International Culture of Managing People - Essay Example

Name Class Unit Introduction International culture is a subject that has been gaining a lot of attention in managing human resource in an international context (Miroshnik, 2002). All facets of life are affected and governed by culture through its influence on attitudes, behaviours and values in a given society. In an organisation, the organisation culture is created by the individuals’ cultural orientation of members. According to Hofstede, culture is in most cases seen as a source of conflict instead of synergy. Conflict occurs during interaction between different cultures. In managing global workforce, culture is seen as a vital aspect (Hodgetts, Luthans & Doh, 2006). Culture has been an important predictor of success or failure in international business. For a multinational to succeed, they must adopt a culture that is well suited to the national culture of the country they are operating in. Hofstede cultural dimensions offer a great platform to examine the issues related to culture (Brock, Barry & Thomas, 2000). This literature review is based on the international culture and the impact on approaches to managing people. This is attained through defining culture, how to measure it and analysing it based on critique on Hofstede. The report also looks at the impacts of culture divergence on motivation, reward and performance among others. Lastly, the report looks at ways in which expatriates can be managed effectively. Universal concept of culture The universal concept of culture has been questioned due to poor applicability in different contexts. It has been noted that human resource policies that are applicable in one jurisdiction are unsuccessful in another (Gelfand, Erez & Aycan, 2007). For example, an organisation salary structures may be very effective in one country but fail on another. National culture has a great influence on the decision and leadership strategies as well as human resource management practices which includes performance appraisal. According to Miroshnik (2002), in a national culture where the power distance is high, the followers are expected to loyalty and obedience to those in leadership positions. This makes the management of the firm to come up with performance appraisals based on the behaviour rather than results criteria (Cooper, Cartwright, Cartright & Earley, 2001). Based on Hofstede, it is possible to see the ways in which a nation culture impacts the performance related practices. For example, management practices in India which has a higher power difference compared to United States are different. In India, the employees can accept the supervisors’ feedback without questioning as compared to United States (Brock, Barry & Thomas, 2000). In countries such as China where there are collectivist values, employees may prefer to be group based rather than individual based (Hodgetts, Luthans & Doh, 2006). Culture and human resource practices There is a great relationship between the organisation culture and human resource management. Organisation culture determines the way in which organisation is managed. There is congruence between national culture and the human management practices (Cooper et al., 2001). Through research, it has been proved that the performance of an organisation is better in firms where the national culture and human resource management match (Hodgetts, Luthans & Doh, 2006). When the human resource management practices in a firm fails to meet that shared tenets among the employees, there is likelihood of poor commitment, discomfort and dissatisfaction (Leung, Bhagat, Buchan, Erez & Gibson, 2005). Analysing culture based on Hofstede cultural dimensions Based on Greet Hofstede, a national culture is composed of set of beliefs and values which makes it possible to distinguish one nation from another (Hofstede, 2003). After carrying out a comprehensive study on 50 countries, Hofstede was able to identify vital dimensions in national cultures. These dimensions help in analysing culture (Hofstede, 2011). The dimensions are; uncertainty avoidance, power distance, individualism vs. collectivism, masculinity vs. femininity and Confucian dynamism (Hofstede & McCrae, 2004). Uncertainty avoidance refers to the extent which people are able to become comfortable when exposed to ambiguous or uncertain situation. Based on the analysis, people who have low uncertainty avoidance are capable of taking more risks and enjoy the flexible and informality in their place of work (Miroshnik, 2002). It is also evident that people who have high uncertainty avoidance are risk averse and prefers a formal decision making process (Miroshnik, 2002). According to Hofstede (2011), power distance refers to the distribution of power in an organisation and the extent. Where there is high power distance, it was found that the power was held by few people at the top of the organisation while those at lower levels depend on the direction from superiors (Hofstede, 2002). In small power distance, there is equal distribution of power among the members. Low power distance in an organisation promotes high interaction, flow of lateral communication and few rules. High power distance in an organisation can led to inequalities and lack of free communication (Hofstede & McCrae, 2004). Culture can also be analysed based on individualism vs. collectivism dimensions. This is a dimension based on the ways in which individuals are able to integrate into groups (Hofstede, 2002). In individualism, people seek to protect their own interest instead of common goal in their society. This implies that the society is makes decision based on what an individual think is best (Nakata, 2009). The organisation has employees who enjoy great personal freedom and autonomy. In a collective society, people belong to groups and take care for each other (Hofstede, 2011). This implies that there is no freedom of independence hence this may lower creativity and innovation. It is important to note that collective culture fails to accept diversity and variety making it venerable (Hofstede & McCrae, 2004). Masculinity and femininity according to Hofstede refers to the distribution of roles between genders (Venaik & Brewer, 2008). Where there is a masculine culture, the society is performance driven. Rewards and recognition acts as the motivation for achievement. The performance recognition acts as the driver for motivation (Hofstede & McCrae, 2004). The successful achiever in this culture is highly admired. A feminine culture upholds quality of life rather than success, social status of money (Okazaki & Alonso Rivas, 2002). This makes organisation which upholds feminine culture to be less competitive. Lastly, the Confucian dynamism is a new cultural dimension that reflects Confucianism (Hofstede, 2011). This is seen especially in the East Asian countries. This dimension is based on the society search for virtue where truth is based on the religious ethics (Hofstede, 2003). Impacts of cultural difference on motivation, reward and performance According to Miroshnik (2002), motivation is a very vital component in the organisation culture. Based on the organisation culture, it is possible to determine how the employees feel about their work, their level of commitment which all depends on job satisfaction (Cooper et al., 2001). Organisation and employees depends on each other to attain success through interdependence. Motivation and job satisfaction are interrelated hence cannot be treated in isolation. This is also seen on the reward system. A culture that rewards the best performing employees is highly preferred. This is due to fact that rewards leads to employees’ motivation (Miroshnik, 2002). Thus, the organisation culture is supposed to ensure employees motivation with an aim of attain their goals. Motivated employees take pride in their work. Based on Hofstede, employees whose work is recognised works harder expecting better rewards (Soares, Farhangmehr & Shoham, 2007). The link between motivation and culture can be seen through looking at the sources of motivation (Deshpandé & Farley, 2004). Employees are motivated through mission, agenda control, shared value creation, learning and reputation. The five sources of motivation are closely linked to the culture as proved by studies. A strongly integrated culture leads to a highly motivated workforce (Leung et al., 2005). There is a lot of research which has proved a strong link between culture and performance in an organisation (Okazaki & Alonso Rivas, 2002). There is adequate evidence that shows the organisation culture determines its performance (Miroshnik, 2002). A strong organisation culture leads to high performance in a firm. Based on data from different companies, it has been proved that long term financial performance is linked with the organisation culture. Despite this, there has been criticism on the existing link between organisation culture and performance (Cooper et al., 2001). Some of the researchers have only found a small link between organisation culture and performance. Organisation culture types have an influence on the tacit knowledge sharing behaviour. The influence can be positive or negative based on the type of culture (Deshpandé & Farley, 2004). Managing expatriates Due to the rise of multinationals, international assignments has been on increase. Employees working with multinationals often find themselves on international projects aimed at professional or personal development (Waxin, 2004). The expatriates are emerged into a foreign culture while carrying out their activities. They are expected to adjust quickly to the new culture and job. This involves being able to navigate social and language barrier (Okazaki & Alonso Rivas, 2002). Research shows that the failure rates for the expatriates is between 20-30% and includes early repatriation and failure to develop work relationship which is associated with inability to adapt to the foreign culture (Miroshnik, 2002). For an expatriate to be successful, they are expected to have keen interest in different cultures. This involves having the ability to interact in socially and professionally manner (Hurn, 2007). This is referred as cultural intelligence and involves the ability to adapt to new culture through appropriate behaviours (Leung et al., 2005). Cultural intelligence can be attained through having experience in customs, beliefs and norm of others culture and is based on the learning theory (Waxin, 2004). The management has a role to train assess and develop the expatriates as they face a different culture (Johnson, Lenartowicz & Apud, 2006). This ensures that they have an awareness of their cultural bias and lens (Haslberger & Brewster, 2008). Use of intercultural training has been proved to improve the adaptation and performance of the expatriates. A lot of MNCs have invested heavily on training their employees who have overseas assignments. Having intercultural conflicts can lead to negative impacts on performance for the organisation (Leung et al., 2005). Cross cultural training Cross cultural training is aimed at helping the employees adjust to the host country. This is through being able to appreciate different cultural perspectives (Waxin, 2004). The costs of expatriates’ failures are high and have a great impact on employees hence the need to minimise them (Selmer & Lam, 2004). Through use of cross cultural training, it is possible to manage cultural differences, manage cultural transitions and manage responsibilities in a different cultural environment (Marx, 2011). Cross cultural training offered should be coupled with foreign languages training (Chevrier, 2003). Knowing the language of the host country is vital for successful living and working. It is important to know that language carries a large part of culture it represents (Beamer & Varner, 2008). An expatriate is expected to live and interact with host country co-workers and nationals. If they are not well versed with the language, cases of misinterpretation and misunderstanding arise (Jun, Gentry & Hyun, 2001). This makes it hard for the expatriates to adjust to foreign culture. Having language fluency makes it effective to negotiate (Selmer & Lam, 2004). Cross cultural training has been regarded as the most successful way of preparing the expatriates. This has been supported by different literatures where cross cultural training is seen to help in cross cultural interactions (Buchan, Johnson & Croson, 2006). When a firm sends an expatriate, they are expected to benefit together with the expatriate. This can only be attained through successful management of the expatriates (Selmer & Lam, 2004). A study by Cooper et al., (2001), shows that a well-managed expatriates program can lead to employees who are well versed in different cultures and positive firm returns. The selected candidate for the assignment must have the required openness to new cultures. This implies that the expatriate must be capable of changing their approach based on culture. For example, the way business is done in U.S is very different in Korea (Beamer & Varner, 2008). There is need to use tools that expose the employees to cultural sensitivity. This helps in building the cross cultural skills (Leung et al., 2005). The expatriates must be encouraged to communicate with the local people. This involves having employees who are extroverted in their conversation (Marx, 2011). The expatriates should be able to create friendship with the local people and adjust to the surroundings. The expatriates should be ready to try different customs and be open to the local trends (Brock, Barry & Thomas, 2000). The individuals sent abroad by the company must have the capability to respect the diverse viewpoints (Hodgetts, Luthans & Doh, 2006). Conclusion Culture is a very important aspect in managing international human resource. Multinationals finds themselves in different parts of the globe in countries with varying cultures. The success of such firms operating in different cultures is based on their ability to handle the impacts of cultural differences. There is need for an organisation to ensure that there is no cultural difference in their management. The organisation culture and human resource management are highly related since culture determines the way in which human resource are managed. Culture can be well analysed based on Hofstede cultural dimensions. This leads to cultural dimensions as; uncertainty avoidance, power distance, individualism vs. collectivism, masculinity vs. femininity and Confucian dynamism and varies based on the country. Culture has an impact on motivation and organisation performance. When a multinational sends an expatriate, there is need to ensure that they are trained in cross culture. This makes it possible for them to adjust to the foreign culture. There is need for expatriates to be well versed with the local language since language is a vital part in culture. This ensures that the expatriate benefits both firm and themselves. 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