Cultivating Russian Relationships, Individualism-Colectivism Index

CULTIVATING RUSSIAN RELATIONSHIPS:

THE INDIVIDUALISM-COLLECTIVISM INDEX

MONOCHRONIC-POLYCHRONIC CONCEPT OF TIME

Case study

This case study takes place in Russia, were a local company made a deal with a British engineering firm to get technical support in a plant start-up. Two Britons were sent to Russia for the project but since they did not speak the language interpreters were needed. When the infrastructure was set up and just the productivity development stage remained, another Briton was sent. Nigel Johnson, a young engineer who had knowledge of Russian language and culture.

Prior to his departure Nigel was informed about the tense relations between the Russian director, an American supplier and the British firm. He was also warned by a colleague before his first day of work at the plant, about possible problems related with the Russian expectations concerning the physical appearance of consultants: tall, light-skinned and aged individuals. Even though Nigel knew he wouldn’t meet those expectations he replied to his colleague he will take care of it.

So Nigel, aware that he didn’t fit the stereotype and willing to get some credibility started establishing a relationship with the plant manager and supervisors. He spoke with them in Russian, told things about himself and his family, he answered questions and also showed interest in the others by asking them about themselves. But Nigel’s own supervisor (an Englishman), criticised his behaviour saying he could be making better use of his time and asked him to organize it better with a weekly schedule.

The problem

The relations among the companies were tense, something was going wrong and in my opinion the causes of conflict in this case study were cultural differences between Britons and Russians concerning Individualism vs. Collectivism index and Monochronic vs. Polychronic concept of time.

From Nigel’s supervisor’s point of view who is both task-oriented and monochronic, time is...