1) Explain the clashes in culture, customs and expectations that occurred in this situation.
In the first time Kelly meet her subordinate, Kelly exchanged the usual handshake greetings with the westerners, and then bowed to the Japanese; an awkward silence and exchange took place, with the Japanese looking embarrassed. Japanese men are unusual with the Western greeting style.
Japanese did not like to do individual presentation, but rather wanted gain consensus among themselves and their contact and present a group presentation. And that is the reason why the first time they failed to do presentation without meet their groups and other contact.
Japanese felt confused and offended when their college when the Americans chatted on about their children’s achievement and the Germans talked about their family position since Japanese do not talk about their family affairs to the outsiders.
In a business appointment, Kelly planned to get straight down to business, so when the client company’s CEO handed her business card, she put in her pocket without a glance, and did not give him her card. Afterward only she found out that a Japanese businessman use the business card to convey all accomplishment and position without having to say it himself. 3) Turn back to the clock to when Kelly was offered the position in Tokyo. What, if anything, should have been done differently, and by whom?
As for the company, they should have well plan in human resource function such as selection, training, acculturation and evaluation of expatriates. Many company select expatriates only on the basis of their domestic track records and technical expatriates. In this case, Kelly has been selected to do foreign assignment because she had done such a great job in Boston and in recent short assignment in London and Munich. However, Kelly did not speak Japanese and that she knew nothing about