Cross Culture Mangement

West Indies Yacht Club Resort: When Cultures Collide

Project

Cross-Cultural Management and Communication

Outlines

1o) Introduction

2o) Symptoms

3o) Problems

4o) Solutions

5o) Evaluation of alternatives

6o) The best solution

1o) Introduction

The West Indies Yacht club resort had been created by Joe Kimball who used to come into the north sound of Virgin Gorda and felt in love with this natural beauty.

Kimball worked hard so his business could grow as fast as this resort's reputation.

Jim Johnson, the 48 years old expatriate general manager originally from U.S was now facing many challenges: first, the resort hired and then failed to retain three expatriate water front directors and three expatriate food and beverage directors. Second, Johnson estimated an important increase of guest complaints. Finally, there appeared to be an increasing level of tension between expatriate and local staff members. That is why Jim Johnson had to make a move so he called Patrick Dowd.

Patrick Dowd was 30 years old and was a very successful director, he had spent 10 years as a management consultant for small to medium sized hotels in the Caribbean, Trade Wind Ventures, and a world-renowned sailing school. Through his experience; Dowd gained in depth knowledge of the resort, Dowd's reputation call and knowledge of the resort prompted Jim Johnson's call to see if Dowd would be interested in working as a participate observer at the resort in order to determine the underlying reasons behind his three major concerns.

Then, we are going to talk about the symptoms that created challenges for this resort.

2o) Symptoms

The first symptom was when Jim Johnson asked Patrick Dowd to work as a participant observer at the resort to determine the underlying reasons behind his three major concerns. We know that from this call, problems had occurred in the West Indies Yacht Club resort.

Then, the second symptom would be that there are just a few upscale hotels in the British Virgin Islands and this can create tensions because of the high competitions. Therefore, they all have to differentiate themselves from one to another.

Finally, the main symptom that will create the most problems would be the labor market laws and regulations.

All hotels operating in the BVIs faced a number of challenges beyond the strict regulations on development.

First, organizations were granted only a limited number of work permits to attract more experienced service employees from foreign countries. Expatriate work permits were granted on the basis of the total number of employees working at a resort and the availability of locals who possessed these skills requisite for the position.

Second, organizations were not permitted to lay off staff during slow seasons.

Third, policies restricting the conditions under which an employee could be fired severally limited an organization's ability to retain only the best workers.

Finally, organizations were under extreme pressure to promote BVI locals into management positions whenever possible. As noted earlier, before hiring an expatriate manager a resort had to advertise the position for at least a month. As a result of these restrictions and policies, managers often found themselves overstaffed with underqualified workers.

Now we are going to see the problems that have occurred after those symptoms.

3o) Problems

High Expatriate Turnover

Increasing Guest Complaints

Decreasing Level of Service

Increasing Level of tension between Expatriates and Local Staffs

Lack of Staff Motivation

Differences in cultures according to Hofstede

Fuji (similar to the British Virgin Islands)

PD = 78

IDV = 14

MAS = 46

VAI = 48

United States

PD = 40

IDV = 91

MAS = 62

VAI = 46

High expatriate turnover has become an increasing concern for the West Indies Yacht Club Resort, (WIYCR). Throughout Patrick Dowd's observations and personal contact with employees, he has learned that many of the managers, all from the United States, had given up on trying working with the local staff and quit. After talking with many of the employees that are local to the island, he has found a variety of complaints, mainly in waterfront and food service. During a conversation with an expatriate employee, Dave Pickering, who Dowd had already known from a previous job, he found that Dave was having a hard time working with the locals. Dave explained that no matter how hard he worked, and try to lead by example, no greater work ethic was coming from the locals. Dave said he even showed the locals that hard work could bring another 50 to 100 dollars a day from tips, but still no results. Dowd had already worked with the employees from the waterfront in a joint project from another company and WIYCR, so they already knew Dowd and accepted him as someone they trusted. Dowd spent a day working at the water front and he himself made around 100 dollars in tips. When he went and showed the local workers, how much more money he had made and they were in disbelief until he showed them the money.

After having a beer with some of the local waterfront employees, he asked them what some of the problems were, and they explained to him in a very clear way. They did not want to make friends with the water front staff that came from the U.S.