Human Resource Management - Thailand - Case Study Example

Running Head: HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT Name Course Instructor Date Case Analysis In our case study, Sally is a third country national expatriate staffing. This is because she is working outside their respective home countries mainly from the headquarters of the company. The main reasons why employees may be sent to work outside their home countries include the need to fill positions, management and organization development just like in Sally case. According to Reiche & Harzing (2009), expatriation aims at achieving socialization of both expatriate and local managers into the corporate culture and the creation of a verbal information network that provides links between subsidiaries and the headquarter. Expatriation is a strategic tool to achieve specific organizational goals and needs. Expatriates staffing strategy is fundamental in decision-making and provides surveillance of subsidiaries. Expatriates are very useful in an organisation’s aim to weave a network of informal communication. Sally was send to Bangkok to weave communication between two different cultures. They transfer ideas and leadership strategies to the branches of an organisation. They are the best to meet the technical and managerial expertise needed by an organisation for it to adapt to a foreign socioeconomic and cultural setting. An expatriate (Sally) was the best person who could fulfil the organisation’s goals since in they are usually experienced business managers. Sally had skills and experience in human resource. This is because, for one to be an expatriate, it calls for a combination of skills and experience in the area of interest. Expatriation is very necessary in places where qualified prospective employees might not be available. To the expatriate, the task is a leap to their career development. It gives them an opportunity to have an international management experience. They can be able to undertake other challenging roles in the organisation. Expatriate staffing, provides an avenue for a company to link up to the regional branches. This link enables members of the organisation to be more effective towards achieving the organisations goals. According to Reiche & Harzing (2009), expatriates presence (in Sally case) is most effective in facilitating informal control in subsidiaries that are otherwise relatively independent from the headquarters, whereas in subsidiaries that are quite dependent from the headquarters, their presence serves mostly to facilitate direct expatriate control. That expatriates are carriers of knowledge and in order to share and use that knowledge, they need to establish social relationships, interpersonal trust and shared values with the host, which was not observed in Sally case. The challenges of language barrier, lack of supportive staff and communication breakdown will hinder the ability of information sharing. Sally intended to share ideas and help improve the operations of the Bangkok branch, but lack of reliable staff hiring agencies, language barrier and lack of qualified people to hire halted her plans. It was impossible for her to implement the management strategies that seemed to work at her previous position at the organisation’s headquarters. Locals may prefer their own citizens in managerial positions and therefore, they may frustrate the efforts of the expatriates to achieve their goals. Difficulties to cope with the new environment experienced by the expatriates may also affect their quality of work. The trickle down effects of disruption of personal and social lives associated by expatriates affect the employees input in the organisation. Sally was homesick despite the fact that the idea of going to Bangkok was initially exciting to her. Although that was not her first time to the country, Sally did not have first hand experience on the realities of the country. They face other challenges including technical knowledge, personal adjustment to the foreign culture, labour force stability and cultural distance from one’s home culture (Mossler, K. 2003). To deal with these limitations, a diverse cross-cultural training program needs to be developed and implemented in addition to their academic credentials and work experience (Reiche & Harzing 2009). This training would address issues such as culture-specific features of the host country, the host environment, the employee’s language skills and their cultural background. Culture reflects people’s behaviour. The pre-departure training is also important since it enables the employees to develop realistic expectations, which enhances their effectiveness. The issue of time management and communication breakdown in Sally’s case did not appear like an isolated case. The success of knowledge sharing through expatriates depends on existing social relationship between the expatriate and the locals. Cross-cultural Communication It is quite evident that doing business abroad poses various challenges for most professionals. According to Ferraro (2005), for successful business transactions globally, it is important to develop effective communication with many business associates found in other countries. Nevertheless, communicators must be knowledgeable in mannerism as well as culture of the other parties involved in the business. Communication is a fundamental concept in business not only locally but internationally since business is considered a collaborative activity. There are several cross cultural communication issues that need to be considered when doing business overseas. These issues include; language, cultural differences, body language, gender and religion. With the rise of globalization, good cross cultural communication has made businesses flourish doing more production and trade overseas than before (Ferraro, 2005). Language It is quite evident while English continues to be considered as the international business language, it does not mean everyone speak it. Ferraro (2005) asserts that, engaging in overseas business requires one to be able to be at ease with the native tongue so as to supervise the work of foreign partners as well as for etiquette reasons. In addition, any attempt to enter into a given foreign market greatly requires the producer to understand the language of its customers. For instance, in this case Sally could have looked for a native who could have assisted her in understanding the applicants being sent by the local agency to her. By so doing she could have been able to select the five team leaders who could in turn assist her in recruiting the customer service staff (Ferraro, 2005). Gender Dahl (2004) maintains that, gender plays a very vital role in international business both in regard to selling products to customers and hiring labor. The tasks that are played by men and women in business vary from one society to another. Unlike in the united States where women are expected to do similar job like men, in South East Asia the work of women is largely confined to specific duties implying that they may not make a suitable labor force (Dahl, 2004). In this case, the company should have investigated the role of women in Bangkok before sending Sally to work there. Biasness in gender could have contributed to Sally inability to recruit the best people for the customer service department. South East Asia cultures are still dominated by men whereby men executives in counties within South East Asia still do not accept to conduct business transaction with women and if so they do it grudgingly. It is therefore important as a communicator in these countries to recognize gender as an aspect affecting cross cultural communication as well as respected it, if a strong business relationship is to be established. Body language Individuals intending to do business internationally must be cognizant with native body language to avoid contradictions. This is because what is considered acceptable in one country can be rude in another country. For instance, in some Asian cultures looking a manager in the eye is considered as insubordinate act whereas in Australia avoiding a manager eye give hints of untruthfulness and insincerity ((Dahl, 2004). Ethical Considerations The rise in globalization has seen diverse cultures becoming more independent and entwined business organization largely operating in borderless world. This have raised question on what is considered to be legal and ethical in one culture may be viewed as illegal or unethical in another (Nill, 2003). This statement has created some conflict especially when focusing on doing business overseas. For instance, there have been numerous ethical dilemmas that have been faced by Australian worker or Australian organization working in an oversea business environment (Nill, 2003). For example the Asian Times indicate that some Aussie companies are constantly failing to meet their ethical responsibilities and they are being faced with cases of corruption in china. Most Aussie businesses are forced to grapple with questions regarding working conditions as well as corruption in China due to unethical behavior which in their country it is considered as ethical. For instance in Australia; gifts with a purpose of influencing a decision maker judgment is considered as a bribe whereas in china presentation of small business gifts is considered as a great deal of respect to a particular business relationship (Nill, 2003). My view on the above ethical dilemma is that it is very important to respect what is morally viewed as correct in other countries while performing overseas businesses. For instance Australia should not always think that when a decision maker is given a gift by his/her junior is accepting a bribe. There is need to respect other cultural ethical practices when in their business environment even if it is considered wrong in one own country. Since there is no uniform business code of ethics, businesses should adapt a particular country business ethics so as to arrive at cooperative strategies in international marketing. References Dahl, S. (2004). Cross-cultural advertising research: What do we know about the influence of culture on advertising? Middlesex, U.K.: Middlesex University Ferraro, G. (2005). The Cultural Dimension of International Business, 5th ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Nill, A. (2003). “Global Marketing Ethics: A Communicative Approach”, Journal of Macro-marketing, 23(2):90-104. Read More