Cross-Cultural Negotiating Exercise: “Quality Assurance in Hungary”

 

Danish Team

A few months ago Dansk Super Pumps (DSP) encountered stubborn quality problems at its subsidiary in Hungary, Pest Premier Pumps. After trying various solutions, DSP’s responsible manager Niels Jensen decided to bring three key senior Hungarian managers to Jutland for intensive training at the DSP main factory.

 

All three managers, Matyas, Pál and István, learned fast and returned to Hungary apparently full of drive to improve quality. And in fact, the rejection soon dropped to well under .03 percent, which is very close to satisfactory for that particular component and looks likely to further improve.

 

Recently however Niels and his colleagues observed that it is in fact Matyas, 35 years old with an engineering degree from the Fachhochschule Reutlingen, who is primarily responsible for this improvement. His colleagues István and Pál, both in their 50s and senior to Matyas in terms of title and salary, have been acting as though they are semi-retired, leaving most of the work to Matyas. The Danes are worried that Matyas will lose motivation in this awkward situation, and perhaps leave the company for another job.

 

Niels and colleague Mads Knudsen are now in Hungary, meeting again with PPP Managing Director Ferenc Liszt and HR Director Zoltan Kodály. Yesterday Niels and Mads told the two PPP executives that Danish top management wants to promote Matyas to a new position, Senior QA Manager, demote Pál, and fire or demote István.

 

The immediate reaction of both Hungarian executives was very negative. Now at this meeting Niels and Mads need to reach agreement with PPP management to solve the critical personnel issue.

 

 

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Cross-Cultural Negotiating Exercise: “Quality Assurance in Hungary”

 

Hungarian Team

You are Managing Director Ferenc Liszt and HR Director Zoltan Kodály of Premier Pest Pumps (PPP), the local subsidiary of Dansk Super Pumps.

 

A few months ago Dansk Super Pumps (DSP) encountered stubborn quality problems at its subsidiary in Hungary, PPP. After trying various other solutions, DSP’s responsible manager Niels Jensen decided to bring three key senior Hungarian managers to Jutland for intensive training at the DSP main factory.

 

Of course all three of your managers, Matyas, Pál and István, learned fast and returned to Hungary full of drive to improve quality. And in fact the rejection rate soon dropped to well under .03 percent, which is very close to satisfactory for that particular component, and you are sure it will improve even further.

 

Recently however Niels reported to you that it is Matyas, 35 years old with an engineering degree from the Fachhochschule Reutlingen, who is primarily responsible for this improvement. Niels said that István and Pál, both in their 50s and senior to Matyas in terms of title and salary, have been acting as though they are semi-retired, leaving most of the work to Matyas. The Danes are worried that Matyas will lose motivation in this awkward situation, and perhaps leave Pest Pumps for another job.

 

Niels and his colleague Mads Knudsen are now in Hungary. Yesterday the two Danes strongly suggested that you should promote Matyas to a new position, Senior QA Manager, demote Pál, and fire or demote István.

 

Of course your reaction to this “suggestion” was negative. It is true that Pál and István are less dynamic than Maryas, after so many years of hard work and loyal service to PPP. But Pál has a large family and cannot afford to take a cut in pay. And István has excellent contacts with PPP’s biggest and highest-quality supplier, which obviously is important for quality production. So we cannot accept demoting or firing either of them.

 

Now you are about to meet Niels and Mads to reach agreement on this important personnel issue. Good luck!