Reference no: EM133098734
Maxtor Corporation (MC) of Ohio has been producing small electronic toys in Singapore. The factory has been operated by local managers, but MC now wants to expand the Singapore facilities as well as integrate more expatriate managers into the operation. The CEO is a Canadian and he plans to staff the Singapore plant with several American expatriates from the head office, USA. According to the CEO's experience after working for five years in Singapore, the ideal expatriate should be able to quickly adapt to the multicultural and diversified work environment in order to be productive and contribute to the organisation.
On the shop floor, accidents are common among the production workers. There seems to be a lack of safety awareness and procedures which are likely the causes of high accident rates. Some form of training is urgently needed but the workers are occupied with fulfilling new orders and hardly have any time to attend the training.
Maxtor believes in embracing diversity as a competitive advantage. It has a workforce of mixed generational employees from locals to foreign labours working in the office and the assembly line. Sometimes, differences in values and attitude can lead to conflicts and misunderstanding. At times such conflicts can lead to lower organisational performance.
The company intends to use the most effective way of managing the Singapore personnel. In particular, the Maxtor management team is concerned with how to motivate the Singaporean employees and make them more productive. One survey has already been conducted among the Singapore personnel; this study found Singaporean employees expressed a preference for job-content factors such as interesting work, the chance for growth, achievement, and increased responsibility, and they listed money and job security toward the bottom of the list of things they looked for in a job
Briefly explain how diversity in Maxtor's working groups may result in interpersonal conflicts and how the HR manager may best manage such conflicts.