Interexchange—Communicating Across Functional Boundaries

9 Pages Posted: 21 Oct 2008

See all articles by Gerry Yemen

Gerry Yemen

University of Virginia - Darden School of Business

June A. West

University of Virginia - Darden School of Business

Kelly Wieme

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Abstract

Katherine Mason is a program officer at InterExchange, a firm that administers academic-exchange programs with the former Soviet Union. After returning from an extended period of time in three of the former Soviet republics, Mason discovers that the finance department has instituted new reimbursement policies. She must decide how to interpret and react to the memos concerning expense-report reimbursement. The twist in the case is that because of a past incident, Mason does not have a positive relationship with either her division head or the controller. Mason is convinced that the new policies fail to take into account the individual nature of financial transactions conducted in foreign countries. How should she present her arguments and explain her position to the controller?

Excerpt

UVA-BC-0138

InterExchange—Communicating

Across Functional Boundaries

After an unscheduled journey in the spring of 1999, Katherine Mason was home. Mason was a Program Officer at InterExchange—a Washington, DC firm that administered academic exchange programs with the former Soviet Union. Although she was happy to be back in the United States, Mason was not looking forward to completing her expense report. She looked with dismay at the pile of receipts and tiny bits of paper all over her desk, remnants of her five-week trip to the former Soviet republics of Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Russia. Procrastinating, she thumbed through the stack of internal mail that accumulated while she was gone. Mason fluttered to attention as she recognized several check and reimbursement requests that she submitted before her trip. They were stapled to two memos from the finance department. According to the memos, new procedures were put into place for processing check requests and reimbursements. While Mason was out of the country, the paperwork just sat on her desk. It looked like no one was paid. Mason shook her head, cringing at the thought of trying to apologize to her scholars and associates.

Company History and Structure

InterExchange was founded in 1968 to organize and administer academic exchange programs with the Soviet Union. Originally created to foster academic freedom in the then-Communist USSR through one-to-one exchanges of Soviet and American university professors, InterExchange's focus during the past 30 years expanded into other regions and disciplines.

. . .

Keywords: communication strategy, conflict managment, management skills

Suggested Citation

Yemen, Gerry and West, June A. and Wieme, Kelly, Interexchange—Communicating Across Functional Boundaries. Darden Case No. UVA-BC-0138, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=907742 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.907742

Gerry Yemen (Contact Author)

University of Virginia - Darden School of Business ( email )

P.O. Box 6550
Charlottesville, VA 22906-6550
United States

June A. West

University of Virginia - Darden School of Business ( email )

Box 6550
100 Darden Boulevard
Charlottesville, VA 22906-6550
United States
434-243-7693 (Phone)
434-243-7676 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.darden.virginia.edu/faculty/west.htm

Kelly Wieme

affiliation not provided to SSRN

No Address Available

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