Social and Technical Challenges, Cross-Cultural Suitability - Coursework Example

SOCIAL AND TECHNINICAL CHALLENGES FACING ORGANIZATIONS Name Course Tiltle Instructor’s Name Institution Location Date SOCIAL AND TECHNINICAL CHALLENGES FACING ORGANIZATIONS Introduction Organizations certainly realize that the success and effectiveness of any business operations is directly corelated to the type of the human resource available at the organization. The performance of any organization is directly dependent to the kind of the employees within the organization. As such, organizations seek to devise job specifications and responsibilities that they deem fit in determining the team of people to recruit to take up specific organizational duties (Sparrow, Brewster and Chung 2016, n.d). The increased globalization has enhanced cross-cultural community composed of people from different social and cultural backgrounds. Organizations are certainly being compelled by the globalizational factors to adopt the diversified workplace composed of people from different countries, cultures, races and ethnicities. Consequently, the organizations are adjusting their human resource management strategies realigning them to a broader and more inclusive strategy changing the human resource strategy (HRM) to an international human resource management (IHRM). With the new atrategy, organizations look forward to enhancing skills and knowledge sharing strategies and enhancing more successul and effective work environments. In the process of determining the effective strategies to help embrace international HRM, organizations are met with scores of challenges which tend to jeoprdize the organizational need to internationalize (Weber, Festing and Dowling 2013, p.53). The analysis in this paper aims at determining such challenges, examines them into finer details, determines HRM strategies that shall assist in counterracting such challenges and finally establish why these strategies shall be highly effective in the IHRM processes. Indeed organizations require dealing with social and technical challenges that may arise in internationalyzing staff selection and assessment. Social and Technical Challenges Technical Capability An employees’ capability to perform the assigned tasks is an important factor to take into consideration. In selectind and assessing employees’ that they deem fit for international markets or business points, miultinational corporations and other global organizations take intent consideration on the tactical and managerial skills the employee has (Armstrong, and Taylor, 2014, n.d). The organizations also seem to recognize that the employees’ experience and networks also determines their effectiveness in the international believing that the highly skilled and experienced employees possess the outragious capacity to compel the performance of the organization forward. In a number of occasions, multinationals have lacked technically qualified employees who can do international assignments on behalf of the company. The employees’, who might preferably assisted the organization steer forward its operation end up being “left behind” which is indeed a great challenge to the organizations (Knies et al 2015, n.d). Additionally, the international staffs are ussually posted in the international business points on a short-term basis. This is undoubtedly a great challenge to the team since they ave not been granted the effient time to prove their full potential. Three years posting, for instance is not optimally sufficient for a management team to implement every bit of the strategic business plan leading to loopholes. Cross –Cultural Suitability The cultural environment in which expatriates work impeccably affects their orientation towards performance. Geert Hofstede, in his resarch on cultural aspects that affects organizational operations recognizes that a diversified workplace ideally is composed of divergent categories of people marked with different cultures, attitudes and beliefs and as such an organization that seeks to excel in global environments should understand this challenges and try to find solutions for them (Knies et al. 2015, p.43). He determines that an organization within its own culture experiences the “power distance” syndrome where the less powerful class of people within the organization expect to be controlled by the fortunate and high ranked employees (Weber et al. 2013, n.d). The challenge from this ideology is that organizations ussually end up selecting “top-notch” employees inconsiderate of the other employees. As such they might end up selecting and assessing the wrong team while concurrently overlooking the real people with clear perception of the internationalized issue. In selecting internationalysed staff, organizations fail to recognize the individualism vs collectivism factors of the intended country (Collings, Scullion and Vaiman 2015, n.d). Organizations seeking internationalization do not understand that some countries encourage solitary work where each person has the obligation of enhancing personal performance with minimal influences from external sorces. In collectivism however, employees are expected to work in teams or groups as a way of achieving objectives as it is believed that work is better done by two singly (Sparrow, Brewster and Chung 2016, n.d). Essentially, the capitalist countries fall under the individualistic culture whereas comunists fall under the collective culture. Unfortunately, international organizations ussually fail to recognize such crucial concepts in staff selection and deployment process. Additionally, in the selection and assessment process, the organizations fail to recognize cultural congruency in the broader view resulting into discrepancy between their staffs’ and the intended country’s cultural empathy, diplomacy, language, attitudes and behaviors which is indeed vital in determining performance in the long-run. Economy It is the moral duty of international corporations’ staffs to possess thorough understanding of the economic aspects of the posting country before eventually travelling there. Certainly, countries possess different economic level and standards and employees in seeking out for international posting have their own choices and preferences. Organizations however take minimal if no condsideration on such a crucial matter. As such, the organization might end up selecting and posting a staff to the wrong and undesirable location and as result they end up quitting consequently, leading the organization back to the drawing board (Clark et al 2016, pg615). Consequently, such incompatibility results into incongruency of the expected performance from the individual and the actual performance of the staff because of disorientation and lack of commitment. Additionally, failure to consider economic factors of the destination country might result into poor package of services by the organization to the employee consisting of low pay, poor transport services, and insurance services amongst others especially in the senario where the destination coutry is a developing one (Shields et al. 2015, p.211). Possible human resource strategies In assessing and selecting employees for international business opoints, organizations need to take into consideration numerous factors. The organization must therefore assess the technical capabilities of the staff to meet expeted results, cross-cultural suitability of the staffs in the international arena, the family requirements of the employee and language requirements amongst other factors. Offering Equal Employment Opportunities In the recruitment and selection process, organization require to focus on the issue of equal employment opportunity (EEO) where each and every individual within the organization is granted an equal chance to prove personal capability to match the international requirements (Budhwar and Debrah, 2013, n.d). This is also necessary in aligning to international and national laws which illuminates the issues around equality and gender disparity. Offering equal employment opportunities shall surely assist the organization deal with the “power distance” syndrome and by considering all the staffs equal in order to select the best who can take up the international assignment without causing the organization challenges. Equality job provision strategies shall also assist the organization deveate from “musculinity vs feminity” thought where employees perceive certain duties as manly and others as female oriented (Shields 2015, n.d). EEO strategy provides a platform where all employees are the same before the organization and has capabillity to take up any duty. Development and Training strategy The general point of the improvement capacity strategy is to ensure employees in an organization are skilled enough to satisfy their objectives, to better execution and development within their work. The advancement of staffs can be dealt with as a unique field of human resouce management that incorporates arranged individual learning, instructions, association improvement, profession advancement and training (Armstrong and Taylor 2014, p.77. At the global level, human asset advancement experts are in charge of preparing and advancement of workers situated in auxiliaries around the globe, specific preparing to plan ostracizes for assignments abroad, and improvement of an extraordinary gathering of all round employees (Hasle, 2014, pg 45). This can be done in two ways consisting of centralization and decentralization. With a concentrated approach, preparing starts at the central station and corporate coaches go to backups, frequently adjusting to related circumstances. This fits the ethnocentric model. A geocentric approach is likewise incorporated by encouraging contribution from both central station and auxiliary staff. Mentors could be sent from different positions in either the base camp or auxiliaries to some other area in the organization (Clark 2016, p.619). In a decentralized approach strategy, training is done in a local basis, with respect to a polycentric model. When training is decentralized, the social foundations of the mentors and students are typically comparative. Nearby individuals create the training materials and systems for use in their own particular field hence, this limits challenges for both the employee and organizations in cases where international assignments are involved. To expand training efficacy, it is essential to consider how trainees learn generally and viably. Social components strongly affect traning practices in various parts of the world. For instance, in North America, where control separation is minimal, the connection between the mentor and apprentice inclines toward correspondence (Jalalkamali et al 2015, pg700). The mentor and learners utilize first names, and the trainees don't hesitate to test or question what the coach says. Remuneration and Benefits strategies Compensation of representatives plays a key part in gaining new workers and is imperative for expatriates and in addition for the businesses. Pay is the fundamental asset of living of the representatives, while benefits cover better human services, the likelihood of spending occasions in the organization's vacation offices at an ideal cost and furthermore different focal points. The choices the business makes concerning compensation are a component that affects the costs of their organization and adds on the capacity of offering the items at an aggressive cost in the market. The choices about compensation may likewise improve the capacity of the business to compete for workers on the work showcase (Collings, Scullion and Vaiman, 2015, n.d). The remunerations employees stay or quite depending on the offer, in building up a global system of remuneration and advantages, an organization has two essential concerns the fisrt being comparability and the second cost. A decent pay framework roles out pay rates to employees that are internally comparative and aggressive in the marketplace. For instance, the pay of a senior director is normally higher than that of a manager, and each position ought to get a sum inside the local market scope so as to deter economic challenges that many affect an employee’s productivity (Budhwar and Debrah 2013, p.31). The global organizations should likewise consider the compensations of individuals who may exchange from different areas. organizations’ endeavor to limit all costs, and employee remuneration is one of their greatest concerns in maximizing profits hence, there is need for them to optimize on employees’ salary expectation and enhance a win-win strategy rather than winning one at the expense another. Effectiveness of Determined strategies Currently, international and domestic HR strategies are being realigned to a more contemporary and efficient status. International organizations look forward to enhancing leadership development by periodically and consistently training the workforce for better performance (Collings, Scullion and Vaiman 2015, p. 47). As worldwide business rivalry builds, it is progressively imperative for successful organizations to have a group of directors with a worldwide point of view. Organizations must distinguish executives with worldwide potential and furnish them with different training and advancement openings. For instance, having at least one international assignment, chipping away at cross-national groups and ventures, and learning different dialects and cultures adds to making an administrator a more universally oriented individual (Clark et al. 2016, p.617). This shall only be achieved if organizations invest in and magnify their training and development strategies. Organizations assessing the international standards for remunarations are certainly met with outragious difficulties. The organizations must provide salaries that are satisfactory to their internationalized staff and the remuneration must be comparative or better to the remuration offered to a person in the destination country holding the same position employees (Weber et al 2013, n.d). However, the organizations have a strategy to adhere to where they have to minimize the minimal cost so as to maximize profits. High compensation to expatriates would be unhealthy thereby putting the organization in a dilemma. Renumeration and advantages are firmly fixed to nearby work economic situations, notwithstanding when an association adopts an ethnocentric or geocentric strategy (Shields 2015, p.301). The accessibility of qualified local individuals to fill positions, winning compensation rates, the utilization of ostracizes, and nearby laws cooperates to impact the level of remuneration and advantages to be offered. For instance, if there are few candidates accessible for positions, the renumeration for those positions shall generally be bound to increase (Sparrow, Brewster and Chung 2016, n.d). To decrease costs, the worldwide HR managers may then consider acquiring an expatriate. Hence there is need for the organizations to have a wider perspective of international compensation schedules. Conclusion From the discussion, it is clear that multinationals in their endevor to select and assess strategic onternational staff are met with numerous challenges. The discussion points out clearly those challenges include but not limited to technical incapabilities, cross-cultural disparities and economic issues. Its however fortunate that such challenges can be counteracted by a number of solutions consisting of offering equal employment opportunities to all employees and outsiders, developing and training employees’ as a factor of increasing their wider view of international business management, skills and knowledge and finally by assessing and analysing renumeration and benefits. These solutions are indeed effective and applicable because of a numerous reasons. The international HRM therefore requires determining these strategies as vital in ensuring effective expatriation processes. Indeed organizations require dealing with social and technical challenges that may arise in internationalyzing staff selection and assessment References Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2014. Armstrong's handbook of human resource management practice. Kogan Page Publishers. Budhwar, P.S. and Debrah, Y.A. eds., 2013. Human resource management in developing countries. Routledge. Clark, W.C., Tomich, T.P., Van Noordwijk, M., Guston, D., Catacutan, D., Dickson, N.M. and McNie, E., 2016. Boundary work for sustainable development: natural resource management at the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(17), pp.615-622. Collings, D.G., Scullion, H. and Vaiman, V., 2015. Talent management: Progress and prospects. Hasle, P., 2014. 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Weber, W., Festing, M. and Dowling, P.J. eds., 2013. Management and International Review: Cross-Cultural and Comparative International Human Resource Management. Springer Science & Business Media. Read More