Floundering Expatriate Case Study

Floundering Expatriate Case Study

2012

1. A Brief Summary of the Key Elements of the Case

In this case Frank Waterhouse, CEO of Argos Diesel, Europe, expounds his fears about Donaldson Donaldson. Donaldson Donaldson was sent from USA to Europe to create a seamless European team, his goal was to achieve that all the European managers cooperate and create an integrated team in order to meet the company’s finansial goals. Donaldson Donaldson had an impressive international experience and he was believed to be the best for this task.

But after a year spending in the Argos Europe Donaldson Donaldson still could not reach the main goal. After Donaldson wasn’t ready to present his work Frank Waterhouse started to collect information about Donaldson’s relationship with the managers and about his acheivements towards his goal. He got to know, that many managers are complaining about poor organization, running overtime in the meetings and questionable working methods.

Frank Waterhouse’s task and worries was to think about further actions. He knew, that Donaldson is a very experienced specialist and he didn’t want to believe that everything what happened during the last year was only Donaldson’s fault. He knew, if he releases Donaldson and sends him back to USA, it will not only destroy Donaldson’s carreer but also it will damage his own image. And even more, it will send all the acheivements back to the starting point. But also he knew that there is no point in letting everything to keep going as it is right now.

2. A Summary of the Key Elements of the Commentaries

Douglas A. Ready states that „Argos’s dilemma is not only about wether Donaldson Donaldson is the right person for the job in Zürich. It is also about the company’s entire approach to executive development”. He also believes that two years is not enough time to reach the company’s goal of international team also if the leader of this team would be someone from the Europe,...