Stay in the US or move to China.
By Emily Teakell
MGT245-Organizational Behavior and Theory
Mark Eutsler
January 18, 2009
In every multinational company, top employees have difficult decisions to make when it comes to what they are willing to do to advance. Some people will work long hours, but do not like to travel. Others like to travel, but do not like to put in long hours. Other factors that affect the employee’s decisions when it comes to travel and hours are, if they have a family at home, if they can leave their comfort zone, and if they can leave their comfort zone, how far will they go away from it. A few cities or states away or will they be able to move to a totally different country.
In Michaels dilemma, he has his wife Karen that has already given up her career so he could further his, plus two small children. At work he has Pierre, who is the CEO of Lafleur’s, who wants him to go to China. He would like to be promoted into the opening in the US but others are more qualified for it.
When it comes to Michaels colleagues, he feels like they are trying to steal the position by sucking up to the head people in the companies headquarters in Paris. They are not expressing any illegitimate political behavior, they are trying to reach out and form relationships with people that could help them in the future.
Michael needs to find out as much about the China opportunity as he can before he makes any decision. He needs to find out a breakdown of what he will be doing over there, what is he authorized to do there, what are their customs when it comes to their workers. In Spain they have long lunches and that is what they expect. Do they have any customs in China that we do not have here? Is there anything his wife could do there in terms of a job? Could he possibly get her a job with his company until she could find what she wants to do there? How would the schools be there for his two children?
If Michael wants to go for the...