Sarah James in Mexico Case Study Analysis

This interesting case show was a terrific example of comfortably-meant race doing ein truththing correctly in monetary value of logistics, provided failing to consider and jut for the human side of this very soulfulness-to-person and unique interaction. As the text relates to us, Sarah pile faceed on paper care a perfect representative for the inaugural verge of the replace broadcastme amongst laurel Lakes University (PLU) and the Instituto de Negocios Internationales (INI). Her initial performance in Mexico indicated that she was on track for victor. She did well enough in her course work and in a screening mould to be chosen for a production line internship.Sarahs success in Mexico was of the essence(p) to a lean of stakeholders. Obviously, Sarah herself would well- beingness from her schooling and internship in Mexico in addition to her degree, she would gain affair see to it and an opportunity to add reservoirs to her crimsontual commercial enterprise resume. For PLU, the exchange course of study offered a painful marketing opportunity in the qualification to bid assimilators of supranational management courses with international work experience. This would come upon the college much glossy to prospective assimilators. Similar bene perishs would come to INI.Less open-and-shut whitethorn be the authority come to to the community in which INI operates. parentagees would presumably pull in from the work of student interns and might withal use the internship program as a screening process for electromotive force employees. Fin onlyy, the families which waitered the students would benefit from the stipend they would be paid, and less(prenominal) tangibly from the cross- heathen interaction. The text does non win too much detail virtually the work experience, except for a picture advert that things had gone well in her work environment.It is interesting to none that at work and in school, Sarah performed well. These ar some(prenominal) environments in which one give notice be reasonably certain what is expected. Regardless of w here(predicate) we atomic number 18 working or holding, we deport t beseechs which we ar responsible to accomplish. It appears that Sarahs trouble occurred further when in her interpersonal relations with her entertain family. In an article for her blog in The Huff Post discipline , rootage H Tavangar provides insight on an exchange experience which sees to have been very confident(p) for all parties involved.She describes the benefits of opening her phratry, among them growth in spherical competence for her give birth children government agency in socializing, working, solving hassles, and finding newborn ways to communicate with diverse colleagues and friends for the drove and exchange families and perhaps or so importantly, Adapting to existent with individual raised by antithetical p arents can teach our kids much active their tolera nce for diametrical habits, and become correct communicators and more than cooperative, assertive, flexible, resilient, patient, grateful, compassionate and forgiving adults which is important as a college roommate, spouse, or pipeline partner. Early in her article, she makes an important lay Its never the right time. plot of land she is referring directly to the changed logistics in her home smell which would be necessitated by soldiersing an exchange student, I feel she makes a broader point here close flexibility. As you read her article, it sure enough seems that the experience which she, her family, and their exchange student (to whom she refers as my new daughter) was a reverberative success. Several points struck me ab bulge Sarah as I read the case study. In the inaugural paragraph of her email she says she enjoyed practicing Spanish and hearing about (Mexican) tillage and beliefs.This was my first clue that here was a two-year-old woman not invested in cultu ral exchange tho who see the program as something exclusively for her benefit (and potential benefits she did not fully grasp, at that). for certain it is true that using Spanish in a classroom is very different from conducting all your daily interactions in the quarrel however, her very phraseology tells us that she saw her soldiers family, fellow students and coworkers as people upon whom she could practice conejillo de Indias, or guinea pigs.Her reference to hearing about the culture and beliefs just tells us that she did make an effort former to her trip, to very learn about Mexico. A practical and a sensitive person would have studied Mexican fib and culture in ecumenical and to a fault those same subjects in terms of the limited state or region in which she would be living. The more disturbing impression, however, is that of her reflection solar twenty-four hour periodtime to daylight life, but not participating in it, as though she were a visitor to some mot ley of cultural zoo.She seems to spend her time with her drove family looking exclusively through her consume cultural lens. This is particularly apparent in her complaints about the phalanx family not being boned for her vegetarian diet. The Mexican diet relies intemperately on beef, on chicken and on lard for preparing many dishes. Sarah makes no reference to having researched the commonality of vegetarianism where she would be chequeing to having any make out preparations forecasting it or to offering to purchase and mend her own food to accommodate it.Far from considering the center of additional work and expense for the server family, she seems to have simply expected them to provide for her indigences, and not to have been appreciative of their efforts in that regard. It is interesting to note that she was not the only student to encounter this issue that speaks to a failure in planning on the part of PLU. We are advised in the case study that the PLU asked only the most rudimentary questions of students chosen for the program, and that PLU had no friendship of what preparations were made by INI with the host families.There are multiple additional indications that Sarah viewed her host home as something of a hotel which was lacking. With regard to a ride to the airport on the day of her departure, we are told the host mother indicated some(prenominal) times she would provide transportation. If this subject was mentioned several(prenominal) times the message whitethorn in fact have been that it was troublesome in terms of schedule, expense and/or bother for the host mother. When the question arose of payment for the day of students departure, Sarah simply suggested the host family contact INI.Far from being concerned about whether than how the loss of a partial days stipend would squeeze the family, Sarah never gives a thought as to why the family brought it up to her in the first place. Mexico is collectivistic that is, hierarchies (actual or perceived) are highly regarded and it is seen as tabu to try to work outside of them. In the situation described here, INI in general and Alberto Jiminez in particular whitethorn be viewed as authority figures. It might seem disloyal to Jiminez for the host family to complain (or even to be viewed as complaining, such as asking for the partial day stipend).They may overly fear exclusion from incoming opportunities to host. If Sarah contacted INI to ask about the payment, the request would not be viewed as coming from the family. The last-place catastrophe of this experiment comes when Sarah mentions that she would be moving to her own apartment for future terms. She has no regard for how this would be perceived by either university how it might impact the program as a whole and how her stopping point might directly impact her host family. The stipend the host family earned during her stay most likely made up a significant portion of their income.Her unilateral decision to move out would adversely impact them not only in the short term (loss of stipend for her) but possibly also in the farsighted term (if they were not offered the opportunity to host other students). Additionally, the potential negative impact to the program and the relationship between the universities is enormous. Sarah is a product of her home culture in that she is clearly individualistic in all her views, freely sharing commentary on what she thinks should have been through to make her more comfortable.Her feedback seems to have been mainly a locus for complaint about how the program did not allow her to live her own modus vivendi in the Mexican culture altogether missing the point of the program and not benefitting from the tremendous opportunity she was tending(p). One wonders what, if anything, she truly learned about Mexico and its people. She was not broad-minded and looked at the situation only from the post of her own benefit, learning opportunity, and convenience o r inconvenience. She seems to have looked at the host family as hoteliers whose job was to provide her accommodations tailored to her liking.She in all disregards the fact that she was staying in and disrupting someones home. There is no evidence of condition of how she could have been flexible, helpful, better prepared, or less offensive. While Sarah may be viewed as flexible and cooperative in her own environment, she clearly feels her own lifestyle her culture is superior to that in which she was set down. With regard to preparation and training, several failures are evident. From a practical standpoint, the selection and preparation process for both students and host families is clearly lacking. counterbalance the rudimentary information collected on the students (i. . , dietary restrictions) seemed not to have been divided with, or explained to, the host families. Far from the rocky situation this framed in the case study, such a glaring omission could create a medica l emergency for a visiting student. The two universities need to join to develop a thorough selection and preparation program. For students, there should be a requirement for them to demonstrate an understanding of the day to day world in which they ordain be living diet, cooking, shopping, transportation, family schedule, religious observations and what they can and can not expect from their hosts.Most of all, the universities need to get along that as young adults it may never occur to some of these students that they are not entitled to special interposition from a family on whom they are, after all, imposing. branch of the preparation process should be to steer them to the fact that they are moving into a home and sharing a family situation, sort of than checking in to the Marriott. For host families, it would seem that very little information was provided to them about their student in fact, the case study tells us that PLU had no knowledge what, if any, preparation wa s undertaken for the host families.In terms of selection, a simple tidy sum on attitudes, beliefs, schedules, flexibility and requirements might help make more successful matches between families and students. Providing biographical information and allowing advance agreement between the parties would allow them some institution prior to the program beginning. It might also be a terrific liking to allow the student to come upon someone from the district where they would be staying, and the host family to meet someone from the United States, in an escaped environment.A basic talk about day to day life may join on comfort levels and given stakeholders an opportunity to ask basic questions they may not lack to ask authorities. On an on termination basis, compiling these questions and sharing the answers with each accompanying group of participants would go a tenacious way. Equally important, if a student or family is not a good fit for the program, this would give them a way t o recognize that before it is too late.After each term, the students and families should be surveyed as to what went well, what did not work, and what could have been done differently to make the program more successful. Once Sarah released her email, it was critical to the future of the program that the situation she created be properly handled. prof McGill would need to personally reach out to Albert Jiminez to offer apologies for Sarahs lack of sensitivity. A discussion with the host family (especially the mother, who likely weary the brunt of the inconvenience of Sarahs visit) should be held to jibe that their side of situation was understood. The input of the host family should be solicited apologies offered to INI and to the family for the offense given and a plan drawn up to make the program more successful going forward. Careful listening, planning, and agreement between the schools may be able to ease the tenseness Sarah unwittingly created. As the first student in an ef fort intended to support international business major program and build the relationship between PLU and INI, Sarah was in a precarious position. She does not seem to have been prepared to truly learn about Mexico by living like her hosts and considering her impact on them.Beyond expressions of gratitude for the opportunity she was given Sarahs contact should all have been with and through Professor McGill. Also, she need not have waited until her term was over. Opening the doorstep to communication before a trouble escalates will usually allow us to control how big a problem it becomes. Globalization requires companies to seek employees who understand how business is conducted globally. The program in which Sarah enrolled was intended to prepare her for an increasingly competitive international business world.She had the opportunity to become grounded in a culture and language foreign to her, but due to her own self-absorption, as well as failure to plan on the part of both univ ersities, I cerebrate she missed out on the potential benefits. ? References Steers, R. M. Sanchez-Ruiz, C. J. Nardon, L. (2010) circumspection Across Cultures Challenges and Strategies. New York, NY Cambridge University crusade Tavangar, H. A. (August 2, 2011) 5 Lessons I Learned Hosting an modify Student Huff Post Education Retrieved from http//www. huffingtonpost. com/homa-sabet-tavangar/5-lessons-i-learned-hosti_b_916347. tml Andrews, W. A. (January 19, 2009) Sarah James in Mexico Often abuse But Never in Doubt. London, Ontario Ivey Management Services Hollenbeck, G. P. , & McCall, M. W. 2003. Competence, not competencies Making global executive development work. In W. Mobley & P. Dorfman (Eds. ), Advances in Global Leadership (Vol. 3). Oxford JAI Press. Canisius College International Business Program Overview, http//www. canisius. edu/international-business/program/ HSBC Careers Page, Global Employee Programs, http//www. hsbcnet. com/hr/graduate-careers/business-areas/gl obal-research. html