Write a 3-4 page essay in APA format (not including the cover page and reference page).  Note that you must conduct research your paper must have 3 scholarly references. This means that you must locate peer-reviewed articles. Read the case study and answer the questions below. DO NOT write the paper and a question and answer format.  Soul-Searching in Seoul: One U.S. Expatriate’s Cautionary Tale Linda Myers’ experience in South Korea is a cautionary tale for any expatriate. She was very attracted to the opportunity to finally become an expatriate and accepted a management position in human resources at Seoul-based SK Telecom. This was an exciting prospect—to be an expatriate in Asia’s fourth-largest economy while helping SK Telecom become a more global company. Myers brought impressive credentials to her new employer, including years of experience as an expatriate consultant helping executives from top U.S. multinationals like ExxonMobil and Hewlett-Packard make successful transitions to their overseas assignments. Yet soon after arriving in Seoul, Myers began wondering if she had made a huge mistake. Despite experience in previous jobs requiring considerable overseas travel (including months-long stints in the Czech Republic and Ecuador) and her expertise as an expatriate consultant, Myers was unable to grasp the nature of the problem, much less operate effectively, at SK Telecom. During the next two years, Myers came to realize that her direct style clashed with the formal and polite style of her Korean colleagues. She also learned that SK Telecom had few Western employees in general and only a handful of women in senior positions. Myers discovered that she was, ineffect, a trailblazer—one of the few U.S. women to serve in an executive capacity at any Korean company. Eventually, Myers concluded that she and SK Telecom had divergent views about her role in the company. Myers had become frustrated, demoralized, and exhausted—an outsider who was marginalized and precluded from having the impact she desired. So what happened? The signs of things to come started early, when Myers was initially emailed by an SK Telecom recruiter—who assumed she was a man. She obviously eventually took the job, feeling it was simply too good to pass up. Once she arrived in Seoul, Myers was surprised that she received no official orientation or even much specific help from her bosses regarding how to adapt to her new surroundings. She was also struck by how homogeneous things were at SK Telecom and in South Korea more generally, where less than 3% of the population has foreign roots (versus roughly 20% or more in places like London, New York, and Singapore). But Myers was completely shocked by the struggles she had communicating with her Korean colleagues inside the company’s hierarchical management structure. Her inability to speak Korean turned into a major impediment, and Myers felt she had no choice but to ask for an interpreter to attend certain meetin ...

1. Write a 3-4 page essay in APA format (not including the cover
page and reference page). Note that you must conduct research
your paper must have 3 scholarly references. This means that
you must locate peer-reviewed articles.
Read the case study and answer the questions below. DO NOT
write the paper and a question and answer format.
Soul-Searching in Seoul: One U.S. Expatriate’s Cautionary Tale
Linda Myers’ experience in South Korea is a cautionary tale for
any expatriate. She was very attracted to the opportunity to
finally become an expatriate and accepted a management
position in human resources at Seoul-based SK Telecom. This
was an exciting prospect—to be an expatriate in Asia’s fourth-
largest economy while helping SK Telecom become a more
global company. Myers brought impressive credentials to her
new employer, including years of experience as an expatriate
consultant helping executives from top U.S. multinationals like
ExxonMobil and Hewlett-Packard make successful transitions to
their overseas assignments.
Yet soon after arriving in Seoul, Myers began wondering if she
had made a huge mistake. Despite experience in previous jobs
requiring considerable overseas travel (including months-long
stints in the Czech Republic and Ecuador) and her expertise as
an expatriate consultant, Myers was unable to grasp the nature
of the problem, much less operate effectively, at SK Telecom.
During the next two years, Myers came to realize that her direct
style clashed with the formal and polite style of her Korean
colleagues. She also learned that SK Telecom had few Western

2. employees in general and only a handful of women in senior
positions. Myers discovered that she was, ineffect, a
trailblazer—one of the few U.S. women to serve in an executive
capacity at any Korean company. Eventually, Myers concluded
that she and SK Telecom had divergent views about her role in
the company. Myers had become frustrated, demoralized, and
exhausted—an outsider who was marginalized and precluded
from having the impact she desired.
So what happened? The signs of things to come started early,
when Myers was initially emailed by an SK Telecom recruiter—
who assumed she was a man. She obviously eventually took the
job, feeling it was simply too good to pass up. Once she arrived
in Seoul, Myers was surprised that she received no official
orientation or even much specific help from her bosses
regarding how to adapt to her new surroundings. She was also
struck by how homogeneous things were at SK Telecom and in
South Korea more generally, where less than 3% of the
population has foreign roots (versus roughly 20% or more in
places like London, New York, and Singapore).
But Myers was completely shocked by the struggles she had
communicating with her Korean colleagues inside the
company’s hierarchical management structure. Her inability to
speak Korean turned into a major impediment, and Myers felt
she had no choice but to ask for an interpreter to attend certain
meetings. Getting information from Korean colleagues who did
speak English also was difficult. Forced to ask questions to
learn anything, Myers felt that even her polite questions were
interpreted as criticisms.
Nevertheless, after just four months on the job, SK Telecom
promoted Myers, asking her to lead SK Holding’s Global Talent
group. Myers became frustrated, however, at her inability to
push through any significant changes in HR policies and
practices. This was especially vexing because Myers saw herself

3. as an agent of change for the company—a view that senior
leadership at SK Holdings apparently did not share. Indeed,
Myers felt increasingly ostracized in her new job, hamstrung by
the language barrier and what seemed to be a deliberate effort to
exclude her from important conversations and meetings with top
executives.
Things eventually got so bad that many of her colleagues simply
would not speak with her. The other shoe finally dropped in
2009, when Myers was told that her contract would not be
renewed. While disappointed that she did not have the impact
on the company that she would have liked, Myers also felt a
sense of relief that she would be leaving.
On reflection, Myers felt she had made some important
mistakes. One lesson was summarized by the phrase “easier said
than done.” The extensive experience that she had in prepping
others for expatriate roles did not make it any easier to
implement that advice herself. Moreover, much of the training
she provided to other soon-to-be expatriates did not have much
specific applicability to the SK Telecom environment in Seoul.
Despite her own personal preparation efforts to read about and
understand Korean business culture, Myers estimated that, in
hindsight, her efforts were superficial and missed about 80% of
what she really needed to know. Another realization was that
Myers’ view of progress and change did not align with her more
conservative Korean bosses, something that she should have
done more to clarify in advance.
In terms of her own style, Myers also concluded that she should
have been more patient when introducing changes to her Korean
subordinates. For example, soon after arriving in Seoul, she
tried to create a more informal environment by telling her
Korean subordinates to stop using her title and address her as
Linda. Unfortunately, this backfired and caused her
subordinates to lose respect for Myers and to perceive her as

4. weak. Likewise, Myers admitted that she tended to jump to the
conclusion that every misunderstanding she had with Korean
colleagues was due to cultural differences or poor treatment
because she was a foreigner. After one disagreement with a
Korean manager, which she chalked up to a cultural
misinterpretation, Myers spoke to another colleague about how
to handle the situation. The Korean manager was very
embarrassed and upset when he found out that Myers had
consulted with another colleague about their misunderstanding.
After leaving SK, Myers returned to her roots, again serving as
a consultant to help other people prepare for their expatriate
assignments. Her experience in Korea, Myers believes, made
her a better consultant. As she put it, “those years in Seoul
taught me to question my own actions and assumptions. I
realized that my leadership style had been shaped by a
particular environment and that my way was not always best.”
53
1. What is your assessment of the situation that Linda Myers
found herself in? Who is responsible for her difficulties as an
expatriate?
2. Does it surprise you that Myers encountered so much trouble
in Korea, particularly given her prior experiences and positions?
Why did she struggle to respond more effectively? What is the
implication of all of this?
3. If you had been advising Myers, would you recommend that
she take the SK Telecom job in the first place? Why or why
not?
4. Were there additional steps that Myers could have taken to
better prepare for her role at SK Telecom (both before she
accepted the job as well as after)?

5. 5. How might cultural beliefs regarding the basis for
compensation affect an approach to rewarding expatriates and
host-country/third country nationals in the same firm?