The Influence of Cultural Knowledge in Human Resource Management - Research Paper Example

The Influence of Cultural Knowledge in Human Resource Management Abstract Culture plays a vital role in any organization. The understanding of culture involves both external and internal elements. To nurture a strong corporate culture within an organization, the human resource department must invest time into activities which would develop the basic understanding of the organization into the minds of the employees. The human resource department itself carries the role of molding the employees into a commodity for the company. Many different aspects and practices are explored to bring into light the problems that the human resource department faces with employees and the cultural diversity that comes with them. The response of how fresh graduates and professional human resource managers was tested. The results showed that the understanding of human resource managers showed because of their experience in the field. The time that had been spent working showed that they understood the mindset of individuals that they interviewed and how those individuals would have adapted into the culture of the organization. Further the difference of how society affects the individuals applying for jobs and how it impacts their thinking process. Further discussion on how human resource practices could improve the workspace. The current paper focuses on how different methods could be applied to improve the work place environment. Various organizations practices are discussed and how they would impact the employees. These ideas reflect how the human mind thinks and how the organization could use it to their own advantage and could gain an efficient and effective work environment. The Influence of Cultural Knowledge in Human Resource Management The best way for an organization to excel is to build a strategy which differs from that of any competitors in the market. One factor that could be used to influence positive performance and to build a great strategy would be to focus on the understanding of culture. Culture itself plays an important role in leading to the success of a firm. [HRI05]. The Human Resource moreover functions in creating a shape or change that enforces the corporate culture. [HRI05]. To serve the human resource function and to emit the gap between Human Resource business planning or even to bring about a basic understanding of cultural awareness, one is required to understand that importance that culture brings in a firm’s success. [HRI05]. “Culture defines the proper way to think, act and behave within an organization.” [HRI05] Understanding culture helps new individuals, who join an organization, fit into the environment without any problems. These people tend to be the most successful in the work environment because of how easily they can relate to their work environment and the people that they work with. The ones in the organization who choose not to do things in a proper way often are relieved of their positions within a time period decided by the human resource department. [HRI05]. The culture of an organization is mostly set by its top management who decides what is right and what is wrong in a firm’s workspace.[HRI05]. This culture that has been created is seen by leaders at a competitive advantage over its competitors. Culture helps an organization adapt with its external environment because of how important it is for its internal integration. [HRI05]. Often when a new individual joins an organization he has no understanding of the culture that pertains to exist there. With time the individual develops to understand this and generally finds this difficult to fit in. The factor that affects human resource management of most is national culture. [Dim07]. This problem can usually cause inefficiency and lead the individual to fall behind in work. The end resultant is that the individual decides to leave and choose another place to work. Kanungo points out: “…because many of our human resource management tools have been developed primarily within a context of economically developed nations, most have never been appropriate for use in developing countries. Traditional US-based HRM theories, in particular, with their lack of contextual embeddedness, their strong individualistic orientation, and their emphasis on freewill… mismatch what is most salient about the nature of work and human systems in developing countries” [Kan95] Managers tend to find it difficult to adapt US-based policies in other counties. This returns to enforcing the culture to develop on its own. Not everyone thinks alike and those who belong to the western culture tend to understand business in another pattern while those who live towards the eastern regions of the world have their own methods. Managers in various organizations across the globe find it nearly impossible to maintain a static ground while doing business across different cultures because of the diversity involved. [Gel00]. The need to understand cultures and people across the globe has become a necessity in today’s business environment. [Dim07] An example of a human resource manager, who has hired an employee without understanding the mindset of the individual, gives us an insight into common problems. This individual who had been hired lacked in the ability to change. Often problems like these happen when individuals join an organization and may understand the job task but find it difficult to adjust into the culture. The human resource manager in this case was not smart enough to understand that the new individual would need to go through the intermediary stage in which he adapts to the culture of the environment. This would have helped if the human resource manager would have understood that the new individual is set according this his own cultural mindset and to adapt to a new culture he would have to go through a transition stage. The task of the manager would require him to help the individual adjust and to slowly bring about those required changes during the introductory stages. Various aspects could be applied to such organizations such as cultural dimensions of collectivism/individualism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance and femininity/masculinity but not all can actually apply as people do not always think alike. [Hof80] Organizations require an understanding of the influences that human resource management has on internal environments as well as on external ones. In a work space the internal environment is referred to as the internal culture of an organization. The external environment tends to refer to the market and the nature of the industry as well as focusing on the social culture environment. Business globalization means that firms have created global companies, multinational or even international based companies. [Ham89]. The term culture in this context relates to common patterns of beliefs, assumptions, values and norms of behavior. This introduction is to highlight the focus of how culture makes an impact on the workspace. At present, there are hundreds of countries and within them there are different cultures that people may belong to. In the USA, there are different cultures inside individual states and even counties. Human resource management is therefore a strong field of expertise that is required by every organization. In-depth, the cultural understanding of human resource managers is what every organization requires. It is the step towards making an impact on new individuals. Different cultural identities often then to mend the way that employees perceive and react to human resource management practices and how much they themselves tend to involve their minds into the firm. [Dim07]. Managers must identify cultural values and see whether they exist in the organizations environment. [Pra97]. If they do not, then managers should begin to adapt polices and methods of work into a pattern that develops into the culture of the organization. Universities offer subjects that focus on cultures and their understanding and how to relate them to various other cultures. The knowledge that a human resource manager possess with cultural understanding would boost their own careers as well has bringing in an effective change in new employees along with training them to adapt well to the organizations culture. This requires them to relate it to their own cultures by themselves. This not only makes the new individual comfortable with the surroundings but also helps him proving to be an effective and efficient employee. The impact of culture can be seen in almost every aspect of our human life. Culture itself plays a wide role in developing a nation and it helps in creating an identity for that nation. Most people understand the meaning of culture but do not understand how it impacts their everyday lives. Having knowledge of that would not only improve the effectiveness of our workspaces but also help in developing an understanding with new individuals entering into the field of human resource management. Most commonly the focus has been on how human resource practices are linked to the organizations performance. [Dim07]. Cultural history and its knowledge give individuals a grasp on the mentality and frame of mind of new people they come across. It tends to set a norm in their heads about how one should go about in dealing with another individual. This knowledge also helps the human resource manager in the recruitment cycle, training, development, etc. Most of the employee related assumptions are likely to be influenced by common characteristics of the societal-level culture; these are mostly shared among people belonging to a common society. [Ayc99]. The end result of this would be having an effective workforce. With the way the economy is currently running, it is a race for companies to find talented employees and utilize them to their maximum capabilities to get the most valuable returns. The awareness of cultural history to recruit new employees could be the difference between two different organizations. The human mind needs to relate and that is why understanding culture is an important field for a human resource manager. Power distance is known as a dimension which concerns the extent to which individuals are most likely to bring the status hierarchy and power inequality in mind. [Hof80]. These kinds of power distance concerns are accepted in some societies while others may not react to them with hostility. [Hof80]. Often due to the lack of understanding between conceptual or structural equivalence, patterns across different nations and cultures may be different than those in another location. [Ayc99]. When managers think of their employees as having power distances higher than normal then they assume that they are reactive instead of proactive. [Ayc99]. Employee involvement practices are often thought of to help the employees adapt into the organizations culture. Different forms of this have impacts on employees and how they psychologically adapt to it. [Ann04]. Managers must be able to relate to their employees to get the maximum output from them. This would involve them to have a good level of understanding between their employees and a positive relationship with them. Employee involvement practices are treated as optional mechanisms because they tend to have less of an impact as those of other human resource practices, more importance is given to how they implement these techniques rather than just the techniques themselves. [Ann04]. Some people understand a culture as a personality of a society while to others it comes together with the behavior that groups work together in. [Sus]. The culture itself is made up of experiences that individuals have been through and they bring it all into an organization. [Sus]. Method Participants Young graduates (3 men, 3 women) were recruited with flyers posted on various universities across the country. Older adults (4 men, 2 women) were recruited from organizations that specialized into human resource practices. Participants were told why they were recruited and also how they have to participate. All the participants were from Human Resource Management backgrounds. The young graduates had done their Bachelors in Business Administration majoring in Human Resource Management. While the adults have been working in the field for over 10 years. The groups were divided in such a way that the fresh graduates were all in one group while the professionals were all in another group. All the participants were asked to give correct answers and not to be bias. They were also told that this was not a competition between the two groups and that it was an experiment. There were also an additional 40 participants, recruited by using employment websites. These individuals were on this website to search for job opportunities. Two CEOs were also asked to participate as judges. Materials This was done assigning the fresh graduates one room, the adults’ one room and the CEOs one room. The individuals were divided into 2 separate groups. 20 of the job seeking individuals were asked to go for an individual interview in the room of the fresh graduates and the other 20 were asked to go for individual interviews in the room of the adults. After the respective interviews they were asked to go for a final interview with the CEOs. The graduates and adults were given blank sheets on which they had to write the name of the interviewing participants and whether they had been rejected or accepted. The CEOs were also given blank sheets on which they had to do the same. All the individuals who were chosen for the interview section were all applying for marketing and sales related jobs. This would help in assuring that the results did not vary on account of the specializations of the individuals. The end results are made by the CEOs and the success rate of having cultural knowledge by the Human Resource Managers are taken a test for. Procedure The group of fresh graduates prepares a list of interviewing questions that they intend on asking the individuals they will be interviewing. The adults do the same and prepare a list based on their knowledge. The participants are then asked to enter a room and are asked questions. The participants are required to answer quickly as the interviews are timed at 10 minutes for each individual. Once they have completed the interview with the test groups they have an interview with the CEO who makes a final judge call of whether the individual should be hired or not. Results The resultant end analysis is based on the fact that the group of fresh graduates has no prior experience in the field of work and are judging the individuals on the basis what they have previously studied in their university. As for the group of adults, who are experienced Human Resource Managers, the judging is done on the basis of their previous experience in their field and on the cultural understanding they have developed over the last few years. This helps them understand which individuals they select would be best suitable for the job and how they will be able to adapt to the organizations culture. These Human Resource Managers have an understanding of what culture is and how it impacts the workspace. They also have experience from various other organizations and this experience helps them make a rational decision on the individuals would best adapt into the organizations culture. During this exercise, the individuals who were chosen for the jobs by the experienced adults were mostly accepted also by the CEOs. These individuals had a broad mind frame and seemingly resided in upper middle class regions of the country. They also had rich knowledge of the subject they were being interviewed on and also had confidence that spoke for itself. Observations showed that they also seemed to be the most social in the room while they all were waiting for their turns. This shows that they had a diverse understanding of other cultures and managed to adapt themselves to the surrounds with ease. They also were well spoken and did not fear the interviewers. These individuals showed signs of excelling in the field and the experienced managers seemed to enjoy the interviews with them. The individuals that the experienced managers turned down seemed to lack confidence and also gave answers which were not best fitting. The common problem that these rejected individuals faced was that they were not well spoken and did not pertain from a broad mindset. They had a narrow vision and were unable to proceed beyond that. On the other hand, the final result from the group of fresh graduates was mixed. Most of them were not approved by the CEOs. The ones who had been approved collectively seemed to have the motivation to work but did not belong to a strong state of mind. This showed that the fresh graduates were not that well when it came down to making such a decision. On the other hand, the questions that they asked seemed to be mostly obsolete and did not fulfill the basic requirements to even be judging the individuals on. The main focus of such an experiment was to understand how culture and society impacts the work culture of an organization. It involved focusing on different scenarios and how experience with working in a cultural environment with those who do not have knowledge of such work before. The findings showed that there was a variance among the graduates and those of professional managers. The relationship with understanding the work culture gave the managers the upper hand in evaluating the mind of the individuals with a clear vision of what they were looking for and what the organization wanted from them. After a test of understanding of how people think come to a point at which we see how philosophy comes into play with the human mind. The result shows that people always tend to make a decision or any kind of action based on the information they possess and how they can strategically use that information and present it in the form of data. This was seen in the way that the interviewers made their questions and how they assessed the individuals that came in for the interviews. The CEOs had their own objectives in mind when they made the decisions of accepting or rejecting the individuals interviewed. This is the same way that most people who join into a job go about with how to manage their responsibilities. The method of approach is often similar to how the culture of the organization. The decisions that fresh graduates make does not come from the experience that they have been through. Some of the graduates have also participated in internships which would have generally given them an idea of how to go about in an organization and how to adapt themselves to the culture of the organization. The time period of the internships may not have been enough for the graduates to have established an understanding of the corporate culture and the society itself would have played a vital role holding the graduating from understanding how the corporate world works. Discussion The human resource management section of an organization is most likely to be influenced by an employment legislation section of the country. These legal sections govern the laws of human resource departments of organizations. [Arm99]. The human resource departments must make sure that the company adopts corporate social responsibility programs. [Sha]. Implementing these practices bring about a responsibility factor in the employees. This conversion leads to making the earth a better and cleaner place as well as being the same in the organization. The responsibility factor usually tends to make sure the employees have a cleaner work place and also better. Adding rewards with this practice would also help in reserving extra energy that would have been wasted otherwise. [Sha]. Concepts of culture are thought of and represent the general norm that any individual would operate in in a work environment. It does not necessarily need to be good and it can often tend to be bad but they result to the progress and success in the process. [Sus]. In the same way even if the outcome is good, tolerance of immoral discipline leads of an impeded success. [Sus]. Culture is not something that is understood from the first day that an individual starts to work in an environment. It takes time and effort and an understanding that a culture exists and the need to want to learn it. People perform to get rewards and good behavior is always rewarded. Even a simple thank you from an executive tends to mold into the culture of an organization. [Sus]. Often employees think that by getting training they will understand how the organization functions. This is not the case and the perception of understanding an organization in such a way is incorrect. The concept of culture in an organization is developed overtime and through interaction with fellow employees and managers. Because managers have worked in an organization for a longer period and have a sense of the organizations culture, they should involve new employees in activities so they can learn the structure of the organization. Interaction with the managers would help the employees learn the culture of the organization. [Sus]. The decisions about the people to hire and how to go about in the method of training often are a reflection of the history that the human resource manager is. The style required to show leadership is a common reflection of the understanding of a culture and the human resource management philosophy that comes about with it as well. These decision making abilities were seen in the human resource managers that were asked to participate in the interviews. They showed that they had a proper understanding of their concepts and the concept of culture which would be required to develop in the organization. When employees follow established rules they have almost no risk if any kind of failure is to come in the way. [Suh09]. Numerous human resource practices have different characteristics based on specific countries. [Suh09]. In the same way, Japanese companies usually indulge in recreational facilities and employee motivating social activities in comparison to American based companies. [Pas80]. With the general understanding of all of this, the concept of culture development is taken from mostly the founders’ philosophy. It generally categorizes people from various other cultures and different societies. This helps the managers build a basis on which they can differentiate between classes of people with the other kind. But with this the variety of different kinds of people makes it rather difficult in comparison to figure out who the best individual would be fit for the job task. Also having prior experience in working with other companies adds to the advantage of actually understanding the true meaning of an organizations culture. When an employee joins an organization the human resource department takes responsibility of that individual and to make sure that the individual has a clear understanding of the rules of the firm. Then only does the employee tend to understand the organizations culture and practices. This enables the employee to choose a strategy and to build a personality which would help him during the organizations activities. [Suh09]. Countries which have high power distance based cultures are likely to fit the parochial culture. This culture is often summed up with the tendency to give more importance to the family, social relationship as well as personal background. This turns out to be less for the end task that needs to be performed. [Suh09]. With the high power distance effect in these types of organizations, the managers must act like father figures and motivate the employees in such a way. [Hof97]. Such a relationship is unfavorable for the organization and lead to less participation in making a final decision for a project. [Suh09]. Paternalism is also what tends to occur in an organization which has high power distance. The role of the superior is to ensure that the employee is given good guidance, protection, and nurturance and in return the superior expects that the subordinate be loyal. [Zey00]. Those managers who often believe in malleability tend to assume that their subordinates will change their skills once they have been given appropriate training. This assumption is often influenced by beliefs that may be fatalism. Managers who belong to societies based on fatalism tend to think that employees cannot change and to invest in training workshops and other activities to do so would lead to no effect and result in wasted time. [Zey00]. The perception that managers have to paternalism and high power distance in employees often becomes a negative influence on them. To counter paternalism, managers could make the employees participate. This would cut the power distance element to some extent and make the employee and manager relationship better. Asking for opinions would also do the same. While participation could lead towards the coming of better opinions, decision making may not entirely be based on the employee participation. It could be used in the initial level of forming a decision that needs to be taken. [Zey00]. Building the culture in an organization and to integrate it into the minds of the workforce, the human resource managers must work with the company leaders to help understand how they want their employees to be thinking and what the organization thinks as proper. [HRI05]. The human resource center of an organization needs to help its leaders understand that if they do not understand the strengths or weaknesses of the culture they may not be able to achieve the objectives of the organization to its fullest. [HRI05]. Often leaders themselves do not have an understanding of the organizations culture. They tend to think that the culture they created exists throughout the organization. These executives end up with an inaccurate perception of the corporate culture. This is where the human resource department can provide value. [HRI05]. To improve the work environment, the human resource department must come up with methods that it can use. To motivate employees to complete their job tasks properly, compensation and a rewards system could be an important mechanism. [HRI05]. A proper structure should be built around this idea and employees should be rewarded accordingly. The structure should allow different aspects to be considered and not only job outcomes. The human resource department should design a pay system that rewards based on behavior as well as attitudes that the employees have. This can also sometimes tend to lead in a negative direction if not implemented properly.[HRI05]. Another aspect that could improve the workspace environment is the performance management programs that can be implemented to improve the culture of the firm. It clearly defines what the organization expects from their employees and how they want the work to be done. To make an impact on the culture the firm needs to introduce a performance management system which also addresses the employee behaviors and not just the work objectives. [HRI05]. This clearly makes an impact on the employees as a whole and explains to them that more than just business objectives are expected from them. The performance management system fails points out to the employees if they do not come up to expectation on even behavioral terms. [HRI05] Employee output could be increased if the organization focuses on activities such as training and development ones. If done properly, this could impact the culture. These activities are designed in such a way that they help employees demonstrate what the organization expects from them and how to correspond in the corporate culture. [HRI05]. Organizations that focus on development and training also tend to allocate a budget that would most likely allocate resources to the human resource department. This shows that the organization is looking forward to improving the work environment and influence and cultural understanding into the minds of the employees. [HRI05]. Not only does this mend the employee frame of mind but also improves the work output. The human resource management is based on understanding the human mind and the work task. It helps defining on the basis of assumptions that the managers would be making about people in the organization. These questions that arise in the managers’ mind often need to be addressed so they can reflect with positive feedback and understanding between the two. Different visions are thought of and they require quantitative and strategic aspects. With this vision in mind, the manager looks at an individual considering them as commodities. A brief understanding of human resource points at focusing on corporate social responsibilities. In doing so, the employees tend to enhance the presence of the organization in the society. [Sup09]. This would indicate a strategic initiative by the human resource department and organization by showing that their only concern is not to generate business. A program that leads to success relies on managers who have had previous experience with such activities. With a steady and strong human resource department, organizations can reach heights of success and increased profitability. [Sup09]. Companies use corporate social responsibilities to recapitulate the market. The actual delivery of it develops a trust between the company employees and the stakeholders. These need to be established as a norm in the culture of the organization so it can bring about a change in the minds of the employees about how their actions can bring about a significant role one by one. [Sup09]. This study was done with a few attempts to provide a clear and final insight to how the managers and fresh graduates as well as individuals who are applying for a job tend to perceive a work environment. The impact that is driven on the basis of culture in the organizations is solely the core focus of the research and to understand how it impacts any processes inside the organization. The department used for this practice was human resource management as they have the most dealings with the employees as well as dealing with people who come to join the organization. This edge in understanding the individuals that the human resource managers had over the fresh graduates shows how much relevant progress has been made in the field of understanding cultural psychology. There are still other issues that need to be address as every attempt to understand the human mind enriches the research in the field. Soon enough the cultural differences will now show as much as the impact of globalization will show its presence in all organizations. With the amount of research already done on human resource practices it is safe to assume that the USA and Europe have given much more attention to this than the remaining part of the world. [Tri82]. This concludes why most of the practices even now are based on western management practices. [Dim07] With an understanding that socio-cultural characteristics vary in countries based on their level of development, we see that power distance also tends to come into the organizations hierarchy structure. References HRI05: , (HR Impact on Corporate Culture, 2005), HRI05: , (HR Impact on Corporate Culture, 2005), Dim07: , (Dimba, 2007), Kan95: , (Kanungo, 1995), Gel00: , (Gelfand, 2000), Hof80: , (Hofstede, 1980), Ham89: , (Hamel, 1989), Pra97: , (Pratt, 1997), Ayc99: , (Aycan, 1999), Ann04: , (Annette Cox, 2004), Sus: , (Heathfield), Arm99: , (Armstrong, 1999), Sha: , (Lokhandwala), Suh09: , (Diponegoro, 2009), Pas80: , (Pascale, 1980), Hof97: , (Hoftstede, 1997), Zey00: , (Zeynep Aycan, 2000), Sup09: , (Suparn Sharma, 2009), Tri82: , (H.C., 1982), Read More