Success of any company depends on the congruence of the internal and external factors with the company’s objective. As an international organization, Weaver faces a challenging environment that requires understanding and incorporating of cultural diversity into operations. Weaver has placed its priority right by ensuring that the company has a contact person in the market area: John Higgings. However, successful operations require synergies that result from teamwork; a condition that appears elusive in Weaver, at least as depicted by the relationship between Higgings and Leonard Prescott, Weaver-Yamazaki’s President in Japan.

To start with, there is an aspect of cultural conflicts between the organization and the Japanese society. Flexibility is an aspect that cannot be ignored by multinational companies. In this regard, by imposing American culture upon Japanese, Weaver-Yamazaki is doing a disservice to itself. This is because a demotivated workforce will translate into poor services and hence difficulties in attracting and maintaining customers. As opposed to Higgings having total discretion on what is culturally ‘right’ or ‘wrong’, I would propose a system of values that incorporates cultural diversity among the staff and customers. This way, all senior managers will have a framework to solve problems and hence benefit from convergence of perceptions.

As a corporate manager, I would seek to improve employees’ relationship by improving vertical, horizontal and diagonal communication. It appears that all the subordinates can only communicate with Higgings, and he is expected to represent them to Prescott. Although protocol consideration is important, Higgings being the contact person between the Company’s President and the subordinates inhibits learning and appreciating cultural differences. Higgings appears to have a lot of responsibilities and hence concentration of powers. In a way, this may be a source of his attitude towards Japanese culture, yet this way he is putting little attention to organizational culture. Teamwork aimed at appreciating cultural diversity would help neutralize the responsibilities solely entrusted on Higgings.

To create capacity to handle the market dynamics, it is important to understand the current market. Prescott appears to disregard the fact that competitiveness can only be developed by seizing the current market and then projecting market trends to benefit as first-in-the-market players. With this in mind, American culture would not be a major factor to consider, rather, a market driven approach would prove important. The stand-off between the two can easily be addressed by outlining the company’s strategies to seize the Japanese market.

I would also seek to establish the company’s policies and procedures. Central to these would be professionalism by all staff, the executives and the subordinates. This would remove the possibilities of subordinate staff seeking to appeal to mercy from their senior. For instance, a performance appraisal and predetermined consequences would eliminate situations where Higgings and Prescott would disagree on how to treat certain staff members.

It is also important to appreciate the fact that executives have a mandate to create value for the shareholders. As such, Weaver-Yamazaki cannot compromise the company’s competitiveness. In this regard, organizational changes and decision making is a continuous process, and every staff member has to cope-up with these developments. The move to dismiss non-performing manager is among those difficult decisions that have to be made. Higgings must seek to maintain flexibility to match the changing business environment, this way; he would understand why employees need to withstand organization changes.

Therefore, to solve the stand-off between Higgins and Prescott, I would recommend an inclusive engagement among the subordinate staff and executives to come up with policies and procedures that recognize cultural diversity and the organizational culture, and their congruence with the organizational goals. Further, I would recommend teamwork activities to improve vertical communication. In addition, I would recommend a training program that seeks to keep the employees informed on market changes and development and hence foster an inclusive decision making process.

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