Do Cultural Differences Influence HRM Practices - Coursework Example

Cultural Differences Name Course number University Date Do cultural differences influence HRM practices? Introduction Cultures play an immense role in managing people, and therefore, this calls for differences in the management of practices. According to many authors, human resource management practices are vulnerable to cultural influences hence, affecting their design and appropriateness. Individual preferences and perceptions are caused by cultural differences hence, their influence on organizational behaviours like management style, rewarding and performance appraisal, conflicts, decision making, work orientation, definition of goals, communication and work motivation. Behaviours of institutions and individuals are shaped by culture as recognized by the economic theory. Internationalizing the world economy has resulted to cultural diversity in organizations hence the human resource management practices have to integrate the different cultures. As a result of internationalization, organizations are having employees from different regions and countries without discrimination hence diversity in culture. In the long run human resource practioners in organizations have to consider the different cultures in their organization and their influence on employee performance. Human resources management practices also have to put into consideration the organisations internal and external environment. The organizations internal environment is being influenced by its own work culture while the external environment is influenced by factors such as; nature of industry, ownership and market characteristics. Cultural differences influence on human resource management practices Cultural differences do have an influence on human resource management practices. Every organizations goal is to get the maximum output from its employees and their culture be it internal or external influences their work performance. For example in Senegal, an organization that is designing its human resources manual has to consider the different ethnic groups as they have different cultures since the normal lifestyle and habits of the people are different. To the people of Senegal, it is more important to have peace than to have money (Tabrizi, Shabanesfahani and Safar (2012)P.46). Majority of the population in Senegal comprises of Muslims and they regard the praying time very highly and the prayer time has to be strictly followed throughout the day. Therefore, when designing the human resource practices this fact has to be considered in order to get the best from the employees in terms of work performance. On the other hand in the countries where Christianity is comprises most of the population Sunday is their rest day as they go to church on this day hence an organization has to ensure that their human resource practices are aligned to this culture. In the Senegalese culture, the human resource management practices are highly influenced by religion. The do not have any hurry when doing their jobs neither do they do them on time. This alone will influence the human resource practices because the managers have to either fit into this culture and schedule their practices to suit the employees so as to avoid any collision and get the best out of them in terms of performance. Japanese and USA Culture In the Japanese culture when discussing pay they put more emphasis on fair pay and group compliance while their colleagues in the USA especially high performers would prefer that their contributions to the organization are recognized individually and in financial terms. This culture when it comes to pay will highly influence the human resource practices in these two countries. The Japanese human resource manager will have to consider all the employees as a group when making decisions while those in the USA will have to consider individual employees contribution hence the human resource practices in the two countries will differ. Managers in the Arab countries find it necessary to remain loyal to their cultural practices while at the same time they adopt practices from the west so as to remain profitable and competitive.(Ismail.A.2010).A hierarchical and patriarchal type of family structure is present here where the father has all the power whereas the children abide by his instructions and rules. This family structure is replicated in the work place. Power and authority in organizations is rarely delegated and is centralized. Those in authority work like fathers, protective and caring at the same time holding all the authority as they expect the employees to fully comply. On the other hand, employees do not challenge or question their superiors and can never take any initiative until directions are given by their managers.(Ismail 2010). This type of culture will highly influence the human resource practices because the superiors are responsible for the work and decisions made in the organization hence, people with capabilities have be placed in those positions as well as those who understand the culture in order to get the best performance from the employees. This is different in most western cultures where work is delegated to employees and so as decision making. In the culture of people in the Eastern countries such as; Korea, Japan, India and Arab countries managers and those people in authority are authoritarians and their decisions cannot be questioned in any way. This is widely accepted but viewed negatively in the Western countries as it is viewed as dictatorship. Managers from Turkey, China, Pakistan and India will put high regard on paternalism while their colleagues in Israel, Germany,USA and Canada will not regard paternalism highly.( Aycan, Kanungo, Mendonca, Yu, Deller, Stahl and Kurshid,2000).These cultural differences In countries such as Kenya, employees believe in collectivism where they expect to be looked after by the organization as if they were a family member. They expect their personal interests to be defended by the organization as they also depend emotionally on these organizations.(K’Obonyo and Dimba 2007).In most African communities, an individual’s misfortune belongs to the whole community and this helps them to bear any misfortunes in their life. Multinational companies are faced with challenges in when they are making human resource practices for countries such as Kenya where employees have high regard for functions such as, baptisms, marriages and funerals. Therefore, failure to put these cultural values into thought will negatively affect the employees’ performance. This clearly shows that culture has an influence on human resource practices. Cultural power gains from the truth that people use the beginning theory to show them on what to concentrate on and listen to. The human resource management practice that will be appealing to many African employees is one that will assist them achieve ambitions that will benefit communities that they come from. Managers’ beliefs and values are influenced by culture which results to their behaviours being influenced. This further influences the human resource management practices that will be formulated in the organization. For example a manager who comes from a culture that does not believe in women empowerment will have difficulties in recruiting women hence, the organizations human resource management practices will not offer equal employment opportunities regardless of gender. Organizations which have managers who believe that employees lazy and need to be supervised all the time will put in place human resource practices that ensure that employees cannot perform their duties outside the laid down procedures and practices. On the other hand, a manager who believes that employees are not lazy and can perform their duties with minimal supervision will put in place human resource practices which are flexible and enable the employees to work with less supervision an be able to make decisions for the welfare of the organization. The culture of a country highly determines the human resource management practices of a country and how these practices are carried out. For example, in Sweden study shows that their style of management promotes direct and participative communication, equality, coaching and only use hierarchy when it is for convenience. While in Romania, hierarchy is highly regarded, centralized is accepted by the employees and the employees largely depend on directions from their superiors. (Stan 2012). In these two countries, the human resource practices will have to differ since the two cultures have led to different management styles. A human resource manager in Romania will have to put in place practices which favour bureaucracy and hierarchy while his/her counterpart in Sweden will be able to put in place more flexible practices such as delegation since by culture the employees will gladly accept that. In Sweden, employees place high value on individualism while their counterparts in Romania would prefer a collective approach where they are considered as a group. As a result, practices such as promotion will be considered on an individual’s merit and performance in Sweden while in Romania, the same practice will depend on the rapport of the group with its supervisor. (Stan 2012). Countries which managers and employees have a culture of avoiding uncertainty in terms of work such as; Germany, Italy and France will have to put human resource practices that will mitigate these risks. Countries that do not fear risk taking will put in place human resource practices that are flexible for their employees. Countries such as Sweden employees and managers will opt to use practice than principles because they do not opt to have flexible code of behaviour while their counterparts in Romania would rather have rules and will resist innovation. Human resources management Practices Human resource management practices such as, selection, performance appraisal, industrial relations and reward systems in most cases will be influenced by culture while practices such as planning are not likely to be culture sensitive.(Milikic 2009).In Serbia, many organizations do not have formalised human resource management practices hence roles are less formalised. This gives managers more authority and freedom when defining employees’ duties which matches well with the Serbian culture of a big power distance. Organizational culture Organizational culture is another aspect that will have an influence on human resource practices. (Stan 2012). . For example, organizations which will consult their employees and involve them in decision making, the practices of the organization will have fit into it as this is what the employees expect of it. Today’s managers have realised that organizational culture is a very important factor in the way their employees view the organization, their job performance and the way they relate with one another. The formal or informal relations between those in authority and employees in the organization will determine the how the human resource practices in the organization will be. For example, those organizations that allow relationships between colleagues or employs spouses their human resource practices will have to be flexible so as to accommodate this while those that do not allow relationships and spouses working for the same company, the human resource practices will have to be put in place so as to prevent the occurrence of such incidences. Collaborative culture Organizations that have a collaborative culture will focus more on group loyalty, a work place where people share with each other, they relate as an extended family would, and they consider their leaders to be their mentors. This kind of culture will highly influence the human resource practices because the employees will extend this culture to the way they perform their job and how they perceive the practices. An organization that has a controlled culture is formal and highly structured, behaviour is governed by rules and procedures, the group is held together by formal policies and management will be looking for predictability and security. (Stan 2012). This type of culture influences the human resource practices in that the policies have to be elaborate and detailed since that is what guides the employees and the organizational success depends on it. A compete corporate culture will make the employees to be result driven and focused on completing jobs, winning acts as a unifying factor for organization, they focus actions that are competitive and the achievement of goals and targets that are measureable whereas success means that they have penetrated the market thus a large market share. This type of culture will influence the human resource management practices to be more flexible so as to enable the employees to make quick decisions without having to follow the organizational hierarchy. This is so long as they are for the good of the organization and enable them to gain a competitive edge in the market. A create organizational culture allows employees leaders to take risks and be innovative while success is a sign of new and unique services or products. Being a leader in the industry is important and initiatives by individuals as well as freedom are encouraged, different thinking and being committed to experimentation helps to unify the organization. This type of culture encourages a creative, entrepreneurial and a dynamic place of work. Human resource management practices are influenced by this type of culture because they have to be flexible and dynamic while at the same time they achieve the organizational goals and objectives. The Chinese culture is that of an economic system that is planned centrally but internationalization has forced them to adopt and absorb management practices that are market led (Zhang and Edwards, 2003). Multinational companies which set up in China have found it difficult to set up their operations without the influence of the Chinese national culture. It is for this reason that these companies have had to incorporate that culture in their human resource management practices. In collectivist countries, processes such as hiring, the willingness of employee performance is affected by cultural influence on human resource practices. In these countries, an employee is employed individually but they expect that practices such as, performance appraisal are conducted as part of groups, departments or sections. This culture poses a challenge to human resource managers whom in most cases have to give in to these cultural styles of their employees. Organizational cultures that are done as rituals cannot be disregarded. Employees value them and this cannot be ignored as they are part of the organizational culture. For example, employees who are used to observe holidays during union day, hold birthday parties at the office and visit one another from time to time, it will be very difficult to stop such practices. Therefore, managers have to consider them when putting in place the various human resource practices. Political culture Political culture is another force to reckon with for the human resource managers and their influence on the human resource practices cannot be underestimated. To avoid scrutiny which is unnecessary from the political class human resource practices have to be politically sensitive. For example, an organization may choose to specifically state in its practices that it is not affiliated or partisan to any political party present in their country of operation and any political views or expressions of their employees represent their own individual views and not of the organization. Conclusion Managers in organizations have begun to recognize that knowledge of the culture is important in order to survive in today’s business environment. Human resource management practices which disregard employees’ community relationships cause cultural friction and will not improve their performance. (K’Obonyo and Dimba, 2007.pg12). While culture is dynamic and changing continually as new members are introduced in traditional societies, it is difficult to change and stable. From this study it was evident that culture despite the region or country in which the organization is operating in has an influence on the human resource practices. Be it Europe, Asia, Africa or the USA human resource managers view culture as a force to reckon with as it directly influences the human resources practices. We cannot rule out the influence of culture either now or in the days to come because it is present in people who are affected by life experience and or the same education. Therefore a groups culture shows their common mental programming which is different from country to country and group to group. In this study, it is clear that culture is very important when determining the behaviour of the organization and in the long run, this culture has influence the human resource practices of an organization. References Aycan.Z,Kanungo.R,Mendonca.M,Yu.Kaicheng,Deller.Jurgen,Stahl.Gunter,Kurshid.Anwar.200 0.Impact of culture on human resource management practices:A10-country comparison.49(1) Ismail.A,2010, Cultural influences on human resource management practices; Implications for Arab subsidiaries of multinational enterprises,Urbana,Illinois. K’Obonyo.P,Dimba.B,2007,Influence of culture on strategic human resource management practices in multinational companies in Kenya: A critical literature review, Strathmore university. Milikic.B,2009,The influence of culture on human resource management processes and practices: Prepositions for Serbia.(LIV.181). Stan.L,2012,Talent management and cultural influences on human resource management processes: A comparison on hrm practices between companies from Sweden and Romania, University of Gothenburg. Tabrizi.M,Shabanesfahani.A,Safar.M,2012,Cross-Cultural Influences On Hrm Practices In An African Context: Global Entrepreneurs In Senegal,(5.1,),44-49. Zhang.M,Edwards.C,2003, Hrm practice and influence of “the country of origin”in Chinese MNC’s operating in the UK,Kingston university. Read More