Case Summary
‘The Fijian Experience – The Tau Experience’ features Mr. Bret Taylor, an American expatriate who oversees the renowned Shangri-La Fijian Resort on Yanuka Island, Fiji. The narrative focuses on the intricate dynamics between Moala, a prospective director, and Salome Suacake, a novice trainee waitress.
The Shangri-La’s Fijian Resort (FIJIAN) is a renowned international hotel with a long-standing reputation worldwide. With over 30 years of experience, the hotel offers 450 suites and employs over 800 individuals, mostly from the indigenous Fijian community. Many of these employees have dedicated over a decade of service to the hotel. Unfortunately, FIJIAN has even had the unique situation of having three generations of a family working in the hotel simultaneously, including Moala. Moala was the first Fijian sponsored by FIJIAN to study in Switzerland for three years, and he now holds an important executive position in a prestigious five-star international hotel group.
The dilemma arises when Salome Suacake, an indigenous Fijian, was caught in the act of taking money from clients by Mr Brett Taylor. According to Salome, she did it for church finances and not for herself. Meanwhile, Moala was unable to act due to his close relationship with Salome and must pretend that nothing is wrong. In this case, Mr Brett Taylor is facing the challenge of Cross-Cultural management, where he must take action regarding both his trusted manager, Moala, and the trainee Salome by considering local customs and practices without being unfair to other staff members and adhering strictly to the rules.
Problem Statement
In this particular example of FIJIAN, the local belief in the Tau relationship has prevented Moala from taking any action against Salome. This is because Moala’s ancestors owed a debt to Salome’s ancestors. As a result, Salome can do whatever she pleases to Moala within the hotel where they both work, as it is considered to be Moala’s place. If this situation continues, it will have a negative impact on FIJIAN’s credibility and professionalism in managing the hotel’s direction, production, and overall performance. Additionally, it will affect the behavior of the staff towards their work. The main issue in this case study revolves around a conflict in cross-cultural management due to fraudulent actions by the trainee staff. 2.1 List of Problems & Symptoms:
- Salome Suacake commits fraud – For the first two months. she works with dedicative mode and performs good until the 3rd month she started to misconduct and steal customer’s money. Rumors has been spread but no one take any action because of no cogent evidence of her making that until she was caught red-handed by Mr Brett Taylor himself.
- Moala Tukana’s soundless action – Knowing Salome’s misbehavior on stealing customer’s money. he remains soundless and pretended he knew nil. After he was suspended by Mr Brett Taylor. He admits his error for non taking any action towards Salome even after he knew Salome’s misbehavior as he was bounded with their usage belief in ‘Tau Relationship’ . Harmonizing to the rare and unknown belief. he is Salome’s Tau ( a individual commited by the ascendants to back up her ) and this bond is unbreakable because his ascendants owed Salome’s ascendant a debt.
- Salome Suacake’s slippery action – Salomes act innocently in stealing the customer’s money because for her she is non stealing for herself but for her village’s church constructing fiscal and utilizing the ‘Tau Relationship’ as an alibi by taking advantage towards Moala’s place. She knew Moala is her Tau and could non perchance take any action and ailment about her.
- Mr Brett Taylor’s Dilemma – Mr Brett Taylor is confronting the quandary in determination devising particularly towards his right – handed director. Moala Tukana. His determination right now is affecting the professionalism of his staff in work field and the local usage issue. He needs to do a right determination which will non ache the Fijian as this is a really sensitive issue but at the same clip his determination must besides be steadfast and just for the FIJIAN’s credibleness and equity so the staffs will non be able to reiterate the same offense or error.
- Local Traditional Custom – The ‘Tau Relationship’ has become the chief cause of Salome’s offense. Autochthonal Fijians are bonded strongly to their customary patterns. We can see in this instance from the Hotel Staff Union who appealed on behalf of Salome and back up her by stating she is non incorrect because she is making it for her village’s church constructing fiscal. The local traditional usage that they are bounded in has made them blind in spliting their work life professionaly.
Alternative Strategies and Evaluations
Despite Salome’s good performance during her first two months at FIJIAN, Mr. Brett Taylor faces difficulty in terminating her employment due to the fact that she stole money for a church construction project in her small town. However, as a fair and wise owner-manager, Mr. Taylor has decided to fire Salome in the best interest of the company. Stealing or fraud poses a serious issue for any organization as it undermines trustworthiness and unity among employees, both of which are crucial for organizational credibility and performance. Hence, Mr. Taylor cannot afford to take any risks by offering Salome another chance.
Evaluation scheme
Positive: Mr. Brett will continue his right-hand helper director position with Maola, and Maola can now focus on his work without being restricted by the “Tau Relationship” with Salome. The rest of the staff will see this as a lesson to not exploit traditional practices in their work lives to commit offenses. Moreover, Mr. Brett Taylor will maintain his credibility as a fair and competent owner-manager in resolving this cross-cultural management issue.
Some of the employees, especially those from the Hotel Union Staffs, may see Mr. Brett Taylor’s determination as unfair, particularly since they are advocating for Salome. Meanwhile, Salome herself may face challenges in finding future employment in the hotel industry due to her notorious reputation for committing fraud.
Formal Verbal & A ; Written Warning to Salome Suacake
Stealing is a serious offense in any organization, regardless of the reason. Despite Salome’s previously good performance and education, she should be given one more chance to continue her job at FIJIAN. Mr. Brett Taylor should have a conversation with Salome to make her understand that her behavior is unacceptable and wrong. It is important to provide her with a genuine explanation and guidance so that she realizes that Mr. Brett Taylor is serious about issuing the warning, and she does not repeat the same mistake. To monitor Salome’s behavior and performance, a probationary period should be implemented, and if she repeats the offense again, she should be terminated.
Positive evaluation strategy: Employees will be aware of their responsibility and will not mix personal and work matters. The management will also be aware of their staff’s behaviors to prevent similar incidents from happening again. A respectful and bonding relationship is enhanced between the management and staff, which leads to improved performance in the workplace.
Salome, despite being given a second chance, has tarnished her professional reputation with a poor performance in a leadership role. This could negatively impact her future career prospects if she decides to switch fields. Although her embezzlement was done for the benefit of the Church, other organizations may still hesitate to accept her due to concerns about trustworthiness.
It is recommended that disciplinary action be taken against Moala Tukana, who serves as the supervisor and assistant director. Despite being aware of Salome’s misconduct, Tukana did not take any action. Suspending Tukana for a period of time will highlight the management’s commitment to addressing staff wrongdoing, particularly in cases of fraud. It is important for staff members to understand that fraud is a grave issue that cannot be overlooked; appropriate action must be taken to serve as a lesson to others. Simultaneously, the management should implement a new ‘Code of Conduct’ for FIJIAN, forbidding any harmful or culturally insensitive traditional practices within the organization.
The scheme mentioned in the text ensures that all staff members will immediately become more aware of their actions. This is because nobody wants to have their salary, fillip, tips, and allowance cut off for the entire year. Once the necessary actions have been taken, everyone should understand the seriousness of fraud and will strive to prevent it from happening again in the future.
On the other hand, Salome and Moala will face challenges surviving for a whole year without any fillip, tips, and allowance. In addition to this financial burden, they will also have a reduction in their wages due to their misconduct towards the organization. The stress and burden may become too much for Salome as she considers resigning from her position as a waitress. It is important to note that her actions were motivated not by personal gain but for the sake of the Church.
The Most Effective Approach and Reasoning
If we explore other schemes, Moala Tukana would only be suspended temporarily while Salome Suacake remains. There is a concern that Salome may repeat her misconduct with Moala, as he is her ‘Tau’. However, terminating Moala could result in losing him and retaining Salome in the organization is a risky move for Mr. Brett Taylor.
Mr Brett Taylor has a deeper understanding of Moala compared to Salome. Therefore, simply giving Salome a second chance and making her compensate for the loss caused by her offense would not be sufficient in terms of action taken, considering human nature. We cannot guarantee that they will not repeat the same mistake again, as we are aware that according to custom, the ‘Tau Relationship’ between Moala and Salome is unbreakable. Moala holds a higher value within the organization.
Besides avoiding the ‘Tau Relationship’ and freeing Moala from Salome, it is beneficial to terminate Salome early on in her employment at the organization. This is because keeping her on could lead to even worse consequences in the future. It has been proven that she lacks good work ethic and responsibility, as she took advantage of Moala as her tau and justified her wrongdoings as for the Church building funds rather than for personal gain.
Last but not least, this incident will serve as an eye-opener and teach moral values to the other staff, especially to the indigenous Fijian, so that they do not repeat the same mistakes by incorporating their local customs into their wrongdoing. Additionally, they will lack the courage to jeopardize their jobs by committing foolish offenses and risking losing their employment, as the management, specifically Mr. Brett Taylor, will not tolerate such mistakes, just as it happened to Salome. This also demonstrates that Mr. Brett Taylor is not only fair but also an intelligent owner-manager in resolving this matter.
Execution
Short Term Implementation:
- Issue warning towards Moala Tukana & A ; Salome SuacakeWarning should hold been issued to both Moala & A ; Salome for their soundless action and misbehaved offense. They shall non reiterate their error even when under force per unit area of being tied up in local usage pattern. A broken of moralss for the same error shall take to expiration.
- Disciplinary action towards Moala as the Supervisor and Assistant Manager Moala should be suspended in order for him to gain that the direction is really serious towards him being soundless and non taking any action to Salome’s offense. He should cognize that the direction will non digest for any unethical offense and action even he is the right-handed adult male in the organisation.
- Avoid enrolling excessively many blood-relation in organisation By making this. delusory behavior will non happen and the direction should get down on rearrange the staffs organisation and occupation agenda particularly to those blood related. Conflict of involvement besides can be avoided by implementing this to the organisation.
- Introducing Counsel & A ; Performance Department The organisation should get down implement a new section specialized in advocate and oversee employees public presentation based on rating. activities and advocate session. This section is responsible in forming a bonding activities to the staffs so the staffs feel so near to each other can speak about their jobs and non maintain it for themselves as what happened to Salome. If merely she had speak up. the staffs might make some activities for the intent of funding the church non by stealing.
Long Term Implementation:
- Develop a new ‘Code of Conduct’The organisation should develop a new codification of behavior sing the moralss of work. The staffs should be given a brief explaination towards the codification of behavior and work proper moralss that they should follow. In the new codification of behavior excessively the organisation should foreground that no local traditional usage is practised in the organisation which can be harmful and give negative side effects to the organisation particularly the ‘Tau Relationship’ . A work life balance should be implemented in the new codification of behavior excessively as to do certain the staffs will non blend their personal beliefs into their work environment.
- Leadership Training The organisation particularly the Human Resource squad should on occasion supply preparation to the staffs particularly to the executive staff. Moala peculiarly. To be a leader should cognize how to pull off his squad good without blending personal and work affair. In this instance. Moala should larn how to pull off people’s behaviors professionally particularly to his staff under his supervising. This preparation will assist him in covering his jobs more ethically and professionally than maintain submerging in his traditional cultural life style. Keeping quiet on someone’s errors will merely promote more people into perpetrating the same offense.
Decision
In decision, the majority of indigenous Fijians are still strongly attached to their local traditional usage pattern, including rare practices like ‘Tau Relationship’. However, this local belief has become the cause of a Cross-cultural Management struggle, leading to fraud offenses and resulting in loss. To prevent recurring struggles in the future, it is necessary to take fair yet prudent action to address and resolve this situation.
