International Strategic Human Resource Management - Essay Example

Cultures (Schroeder,1980) are different as we travel from one country to another. The hospitalityindustry has to study the national cultures of manycountries as described and explained in the following paragraphs. One of his contribution is from the literary work Inventing the Popular Culture (Fehrenbach et al,2000) is found the quote ""The songs of the folk allowed middle-class intellectuals to imagine a lost national and natural identity and to dream of the possibility of a new "authentic" national unity of people bound together one again by the organic "ties of land and language" (Matin Barbero 1993:12). John (Brewster ,1999) Storey (Beaver, 2004) uses the above quote to show the former community has evolved so much that the community has disappeared. The former society segregation where people can easily describe the attitudes, characteristics, the likes and dislikes of the people living in a particular community has been erased. The Columbian Martin Barbero calls this movement as abstract inclusion and concrete exclusion. He emphsized that the many once sleepy towns have awaken to be the new industrial towns and cities of the nineteenth century where there was more class segregation. The community separation was made more complex by the more complex work conditions in our new industrial capitalism. Thus, the social authority was being deminished due to the commercial dismemberment of the cohesiveness of the national culture.( Goodall,1995) We can now travel, by jetplane, from on corner of the United Kingdom to the farthest community in the European Union. The European Union has given the citizens of one European Union country the free pass to visit any other European Union nation without a VISA. Airplanes and speedy trains have made travel from one European Union Country to Another very fast. A very good example is the United Kingdom which is composed of 3 countries. The three nations were know have been at war with one another for the sake of preserving the national culture (Barkun et al.,1991)of each country. But now their individual national cultures (Edelstein,1997) have been lost and they are now replaced by the culture of the United Kingdom. John (McGovern, 1998)Storey wants us to imagine that the human race as a journey on an evolutionary time period which covers the slow ape period up to the present jet age. The national culture of one country is now in danger of being taken over or being mixed with the cultural of other countries. Storey quotes ""Every time that we snatch up a vehement opinion in ignorance and passion, every time that we long to crush an advesary by sheer violence, every time that we are envious, every time that we are brutal, every time that we adore mere power of success, every time that we add our voice to swell a blind clamor against some unpopular (Raymond, 1990)personage, every time that we trample savagely on the fallen [we have] found in our own bosom the eternal spirit of the populace.' (107; my italics) This quote by John Storey emphasizes that the new national culture is now a common culture (Inge,1989) of violence, envy, success, jealousy and success. Storey also states that national culture(David & Wodak,1999) has been marked by the above culture of cohesiveness under a state of authoritarianism and principles of hierarchy. Storey quoted Dwight Macdonald saying in the article A theory of Mass Culture "Mass culture (Wierzbicka, 1992)is imposed from above. It is fabricated by technicians hired by businessmen; its audience are passive consumers, their participation limited to the choice between buying and not buying. The Lords of kitsch, in short, exploit the cultural needs of the masses in order to make a profit and/or to maintain their class rule. (1998:23)" (Storey 29) This is a more sophisticated meaning of the society pertaining particularly to the consumers. The consumers simply either buy or do not buy the goods. The companies readily exploit this buy or not buy attitude of the consumers by engaging in massive marketing efforts like promotions and advertisements to tip the consumers' choice towards more buy options. This is why the front line employees ( they are the first persons that the new clients, the repeat customers and complaining buyers talk to) are being trained to be very friendly (wearing a smile when approached by customers) and helpful to the customers. Storey also quoted Andreas Huyssen when he said "Ever since the mid-19th century, the culture of modernity has been characterized by volatile relationship between high art and mass culture...Modernism constituted itself through a conscious strategy of exclusion, an anxiety of contamination by its other: an increasingly consuming engulfing mass culture." (Storey 41) This clarifies our modern age feelings. The present feeling today is that the each community has to struggle hard on an uphill battle to maintain its culture. There is constant fear that its own culture will be consumed and taken over by the culture (Dundon et al,2000) of another community, group or nation. The question arises, in a given situation which culture or characteristic will apply, the Scottish or the British or the French There are some people, mostly the older generation, who want to hold on the their nationa culture and prevent the contamination or infusion of the cultures of other communities. The infusion of other cultures (Martin et al ,1992)with one's own is generally welcomed by the young citizens. This is caused by their feeling that breaking away from their old customs and traditions is a sign of INDEPENDENCE. Storey stated that the modern culture and literature focused on the exclusion of the masses' culture and the defeat of the masses' cultural power. Sometimes, this went to such extent that the culture and literature of the masses were no longer fashionable resulting to the eradication of the literary and culture and the humanity of the former sleepy communities. Storey (Storey, 2004) quoted Mica Nava stating "Consumerism is far more than just economic activity: it is also about dreams and consolation, communication and confrontation, image and identity... Consumerism (Boyd, C., 2004) is a discourse through which disciplinary power is both exercised and contested." (Storey 61) This is a wake up call to (Gratton et al , 1999)management and economics professors, students and authors. We were taught that economic activity is mostly measured by the buy and sell actions. Economic activity in busines is the recording of the amount of cash paid or the amount of cash received. This quote shows that there is more to buying and selling. It shows that a person buys or sells because of some factors which cannot be computed in monetary terms. This quote tells us that we must include in our sales projects statistics on why customers buy. Is the purpose for buying, fashion, being a member of the groupd, based on price, quality, and other considerations. A neighbor wants to buy a Rolls Royce car because he or she wants to keep up with their neigbor who has a Mercedes Benz car. The company then has to come up with advertising schemes and promotions that will promote their product as the best alternative to fulfull their dreams and aspirations in life. Advertisement is a very strong communication medium. (Storey, 2006) According to Storey, Folk Culture was formerly the Popular Culture. Popular culture even started in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. But we can argue that popular culture started since the existence of humanity. Storey said that Folk Culture started with the peasants. Later the Folk Culture (Inge,1978) caught up with the middle class. Still a short time later, the upper class joined the Folk Culture. The Upper class took over and dictated the folk culture for the entire community to follow. Other authors call popular culture as the opposite of Folk Culture. At a later time period, Storey tells that the Mass Culture (Fleishman, 2002) is the Popular Culture. This is the culture that was invented and implemented by the middle and upper class. Everyone was forced to just recognize the difference but must follow the new dictates of the middle and upper class' culture statements. The middle and upper class (Benson et al,2004) wanted to eradicate other cultures and to maintain a huge combination of factors that will make all else a shade of gray called hyper democracy. According to Storey, (Gleeson et al.,2001) the next culture is the American Culture (also called the Other Culture). The elite class was born in that far away country. The high-class society appreciated the arts, the orchestra, museums, Shakespeare's plays, the opera and others. Storey called these TEMPLES OF THE ARTS. Next, Storey tells of the new culture called HEGEMONY. This means the culture that is acceptable must have the consensus inside the society that is controlled by the upper class, who is very powerful at that time. Culture was FORECED onto its constituents. In the capitalist state during those times, the consumer had to choose one product out of many made by the producers. The producers therefore controlled what the consumers will buy. It was a producer-controlled culture then. The next level of national culture is known as the Postmodern Culture. This is known as the Beatles age, a world famous singing group from Liverpool. This is the culture where quotations were the talk of the town. What occurred was a general refusal to follow modernism or being simply a rebel to culture. This new age is now called CONSUMERISM age. This new period is controlled by what the thoughts, readings, music and the television shows of the youth. The youth are very attached to there past or we call it heritage. The youth are also concerned about what the future will bring to them. Later, Mass art culture (Merish, 2002)started. This culture (Mathews,2002) deals with the persuasion and propaganda methods used by the media when the companies advertise their products to increase their market share. Media dictates to us the national culture (Cerulo, 2001) that it wants so that their products and services will be sold. Finally chapter eight speaks on Global Culture (Creekmur, C,1995) as Popular Culture. In a world that is becoming increasingly consumed by Globalization (Brewster C.,1999), there is a sense in which there is a global culture.( Adorno, 2001) By means of technology: the Internet, television, and other media sources, the world is becoming more and more single-minded in its focus and values. Again, much of this has to do with capitalism. Who you are as a collective nation has to do with what you are able to provide the global economy. Therefore, those with the economic power are also the ones who determine what a global culture is; hence the Westernization of other nations. GLOBAL CULTURE. Through the Internet, we can talk to friends and relatives from the farthest corner of the world as if that person in beside us. The Global culture has almost complete wiped out the individual cultures of many nations. Because of economics and the need to survive in an ever-changing world, each country must run fast to keep up with the ever-changing global culture and economy. (http://jmmarcusmp520.blogspot.com/) CONCLUSION: Critically evaluate the usefulness of the work of "John Storey" (Budhwar, 2001) on national culture and its suitability as an aid to understanding the human resource function in the international hospitality industry.( Brewster et al,2004) The works of John Storey (Brewster et al,2001) are very useful in the study of national culture. It shows us, as explained above, the how, why and when, where the national culture has continually evolved and metamorphosed from the culture of a small community to finally a global culture. His works have made us aware and to accept and to adjust to the importance of the structures that have an enormous impact on defining our identities and values of one nation, one community or even one global unit. Armed with these culture lessons, the Human Resource Function in the International Hospitality Industry must take into account to study, absorb in implement the national cultures of the different countries where the hotels have their branches. The human resource function in a hotel must also study, absorb and implement the national cultures of the different countries because in one hotel branch, there will always be visitors from other countries who will stay a few days in a hotel. The foreign visitors will prefer to come back to a hotel that has served them better than the competitors and the study of the national culture of many countries give a very big EDGE to the hotel with such cultural expertise. BIBLIOGRAPHY Inventing Popular Culture by John Storey (http://rdwebstermp520.blogspot.com/2005/12/week-9-resources.html) Fehrenbach et al., Transactions, Transgressions, Transformations: American Culture in Western Europe and Japan, Berghahn Books, New York, 2000. Edelstein, S., Total Propaganda: From Mass Culture to Popular Culture, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, USA, 19977 Inge, T., Handbook of American Popular Culture. Volume: 2, Greenwood Press, New York, 1989 David & Wodak, From World War to Waldheim: Culture and Politics in Austria and the United States, Berghahn Books, New York, 1999 Schroeder F., 5000 Years of Popular Culture: Popular Culture before Printing, Bowling Green State University Popular Press, Bowling Green, OH, USA, 1980 Inge, T., Handbook of American Popular Culture. Volume: 1, Greenwood Press, Westport, CT., 1978 Martin et al., Politics East and West: A Comparison of Japanese and British Political Culture, M. E. Sharpe, Armonk, NY, USA, 1992. Goodall, P., High Culture, Popular Culture: The Long Debate, Allen & Unwin, St. Leonards, N.S.W., 1995 Cerulo, K., Toward a Sociology of Culture and Cognition, Routledge, London, 2001 Mathews, G., Global Culture/Individual Identity: Searching for Home in the Cultural Supermarket, Routledge, London. Publication, 2000. Wierzbicka, A., Semantics, Culture, and Cognition: Universal Human Concepts in Culture-Specific Configurations, Oxford University Press, New York, 1992 Barkun et al., Popular Culture and Political Change in Modern America, State University of New York Press, Albany, NY., 1991 Adorno, T., The Culture Industry: Selected Essays on Mass Culture, Routledge, London, 2001 Creekmur, C., Out in Culture: Gay, Lesbian, and Queer Essays on Popular Culture, Duke University Press, Durham, NC, 1995. Fleishman, A., New Class Culture: How an Emergent Class Is Transforming America's Culture, Praeger, Westport, CT., 2002 Merish, L., Sentimental Materialism: Gender, Commodity Culture, and Nineteenth-Century American Literature, Duke University Press, Durham, NC. Publication, 2000. Raymond, D., Sexual Politics and Popular Culture, Bowling Green State University Popular Press, Bowling Green, OH., 1990 Storey, J., Leadership in Organizations: Current Issues and Key Trends, Routledge, London, 2004 Brewster, C., International HRM: Contemporary Issues in Europe, Routledge, London, 1999 McGovern, P., Hrm, Technical Workers and the Multinational Corporation, Routledge, London, 1998 Gleeson et al. , The Performing School: Managing, Teaching, and Learning in a Performance Culture, Routledge Falmer, London. Publication, 2001 Budhwar, P., Human Resource Management in Developing Countries, Routledge, London, 2001 Beaver, G., HRD in Small Organisations: Research and Practice, Routledge, London. 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