How Culture Influences Human Resource Practices - Coursework Example

HR Practices Name Subject Code: Student number: Assignment number: Date: Introduction The management of human resources in various economies, legal systems and cultures is faced with various challenges. One of the major hindrances to the human resource management is the cultural forces. Culture is made up of forces within the society which affect the actions, beliefs and values of different groups of individuals. Cultural differences surely subsist in the midst of states and also considerable cultural differences subsist within states. For example, there are conflicts in the globe that are caused by ethnicity or religion, this shows the significance of culture on global corporate. Getting people who hail from diverse tribal and ethnic backgrounds working collectively as a unit is a challenge in different parts of the globe. Human resource management in organizations calls for understanding of the impact of both the external and internal surroundings of the organizations. The internal work culture characterizes the internal setting while the institutional or enterprise culture together with social cultural environment characterizes the external surroundings (Aycan et al., 2000). This paper will discuss how these cultures affect the Human Resource practices. How culture influences Human Resource practices Culture differences influence many company variables. A good example is the communication barrier caused by cultural differences within an organization. The increase of the worldwide scope of human resource management in addition to globalization represents a major premise on the subject of the global harmonization of the HRM practices. Nevertheless, diversity is the key feature of global human resource management representation. The HR practices have been a victim of considerable changes in the last decade which has been attributed to social, political, economic and cultural context globally. The human resource managers are involved in the procedure of detailing organizational policies and strategies. Globalization has helped in the creation of a political, economic, legislative and a social environment worldwide, but regardless of all this, the cultural diversity amongst different countries means that the human resource practices are characterized by various elements (Aycan et al., 2000). Recruitment and selection Recruitment is the procedure of catching the attention of people with suitable qualifications and in sufficient amount, on timely basis, mounting their attention on the company and persuading them to seek employment opportunities within the company. Selection is picking from a collection of applicants the person who best suits an exact position based on non-conventional and conventional methods (Crawford, 2004). Foot and Hook (2005) suggested that the procedures of recruitment and selection are strongly connected and they are both directed towards acquiring proper competent individuals. Each organization and nation have different recruitment and selection policies (Reiche, Lee, Quintanilla & others, 2008). Due to competition, associations are setting up new work places in distinctive nations over the globe. Working in a few nations, the associations are less concerned about their size, location or how much they are affected by the diverse cultures in the diverse nations. Cultures with their arrangement of qualities clarify the demeanor, conduct of individuals and the decisions individuals make. In this way, inferring their assets, particularly human from the host nation makes the host nation’s culture a critical variable in the subsidiary operations (Pudelko & Harzing, 2007). Starting up business locales and getting the right individuals to deal with the operations and capacities could be a critical test particularly in the new country surroundings. Due to the fact that the organization is new and strange to the accessibility of the human resources, labor laws, the nature of the country’s labor sector and so forth. The assignment of discovering individuals skilled enough to perform well on their occupation while helping the worldwide aggressiveness of the international organization could prove to be a colossal undertaking (Pudelko & Harzing, 2007). This issue could be intensified by the way that distinctive cultures with their principal suspicions stretch on diverse values and practices that show themselves in the manner in which associations are controlled and managed (Brewste, 2012). . Research has shown that the practice of recruitment and selection is culturally affiliated. First, the fundamental selection criterion is seen to vary over cultures. Aycan (2005) suggested that, the cultures which are based on elevated performance or universalism, the recruitment and selection is founded on hard selection criteria like work related education plus technical skill. On the other hand, the low performance orientation culture which are focused on approved status or particularistic have a tendency of favoring soft criteria like social class or relational skills (Brewste, 2012). . The strategy used on recruitment and selection process varies across different cultures. For instance, cultures which are collectivist are fond of using the interior labor market so as to advance loyalty to the organization (Brewste, 2012). In a collectivist society, it is usually hard for the externally recruited employees to become part of the well built social system within the company. It is also hard to deal with the opposition after being employed, particularly in a situation where a local candidate enjoys a lot of support (Aycan, 2005). The selection process has a possibility to be culturally affiliated. Evidence shows that the cultures that are high on avoiding uncertainty are used to applying more forms of selection trials, apply them quite broadly, carry out extra interviews in addition to monitoring their processes thoroughly. This shows that they have the urge to gather objective information to help them make selection decisions. Societies that believe more on universalism or performance orientation will as well use extra standardized in addition to job particular selection process (Aycan, 2005). Staff retention in cultures that are interim oriented, emphasize on transactional pay relationships. This type of relationship is naturally extra responsive. The cultures which are long term tailored demand extra preventive individual and focus mostly on relational employment (Reiche, 2008). Performance appraisal The performance evaluation process of the employees is made up of three stages: (1) process preparation, (2) process of appraisal and (3) performance evaluation. During the first stage, it has been observed that individualistic cultures pay more attention on the personal success in the appraisal as opposed to collectivist societies who evaluate achievement based on a group (Reiche, Lee, Quintanilla & others, 2008). Concerning the preparation stage, evidence suggests that individualistic societies tend to emphasize personal achievement in the appraisal whereas collectivist cultures highlight group-based achievement (Miller, Hom, & Gomez-Mejia, 2001). In a study on performance evaluation in Australia, the study indicated that fatalistic cultures, where people see work results to be past their impact, have a tendency to acknowledge performance underneath desires provided the main individual showcases exertion and ability. Moreover, low power-separation and universalistic cultures are additionally more prone to push undertaking related skills and conclusions (Aycan, 2005). There is backing for the idea that culture additionally has an effect on the methodology of directing performance appraisal. Case in point, confirmation proposes that response quality plus social quality among administrator and employees have a tendency to be higher for corresponding collectivist collective in addition to individualist individual dyadic connections as opposed to mismatched dyads. Generally, scientists underline that assessment focused around immediate response is extra predominant in cultures which are individualistic. Collectivist cultures concentrate on unpretentious, indirect, relationship-focused and individual manifestations response (Tsui, Nifadkar & Ou, 2007). Likewise, coordinate, formal and unequivocal procedures of appraisal are extra far reaching in low-setting cultures. In addition, low power-separation societies seem to utilize extra participative and populist types of performance evaluation. The high power-separation societies endure absolutist appraisal styles which don't oblige them to candidly express their viewpoints in the examination audit (Tsui, Nifadkar & Ou, 2007). The performance evaluation in Australia organizations is more inclined towards development and training and less towards punishment and rewards as opposed to Hong Kong organizations. This shows that some additional aspects sometimes play a role which the cultural factors work together with to influence the implementation and design of the human resource practices in various cultural perspectives (Tsui, Nifadkar & Ou, 2007). Case study of Zaidi Zaidi was a man from Algeria who had the relevant industrial experience of more than a decade and has been living in Australia for half a year. He was interviewed by a manager who was a Caucasian Australian (Bob). The candidate showed practical understanding of the related services and products presented by the company in addition, his resume plus the cover letter showed a set of strong transferable talent. When he was taken through the hiring process Zaidi was discovered to lack the cultural awareness. It was encouraged to recognize the differences and similarities in perceptions, behaviors and attitudes of the two varying cultures. The interview was completed discussing how Zaidi may change his behavior so that he can be better understood by a manager of Australian culture. Even though part of the response was based on personality, the other was based on culture with the acknowledgment that these factors mutually affect the behavior (Lim, Winter & Chan, 2006). Conclusion The paper has discussed how different cultural norms and values affect the human resource practices all over the world. This may explain the diverse accomplishment in different HRM. The paper shows that it is evidently clear that cultural factors is one of the major factors that influence the implementation and the design of the human resource management practices and policies in different areas of HR around the globe (Reiche, Lee, Quintanilla & others, 2008). References Aycan, Z. (2005). The interplay between cultural and institutional/structural contingencies in human resource management practices. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 16(7), 1083--1119. Aycan, Z., Kanungo, R., Mendonca, M., Yu, K., Deller, J., Stahl, G., & Kurshid, A. (2000). Impact of culture on human resource management practices: A 10-country comparison. Applied Psychology, 49(1), 192--221. Brewster, C. (2012). Handbook of research on comparative human resource management. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar. Crawford, R.B. (2004) “Recruitment and Selection,” HR Research Paper No 30, 12 pages, HRDOC Store: London Foot, M., & Hook, C. (2005). Introducing human resource management (4th ed.). Essex, England: Financial Times Prentice Hall. Lim, C., Winter, R., & Chan, C. (2006). Cross-Cultural Interviewing in the Hiring Process: Challenges and Strategies. The Career Development Quarterly, 54(3), 265--268. Miller, J., Hom, P., & Gomez-Mejia, L. (2001). The high cost of low wages: does Maquiladora compensation reduce turnover?. Journal Of International Business Studies, 585--595. Pudelko, M., & Harzing, A. (2007). Country-of-origin, localization, or dominance effect? An empirical investigation of HRM practices in foreign subsidiaries. Human Resource Management, 46(4), 535--559. Reiche, B. S. (2008). The configuration of employee retention practices in multinational corporations’ foreign subsidiaries. International Business Review, 17(6), 676-687. Reiche, B., Lee, Y., Quintanilla, J., & others,. (2008). Cultural perspectives on comparative HRM. New York. Tsui, A., Nifadkar, S., & Ou, A. (2007). Cross-national, cross-cultural organizational behavior research: Advances, gaps, and recommendations. Journal Of Management, 33(3), 426-- 478. Read More