Managing Like a Man at SilkQueen?

by Kate Hutchings Queensland University of Technology Brisbane, Australia

This case may be used by current adopters of: S. L. McShane Canadian Organizational Behaviour, 5th ed. (Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 2004); S. L. McShane & M. A. von Glinow, Organizational Behavior, 3rd ed. (Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2005); S. L. McShane & T. Travaglione, Organisational Behaviour on the Pacific Rim, 1st ed. (Sydney: McGraw-Hill Australia, 2003) Copyright © 2004 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Limited

SilkQueen

Managing Like a Man at SilkQueen?
By Kate Hutchings, School of Management, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Sally Dawson works for SilkQueen, an Australian company that imports and manufactures high quality fabrics for retail sale. The company manufactures at a plant in Sydney as well as in several locations throughout Asia. It began as a family-owned company in 1910 and became a publicly-listed company when it started international operations in 1979. It has always had a female-dominated workforce yet management has been largely male. Sally has just returned to Australia to work as a line manager in the Sydney manufacturing operations after spending ten years working in the company’s operations in Asia. While overseas, she completed several posts including stints in Malaysia, Indonesia and China. While in Asia she worked as senior HR manager and had responsibility for all of the HR functions of the subsidiary operations in addition to management of the cross-cultural training programs for expatriates posted to the region. She undertook considerable travel across the six Asian nations in which the company has operations. As well as being highly skilled in cross-cultural management, she is fluent in Mandarin and Bahasa. Despite holding three degrees in HRM, having worked for fifteen years in the HRM field and being