The Road to Hell - a Case Analysis

Before leaving for his new job, John Baker, “an English expatriate and the chief engineer of the Caribbean Bauxite Company of Barracania in the West Indies”, conducted an interview with Matthew Rennalls – a Barracanian and who is also Baker’s assistant and successor. Through the interview, Baker tried to solve a complaint that he has received from Mr. Jackson – one of the European employees who reported that Rennalls had been rude toward him. However, the interview did not go well as Baker had expected. Rennalls resigned from his current position.

The primary cause of the problem, in my opinion, is that Rennalls had a deep rooted racial consciousness, which came directly from historical facts that West Indies was colonized by Europe ever since the first permanent European settlement made by the Spanish in 1496 (Williams, 1970). Rennalls’ racial consciousness has made him even more sensitive to “any sign of condescension on the part of expatriates” during his 4-year study at London University. His political involvements and family background indicated that Rennalls is sensitive to anything European expatriates said or done. The fact that Baker feels there is an “invisible, indefinable, but ever-present” barrier between himself and Rennalls indicated that Rennalls has never truly handled well the racial consciousness. Assuming that Baker was able convince Rennalls what he did to Mr. Jackson was wrong, he could never change who Rennalls was – a Barracanian. The similar incident did occur between Rennalls and Mr. Godson two years ago, and Baker failed to “break through” to Rennalls. In Rennalls’ resignation letter, he mentioned that his father “was as disgusted as he” about the matter. This was another sign which indicated that Rennalls’ racial consciousness had a deep root.

Besides the primary cause of the problem, Baker’s arrogance, poor people management and communication skills have added more fuel to the flaming fire. The problem got worse. Baker claimed that he had “innate knack” for getting along with regional people, yet he demonstrated clearly that he did not have a “knack” for working in a multicultural environment when he used phrases such as “you and your forebears” and “people like you”. Baker had to show how much experience he had, which made Rennalls very uncomfortable. One may question that being Baker’s assistant for two years, wouldn’t Rennalls know how much experience Baker had? The fact that Baker viewed Rennalls’ racial consciousness as a “debit” also indicated that Baker has not made the real connection with Rennalls. Throughout the interview, Baker failed to determine the real cause of Rennalls being rude to Mr. Jackson. Toward the end of the interview, Baker mentioned specifically that “Europeans are bound to occupy senior positions” in Barracania. Potentially, what Baker was saying to Rennalls was this, “if you don’t treat expatriates well, you won’t get anywhere.” To Rennalls, this was a threat more than a friendly reminder.

Researchers around the world are trying to find the root cause of the problem that relates to cultural diversity and conflict in multicultural organizational environments. One study states that difficulties happen because people from different cultural backgrounds have “different understanding regarding the interaction process and different styles of dialogue” (Karoc-Kakabadse and Kouzmin, 2001). The authors of this study suggest that these difficulties can be addressed by understanding communication styles used by different cultures. This theory does address the problem in our case study. If Baker understood better Barracanian culture and its communication style, Baker may “break through” to Rennalls during the first interview two years ago. It’s also true, in my opinion, that if Rennalls understood how European people communicate, he may not let the problem go unsolved for