dation of communication. And [therefore] when culture varies, communication practices [must] also vary.” In this case, managers have failed to adapt their skills to new cultures. Again, Donaldson is not the only culprit, Bill Loun, CEO and Chairman of Argos International also has communication problems.2.2.1 ParalanguageAccording to Mehrabian and Weiner (1967) the way a message is communicated rather than the content of the communication has a greater impact on the receiver. This is known as paralanguage. Within the case study we find many examples of this, but none as clear as the conversation between Waterhouse and Loun, when Loun’s voice “boomed down the [phone]line”. This gives his character a sense of being unapproachable and ethnocentric (discussed in section 1.1). 2.2.2 High vs. Low ContextAgain Donaldson’s lack of cultural awareness has caused problems for him, this time based on the context of the communication. In a study conducted by Hall and Hall (1990), Switzerland is considered to have the lowest ranking communication context, closely followed by other European countries. This means that nothing is implied from the message, as everything will be clearly detailed. The higher up the context ranking you go the more information becomes implicit. With this in mind, a multiple-choice survey is likely to be inappropriate and Donaldson should not be surprised that “one of them sent back a rambling six page essay.”2.2.3 Lack of communication between United States and Zurich OfficesIt can be assumed that Bill Loun would like the Zurich office to be as efficient and effective as the office in the United States. Bartlett and Ghoshal (1989) explain, “that the more frequent the communication with the…parent organisation, the more likely it is that affiliate executives will be influenced by the parent’s practices.” However, there seems to be no communication between the Un...
