ABSTRACT
lower ranks. This is illustrated by events at the Malay, Indonesian and Thai offices of a European telecommunications equipment manufacturer. Within the new sales and marketing structure each “marketing manager” was now to have a direct sales counterpart in terms of both territory and product groupings, as part of the new-found aim to get both functions working more closely together. At the Thai office the new end-of-month company “beer busts” for marketing staff to enjoy with their sales representatives back from the field proved to be an informal yet integral part of this process. Finally, the in-house recruitment notices utilized at this – and a score of other – foreign MNCs in order to obtain the “appropriate” staff provide further illustration as to the gradual shift toward the Western-oriented marketing approach. Placed in both the local and the English-language dailies – and sometimes exclusively in the latter – the adverts would almost always specify the possession of an MBA qualification (preferably from a US university) and a high standard of English language proficiency.
