The case “Ellen More (A): Living and Working in Korea” shows us how the Systems Consulting Group (SCG) is struggling with challenges stemming from cultural difference, gender difference in leadership (even though the gender difference was ratified in the earlier stages), lack of direction from leadership, fundamental challenges with cultural hierarchy and authority, challenges with group dynamics, low morale, and communication barriers. Due to the cultural diversity, communication barrier has posed the biggest challenge. Secondly, difference in perception is another big challenge.

In North America, the culture differs from Korea where it is very direct and uses explicit communication. Example: giving direct feedback or compliments to high performing workers is normal, however, it is not socially accepted in Korea as the employees are treated with the same level of respect. On the other hand Korean culture is indirect and they almost never ask questions when in doubt as it depicts that is unclear and can be taken as disrespectful. In addition, the Confucianism of Korean cultures teaches to show respect to teachers and managers.

Soon after Ellen’s arrival and spending some time in Korea, she discovered that the Korean consultants had less experience. During the short tenure of the project, she could sense the tension arising between her and the co-manager Jack Kim. Jack had made it clear in his communication style to the group that he was the boss and with his demeanour it was clear that the employees would take orders or directions from him.

In leading a team, communication and clear expectation is key. In this case where there is cultural differences and communication barriers and to add to that when employees are reluctant to ask questions when unsure leads to conflict. To avoid the conflict they end up creating more problems to themselves in not setting up the meeting and interviewing the client’s team. This also raises a red flag about Koreans and how they don’t know how to say NO to clients.

Some of the other problems and challenges are:
• Jack Kim’s ability to lead the project, he has never lead or worked in any consulting project work or system implementation project.
• Ellen and Scott have never worked in Korea before.
• The group had never met with the customers and have shown resistance in setting up meetings.
• The team was working on activities that were not related to the scope of the project. Jack was leading them on different paths at times.
• Overall the entire team was inexperienced in System Implementation.
• More emphasis on quantity than quality (Workers did not leave office before the boss).
To summarize the problem, there is pure lack of direct communication between Ellen and Korean consulting team due to a language barrier. Korean culture is very male-oriented and the culture is conservative towards women in position. The difference in both culture and leadership style, the inability to meet the clients and accepting other activities that is out of the scope of this project has lead us here.

Based on the challenges illustrated above we have three options to mitigate the problem.
• Remove Jack Kim from his current role
• Remove Ellen Moore from her current role
• My first option is to take the interest based conflict resolution between Ellen Moore and Jack Kim.

Removing Jack Kim will be challenging for the team to accept initially as the team already feels that Ellen does not possess the experience needed to lead and also she lacks the overall experience in dealing with the culture and language barrier. When Ellen moves back to America the lack of succession planning and knowledge transfer could create a big gap for Systems Consulting Group.

Removing Ellen More from the current role will leave the team with no expertise to help complete the project as desired considering no one has the adequate experience on the team including Jack Kim. This could lead to further delay in meeting the deadline and ultimately lead to customer dissatisfaction and long term impact on future contracts. Knowledge transfer to the team will be limited or non-existent. The current conflict between Ellen and Jack will be resolved.

My best recommended option would be to go with the third options – Conflict Resolution. This option will allow the company to deliver the project within the timeline already committed and also help tremendously in succession planning where there is seamless transfer of system implementation knowledge to the Korean consultant. There is a risk of tension and problems arising all over again which is comparatively negated with this option.

Based on my recommendation, we also need to ensure that there is clear expectation from the leadership which is Jack and Ellen working together, for example – any project decision should be made together. There should only be one leader in charge and act as a senior consultant. Allow Jack to lead the operation and have Ellen lead the strategy and schedule of activities till her term is complete as this will allow the knowledge transfer to happen smoothly and then promote Jack into the Senior Consultants role.

Considering the Korean culture, it is imperative that the relationship is maintained and given high priority. This is a personality conflict and should be treated separately from the scope of project. The team needs to reach out to the clients and set up the meeting and show them the status report as to where there are with regards to time lines and clarify objective again if needed. As an organization we need to be aligned with our goals, ultimately they are there to help facilitate the customer and meet the deadlines set out.