Ask the Geezers

"Favoritism" for Foreign Background?

Question: I have been the victim of unfair treatment in terms of promotional opportunities and recognition. Over the years, I have witnessed people moving up without much merits. I am a better manager and never got the opportunity for visible projects or rightful recognition after I have good accomplishments. It seems to me ERI leadership (you geezers) favors foreigners over returnees. Chinese without international experience are at the bottom. Please explain.

Mike: This is an international company. Experience in dealing with other culture as an 'outsider' (or just any unfamiliar situation) adds value to you. If you have dealt with it successfully, that means you have conquered a big barrier. In this heterogeneous environment, you will have to learn how to deal with differences. By doing that, you will not only bring with you experience that you can apply to other situation, but also be able to help others to deal with their problems. And it is natural for everyone to pay a premium to get that experience.

On the other hand, our goal here is to provide a fair & open work place. If there is favoritism that are only based on people's experience and not based on people's ability to add value to their job, that is something worth investigating.

However, being fair does not mean being numerically equal. For two people with similar background, there could still be differences. People do things differently, and we are never all equal. But we have to be fair in making our decisions.

When selecting people, we want to have people that will add extra value as compared to the people that are not selected. The total experience (including overseas experience) has to be part of the consideration. Just BECAUSE one has spent his/her whole life inside China is not the only reason that he/she doesn't get certain position. Finally, anyone that is not selected should feel free to talk to the hiring manager about why he/she is not selected.

Sin-Yaw: Do you know that 90% of the people who drive think themselves as better drivers than average? Similarly, 99% of the software engineers think themselves as better engineers than average in terms of coding skills. There is one golden rule for promotion selection: those who get promoted must contribute to the boss's future success, at least not hinder it.

Being a good manager keeps your job. Being an excellent manager gets you on the queue. Being a contributor to your boss's success gets you promoted.

Ask yourself: How would I help his/her future success? Does he/she know that?

Sun is a global company headquartered in USA. English communication skills are a basic requirement for all employees, particularly so for managers. But the favoritism suspects should check who were promoted during the last 18 months. From the data we are seeing, it does not really support the allegation.

Amiram: Unfair treatment in terms of promotional opportunities... This is a very serious allegation. I can try and touch on it, but being a foreigner myself, I may seem to be part of the problem and not the solution. Also, this seems to be an HR problem. Nonetheless, I believe that Sun Microsystems hires and promotes people based on merits. Sun is committed not to discriminate against anyone based on gender, physical or mental disability, marital status, changes in marital status, pregnancy, parenthood, race, religion, color, or national origin.

Based on statistics from here, I don't think that this claim has merits, although as I said, HR should be able to answer this question.

Posted at 02:20PM Dec 25, 2006 by Wen Michelle Lei in General  |  Comments[0]