n our increasingly globalised world, cross-cul-tural understanding is becoming paramount for catering to new markets and diverse consumer

demographics. Empathy with different cultures is therefore a key skill for managers and teams to possess. As the President of National Grid USA recommends; ‘responsible business must embrace and manage diversity for continued success’ (King, T., 2012).

StyleAudiences need to be engaged on multiple psycho-logical levels if they are to create lasting memories of the lessons or morals told. Hence, framing valu-able lessons in a variety of contexts, both comical as well as serious and informative, can make an individual understand the message informally or subconsciously. In this way, the common percep-tion of bosses telling employees how to think can be avoided, the latter of which will often be met with the feeling that an employee has to act in a certain way rather than wanting to. The purpose of this film is therefore to interact with audiences on a subliminal level and allow individuals to under-stand the lessons learnt on their own terms, whether it be during the comical parts or during the serious more overt scenes. The lesson of empathy and understanding can be considered obvious, which has consequently led to a number of technical and forceful ways of teaching. Instead, framing such lessons in a humor-ous and eccentric fashion can create an informal

The Cakefather

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and psychologically safer environment for accept-ing and processing the true substance of the cross-cultural lesson.

SynopsisThis is a tale of the first cross cultural mafia group led by a ruthless and autocratic boss whose team finally decides to overthrow him after years of an exploitative working environment. However they soon realise that the team can’t function without their central figurehead. At the same time, the god-father realises his lack of empathy has led him to alienate his workers and jeopardise the performance of the entire organisation. Both parties reconcile that they must understand each other and cooperate in order to run a successful mafia team.

Structure Although both the Tuckman model and Equilibrium model are different they can be combined in this in-stance to give an understanding of the mafia’s team development. These models can be used in conjunc-tion with the lessons of the film to show the effects of cross-cultural differences on team building.

As the illustration below shows, the model is di-vided into four stages (excluding the adjourning stage of the Tuckman model). The script is designed to relay each stage to a particular act in the orders shown:

A pragmatic theoritical review

MORAL

Empathy and understanding as a cornerstone of successful cross-cultural teamwork

he first act is based on the misunderstandings that can come about in a working environ-ment. The film exemplifies this through the

Godfather’s inability to listen to his employees as well as accept any accountability for the company’s problems. Further, the meeting scene examines some of the common and ill informed stereotypes of certain cultures and the resulting alienation that comes about. For example, The Godfather’s immediate response to the decline in cake sales is to blame his employees in an uncouth manner. This is rep-resentative of the lack of a balanced distribution of accountability in the team. Secondly, his assumption that Ms. China’s point is biased because of her culture is telling of the Godfather’s insensitivity to cultural differences. Such conflicts are highlighted by the interviews that take place throughout the film, giving the viewer a window into the characters’ individual thinkings and the different sides to the story.

In a similar vein, by immediately discard-ing Mr. Spain’s new recipe, The Godfather has committed a fun-damental malpractice which is ignoring the ideas of his subordi-

nates which ultimately impedes innovation. This is an example of Dictatorial Management where involvement from employees is not accepted. In the film, the new recipe is gluten free which could potentially be very successful in the profitable glu-ten-free market, which is ultimately ignored by the Godfather and potentially costly to the business.What can be drawn from these examples of cultural-ly ignorant dictatorial management is that the leader is not necessarily wholly bad but lacks the cultural tools to make his actions meaningful and substan-tial. In the film for example, the Godfather giving Ms. china flowers is negated by his lack of cultural

understanding that white flowers are only given at funerals in china. Again the godfathers interview suggests he is in denial and unable to accept that he has any weaknesses in cross-cultural communica-tion. Later on in the film this inability unhinges the entire structure of the group, showing that fallibility is an important aspect for leaders if they want their employees to feel comfortable and fearless of trying and failing. As Green et say, ‘managers must recog-nise their own cultural biases and prejudices’. (Uni of Florida paper)

As the Tuckman model shows on the left, this act is representative of Stage 1: Forming or early stag-es of group interaction. In this case, the Godfather does not understand his employees who are equally disillusioned by their boss. The energy barometer above summaries the effect the management has on the employees’ in-volvement and energy.

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3

Act 1Misunderstandings and why cultural conflicts occur

s we progress to the second act, the forming stage becomes increasingly closer to the storming stage, ultimately climaxing with a

planned coup by the employees.

The bridge scene illustrates the effects of autocratic management which is where the only satisfaction employees get is from ‘beating the system’ (Byham, W., 1994) which in this case is giving the Godfather an ultimatum. As Johnson, Lemartowicz and Apud argue, ‘Many international business failures have been ascribed to a lack of cross-cultural compe-tence’, which in this case has cost the business it’s leader. (Johnson, Lemartowicz and Apud, 2006).

Again, the interview with the Godfather saying ‘i just couldn’t do it’ reinforces the idea that he sees external ideas as a threat to his authority and re-sponds impulsively and defensively; The result be-ing detrimental to both the group and himself as he is dismissed from the mafia. (An example of man-agers threatened by employees).

he teams realisation that they are unable to function without their leader is a telling ex-ample of the mutual need for empathy; the

team realising the need for the Godfather is as im-portant as the Godfather’s appreciation of the talents of his team. It is this empathy and understanding that drives team building. This is Stage 3: Norm-ing of the Tuckman Model, where individual differ-ences are appreciated as trust begins to emerge, and cooperation becomes the focus. The office party is the closing segment of the film, aimed to show the reconciliation that occurs once cultural differences are realised and attended to. The result is that Ms. China no longer feels un-der appreciated or culturally misunderstood, while both Mr. Spain and Mr. England feel more engaged and enthusiastic having been given responsibility. The team’s ability to work together in a culturally diverse environment now leads to innovation and disruptive thinking, which in this case is the po-tential to occupy new markets with the gluten free recipe.

Act 2 Act 3

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Effects of Culturally Insensitive Leadership Nurturing Cultural Competence

Initial Godfather Cultural Competence Checklist

Possess a strong personal identity

Have knowledge of and facility with the beliefs and values of the culture

Display sensitivity to the affective process of the culture

Communicate clearly in the language of the given cultural group

Perform specially sanctioned behaviour

Maintain active social relations within the cultural group;

Negotiate the institutional structures of that culture

(Johnson, Lemartowicz and Apud, 2006, p. 529).

As the barometer above shows, The godfather’s in-creased cultural competence and distribution of re-sponsibility has led to greater involvement among employees. The business benefit is shown by 11 real-life studies that found a significant relationship between cross cultural training and performance.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

4OB&HRM CourseworkIMPERIAL COLLEGE BUSINESS SCHOOL

Black, J., Mendenhall, M. (2012) Cross-Cultural Training Effectiveness: A Review and a Theoretical Framework for Future Research, The Academy of Management Review, Vol. 15, No. 1.

Byham, W. C. (1994) Implementing a High Involvement (Empowerment) Strategy, The Business Channel.

Green, K., Lopez, M., Wysocki, A., Kepner, K. (2012) Diversity in the Workplace: Benefits, Challenges, and the Required Mangerial Tools, University of Florida IFAS Extension.

Johnson, J.P.; Lenartowicz, T; Apud, S. (2006) Cross-Cultural Competence in International Business: Toward a Definition and a Model, Journal of International Business Studies, Vol. 37, No. 4.

King, T. (2012) What Does Success Look Like? Profiles in Diversity Journal

The final scene is a demonstration of Tuck-man’s final Performing Stage: with greater cultural

empathy, the team now focuses on harmony, productivity, and ef-fective problem solv-ing. We represented this with the team all agreeing to taste the potentially lucrative new cake recipe (Black and Mendenhall 2012, p. 119).

By acknowledging Mr. Spain’s new reciepe, The Godfather has created a psychologically safe en-viornment, eliminating the fear of embarrassment and thus promoting innovation. Further, an open-ness to other cultures leads to not just new ideas, but the solidification of the team through the experience of employees’ unique perspectives and customs