Acculturation at Royal Dutch Sell

MGNT978 - Cross Cultural Management – T2 202 1 – Wollongong/Sy dne y 2021 A ugust MGNT978 WG/SYD T 2 2 02 1 Fi nal Assessment Page 1 of 1 For your Final Assessment Task, you are asked to write a (i) r e po rt and a (ii) reflective e ssay . Th i s ex amination is worth 40% of y our final m ark in this s ubjec t. You mus t obtain at leas t 50% in this examination to pas s the s ubject. Par t I . Re port on doing a case study ( 1500 wor ds / 60 M arks) Case : Acculturation at Royal Dutch Se ll Roy al Dutc h Shell (RDS) is a global petroleum c ompany with joint headquarters in London and The Hague. The c ompany employ ees over 100000 people, approx imately 5,500 of whom live and work abroad at any given point in time. Shell’s expatriate managers are a highly divers e group, repres enting over s eventy nationalities and work ing in more than a hundred c ountries. The c ompany s upport this because it realizes that as a global c ompany , s ucc ess requires the international mobility of its work forc es. Over time, however, Shell found it inc reas ingly diffic ult to rec ruit and retain key personnel for overs eas as s ignments. To unders tand the problem, Shell s urvey ed 17000 c urrent and former ex patriate employees and their s pous es who had dec lined international as signments . According to the s urvey res ults , five k ey is s ues had the greates t influenc e on willingness of employ ees to acc ept an international as signment. In order of importanc e, these were: 1. Separation form c hildren during their s ec ondary educ ation (c hildren’s were often s ent to boarding s c hools in their home c ountries while their parents were away ). 2. Harm done to a s pous e’s c areer and employment. 3. Failure to rec ognis e and involve s pous es in the reloc ation dec ision. 4. Failure to provide adequate information and as s is tance regarding reloc ation. 5. Health- related is s ues, s uch as ac ces s to good hos pitals, or the ongoing ailment of a family member. As a res ult of thes e findings , Shell implemented a number of programs developed to mak e it eas ier to make it eas ier for employ ees go abroad. To help with the educ ation of c hildren, Shell built elementary s chools for employ ees in loc ations with heavy ex patriate c oncentration, s uch as Nigeria. For s ec ondary education, they work with loc al s c hools, often providing grants to help upgrade their fac ilities and educ ational offerings . They als o offered employ ees and educ ational s upplement for parents wanting to send their c hildren to private s c hools in the hos t country. Helping s pous es find s uitable employment proved to be a more vex i ng problem. Ac c ording to the s urvey , half of the s pous es were employ ed when the international assignment was made, but only 12 perc ent were able to find s uitable work after arriving in their new loc ations . Shell es tablis hed a s pous e employ ment c entre to addres s the problem. The c enter provide c areer c ouns elling and s upport in loc ating employ ment opportunities , both during and immediately following overs eas as signment. The c ompany als o agreed to reimburs e up to 80 perc ent of c os t assoc iated with voc ational t raining or reac c reditation. Finally, Shell establis hed a global information and advic e network , known as the Outpos t, to provide s upport for families c ontemplating overs eas as signments. The Outpost is headquartered in The Hague and now run forty information c enters in more than thirty c ountries. Staffed by s pouses and fully s upported by Shell, this global network has helped more than 1000 families prepare for overs eas as s ignments. The c enter rec ommends sc hools and medic al fac ilities, and provides hous ing advic e and up- to -date information on employ ment, overs eas s tudy, self -employment, and volunteer work . Clearly , Shell is work ing hard to provide a s upportive work environment for its global employ ees in a way that als o fac ilitates the long- term objec tives of the c ompany . (Sourc e: Steers , R.M & O s l and, J .S (2020) Management Ac ros s Cul tures : Chal l engers , Strategi es and Sk i l l s (4 th edi ti on), Camb ri dge Uni vers i ty Pres s , pp.357/8). 2021 August MGNT978 WG /SY D Tri me st e r 2 2021 Fi n a l Assessment Page 2 of 2 Assignment Questions 1. What is Shell’ s acculturation strateg y? Justify your answer using relevant concepts, case study information, and any updated firm -based and published information sources. 2. Critically evaluate psycholog ical adaptation and acculturation strateg ies adopted by the R D S and its expatriate employees . 3. R ecommend the R D S and its employees (separately) appropriate strateg ies for manag ing their expatriate employee’s personal, family, and career -related issues effectively. 4. I dentify and justify with examples t wo other cross-cultural manag ement (CCM) concepts that are reflected in or relevant to this case scenario (two additional concepts/topics of CCM other than what is reflected in the questions 1 -2 above). Use relevant concepts/frameworks, the case scena rio, and any additional information you have used to answer the above questions 1 -2 , to support your response to this question. Your re port should be formatted as a business re port a nd include: Title page, ex ec utive s ummary , introduction to report, discuss ion of topic inc luding rec ommendations ( e x ample Ques tions 1-4 , rec ommendation part already embedded in ques tion 3), and c onclusion. (In this c ase, your res pons e to Q. 4 c an be pres ented after rec ommendation, but before c onc lus ion). (In a report of only 1500 wo r ds it is not required to have a c ontent page. Your referenc e lis t and appendic es s hould not b e inc luded in the 1500 words. Provide word c ount on title page) . Support y our analy s is with a minimum of 2 k ey referenc es from s ourc es outside of the es sential and rec ommended c ours e readings . Par t II. Re flective Essay ( 500 wo rds / 40 M arks) Write a s elf -reflec tion (500 words ) about y our pers onal interc ultural c ompetenc e development during MGNT978 c ours e. Addres s and inc lude the following: 1. Your applic ation of cross -c ultural theories, including multic ultural competence model & cultural intelligence. (S c ope: c over a minimum of 5 topic areas , e.g. s ee below Hint s). 2. Your reflec tion on the s ubjec t learning outcome 4: “Reflec t on profes sional interpers onal sk ills while work ing with others to produc e agreed outputs ”. Reflec t on how y our pers onal k nowledge, attitude and s kills derived from s tudy ing the above theories and models have impac ted on y our interc ultural c ompetence development , and how y ou c ould further enhanc e this c ompetenc e in the future. This reflec tive es s ay should be added as an appendix to y our report. ( Hi nt 1 : You may pay a partic ular attention to the following theories/framework s. Cultural influence on profes s ional interpers onal sk ills , Cros s c ultural c ommunication in developing professional interpers onal sk ills, Cros s c ultural teamwork in developing profess ional interpersonal sk ills, ethic s & CSR in developing profes s ional interpers onal sk ills , Cultural Intelligence (CQ) in developing profes s ional interpersonal sk ills et c. ). (Hi nt 2: In b oth Part I and II do not s pend too many words on explaining the theories and models ; this report needs to s how that you c an apply theories and models in a prac tical way ). Comple tion date . C omplete y our report ( P art I and Part II) and s ubmit it through the Turnitin Gateway . Final Ass essment Tas k Submis s ion on the MGNT978 Moodle s ite (W eek 10 s ection) a ny ti me before 5.00pm on 8 August, 2021. (L ate s ubmis s i on or any other is sue will be dealt with acc ording to UOW ex amination, ass essment and AC polic ies . Please s e e the S ubject outline pages 17- 21).