Critical incident 1

Lukas was a German university student spending a semester at a university in California, USA. Before a class quiz, he prepared a piece of paper to help him with the quiz and showed this to one of his fellow students. After that, no one was very friendly to him any more and he had rather a difficult time.

1.  What happened?
2. What are the reasons for the reactions of the other students?
3. What was Lukas’ mistake?
4. What should he have done?
5. What can he do and say now?

Critical incident 2

Patrick was working for a German company doing business with Poland. Business was conducted in English and they seemed to get on very well. Patrick always enjoyed his short trips to Poland and was treated well by his Polish hosts. His Polish colleagues had always been very reliable about replying to emails and delivering on time so he was extremely surprised when for no apparent reason, there seemed to be nobody in the Warsaw office to deal with his requests and questions. He inquired if it was a national holiday and found that it wasn’t. After three days or so Gosia got in touch with him and apologised, explaining that the Pope’s death (Pope John Paul II) had meant that nobody could work properly. Patrick’s immediate reaction was “You can’t be serious!” After that, he was never treated in the same way again.

26...1 – 1.    What happened?

1. What are the reasons for Gosia’s reaction?
2. What was Patrick’s mistake?
3. What should he have done?
4. What can he do and say now?

Critical incident 3

Andrea Blau is on a business trip to North West USA, things seem to be going well and she may have some time to relax or go sightseeing at the weekend before returning to Austria. She asks her (senior) American colleague, Joe Webb, for some tips on what to do. Joe immediately offers her the use of the family cabin in the mountains as well as the use of his car. Andrea Blau is amazed at the generosity of her colleague who she only met two days before, but says she can’t possibly accept. She hires a car and books into a hotel. Joe can’t understand and Andrea Blau is surprised.

Discussion of this incident may elicit some of the following topics:

• Hierarchy
• Gender
• Reciprocity: Will accepting generosity from someone mean you are indebted to them?
• Public/private spheres
• Friendship: How quickly can this develop, what does it mean, and what is its place in business?
• Trust

This incident may also be illustrated by using the model of the peach and the coconut. The peach is apparently easy to make personal contact with quickly but it has a centre that may never be revealed; the coconut takes longer to reach a personal contact but may then reveal quite deep feelings