Elizabeth visits GPC'S French subsidiary

Résumé du document

French managers are quite different from American managers, in the sense that they don't have the same relation with their superiors and that they don't value the same working ability in a company. French people try to be less personal in their working environment that in the US.

In French company, employees don't really try to learn about their superior's personal lives and their real personality. They tend to be less open for creating an informal relationship between each other in order to know each other better and work in a more relaxed environment. This is more of an American way of managing. In French company, the status of the manager is really what gives you the power on your subordinates. It's what makes things done. The personality of the manager does not really have an influence on how the French employees are going to work. They respect the position, not the person.

Extraits

[...] The last thing she wants is that the French people misunderstand what she is trying to tell them. She needs to be very careful when she addresses to French employees. She has to use the right words by thinking about how they could interpret what she is saying. Question 3 What should Elizabeth include in her report, and what should be the manner in which it is communicated, so that future executives and scientists avoid communications pitfalls? The best way to explain the future executives and scientists on how to deal with French employees is by starting to explain how they view authority and how they have more impersonal business relations than in the US. [...]

[...] She needs to describe very clearly how she learned to adapt to the French way of doing business, how she communicated with them and how she acted around them. Question 4 How can technical language differ from everyday language in corporate communications? Technical language is very different from the everyday language we use in the sense that it is much more precise and can't really be interpreted in another way. In corporate communications, technical language is much more efficient because it helps to state exactly what we are trying to say or looking for. [...]

[...] How can this knowledge help her be successful there? Elizabeth needs to know the difference between high-context and low- context cultures when dealing with European countries. A high-context culture is a culture where words and word choice are very important because they can communicate a very specific and complex message whereas in low-context culture, the communication needs to be much more explicit and strait to the point. These are two communication styles that can be very useful when doing business or simply having a conversation with someone from another country or another cultural background. [...]

[...] French people try to be less personal in their working environment that in the US. In French company, employees don't really try to learn about their superior's personal lives and their real personality. They tend to be less open for creating an informal relationship between each other in order to know each other better and work in a more relaxed environment. This is more of an American way of managing. In French company, the status of the manager is really what gives you the power on your subordinates. It's what makes things done. [...]

[...] This way of dealing with the French employees shouldn't be too difficult for her. The real difficulty resides in the way of teaching and training them her testing techniques (for the chemists) and quality control techniques (managers). The fact that they value their own way of thinking and working techniques much more than what we teach them and ask them to do can be very problematic for her. Elizabeth techniques are used in other GPC locations, they work well and therefore they need to be applied by the French employees. [...]