John Higgins Essay

The Central Issue: Why did Prescott think that his executive assistant, John Higgins, lost his effectiveness in representing the U.S parent company, while also having a strong identification with the Japanese culture? Why is Prescott having conflict dealing with Higgins about the issue? Recommended Course of Action: Prescott and Higgins should come to some kind of mutual understanding with each other as soon as possible Basis of Recommendation: Prescott and Higgins attitudes towards implementing the U.S personnel policies in the Japanese operation were both different. Prescott and Higgins should come to a mutual understanding, which would be important for the organization in resolving the conflicts between the two, to ensure the operations are running smoothly. The situation for both companies were to work together to increase the international market segment of Weaver, but before all of that, Prescott spend over 25 years in weaver, which he served in other countries and has a better experience than Higgins in handling international issues. Prescott sees Higgins activities are not for benefiting for the organization but rather for personal objectives. Higgins should not forget that he’s representing the U.S parent company in Japan and not his deep interest with japan itself. Therefore, Prescott being so high up in the corporation, he should really have an understanding of how to manage conflict and manage change in a corporation. Reasonable Alternatives: 1) Prescott should fire Higgins. This is rejected because that would not solve any kind of problem. Firing Higgins would make the company one less employee shorter overseas, plus would not help Prescott nor Higgins with any leadership skills that need to be worked on. 2) Prescott should relocate Higgins. This is rejected because that would result in more problems occurring. Higgins knows that there is issues going on and for him to be moved out of his culture that he has deeply spent time studying and growing with, would cause him more ineffectiveness in the company. If Higgins doesn’t want to move, he might want to resign which wouldn’t solve their first problem or help Prescott with his problem of fixing the issue for next time. 3) Prescott should just leave the issue, until it gets worse. This is rejected because this would make things worse. It will cause the company a deeper hole then they already are in with issues. Talking to one another about their problems is the whole reason of doing business together, if not then why work together. Letting things go will not help Prescott become a better manager and also won’t help Higgins in the feedback category. Coming to an understanding would help both out with what is going wrong instead of leaving the issue. Significant Factors: 1) Vision 2) Leadership Ability 3) Business Goals 4) Relationship 5) Positivity Discussion: Vision: One main issue I know why Prescott is having trouble dealing with Higgins attitudes towards his effectiveness of the U.S parent company is Vision. First off, the vision of the joint venture seems to only be viewed and felt by the head management and not a unit. For example, Prescott has his very own vision in looking at the company from the U.S standards and business side of things and Higgins has a way of looking at the company in the Japanese way. Both these visions are two different visions and a company cannot be successful in this matter. The reason behind this is Higgins having personal activities with the japan culture itself that when it comes down to the business part of things, he will think like a native of the country rather than a native of the U.S parent business. Another example of Vision can be used towards the employees. If the employees of the japan branch are not meeting the vision of the top management, then the business will not go hand in hand and will slow the process of the company down, may be the reason why Prescott thinks Higgins is losing effectiveness because his vision of his employees are lower standards than the top management. Once every employee is on page and is working towards one vision, the company can fulfil any method or goal they can. Leadership Ability: Leadership in any company is one of the most important things to becoming successful. As a boss or even part of the management team, having leadership is one that takes pride in what he or she does and leads their employees to success anytime they can. In this situation about Prescott and Higgins, leadership needs to take stand for both of them. In the case, they explained that Prescott seen a change in Higgins work ethic towards the Japanese employees and U.S parent company. Some reasons for this were him becoming really in depth with the Japanese culture and even being really social at work rather than making decisions. The case also stated that he would attend marriages of coworkers, which meant he was super close and had a relationship with them. Leadership plays a huge role in this with Higgins separating work form his personal life. Leadership in this situation would be to not make friends that will neglect you from your everyday work but still able to hold a relationship with them. For Prescott, his leadership should be shown in a better way as of dealing with the situation of Higgins. Prescott needs to have good leadership to confront Higgins and go over a understanding about what needs to be done on the job and what personal activities should be separate from work and what not. Prescott needs to  identify the actual reasons behind their conflict and remove them to have a smooth system. Business Goals: Adding on to the last topic of Leadership, Business Goals can fit right after that. After coming to a certain agreement, Prescott and Higgins should provide each other with certain business goals they have of their own, along with an appropriate model from their teams to follow as well. Having goals can be the motivation factor of Higgins and Prescott to achieve what they want in their employees and push each other to reach them. There is many examples that can be used here, but some minor ones are: show up on time every day, wear the right dress wear and also avoid as much personal talk and issues outside of work so that way the company can perform more. Having these goals for yourselves, yet alone your employees can surely reflect their work. The reasoning behind this is that Higgins is adapted to the Japanese culture so much, instead of finding personal issues with the culture, use it to engage with the Japanese population at the work place to get them to follow the right rules and ways to adapt what it is he is doing. If they see someone like Higgins who has a lot of Japanese culture in him, they will feel more comfortable to relate to him, rather than draw away. Relationship: Relationship in this situation is probably key. Relationship usually can mean any type of communication or activity to engage with one another. In this situation it’s about Prescott and Higgins. I feel that Prescott and Higgins need to have a good relationship with each other so that way when issues arise, they can be comfortable talking about it rather than assuming what each other is doing. For example, Prescott feels that Higgins is drawn away from the U.S Parent company and teaming up with the Japanese because he has spent more time engaging himself in the Japanese culture that it only feels right to work with them. This pushes back on having a vision and staying with it. Since he has the Japanese culture in him he wants the have a vision of a Japanese’s native, which isn’t going well with Prescott. So having that relationship to actually have a meeting and talk to Higgins on what it is that Prescott is worried about can help the company in the long run. Posi tivity: Last but not least, Positivity. Positivity can be used in a way for Prescott. If his behavior as a boss is perceived as negative by his employees, that could mean the employees would not listen to him or any other boss of this matter. Under the organization structure that they use with employees being in other countries and not face to face, tone of the voice and compliments could be helpful in motivation or just coaching of the employees. I recommend that Prescott can use some positive feedback towards his employees and also using realistic thinking process when dealing with Higgins in the future. If you think negative of a worker, for example Higgins, the discussion can lead to more things arising that you feel negative towards rather than having a positive mindset. All in all, I fell these five factors can surely help out what it is that Higgins is doing and it could also help out Prescott in the thinking and leadership process of the understanding that him and Higgins need to hav e in order to have a smooth operations system.