This was met by silence on the part of the manager and his office co-workers. The Indonesian manager even seemed to be smugly smiling which made Mr. LeGrand even more frustrated. This isn t funny. Maybe you should consider how much you like working here. The Indonesian manager resigned the next day.
Loss of face is more than simple embarrassment.
The concept in Indonesian business culture is called malu . While malu is literally translated as embarrassment or shyness, in the business context it also means loss of face or social shame. It is the fear or anxiety that others may think badly of you, do not respect you as much as they did before, and laugh and whisper about you behind your back. It is the inner feeling that one is ashamed of one s actions and that one really did do something wrong to let the group down. These two concepts are connected but one does not have to be ashamed to have lost face or visa versa.