CHARLES MARTIN IN UGANDA: WHAT TO DO WHEN

A MANGER GOES NATIVEStudent ID# I2014422166

Name: Atif Rao MuhammadSubmitted to : Xiaoping Xu

Q.1: Describe Ugandan Cultural Attributes that might affect the operations of a foreign company doing business there ?

Republic of Uganda is a country in East Africa having a

population of about 35 million people. Uganda economy largely depends upon agro based economic activities. Although it has substantial natural resources but the country is unable to extract them due to lack of infrastructure and human resource. Uganda is one of the poor country of the world and almost 40% of the population lives below the poverty line (i.e. 1.25$ a day)

The following attributes may effect the operations of a foreign company doing business in Uganda.

Language Barrier:

Although the official language in the Uganda is English however a very few a able to communicate in English. This is largely due to the fact that Uganda is a multi ethnic country and people belongs to different group prefer to speak the language representing their own clan.

Risk:

Since most of the people cannot speak English therefore it is very difficult for foreign company to communicate with locals properly which sometime may adversely effect their business.

Regional and Domestic Political Instability: Uganda has largely been effect by the political instability

both domestically and regionally (i.e.war Congo, Rwanda and Sudan caused a huge burden on Uganda’s economy in shape of refugees ).

Risk The political instability both domestically and regionally

negatively effect the operation of foreign firms as they are not certain about the future outcome of the their business.

Nepotism/Corruption: Uganda is considered as one of the most corrupt country

in the world. Therefore it is very difficult for any business enterprise to perform their operations smoothly without any impediments.

Religious Diversity:

Uganda is a multi religion country therefore for foreign firms it is imperative to respect the religious believes and practices of each religion.

Risk:

Any unintentional practice which hurt the believes of the people may negatively effect the operation of the firm.

Less Regulations:

Foreign companies that want to do business in Uganda aren’t heavily regulated.

Opportunity:

Little or less level of regulation usually encourage business activities and lead to expands business.

Q.2 : how would you describe respective attitudes of Martin and Green: ethnocentric, polycentric, or geocentric? What factors do you suspect of having influenced their respective attitudes?

According to the details given in the case study, Charles Martin attitude towards work is polycentric because his working style involves organization culture and norms, home and host country requirements, capacity and restrictions. This type of approach is quite successful in foreign firms it reduces the risks of failure of the firm’s operation moreover it leads to innovations in management style for foreign firms.

Whereas James Green approach is ethnocentric

because he ignores the cultural factors abroad/host country. Although he perceive environmental differences yet he stick of achieving home country goals instead of host country or global objectives.

Q.3: Who was right, Green or Martin, about Martin’s more controversial actions in facilitating the project? How things might have turned out if Martin had not been a member of the project team?

Both Martin and Green seems right from their stand point. For Green he was more concerned about the image of HG.

Although the Martin actions were right within the legal framework of Uganda but such practices were considered unlawful in USA. Therefore he was more concerned about the long term image/business of his organization.

Martin seems to be right as he was dealing with the operations of the project. His main focus was to get the job done within stipulated time. Therefore all his practices which may look “unfair” yet within the legal framework of the Uganda's law were to make the project successful.

If Martin was not in the project then it may lead to increase the cost of the project as any step taken to build the project, without having any knowledge of political and social system of the country, may lead to unrest among the public which further cause problem for the operations of the firm.Since Martin has an in depth knowledge of the African culture therefore he handled all the issue quite efficiently although it may look ungainly from the point of view of Green

Q.4: In the next phase of the project– running the power plant - should HG employ someone whose main function is that of liaison between its corporate culture and the culture of its host country? If so, is Martin the right person for the job?

Since this is a very huge project and firm has to operate for a very long time period it is imperative for HG to hire a person who is either a local person or someone who has strong understanding of Uganda's political and social norms. However HG must give a clear guidelines regarding its corporate policy and ethical norms to managers working outside USA.

I think Martin is a right person for the job since he is well adjusted to the system therefore any experiment may cause some problem to HG operations. However higher officials of HG may set some standards guideline regarding the operations in Uganda or any other foreign country.