Table of Contents
Problems identified in the case study
Strategies to solve the identified problems
Introduction
Cross cultural and the languages are always finding to be difficult for the employees. Due to the transfer and business requirement, the employees will be shifted internationally and this will affecting both personal life with family and financially. In order to understand this effectively, the case study of the Bakers i.e. the Brian and Kathryn life has been studied in a case study. Both of them married and working to manage the family situation. Brian has been working in the Universal Bank (UB) managing domestic operations while Kathryn was working in a firm related to legal. The UB has selected Brian to be in the new operations that are to be performed in Buenos Aires and they are shifting there. They have faced several issues while moving to the cross culture and languages. The following report will be discussing the cross culture issues, personal issues and the issues in performance and appreciation for the Bakers family.
Problems identified in the case study
On studying the case study, several problems were identified in the personal as well as the professional life. The following are some of the problems that are essentially to be discussed regarding the Bakers family.
Moving to new culture and language
One of the most important issue that has been faced by both Brian and Kathryn is migration related issues from United States to Buenos Aires in Argentina as part of work. Both of them and their children has been adapted and well grown up in the United States culture and it will be difficult for them to adapt to the new culture. Language will be considered as one of the major issue for Kathryn and the children. Since Brian was well versed in the Spanish language, he hasn’t faced any serious issues in the country and in the working environment. Kathryn has joined in the Spanish language classes that were offered by the bank. She found very difficult in moving with the flow. It is also to be understood here that Brian was putting his 16 hours a day to accomplish his tasks in the new office. This is to be essential in order to cope up within the new branch as he has to form the new team for the task that has been provided. He has to setup the operations in the South American part. The cultural and language issues is found to be the problem that were faced initially by the Bakers and the family. This problem could not avoided easily as this should be faced effectively in order to work with the new culture and to gain from it (Szkudlarek et al., 2020, p. xx).
Managing personal life
As both Brian and Kathryn were busy in the work, they were not able to enjoy their marriage life and with the children. Both were able to understand the problem but nothing could not be done considering the situation of the family and their career. The financial issues were in one side and they initially were not able to find a house that matches with the allowances provided by the bank. In order to tackle the school fees for the children and tuition fees for Kathryn, Brian has to be working hard. After studies, Kathryn got an offer and while working, both of them were not able to spend time together themselves and with the children (Steinke, 2016, p. xx). Also, while returned back as part of the repatriation from the UB. They hardly find themselves in the United States and the children found difficult to mingle with the other students. Brian has some issues in the same place where here worked since there were changes that were happened at the top level management and the employees. He spent about 60 hours per week in office in order to move with the domestic operations of the bank. Meanwhile he has to make his child free from depression by taking them to movies and spend time together. Each of them has to understand themselves regarding their personal problems and has to be working efficiently to manage the personal family life and the professional career (Gragnano et al., 2020, p. xx).
Performance and appreciation related problems
It has been identified that the organization culture and the top level management has been changed in the time where Brian went to Buenos Aires for five and a half years. He found it hard to work with the new team and the older team was framed to work with the several challenges and with greater performance (Salmi et al., 2020, p. xx). He also found difficult to work with the domestic operations of the UB. The challenges that were faced by the bank should be tackled effectively by Brian so that he has to form the new team and work effectively to improve the profit of the bank. It is also to be understood that there are problems in the performance identification and appreciation as Brian was working lonely. He was highly depressed as they were no appreciation in the work and no signs of promotions and other benefits from the bank side. There were no one to evaluate the performance of the employees and Brian has been thinking of quitting from the job. But due to the financial issues in the family, he could not make such decision and has planned to work for openings in the market (Stocker et al., 2014, p. xx).
Strategies to solve the identified problems
In order to address the key problems that has been identified in the case study, the alternative strategies should are discussed in the following.
· Learning new languages and adapting to culture will be resolving the conflicts that may be arising in the new organization.
· The time should be allotted for the personal life for spending with family and children. The weekends and holidays should be spend effectively.
· The details of the tasks should be reported to the top management of the organization so that the performance could be understood.
· Making new friends and moving out will be relaxing and will providing some relief from the depression.
· Applying forNew Jersey bank to spending time with the family
Evaluation of the strategies
In order to understand the strategies effectively, the strengths and the weakness of them has to be understood. This section will discuss in detail about all the five alternative plans that will resolve the issues that were identified from the case study.
Learning new languages and culture
The new languages should be learned where this helps in communicating with the new organization and the people in the country. The challenges that are in the communication could be resolved with the help of this. The culture of the country and the new organization should be learned by Kathryn. This is for the reason that she could be able to be working there so that it will not be issue. Adapting to the new culture will be done based on making communications with the local employees with their languages (Lailiyah, 2016, p. xx). The culture of the organization and the country should be discussed with the closed ones. It should be practiced with the help of the online based learnings and also the benefits that could be attained from it should also to be understood. Adapting to the new culture and the languages should be taken as an enthusiastic task so that there will not be any issues or difficulties in the cross cultural working.
Spending time with family
It is identified that both were in depression and tension in the work so that they have not be able to spend time. They should be able to schedule their busy office hours and should be making time to spend with the family. In order to effectively do this, moving out for movies, dinner, etc. could be highly helpful. This could be helpful in overcoming the tensions and the depression they had in their job. Both have to be understanding the importance in spending time with the family. The nights and the weekends should be effectively used so that they can in bond with each other. It is also advised that to take some counselling classes to improving the relationships between the family members so that the depression could be avoided. Thus, it has been identified that time that is allocated to the family is important so that it has to be effectively schedule for growing up children and other family related issues (McAuley et al., 2012, p. xx).
Reporting the competed tasks and milestones
The tasks that are completed and the achieved milestones in the organization should be reported to the top management so that they could be easily evaluating the performance. The challenges that are facing in the organization should also be reported so that it could be highly helpful for overcoming them in an effective manner. The communication with the Executive vice president should be improved by Brian so that he can be able to understand how Brian is performing in the new position that has been provided. In order to effectively make this possible, the mail and the phone conversation should be frequent and should be addressing the issues and the task completion that has been in the work (Kalsaas & Kristensen, 2018, p. xx). It is also essential to work with the team members and to shape the team more effectively for improving the business and making profit out of it.
Making friends and spending time to get relaxed
Another strategy that is used for relaxing is to make new friends in the new workplace so that the emotions could be easily shared. This is suggested as an alternative strategy that can be handled by all the family members Brain, Kathryn and their children. Since Brian is fluent in Spanish he could easily manage making friends in his workplace. But for Kathryn, she has attended the classes for the language. Making friends helps in communicating easily without any hesitation and also they can get the required help from them. The cross culture issues like communication, race and discrimination could also be avoided here with the help of this strategy. This solution has worked for Kathryn where she had joined here old office and she met a new friend so that she does not had any issues like what Brian had in his workplace or his children in the school.
Applying for New Jersey bank to spending time with the family
Due to the issues in getting recognition in his US office unlike in the Buenos Aires office, he has not interested in working there. Every member in the office is new to him and the effective and better team that he had in the past was no available to him. There was no superior office to track his records and he was frustrated to work. He also found difficult in maintaining the domestic operations suddenly from the international business operations. An alternative option that is available to Brian which is a job opening in the New Jersey bank should be applied and should move there. This could be helpful in managing his reputation there and also getting time to spend with his family members. The time he has spending in the UB office will be reduce to about 30% and hence the stress and the other tensions could be reduced and a peaceful life is possible with this option (Hall, 2018, p. xx).
Recommendations
There are several problems identified in the life of Bakers family and they have to resolve effectively without any consequences. On analyzing the alternatives that are provided in above evaluation, the recommendations in the following has been made.
Adapting to the new culture
There were several challenges that were identified in the new culture in the Buenos Aires for Brian and his family. In order to overcome the issues that they had, they had to adapt to the culture in the faster pace. This is because that they cannot easily live a life without adapting to the culture, environment, people and the languages. Also, it is suggested for them to attend the classes that are provided from the bank side. They should use the learnt language in communicating with the colleagues so that they could get some friends. This will be highly helpful in overcoming the issues that they had while moving from US culture to Buenos Aires culture. The ways for adapting to the culture of Buenos Aires should be studied and it should be applied in the real life to resolve this issues and perform well in the work and education.
Entertain often with friends and family
It has been identified the most important issue in their life is the time they are not affording in entertainment either with the family or friends. In order to make this possible, Bakers family spend time together by going out to dinner, watching movies, etc. All of this would be helpful in relaxing themselves and to relieve out from stress. In addition to this, to make new friends out in the office and the neighborhood so that this could be helpful in overcoming the stress in the work and the education. It has been identified from a research that going out helps as a stressbuster. It is also essential to have good food and to watch out new released movies for relieving out from the mental issues. Thus, it has been essential to make new friends in the new culture and to spend time with them and the family members.
Searching for a job that provides free time
Brian had found an opening in the New Jersey Bank which was suggested by his friend. Due to not getting the reputation in the UB branch in United States, Brian has planned to quit the job and has to join in a new job. The issues that are identified in the current job has to avoid in the new job and hence the opening is recommended to join there. Joining there would be helpful in overcoming the issues of lack of reputation and working for long hours in a week. This would be helpful in overcoming the stress and the tension. The new job will need to work for lesser time that the current job and then the time that may be available for spending with friends and family will be more. Thus, applying for this job is highly recommended for Brian in order to spend his time with friends and family even at this age (Wanberg et al., 2020, p. xx).
Conclusion
From studying the case study and discussing the above report, it has been identified that there are several challenges and frustrations faced by Bakers family. This is because of the reason that they have switched their jobs from United States to Buenos Aires for five and half years and again switching to United States. This has caused issues in working in cross culture and adapting to it. Also, there are no time to spend with the family as both are working long hours a week. Due to the financial problem and targeting the career growth, they have worked hard. But at the end they had faced several issues in their family and the bonding and the relation with the family members are lagged. In order to relax and regain their life, some of the recommendations that are provided should be used. The recommendations will be helpful in overcoming the issues they had in the cross-culture working and also the other personal issues.
References
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