Elizabeth Visits Gpc's French Subsidiary

Case Study of Elizabeth Visits GPC's French Subsidiary

This is a period in history of corporate globalization and in today's business environment the single leading obstacle to the success of any organization looking for global expansion is the lack of cross-cultural communication. Elizabeth Moreno is on an assignment to visit her company's French subsidiary to study a problem, along side GPC's French management, regarding a new drug on the market. Apparently, one of the new anti-allergy drugs they have created has been experiencing a stunted shelf life where "the product's active ingredient is degrading sooner than the expiration date" (Deresky, 2011). Besides figuring out the chemical background behind the problem, Elizabeth is faced to deal with colleagues who have a different and unfamiliar cultural background than her own who may look at business and her chemical field from a very different perspective.

GPC understands that there French managers distrusts technology when it comes to meetings and therefore have sent Elizabeth for a face-to-face meeting regarding the problem. She will have to work hard on and pay close attention to her verbal and non-verbal gestures when dealing within the subsidiary as to not offend anyone so that progress and creativity is not hindered. "When one interacts with people from very different backgrounds-- people who have been exposed to different historical and social development, who speak different languages and have different values, and who see and interpret events and behavior differently--it is easy to see that the potential for misunderstanding, conflict, and unintended consequences exists" (Ottewill, 200).