The Comparison between the National Cultures between China and the UK - Essay Example

Human Resources (HR) International Human Resource Management Contents Based upon Gamble’s articles on HRM practices in B&Q China, evaluation of the degree of transfer of HRM practices from UK to China and explanation of such transfer outcomes were produced in B&Q China. 7 Recommendation fort B & Q china to Attract motivate and retention of man power: 9 References: 11 Here is the comparison between the national cultures between China and UK: According to Power distance is defined as the degree to which the fewer influential individuals of institutions and organizations within a country expect and accept that authority is circulated unfairly. Chinese people are habituated in power indifference that means, Inequalities in authority distribution is usual in this country. The superior-subordinate relationship indicates this inequality brightly. Even the superiors are capable of misuse of power and the subordinates accept this trend silently. They focus on the individual’s capacity to leadership and initiative. Here, every individual are highly motivated about their work and hold on to their ambitions to be reached. Whereas, research showing that PD index lower amongst the elite class in Britain than amid of the working classes. The PDI score at first seems dissimilar with the well established and historical aristocrat class system and its depicts one of the intrinsic tensions in the British culture – between the importance in birth rank on the one side and a profoundly rooted belief that where one have been borned can not be the barrier for the way far he can go. Logic of fair play they maintain that drives an idea that one should be treated in a number of way as equals. The fundamental issue addressed by Individualism this measurement is the scale of inter-relationships in a society followed by its members. It has to do with whether people´s self-image is defined in terms of “I” or “We”. In Individualist societies people are supposed to look after themselves and their direct family only. In Collectivist society’s people belong to ‘in groups’ that take care of them in exchange for loyalty. China is extremely collectivist cultured, where individuals act for the sake of the group and not only for themselves. In their culture family gets the highest preference among all, dedication towards the organization is noticeably poor. Relationship with their well-wishers and the closer ones is collaborative, where as showing of dislikeness or acting neutrally for the outer people is also visible in their behavior. They give higher importance upon personal relationships and in caring of the closer ones. UK is highest among almost all the countries, preceded by only few of commonwealth countries it spawned that is, USA and Australia. The British people are most individualistic and encourages event of their private lives. Children get training from their early days that how to think for themselves in future. Their happiness is completely depending upon personal achievement. They have culture regarding individualism that only depends on the “Me” structure. A lofty score (masculine) on the masculine height shows that the society will be determined by rivalry, triumph and accomplishment, with success being defined by the champion / best in field – a value system that starts in school and continues throughout organizational behavior. Again, a small score (feminine) on the dimension means that the leading values in society are thoughtful for others and value of life. A feminine society is one where excellence of life is the symptom of success and position out from the crowd is not splendid. The basic topic here is what inspires people, wanting to be the paramount (masculine) or liking what one does(feminine).The Chinese people are dedicated to their work and they can sacrifice their families and leisure priorities for the sake of their work. They are used to work till the very late at night. They actually don’t want to leave their work unfinished. The Chinese students are committed to their studies; they try to score better marks in their exams, as they believe that today’s effort would definitely lead them to a better future. On the other hand, among all the countries of UK, Britain is in the headline of a masculine society. That means, this country is deeply success oriented. The Culture is mixed by aristocrat’s British culture of modesty and understatement which is somewhat odd with the success oriented value system. The spoken word sometimes does not means what is said. They are able to read between the lines. But in some other parts of UK dynasty the Scandinavian countries, the people have clear ambition for their work. The dimension Uncertainty Avoidance has to do with the way that a society deals with the fact that the future can never be known: should we try to control the future or just let it happen? This ambiguity brings with it anxiety and different cultures have learnt to deal with this anxiety in different ways.   The degree to which the individuals of a culture feel endangered by ambiguous or unidentified situations and have shaped beliefs and institutions that try to evade these is reflected in the Uncertainty Avoidance Score. The Chinese people are entrepreneurial. The major portion of the Chinese population has their own business that tends to be medium, small or run by the family. The Chinese language is full of ambiguity. Many words in their language remain ambiguous to the western people. And the people who reside in UK are not too much concerned about tomorrow. They take their life easy by following and focusing only upon the present issues. Pragmatism, this height describes how people in the long-ago as well as today relate to the detail that so much that occurs around us cannot be enlightened. In societies with a normative orientation, most people have a strong desire to explain as much as possible. In societies with a pragmatic orientation most people don’t have a need to explain everything, as they believe that it is impossible to understand fully the complexity of life. The challenge is not to know the truth but to live a virtuous life. Chinese people are always ready to show an ability to adopt changed traditions, they have a strong tendency to save, preference and interest in achieving results. In this dimension, a dominant preference in British culture cannot be determined. One challenge that confronts humanity, now and in the past, is the level to which little children are socialized. Without being socialize we could not become “human”. This dimension is defined as the degree to which people try to control their requirements and impulses, based on the way they were raised. Comparatively feeble control is called “indulgence” and relatively strong control is called “control”. Cultures can, also be described as indulgent or restrained. Chinese have a tendency for sceptism and pessimism. Also, in contrast to indulgent societies, reserved societies do not put much weight on spare time and control the gratification of their desires. People with this orientation have the perception that their actions are restrained by social norms and feel that indulging themselves is somewhat wrong. Societies with a low score in this dimension have a tendency to cynicism and pessimism. Also, in contrast to indulgent societies, restrained societies do not put much emphasis on leisure time and control the fulfillment of their needs. People with this course have the insight that their dealings are restrained by public norms and think that indulging themselves is rather wrong.The British people in societies exhibit a willingness to realize their impulses and requirements with regard to live life carefree. They enjoy a positive outlook and have a propensity towards hopefulness. In addition, they place a higher level of importance on spare time, act as they entertain and spend money as they wish. After all this thorough research work, the company should find out first, that this company is holding on UK origin, which has spreaded its wing to china to make more profit. The cultural disparity between two countries is creating the stronger barrier in further expansion in china. The Chinese are conservative in nature; they are not as much free as the UK people. One another this the B & Q authority should keep in mind that it works in the domain of “Do It Yourself”; This system is not much popular in china. Chinese people are not very outspoken like the UK people, likewise, this company could not read between the lines from these people’s insight. Based upon Gamble’s articles on HRM practices in B&Q China, evaluation of the degree of transfer of HRM practices from UK to China and explanation of such transfer outcomes were produced in B&Q China. During the Maoist period it was comparatively straightforward to portray a range of attributes that applied, at least, to the better state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Principal aspects included centrally planned job allocation, assured life span employment, democratic pay systems and extensive lot many welfare benefits. But this increasing internationalization, commercialization and improved enterprise autonomy of the post-Mao era, and especially from the time when the early 1990s, it has become more difficult to isolate a ‘Chinese’ approach to HRM. Recent studies portray China’s labor-management system as being in a state of evolution (Warner, 1999; Ding et al., 2000). Labor markets have become more fluid, a labor contract system was introduced at the time of1986, reward systems are being reformed and the provision of benefits such as housing, medical care, schooling and unscrambled from enterprises. Researchers report the development of a ‘hybrid’ form of labor-management relations, with some SOEs Commencement to look more like joint ventures in their management perspective, while some earlier joint ventures retain older SOE-related characteristics (Warner, 1997, Ding et al., 1997). The interweaving of ‘Western’ HRM and ‘iron rice-bowl’ that is secured job as well as stable income and benefit practices is such that Goodall and Warner (1998: 18) comment ‘we were able to identify in our sample very few practices or procedures that we could with confidence portray as “local” ’. It is quarreled that MNCs are more likely to disseminate their HRM performance when there is an elevated level of production integration across countries (Edwards et al., 1999: 287). By disparity, in industries which are more ‘polycentric’ in structure, with subsidiaries that are harnessed to serving local markets rather than part of an international partition of labor, the probability is that there will be less of an imperative to move home-country HRM practices (Rosenzweig and Nohria, 1994). Transferring parent-country HRM practices may be trickier in service-sector MNCs than in manufacturing companies to point that the previous agreement not only with local employees, but also with the contradictory prospect and cultural morals of customers. In this paper are the cases are not part of an integrated international production system and their state rationale is to serve local clientele, the expectation might be that the company would be tending to approve local HRM practices. (Warner, 1990, p. 45–65.) The transfer of the UK based System and cultural features have helped to generate a new era in the Chinese work culture. Having no space between the foreign managers and employees has created a casual atmosphere in the workplace. These messages were armored by the use of first name provisions for employees at all levels of the ladder and the particular status uniform. A number of shop floor staff has spoken the view that the office relations were ‘fraternal’, and that the firm had an ‘extended-family like ambience or ‘family-like feel’. Some people used to feel weird about the ancient system of having distance between the bottom line and the top line hierarchies. The working together concept has remarkably improved the work culture in china now days. (Hofstede, 1984) Company named DecoStore started up with this idea and imposed it in its system. This valuable team spirit and motivation has been built up during its very first phase. There was huge eagerness for the project, and many out-of-work activities such as meals, karaoke, dancing and bowling in which both local and expatriate employees started participating. Recommendation fort B & Q china to Attract motivate and retention of man power: Chinese inhabitants especially are price sensitive. They always require more choices, more alternatives for a particular product. As a multinational company B&Q should have focused upon the alternatives of each and every product which they are proving to the customers. This company should think about the trans-cultural aspect while establishing number of units in this country. Chinese people are sensitive about every small thing in their usual daily lives. Most importantly, In China any company who is in search of manpower, can find a huge advantage here. The people are dedicated to their work, and they are available in minimum cost as well. This place can be a gold mine for a company dealing with manpower. These people usually never questions to the company’s authority if they are appointed for a work which extends the uniform time limit. That is why the foreign companies prefer to invest for their business in china. Other other hand, as the Chinese people are more efficient in their work, the foreign authorities can impose more in terms of management skills, new concepts, more training and more stability. The dual aspect that is the labor force of the Chinese people in lesser price and the foreign company’s overall management skill comes with a great result like sustainability. On the other side the main reason for high attrition rate in any company which is running in china, is company’s non-revised salary structure. A worker who is appointed for a work, and also making him work for more than his allotted time must ask for more salary than he is actually receiving. B & Q also committed this same mistake regarding the salary system for its employees. They should come out with better solution if they really want to sustain in this Chinese market. They should add employee’s bonus and legit allowance upon his pay structure. The company should keep in mind that the salary and allowances are the main reasons for which an employee wills to stay in that company; it’s the central point of motivation among the employees. We all know, that price hiking is a uniform problem spreading worldwide, so The Company should revise the structure of employee’s salary and allowances after some set of years to avoid high employee attrition rate. This is also a reason which drives employees to quit the company. It is not forgettable, that if the existing employees starts to quit the company and continues quitting to its pace, then the company have to incur more costs to recruit people on the vacant places. The recruiting process does not come as free. Not only this situation sticks to the recruiting point, it is also followed by cost regarding the training process. This huge cost can be avoided by structuring the whole remuneration system following the situation rises in the environment. The labor market is changing in China. The usual picture which the multinational companies were seeing on their earlier days has come to an end. To continue the business practices in this country they should read the employees mind. Those employees might be silent in the fear of losing or termination of his job, the responsibility is laying company’s authority to read between the lines which is unspoken and may strike as a result for quitting that firm. But if the question comes as sustainability in the country like china, the company should think beyond of the manpower side and should give a look upon the its main activity that is buying and selling of products in the Chinese market. B&Q, being a multinational company, should have proper strategy for business activity in this country. Chinese people have delicacy for price. Keeping this thing in mind, they should set the price for every particular product they are selling through their showrooms and delivery points. References: Warner, M., (1993). ‘Human Resources Management “With Chinese Characteristics” ’, InternationalJournal of Human Resource Management. Taylor, S., Beechler, S. and Napier, N. 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