It is 9:00 a.m. on Monday in Sweden

It is 9:00 a.m. on Monday in Sweden. The Technical product manager of company X
sent an email about the new design of the product to its subsidiary company in China.
He would like to have a production ready model of the new design by Friday when he
flies to China. An email came on Thursday saying that there was a 1mm error of the
product they made and asked the manager what they should do. The product manager
finds himself confused: “Do they need to ask such a question? They could simply
adjust the error and give me the model on Friday, why are they waiting for orders
instead of taking initiatives?” (Swedish Technical and Production manager, 2010, see
in Appendix III)
It is 15:01 Monday in Shanghai. The Chinese R&D manager in Shanghai received an
email from the parent company in Sweden. The parent company asked for a
production ready model of the latest design in five days. He called the production
manager immediately. Three days later he got the new model but with 1mm error. He
knew it would be better to provide a standard model. However, he decided to notify
this problem to the Swedish manager first and let him to decide what to do. It is the
Chinese way of showing their respects to superior by asking their opinions on
everything. (Chinese R&D managers, 2010, see in Appendix III)
The cases above illustrate some of the main issues of multi-cultural management
during the process of international knowledge transfer. The management team has
devoted both time and energy in efforts to solve the issues, yet fail to derive any
effective solutions.