Cowboy Chicken
Memo
To:
F. W. Hodgkins
From:
Bill Yeow
CC:
Scott Warnock
Date:
March 3, 2016
Re:
Guidelines for Ethical Leadership in Cowboy Chicken’s Chinese Franchises
Last month I visited the Muji City location of Cowboy Chicken, where several incidents took
place that resulted in the termination of multiple employees. The cause of these problems
may have stemmed from cultural differences and misinterpretations between the American
and Chinese ways of life. Knowing that such incidents aren’t good for business, I think future
problems can be prevented with the implementation of policies on the following issues at all
of the company’s China locations.
Inter-Office Dating
One of the complaints that were voiced to me concerned the social interaction between Mr.
Shapiro and the female employees of the restaurant. We talked in detail with the girls with
whom Mr. Shapiro had dinner. Apparently, Mr. Shapiro wasn’t taking the girls out on a formal
date; he was using the girls as a ploy to get the Chinese price instead of the inflated
American price for dinners. According to Baisha, one of the female employees, “I paid for
what I ate. I won’t go out with him again. He’s such a cheapskate.” Furthermore, I talked to
Hongwen, who conferred with all the other female employees about this issue. He said “We
checked with the girls, and they admitted that Mr. Shapiro had asked them to order
everything. So he had indeed paid the Chinese prices” (Jin 191).
Even though Mr. Shapiro wasn’t in fact dating any of the girls, the opinion around the
restaurant amongst the other employees was that he was, especially since he could be seen
leaving with the female employees. This perception led to resentment towards Mr. Shapiro
from the male employees, and it clearly affected their morale too. Hongwen confided
“Imagine, once a week, on Thursday night, a man of over fifty went out with a young girl who
was happy to go anywhere he took her. This made us, the three men hired by him, feel
useless, like a bunch of eunuchs” (Jin 190). This mounting tension caused the employees to
act in a manner which ultimately led to their dismissal.
In international business expert Thomas Donaldson’s article, “Values in Tension: Ethics Away
from Home”, he states that “Codes of conduct must provide clear direction about ethical
behavior when the temptation to behave unethically is strongest” (Donaldson 9). While it isn’t
necessary to establish a strict no-dating policy, it is essential to lay down written and
extensively publicized company rules concerning dating and romance in the workplace.
Cowboy Chicken’s official position should be one that discourages inter-office dating,
especially relationships between a manager and a subordinate.
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Compensation
A) Paying employees of all levels through the same means of exchange would convey a
sense of respect. The Muji location’s policy was to pay the line employees in “an envelope
stuffed with a bundle of cash.” The envelope of managers such as Mr. Jiao’s “was always
empty. [Peter] got only a slip of paper in his envelope, which was called a check” (Jin 218).
In an article by Chinese business specialist Jan Alexander entitled “Doing Business in China”,
she says to “Be careful what you communicate. Gestures that seem insignificant on the
surface can make or break your efforts” (Alexander 3). Our current practice of paying line
employees in Yuan, but handing managers checks made out in American dollars can be
seen as a sign of superiority, even though it is for convenience purposes. Cowboy Chicken
can make the right gesture by paying everyone through the same form.
B) The confidentiality of an employee’s salary is very important to our company. That
confidence was compromised when Mr. Jiao’s payment was inadvertently given to another
employee (Jin 218). We need to prevent any more instances where payment to employees
was mishandled. I think that this problem can be solved by establishing a simple system by
which the employee has to sign for their check in the presence of a supervisor.
Policy regarding Surplus Food
Cowboy Chicken’s policy for leftover food was a consensus problem among the Chinese
employees. While this seems to be a trivial matter to us, the Chinese employees see it as an
unimaginable moral catastrophe. In a conversation Baisha had with Peter Jiao, the Muji city
branch manager, she said “There are people here who don’t have enough corn flour to eat
while you burn chicken every night. You’ve forgotten your ancestors and who you are” (Jin
217).
Although our company’s policy regarding this issue is hard and fast, it is what Donaldson
refers to as “a conflict of relative development, ethical standards [that] conflict because of the
countries’ different levels of economic development.” He goes on to pose the question “would
the practice be acceptable at home if my country were in a similar stage of economic
development?” (Donaldson 11) Since America is a country of great economic maturity,
whereas China is still in its developing stages, I propose that we change our policy. Instead of
disposing of the leftovers, the employees should be allowed to divide the unsold food among
themselves. Not only will this satisfy the local tradition of avoiding wastefulness, it will also
help boost employee morale.
Customer Disputes
It came to my attention that dealing with customer disputes has been a sore spot in Muji City.
There was one especially alarming incident. Employees recounted to me that one afternoon
a customer came in and said “I’m going to sue your company for ten thousand yuan... I found
this fly in the chicken I bought here” (Jin 207). At first the matter was handled tactfully by
Peter Jiao. However, when the employees got involved, it became chaotic. One of the
terminated employees, Jinglin, confessed to me that he made a physical threat to the
customer. “I know your grandson who goes to the Second Elementary School, and I can
catch him and cut off his little pecker with this knife. Then your family line will be gone. I mean
it” (Jin 209).
Cowboy Chicken was very fortunate that a lawsuit wasn’t brought about as a result of this
event. Alexander says that “in a country with a fledgling legal system, resolving a dispute over
anything from intellectual property rights to contract violation is a very tricky matter”
(Alexander 4). Going forward, only managers should speak to and negotiate with customers
about their disputes. Managers are the workers that are properly trained to handle situations
like these, as evidenced by their job title. In addition, the negotiating process should be as
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diplomatic as possible. The use of threats of any kind from any employee towards another
person while on restaurant property will result in automatic termination.
In order for Cowboy Chicken to match its success in the United States in the international
sector, we have to adapt to certain local customs. I felt this particular franchise attempted to
coerce both the employees and the locals into conforming to the Western way of life.
Thank you for your consideration in adopting the aforementioned guidelines. It is imperative
that we take action soon so that the employees understand the importance of these
guidelines, in light of the events that occurred.
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