the story would get worse. If I were in her situation, I will America's and Bahrain's cultures -learning and respecting to the local cultures and while maintaining my personal goals - career success as Ellen do.

2. Why is Ellen successful as a manager? This case showed a cultural difference between America and Bahrain based on their diversified cultural norms and standards. Ellen confronted such issues as unequal classification of people and also religious problems, which substantially affected her, and the Bahrainis' attitude toward women. Rather than letting it be, she fought back to make the situation better and convince many people around to realize the importance of social equalization in society and change the attitude of men to women and women to themselves. The sample below showed how she went through each situation professionally.

Perceptions of Dimensions American Bahrain Culture Basic rights Based on religion Human relations Equally Man dominates woman Time Present-oriented Past-oriented Activity Doing Being Individualism / Collectivism Individualism Collectivism Power Distance Low Power distance High Power distance Uncertainly avoidance Weak uncertainly avoidance Strong uncertainly avoidance Career Success / Quality of life Career Success (Masculinity) Quality of life (Fami nity) - Ellen inquired about a computer course for staff members from the British expatriate manager. He rejected that idea by saying that "these were personal computers, any person should be able to use them, and as such, courses aren't necessary". She finally held "Ellen's Introduction to computers" after office hours. She tried to improve working circumstances. This represented Americans' dominant mode of activist as Doing or action (Cultural and management, p 29). - Bahrainis were concerned about their quality of life, emphasizing relationships among people, family and concern for others.

The Bahrain government issued new legislation that restricted the amount of overtime hours women could work. The government was worried that working-women could not dedicate much of the time to family and they might take over the Bahrain male workforce. Ellen as a Career Success who used to have civil liberties, the basic rights that all citizens have to do or say what they want as long as they do not break the law or affect other people's rights (MacMillan English Dictionary), wrote a letter to the editor of the Gulf Daily News to express her opinion about discriminatory treatment of women. Her opinion reflected the power of female who can do more than delivering children and performing all household tasks without the assistance of their husband. 3.

Is Ellen a good role model for other North American female managers? One of her working goals is to train local people eventually to take over her duties. This proved that she wanted to give to people rather than take. She did beyond her position as a manager.

She took care of small people; staff, colleagues, in her department. She was working hard, motivated people and showed her strong leadership. This was proved as "Ellen also found herself facilitating Bahraini women's positions in the work place". She was often asked by the female employees to speak to their male supervisors about problems and issues they experienced in their departments. Moreover, she adapted herself into the new culture such as trying to understand her subordinate's need to pray versus the delay of his deadline while being herself such as writing the letter to the editor of Gulf Daily News. I am sure that Ellen is a good role model for other North American female managers who had to work with a multinational company.

4. What are the responsibilities of male colleagues (senior, subordinates, and peers) toward female managers? As a High Power Distance culture, Bahrain reflected the extent to which less powerful members of organizations accept an unequal distribution of power (Cultural and management, p 56). There are many events to prove the inequality between genders in Bahrain in both the office and society based on the religion. Ellen overcame this situation by showing her capabilities: her education and her management position in the company. - She helped a Bahrain manager improve his work even though there was resistance on his part.

But eventually he came around and they achieved some great results working together. - Another awkward situation for Ellen's professional career is the business gathering. She ventured over to the forbidden male side to join a group of bankers' discussion. The group of males motioned toward the other side of the room, and told her to join the women. The conversation separated by genders showed Past-oriented society- restricting what women could do in the old-fashioned times. She needed to mention that she was the youngest employee of the bank ever to be awarded the diploma her degree and fellowship.

She said, "I almost had to wear my resume on my sleeve to get any form of respect from the men, whether Europe, North American or Arab". Eventually, Ellen crossed over their's mindset and got an acceptance from them as this example situation: When a male employee returned from a holiday, he would typically visit each department, calling upon the other male employees with a greeting and handshake. Although he might greet a female co-worker, he would never shake her hand. Ellen, in contrast, got a special treatment from them.

The male employee stopped by at her office with a greeting and a handshake as respect for her as a counterpart. 5. What if anything in the case differed from your expectations? There are some points that really surprised me: 1. the women wants to keep their position as the previous customs, maybe not under anyone's pressure like my original thought 2. a perception of women's labor force in the labor market.

The Bahrainis had a tension between traditional and modern beliefs, values and lifestyles towards women. It was not just only by men but also by women who were afraid to alter views they understand and with which they have been brought up all their lives as this example: one of the women in the office changed the way of dressing after getting married although her husband did not request. Woman can wear a variety of outfits but can work on their husband, father or brothers permitted them and some male mangers, like Fa had, still believed that women were only capable of fulfilling secretarial and coffee serving functions. Being the hub of Middle East financial and trade in this globalization, the country need to change and allow women as useful resources to help the males working and improving the country.

The country will continuous change and get into the point that previous generation ready to adapt to new way of life and the new generation still respect the old customs and traditions.