ited States Headquarters and Donaldson, and only very little between them and Waterhouse.2.3Leadership and MotivationGardner (1989) states that in order to be a good leader one must be able to inspire and influence the thinking, attitudes and behaviour of people. This is no different for managers, and from the evidence provided in the case Donaldson is not good leader. For a manager to become a strong cross-cultural leader, a number of skills need to be developed. According to Bass these skills are social perceptual skills, interpersonal competence, effective intelligence, and efficient work habits. (Deresky, 2000 p. 433) Donaldson is void of social perception skills, “I’ve tried everything… no matter what I do… someone’s always pissed off.” His interpersonal competence, while extremely effective in the US, is feeble in a European context as evidenced in the break down of interaction between himself and Jakob Hassler. This was one of many incidents that detracted from his management style and effectively ostracised him from the rest of the organisation. Donaldson’s effective intelligence has reduced drastically since arriving in Europe. Not to say that his intellect has abridged but rather Donaldson’s knowledge is drawn largely from his experience in Detroit, and while he possessed exceptional skills in the US, he has no idea of ‘best practice’ ways of doing things in Europe. When talking about efficient work habits Donaldson is displaying those he has developed in the US. Like all the other areas he has not been able to adapt his approach so as to more suitably fit the European environment. These problems have culminated in Donaldson being an ineffective leader, and have contributed to his inability to motivate his employees.3Alternative SolutionsThese solutions have been suggested to overcome the problems mentioned in the previous section. 3.1Solutions to problems with Donald...
