Case Name :      Sarah James in Mexico: Often Wrong but Never in Doubt?

Authors :           N/A

Source :             Ivey Publishing

Case ID :            909C06

Discipline :        Human Resource Management

Case Length :    04 pages

Solution Sample availability : YES

Plagiarism : NO (100% Original work)

The case describes a real instance where a college student, Sarah James, attends a Mexican university (INI) for the summer to develop her language and cross-cultural capabilities. At the end of a successful semester, she e-mails the director of international recruitment for the Mexican University – with a copy to her major professor back in the United States – complaining about the treatment she received from her host family. She appears to have alienated all parties involved as she makes her exodus. The reader must decide how Professor McGill should respond. McGill had been attempting to build a relationship with the administration at INI in hopes of sending more students there for cross-cultural and language training. The reader must also evaluate Sarah’s complaints to determine if they are a result of her own inflexibility or whether the host family was inappropriately screened or prepared. Will the remedy be found in having better policies governing host families or in having more culturally-attuned students?