Bill Hatch, the American supervisor of a factory in a foreign country, realized the production line had come to a halt. He went to find the person who operated the line and found him reading a newspaper. When asked why he wasn’t working, the operator said the line had broken down. When asked if he had notified anybody, the operator said, "No, that was the foreman’s job." He then added that the foreman was on his break. The supervisor insisted that the production halt was expensive and that the operator should have done something about it instead of reading his newspaper. Consequently he fired the operator on the spot.

Questions:

1. Which culture/country could the line operator be from? What behaviors make you believe so?
   
   
    
2. Under what assumptions is the American supervisor operating?
   
   
    
3. Did the American supervisor take the appropriate action? What alternative actions would have been possible?