Palm oil stalemate: who is responsible Essay

Summary Palm oil is a plant with various uses in human life (such as: tooth paste, Moisturizer and biodiesel). ïÆ' ¼Malaysia is one of the largest producers and exporters of palm oil. Gajah Berang Oil Palm Estate is one of the largest multinational palm oil conglomerates whose managers offer a balance between efficiency and employee satisfaction. The company has multicultural employee since its workers from Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India and Bangladesh. Melaka Palm Oil project presented one of the biggest ventures for the firm.   To enhance the balance between efficiency of the firms operations and employee satisfaction the company employed Abdul Aziz as the estate manager. Abdul Aziz shared common mother tongue with people of Malaysia thus making him to have a similar culture with the people of Malaysia. Hearing Abdul Aziz (Indonesian) was an advantage to the company since: His ability to control the operations of the company within the region since he possessed the shared culture with the people of Malaysia. He enhanced social responsibility by involving the people of the region to company affairs through hiring them Abdul Aziz used various leadership and communication skills to encourage employees to work effectively in the company. During the course of Abdul Aziz leadership, the workers went on strike asking for clean water and tank covers. He wanted to settle the issue but the Lee Peng who was his superior argued that this could compromise Abdul Aziz as a profession and as a result he looked for his replacement. 1. Describe Malaysian cultural attributes and how they might affect the operations of a multinational palm oil conglomerate doing business within Malaysia. Malaysia has diverse culture following different ethnic groups. Some of the cultural attributes of the people include beliefs, language, politics, and religion. This attributes would affect the operation of the Multinational palm oil positively or negatively depending on how it would satisfy this attributes. For Example, if the company focuses on satisfying all the cultural attributes of the people of Malaysia, then it will be in a good position to enjoy efficiency and wide market for its product. On the other hand, if the company does not satisfy the cultural attributes of the  people, then it would expect low efficiency in its operations. 2. What are some effective leadership and communication skills that lead to the development of a positive worker-manager relationship in international business? Aziz used various leadership and communication skills to enhance efficiency in the company: A)He allowed the employees to take part in decision making process. This acted as a motivation to the employees thus helped to increase their productivity. B)He also showed empathy to employees and shared much with them. He extended his gratitude to employees by listening to their issues. C)He used his troubleshooting skills to solve problems within the company. D)He was able to foster proper communication with employees something that ensured clear communication of information within the company. E)He used his mother tongue language to persuade employees to love the company more and more. 3. Would you describe the respective attitudes of Aziz, Krishnan, and Lee Peng as ethnocentric, polycentric, or geocentric? What factors do you suspect of having influenced their respective attitudes? Aziz, Krishnan and Lee Peng can be said to have polycentric attitude. This is because their decision to put Aziz on the Manager position was a focus to enhance openness towards the culture, opinions and ways of life to the people of Malaysia. Aziz was the main player in ensuring that the employees of the Multinational palm oil felt appreciated and recognized through their culture. Generally, this people ensured that the independence of the culture of the people of Malaysia was respected and appreciated. However, the attitude of Lee Peng can be said to be ethnocentric. This is because he wanted the issue to be solved professionally without focusing on the culture of the people. 4. Was Lee Peng correct in assessing Aziz ‘s controversial actions in the work stalemate? Should a palm oil conglomerate employ someone whose main function is that of liaison between its corporate culture and the culture of its host country? If so, was Aziz the right person for the job in the detailed scenario? Lee peng was not correct in assessing Aziz’s controversial actions. This is because Aziz’s aim was to balance the company’s operation efficiency with employee satisfaction. However, Lee  thought that Aziz would be compromised professionally by the employees for being so close to them. To some extend this could take place but in this situation such relation was very helpful for the company. Palm Oil conglomerate should not employ a person based on the function of liaison between corporate culture and the culture of the host county. However, It should focus on employing someone who is multicultural. This is because culture plays an important role to people of different countries. In this case, such employment was very vital since Aziz was multicultural and could listen to the needs and demands of the people of Malaysia as compared to his collogues (counterparts). In my opinion, Aziz was the right person for the job because he was multicultural and was professionally competent (MBA and he also worked in a small palm project in Indonesia). These two factors are very vital for a company to run smoothly. With these qualities he was able to control and satisfy the employees of the company. Professionally, he could lead employees to enhance efficiency in their work. On the other hand, he could motivate the employees by listening to their problems and allowing them to contribut e towards the company operations.