Global Human Resource Management
Case: Fred Bailey: An Innocent Abroad
It had been only six months since Fred Bailey had arrived with his wife and two children for this three-year assignment as the director of Kline &
...
Global Human Resource Management
Case: Fred Bailey: An Innocent Abroad
It had been only six months since Fred Bailey had arrived with his wife and two children for this three-year assignment as the director of Kline & Associates’ Tokyo office. Kline & Associates was a large
multinational consulting firm with offices in nineteen countries worldwide.
Fred was now trying to decide whether he should simply pack up and tell headquarters that he was
coming home or whether he should try to convince his wife, and himself', that they should stay and
finish the assignment.
Seven months ago, Dave Steiner, the managing partner of the main office in Boston, asked Fred to
lunch to discuss business.
Fred was offered the position of managing director of the firm’s relatively new Tokyo office,
which had a staff of forty, including seven Americans.
When Fred told his wife about the unbelievable opportunity, he was shocked at her less than
enthusiastic response. His wife, Jenny, thought that it would be rather difficult to have the children live
and go to school in a foreign country for three years.
Besides, now that the kids were in school, Jenny was thinking about going back to work, at least part
time.
Fred explained that the career opportunity was just too good to pass up and that the company’s
overseas compensation package would make living overseas terrific. The company would pay all
expenses to move whatever the Baileys wanted to take with them. The company had a very nice house
that the Baileys could move into rent-free. Also, the firm would provide a car and driver, education
expenses for the children to attend private schools, and a cost of living adjustment and overseas
compensation that would nearly triple Fred’s gross annual salary.
After two days of consideration and discussion, Fred told Steiner he would accept the assignment.
Fred and his family had about three weeks to prepare for the move. Between transferring responsibilities
at the office to Bob Newcome, who was being promoted to Fred’s position, and getting furniture and the
like ready to be moved, neither Fred nor his family had much time to really find out much about Japan,
other than what was in the encyclopaedia.
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