The Statement Regarding International Managers Adaptability - Essay Example

Faculty of Business Environment and Society Faculty of Business Environment and Society Introduction Every region or nation in the world has its own unique culture and none can be termed as being stronger or weaker than another. In terms of managing human resources in different regions or nations, cultural superiority raises above technological or economic strengths. When designing and implementing human resource management policies, local contextual aspects must also be factored in. The implication of this observation is that managers of international human resources must consider sociocultural aspects with equal or more importance as they do with technological, economic, political and legal aspects. They need to meet and satisfy certain conditions, capabilities and qualities sufficiently in order to effectively manage culturally diverse human resources and agreeably, the international managers must be adaptable, open-minded, flexible and able to speak foreign languages. However, there are other critical strategies to consider and with acknowledgement that culture considerably impacts on organisations and employees, this paper will critically discuss the validity of the statement regarding international managers’ adaptability, flexibility, open-mindedness and proficiency in foreign languages. Roles and Contributions of the International Assignments International assignments serve several purposes and the most significant ones include overseas business expansion, knowledge transfer and career development (Paauwe and Boselie 2010). International managers or expatriates are utilised by multinational corporations because of their expertise in critical areas of interest in global markets and corporate organisation as well as to oversee the entry process into new markets. While on international assignment, the international managers will be in charge of strategically significant tasks and act as the link between the subsidiary and headquarters. They will be involved in recruitment and selection; development and training; performance evaluation, remuneration and benefits; labour relations; developing competitive advantages; and, equally important, self-development (Montana and Bruce 2008). Although the roles of international managers can be generalised, different types of international managers can also be identified. One type will typically serve control and coordination roles and give less significance to issues related to personnel development. Another type will complement the coordination and control role by concentrating on the goals of personnel development, which usually include developing leadership competency, acquiring intercultural skills and building social networks (Meyskens, Werther and Clarke 2009). A third type of international manager will basically emphasise more on the motives of personnel development and less on steering the subsidiary. Another type is rather negative and not motivated by either control and coordination or development objectives of personnel (Meyskens, Werther and Clarke 2009). All these functions are applied in an environment where the manager is placed in charge of employees of diverse nationalities and cultures. This makes it necessary to approach the discussion from the perspective of why international managers fail in their overseas assignments and conclude with recommendations on how failure rates can be reduced and increase success. Attributes of Effective International Managers As pointed out in the introduction, effective managers were traditionally believed to be open-minded, flexible, adaptable, and able to speak foreign languages and make friends with people of different nationalities. However, the business environment is highly dynamic and while acknowledging the significance of the said attributes, it must also be acknowledged that more attributes are required. A wider range of attributes is necessitated by the roles expected to be played by an international manager and the purpose of international assignments. It is imperative that international managers develop complementary skills to the traditional attributes to make them more effective. Globalisation and the nature of international assignments imply that international managers will always be surrounded by multiple cultures and nationalities. According to Boxall and Purcell (2011), culture will provide different people with different senses of belonging and guide them on how they conduct themselves under various circumstances, including employment. This assertion is true and can be supported, but international human resource managers must further acknowledge that apart from organisational corporate culture, they must pay attention to the diverse cultures of their individual employees. For example, there are universal management applications that are intended to benefit organisations but, inevitably, differences in national or regional culture among employees will impact on the suitability of such universal applications (Legnick-Hall et al 2009, p. 81). Therefore, the ability of the human resource manager to balance local adaption and the requirement for global integration of a multinational corporation rather than simply addressing the diverse cultures is crucial. The traditional attributes not being disputed, but they are more appreciated when considered as complementary to other factors. Viewed from this perspective, the ability of international managers to adapt to the new cultures and nationalities will be complementary to their ability to motivate the full engagement of their teams in their common objectives. When the manager exhibits both an understanding and appreciation of local cultures, he will be able to overcome barriers to gaining the trust and confidence of his team members (Schultz and Ellen 2010). With the knowledge that the purposes of international human resource management include achieving global success and competitive advantages, managers must display the ability to transfer learning and knowledge. On one hand, it is agreeable that any performing manager is ideally expected to cope with circumstances beyond their comfort zones, maintain enthusiasm for continued learning and seize growth opportunities. On the other, Harrison and Shaffer (2005) opine that successful adaptation can be quantified by considering the rate at which expatriate managers maintain their assignments and interpersonal relationships in the host countries or quit prematurely. However, Lee (2010) points out that this is more of a function of how the organisation prepared the manager during the pre-departure stage than the manager’s own initiative of learning how to adapt after already being expatriated. Effective Transition Organisations are increasingly expanding into new foreign markets as globalisation is commercially dissolving boundaries between nations and regions, and the trend has also led to employees working away from their countries to offer competitive advantages. However, according to Pires, Stanton and Ostenfeld (2006), the overseas assignments are inherently challenging for the involved employees and cases of them failing to meet organisational expectations and objectives, resulting in losses, are common. This gives rise to the need to adapt practical and effective transition strategies that will encompass psychological, interaction and work adjustments. Essentially, effective transition will enable them to overcome culture shock and enable them build local support networks. The rate at which multinational corporations are growing in emerging economies has resulted in greater urgency to develop better understanding of deploying managerial strategies that will address the cultural aspects of the diverse nationalities and ethnicities of their employees (Engardio 2008). The aspect of overcoming culture shock is an indication that culture plays a key role and must be considered while in the transition process. Hence, a specific personal effort for effective multinational managers would be to learn about the diverse cultures of their new destinations well in advance and visualise how they will need to adjust upon deployment (Schultz and Ellen 2010). Most importantly, they should concentrate on avoiding cultural assumptions as well as being guided by stereotypes. This will facilitate their own psychological adjustment towards personal satisfaction and interaction adjustment to fit into their new society and work adjustment that will enable them to appreciate their new job (Armstrong 2008). From this, it can be said that simply being able to make friend with people of different nationalities is not an effective attribute that can facilitate effective transition on its own. Further, although the ability to speak the language of their destination countries may set the ground for building local network support, it does not contribute much towards psychological and work adjustment. For work adjustment, international managers must address their human resources in the context stipulated by their local social policies in terms of race, ethnicity, ethical issues, lifestyle trends and demographics. By taking cultural contexts into consideration, they will be enriching rather than limiting the value of international human resource management, which will enable them to work on work and interaction adjustment simultaneously. International assignments are prone to many challenges ranging from recruiting the suitable candidate to failed assignments. Expatriation is considered from three perspectives that are distinguished into pre-departure, the assignment period and repatriation. The manager has considerable roles to play in all three stages, but organisational support is more crucial in the pre-departure stage. The rationale used to arrive at this opinion is that most expatriate failures can be prevented by the preparation offered by organisational support (Dowling, Festing, and Engle 2008). Organisational support prior to expatriation will increase the chances of adaptation once the managers are deployed. Organisations generally expect their international managers to impact on their subsidiaries immediately, irrespective of their joining levels. According to Pradhan (2007), the national origin of a multinational company will impact on the ability of human resource managers to achieve the balance between local adaption and global integration. Although globalisation and multinational corporations are shifting the business world towards borderless countries, the influence of national origin will pose a challenge to the international manager’s assignment. Gilpin (2007) explains that the reason is because institutional and cultural factors in the foreign host countries of the multinational corporations will be determining factors in the context of the firm. According to Armstrong (2005), the pace at which globalisation is being embraced has also come along with the need to implement reward programs that comply with the global marketplace. This will enable organisations to not only attract but also retain as well as motivate their multicultural employees in order to attain competitive advantages (Armstrong 2008). It is therefore imperative for the expatriate manager to further understand that what they previously defined as the best strategies domestically will not necessarily be the best strategies in international application. For example, while handling multinational and multicultural employees, there will be great differences in the use of either direct or indirect communication, which will impact on the flow of information and feedback and, ultimately, efficiency at the workplace. According to Lee (2010), expatriate managers must understand that employees from different nationalities and cultures will perceive authority and hierarchy through differing attitudes. This can potentially result in conflicting relationships, expectations and decision making around the workplace. It is by motivating their multicultural teams that they will earn their trust and make them feel valued which, in turn, will build confident and fully engaged teams (Montana and Bruce 2008). This can best be understood by managers by the recognition that on their own, cultural differences will not considerably affect their employees’ performance. Rather, the organisational context and the manner in which employees respond to cultural norms are more likely causes of conflicts. Therefore, as a team member himself, the manager must address cultural differences actively if he is to bond with cultural borderlines. The implication here is that although adaptability, open-mindedness, flexibility and the ability to speak foreign languages are necessary skills, international managers need to make self-development a continuing initiative. Agreeably, Zenger, Folkman and Edinger (2009) point out that it is up to the managers to take upon themselves to develop what is required to drive expatriate assignment to success. However, the view by Zenger, Folkman and Edinger (2009) can also be criticised when viewed from the perspective of Lee (2010). These two opinions by Lee on one side and Harrison and Shaffer on the other can be critically analysed separately but better understood and applied when harmonised. First, it cannot be denied that the organisation has a role to play in preparing the expatriated to adapt in the pre-departure stage. Second, it is even more important to acknowledge that the candidate must be willing to serve in the expatriate position (Paauwe and Boselie 2010). Without this willingness, all other capabilities and qualities may not be practiced effectively upon the managers being deployed. This is not dismissing the qualities being discussed in this paper as the indicators of successful international managers. However, it is also imperative to recognise that the degree of readiness and enthusiasm to serve in the expatriate capacity will represent the core foundation on which all other factors of success will be developed (Schultz and Ellen 2010). For example, the manager may need to learn a new language, but the organisation must also consider, say, the family members that will accompany the manager and prepare them to adapt to their new cultural and physical environment. Failure of the manager’s family to adapt will not work in favour of his own adapting, let alone professional performance. While not attempting to shift attention to the organisation rather than the manager, the organisation needs to select a candidate that has shown consistency in policies regarding overseas assignments. Paauwe and Boselie (2010) view this as an enhancement to simply determining whether the manager is willing to relocate to a foreign land. For example, Fructal, a fruit juice producer in Slovenia, has a clause in the annual leadership development plans that employees submit and requires them to declare readiness to relocate within the year they are beginning (Treven 2001). However, before that clause is signed, the employee must display their understanding of foreign policy as asked during the interviews before the plans are submitted. In terms of an effective international manager, a better placed candidate will be one who has previously worked with diverse cultures, which means that experience cannot be overlooked in the selection. Recommendations It is recommended that while international managers make personal efforts to emerge as the best during their career, organisations also need to play their role especially before sending them on international duty. Pre-departure preparation must include cultural and area briefings with specific references to case studies and field experiences. Cultural briefings should focus on the key aspects of the culture of the host country including religion and traditions while area briefings will address political, economic, geographic and historical information. More importantly, the training should provide a culture assimilator which is a set of written situations that may be encountered in the host country and how to best avoid cultural shock. The organisations need to prepare their employees to understand that all aspects of international managerial positions constitute a learning process. Their academic credentials may portray them favourably, but the actual world of international human resource management. Apart from being responsible for growing the subsidiaries, the international managers should also be trained to be appropriate ambassadors not only of their organisations but also home countries. Therefore, only candidates that have previously shown characteristics of leading with minimum supervision and reporting punctually and comprehensively should be considered for such posts. With such an attribute, their ability to be flexible and adapt to overseas duties will present less doubts. Hence, a specific personal effort for effective multinational managers would be to learn about the diverse cultures of their new destinations well in advance. Most importantly, they should concentrate on avoiding cultural assumptions as well as being guided by stereotypes. This will facilitate their own psychological adjustment towards personal satisfaction and interaction adjustment to fit into their new society and work adjustment that will enable to appreciate their new job (Armstrong 2008). Therefore, while the organisation will handle most of the pre-departure preparations, the individual also needs to address non-work related and individual aspects such as their families, relational skills, emotional stability and confidence. Conclusion It can be concluded that effective international managers cannot only be judged by their adaptability, flexibility, open-mindedness and ability to speak foreign languages. Although these are not disputable qualities and capabilities, they are more appreciated when considered as complementary to other factors. For instance, globalisation implies that international managers will more often than not be leading teams characterised by multiple cultures and nationalities. Viewed from this perspective, their ability to adapt to the new cultures and nationalities will be complementary to, say, their ability to motivate the full engagement of their teams in their common objectives. Once the manager can exhibit not only an understanding but appreciation of local cultures, he will have overcome one of the greatest barriers to gaining the trust and confidence of his team members. This is in contract to simply acknowledging that the workplace has multiple cultures and nationalities but making no effort to integrate them strategic organisational planning. Therefore, the successful international manager must be able to display skills in planning, controlling, organising and leading their team with full consideration of their diverse nationalities and cultures. It is only through cultural awareness that international managers will be able to understand how business is viewed by different cultures. It is also through cultural awareness that the international managers will understand the working environment, negotiating and communicating strategies in their foreign assignments. List of References Armstrong, M. (2008) Employee Reward. 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