International Human Resource Management Practices Can Never Be ulture Free - Essay Example

Intеrnаtiоnаl НRМ Рrасtiсеs Саn Never Be ‘Culture Frее’. Why or Why Not? Globalization has led to the integration of political, social and economic spheres of the countries in the world. The development in transport and communication technologies has made it possible for organizations to go global. For this reason, globalization has led to the development of international organizations and making it possible for organizations to do trade across borders (Kyeyune 2012, p.15). With the development of global organizations, there has been a need to find a mechanism of managing human resources on a global platform. This has resulted to the shifting of human resource management (HRM) from being a domestic affair to an international affair has led to the development of international human resource management (IHRM) (Brinkerhoff & Jennifer 1999, p.351). International human resource management has enabled organizations to manage their human resources on a global platform (Kayode 2012, p.1). One of the major issues, which international human resource managers have had to deal with, is, factoring in cultural diversity in their HRM practices owing to its impacts on international human resource management. . The following essay will take an insight into the key challenges of cultural diversity for IHRM, how culture impacts on management, how culture impacts specific HR processes, the dangers of oversimplification, monochromic versus polychoronic cultures and the Hofesteds dimensions. In the discussion, the essay will indicate why and why not IHRM can never be ‘culture free’. On one perspective, it can be argued that IHRM can never be culture free. This is due to the fact that culture has a major impact on human resource management hence making it necessary for IHRM to consider it in its practices by adopting cultural competencies which counter cultural diversity. Ideally, cultural diversity is constituted of various cultures each of which has distinct values, behaviors, identities and meaning. Therefore, it is important for IHRM to ensure that all the cultures are synchronized into working together in an organizational culture (Balzarova, Caska, Bamber, & Sharp 2006, p.92). Due to the basic fact that IHRM is all about managing human resources on a global platform, it is important that International human resource (IHR) managers take into consideration all the aspects related to culture, due to its overall influence in the effectiveness of IHRM practices. This illustrates that IHRM can never be culture free. To give an illustration of the importance of considering culture in IHRM, one can look at Britain’s case. Some of the country’s cities like Branford and Burnley are characterized by huge populations of immigrants who have clung on to their cultures, (many of them having an Asian and Muslim culture). Owing to the cultural differences in the population, there has been many IHRM problems, for instance the management of the councils of Burnley and Bradford has had to adopt cultural competencies. The Branford and Burnley racial and ethnic riots had a bearing on the employment and management policies of the councils since they failed to consider the cultural differences in the population (Cantle, T., et. al. 2001, p.5). Contrary to the above argument, IHRM can be culture free in instances that have a total integration of cultures to a point that are not distinct cultural differences between various communities in a society. In such a situation, an organization’s human resource would be constituted of employees hailing from various cultures/communities, but no cultural competencies would have to be adopted since the employees have little or no regard for their original cultures. With the continued globalization which is continually leading to integrated cultures, future IHRM would turn to be ‘culture free’. This is due to the fact that in such a situation, individuals have a low regard for their original cultures, instead, they uphold the new (mixed) culture more. This leads to IHRM which is culture free. An example of such a nation where there has been a cultural integration is in China and Japan. Although the two countries are made up of various cultures, there has been an integration of cultures and has made it possible to manage human resources (A White & Papers Ltd 2010, p.3). On this point it is important to note that China is made up of 55 ethnic groups, each of which has a distinct original culture (Global China 2013, p.1). On the other hand, Japan has various ethnic groups. However, there has been a great diffusion of cultural values and behaviors leading to the development of the reputable Chinese and Japanese cultures. In such a scenario as the Japan’s and China’s, IHRM will not be affected by the many sub cultures making up the two countries, but rather the solid Chinese and Japanese culture as whole. IHRM management has to counter challenges posed by cultural diversity. This is owing to the fact that cultural diversity has an overlapping effect on many IHRM practices as it will be seen later in this essay. On this point, it is important to acknowledge that IHRM brings together professionals from varying cultures; their beliefs, values, traditions and behaviors are different. The challenges arise when they are required to work together in a single organization. One of the challenges is communication and the major obstacles in realizing efficient communication in IHRM is language (Kautish 2012, p.39). Owing to the different nationalities and ethnic backgrounds of the employees, they are more likely to be using varying languages or their comprehension of an organization’s official language may be wanting. Moreover, an organization often finds it hard to ensure that all the human resources share common interests with the organization since they have varying values owing to their cultural diversity (Bures&Vloeberghs, p.55). This poses a major challenge to organizations due to the fact that it has to come up with an appropriate communication strategy to counter the communication challenge. Another challenge which IHRM faces due to cultural diversity is in knowledge sharing (Chang & Lee 2007, p.93). It should be acknowledges that knowledge sharing is key to successful teamwork which is craved for in any organization. Teamwork ensures that an organization is able to achieve its objectives to the smooth flow of work in and organization coupled with the cooperation between employees. Owing to the varying values and other cultural differences, managers find it hard to ensure that there is appropriate knowledge sharing in their organizations, hence limiting their success. This gives rise to the third challenge whereby IHRM finds it hard to ensure that its transnational teams are efficient in their work (Scoriggs& Benson 2010, P.410). As pointed out earlier, teamwork is essential in an organization’s success. However, the varying cultural differences in the human resources make it hard for IHR managers to achieve efficiency in their IHRM practices. Lastly, IHRM faces a challenge in global leadership in the presence of cultural diversity (Kim 1999, p.233). This is owing to the fact that organizations have to adopt a leadership and management style is generally acceptable to all the people hailing from diverse cultures. In order to counter this problem, IHR managers come up with cross- cultural competencies which are aimed at ensuring that they are able to deal with cultural diversity in their organizations. From the discussion above, it can be seen that cultural diversity poses great challenges to IHRM. With the knowledge that cultural diversity poses great challenges to IHRM which threaten the general success of an organization, it becomes obvious that culture has an impact on management. On this point, it is important to note that managing human resources which is characterized by cultural diversity is not the same as managing one which shares a common culture. For this reason, culture has impacts on management in the following ways; the selection and promotion mechanisms used, the management style to use, the ways of motivating the employees, the communication strategies to use, the training programs to use in the employee development, the nature of the employee welfare issues, services and benefits to consider, impact on introduction of change, organization’s flexibility (due to the rigidity and flexibility of diverse cultures) (Pun &Furlonge 2012, p.85). Culture also has impacts on planning, level of specialization in an organization, control, performance and management control, grouping of departments and level of organization (Lu & Lee 2005, p.453). Other impacts of culture of management include staffing, employee, employee cooperation (team work) and communication in an organization (Issa& Haddad 2008, p.183). Looking at these impacts it can be acknowledged that IHRM can never be culture free. Ideally, every HR manager must factor in cultural diversity in his /her management practices due to its impact on all IHRM practices; hence integrating cultural diversity competencies in order to ensure that the negative impacts of culture are countered. On the other hand, IHRM can be culture free in instances when there has been a cultural integration in the people which leads to the sprouting up of a mixed culture. In such an instance, IHRM tends to be ‘culture free’. Since it has been seen that culture has impacts on management, it is important to look at how it impacts on specific human resource processes. How culture may impact on specific HR processes also has a bearing on the institutional contexts. This will be seen in this section as the impacts are discussed. The impact of culture on recruitment and selection is one of the impacts of culture on HR. it is important to note that recruitment and selection is important in ensuring that an organization is able to get the best employees in the market (Shelton, T., 2013., p.1) (Sengupta& Bhattacharya 2008, p. 2). Linking it with culture, it can be revealed that individual achievements are key in cultures which are low in group collectivism. On the other hand, team related skills are upheld in cultures where group collectivism is highly regarded. Culture also has a substantial impact on training and development (Lee 2006, p.95). Training and development ensures that an organization is able to develop and empower its employees (Lee &Bruvold 2010, p.981) (Takao, &Zhong-Ming 1994, p.3). Gender as a cultural element plays a key role in this aspect where women have equal chances of advancing their careers in culture which embrace gender equality and equity while the reverse holds in opposite cultures (Roffey 2002, p.353). Culture also has a great impact on compensation and remuneration. With respect to this impact, cultures which are associated with avoidance of risk tend to prefer more fixed and seniority oriented remuneration while cultures which have low consideration for uncertainty prefer high salaries which are based on performance. Lastly, culture has a great impact on task distribution (Malcom 1996, p.37). On this point, it can be argued that cultures which regard collectivism highly prefer group work; hence HR managers can distribute tasks in groups in instances when their human resources value collectivism. On the other hand, societies which regard individualism highly prefer individual work. Therefore, HR managers should distribute tasks individually to employees from such a culture. Looking at the impacts from an institutional perspective it can be seen that they have strong link with the education and legislation systems in the global scene which IHR mangers must factor in their practices (Hearns, Devine & Baum 2007, and p.350). This is due to the fact that IHRM is affected by the education and legislation systems in the host countries. Therefore IHRM must consider all the cultural composition of their staff or potential employees while staffing, training and developing the staff, compensating them and distributing tasks in an organization (Baah 2013, p.340). From the above discussion, it can be seen that IHRM is strongly influenced by culture; hence cannot be culture free. HR managers must consider cultural diversity in their practices if they want to realize success in IHRM. Contrary to this it can be argued that IHRM can be culture free in societies which have had a complete cultural integration. In such societies, the constituent communities have weak links with their cultures hence having minimal impact on their ability to work together (Kayode 2012, p.2). It has been seen in the above discussion that culture and cultural diversity have impacts on management and specific human resource processes. It has also been seen that cultural diversity poses a major challenges to IHRM. For this reason, organizations find ways to counter the challenges and impacts appropriately. Oversimplification is one of the ways in which organizations try to do this. On this aspect, organizations try to align their culture to the national culture. However, there are several dangers associated with oversimplification. One of them is associated with the impacts of national cultures on IHRM practices. On this point, organizations are unable to define themselves hence ultimately failing in management. Secondly, national cultures may fail to preclude specific HR practices hence leading to failure in IHRM (De Cieri, Cox & Fenwick 2007, p.282). Thirdly, individuals in an organization may fail to accept the cultural elements associated with oversimplification into national cultures, hence leading to ultimate failure in IHRM. Lastly, there is clear lack of explanations in national cultures when the degree of variation in HR and management domestic practices is evaluated (Wright & Van de Voorde 2007, p.9). From the above, it can be seen that culture is a major element of consideration in IHRM; hence IHRM can never be ‘culture free’. It can only be culture free in a scenario where there has been a mixture of cultures, leading to a mixed culture where individuals have minimal regard for cultural diversity. It is also important to look at monochromic and polychromic cultures due to their influence on IHRM. Ideally, every international human resource manager must consider the implications of managing in the two diverse cultures due to their great influence on IHRM (Borton&Bollinder 2011, p.418). Monochromic cultures are focused on one thing at a time and are associated with the phrase ‘time is money’ (Todd 2010 p.2). Germans, some North Americans and Finns fall in this category. Polychronic cultures are flexible and are not constrained by time. They are associated with lack of planning and opportunism and have the ability to do several things concurrently (Bluedorn, Kaufman & Lane 1992, p.17). Indians, Latin Americans, Arabs and Polynesians fall in this category. A mixture of the two cultures gives rise to a cultural clash and the synergies associated with each culture may complement each other. IHRM should acknowledge that the two cultures are associated with different values and behaviors (Scarborough & Lindquist 1999. p.290). While managing human resources on an international level, managers should use the monochromic- polychromic scale to identify how they should manage their employees who are drawn from the two cultures , which enables to adopt appropriate management strategies to incorporate the cultural differences between the two (Plocher, Goonetileke, Yan & Liang 2010, p.23). From the above discussion, it can be seen that monochromic and polychromic cultures have a great influence on IHRM; hence it can never be culture free. There is a need to consider all the factors associated with it in order to realize success in IHRM. Cultures also have different dimensions in addition to having varying values and beliefs as seen in the monochromic and polychromic culture classification. Hofstede’s work on culture identifies several dimensions namely power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism vs. collectivism, masculinity vs. femininity and longer vs. short-term orientation (Baah p.42). The power distance dimension deals with the acceptance of unequal power distribution and the Japan vs. USA relationship can be used as an appropriate example ;the USA culture values power while Japanese culture have low value for the power distance (Bergieil, Bergiel &Upson 2012, p.69). For this reason, IHR mangers have to adopt strategies which regard power highly in an American employee population and do the opposite in a Japanese employee population. Uncertainty avoidance is associated with potential threats found in ambiguous situations; a good example is the German culture which avoids uncertainty whilst the Jamaican culture has little avoidance for uncertainty (Hofested 2011, p.9). For this reason, IHR managers have to enact HR strategies which ensure that employees with a culture such as Germans are guaranteed of their future. This ensures that they are settled in an organization. With respect to culture such as Jamaica’s where people do not avoid uncertainty, certain moves such as performance based pays which offer uncertainty but are beneficial to an organization can be adopted. Individualism and collectivism focuses on job distribution. It deals with the integration of employees into groups versus individual work (Piepenburg 2011, p.30). An example of this is the US culture values individualism while China values collectivism. IHRM managers can organize jobs in group work in collectivist cultures such as China while they have to organize jobs on individual basis in individualistic cultures such as US’s. Masculinity vs. femininity deals with the way in which emotional roles are divided between men and women. An example of these cultures is Japan and Norway cultures. In masculine cultures such as Japan’s, IHRM must take care of gender sensitive issues while in feminine cultures such as Norway, IHRM must embrace gender equity and equality. Lastly, the long term vs. short term dimension orientation identifies the focus which a culture has (Hofestede& Bond1984, p.419). An example of this is the Pakistani culture which has a short term focus and the Chinese culture which has long term orientation. IHRM should provide long term HR polices in long term oriented cultures similar to China’s and provide short term oriented policies to short-term oriented cultures like Pakistan’s. From the above discussion, it is evident that IHRM cannot be culture free. It can only do so where there is a complete cultural integration, hence cultural diversity having minimal impact on IHRM. From the discussion above, in my opinion IHRM will never be culture free. Cultural diversity poses many challenges to IHRM which must be considered in all IHRM practices. In addition to this, culture impacts heavily on management which IHRM must also factor in. Moreover, it has been seen that culture has various impacts on specific human resource processes. Therefore, it is impossible to leave out culture in IHRM. The discussion on the Hofestede’s cultural dimensions, monochromic and polychronic cultures and oversimplification proves this point. Therefore, IHRM can never be culture free; IHR managers must always have culture top on the list of factors to be considered when developing IHRM strategies. In conclusion, it can be acknowledged from the above essay that culture has a great influence in IHRM. The essay has identified that IHRM can never be culture free. On this argument it has been seen that cultural diversity causes a lot of challenges to IHRM. The essay has identified the various challenges as communication, sharing of knowledge, transnational teams and global leadership. It has also been seen in the paper that culture has major impacts on management, hence making it indispensable in IHRM. The essay has identified specific human resource processes where culture has a major impact on. The specific processes identified and discussed on are recruitment and selection, training and development, remuneration and task distribution. The essay has also discussed about the dangers of oversimplification, monochromic and polychronic cultures and the Hofestede’s dimensions on culture. Over the discussion it has been seen that IHRM can never be culture free. References A White & Papers Ltd, 2010. Japanese Management Culture and Corporate Innovation, A White & Papers Ltd, pp.1- 37 Arisis, A., 2010. 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