Enhanced Environment for Carrying Out Business - Essay Example

Cultural adaptation of IHRM function Name Institution Date Table of Contents Name 1 Institution 1 Date 1 Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Recruitment and Selection 3 Performance Management 5 Training and Development 8 Conclusion 10 References 10 Introduction The search for enhanced environment for carrying out business ventures has been a daily routine in the business world today. Organizations have endeavors to other countries to open up new branches. Some have succeeded while others have not. This migration however has brought a new concept in the work place. The companies that move to other countries have people from different cultural backgrounds as compared to the natives. The issue of cultural diversity is thus quite common in the workplace. In most multinationals in the world it is common to find people from different cultural background working together. However this has led to a lot of challenges in the human resource management. The cultural diversity may end up affecting the human resource management since some decisions have to be changed so as to accommodate the views and needs of al the employees. This is mainly for the purpose of avoiding the chances of employees feeling discriminated. The paper will critically discuss the effects of cultural diversity on multinationals in some of the human resource management practices based in the UAE. The company under investigation is Total petroleum company. Recruitment and Selection This is an important human resource practice in the UAE. This process is important in bringing in new talents which will ensure that the company develops its aims and objectives. The recruitment process has to be done with a lot of caution so as to avoid the chances of recruiting persons who are not competent (Kim, 1999). Total will always advertise in the local dailies any job vacancies available. The candidates will then apply for recruitment and selection. Both the natives and the expatriates are usually encouraged to apply for the available vacancies. However in some of the advertisements it is common to note that natives are encouraged to apply for a particular post. The applications are then vetted and short listed candidates are interviewed. This is then followed by selecting the most appropriate candidate depending on their performance during the interview. Most companies will always want the best candidates and as such the interviews are quite intense. Due to cultural diversity in the UAE, the human resource managers may at times end up making the wrong decisions during this process. This is always with the case of the expatriates who have applied for the jobs and have been short listed. Since most of them come from different countries and cultures, then there will always be a difference in their behaviors. In the UAE it is always considered respectful to shake hands during greetings and also to make explanations without raising the voice. This is a challenge and the expatriates who do not know this ends up not getting the jobs. This is because most of them will enter the interview room without properly greeting the interviewers and behaving in manners that may not be considered appropriate in the UAE but is relevant in their cultures. Total faces such problems during their recruitment and selection process. This cultural issuess therefore ends up affecting the selection and recruitment since those who will be recruited will most likely be the natives. It is with this view that proper and fair means of recruitment and selection should be applied. This is mainly for the purpose of ensuring that the practice becomes as efficient as possible. The efficiency will save most of the companies in terms of finances. This is because some of the wrong candidates will end up finding themselves in the organization. During the advertisements, it is recommended that all the requirements for the job be specified clearly. This is for the purpose of ensuring only qualified candidates apply. The issue of who should apply and who should not must be clearly addressed so as to save time during the interviews. It will however be quite discriminatory to specify that only members of a certain group are encouraged to apply. This erodes the credibility of the process and reduces its efficiency. This also puts a lot of credibility questions on the whole process. It is also important to include highly qualified managers to carry out the process (Aycan, 2000). It is also recommended that the interviewers base their interviews on how best the candidate can achieve the desired results as compared to their cultural behaviors. The emphasis should also be placed on the candidate’s ability and capabilities. The selection panel should also be taught on the concepts of cultural diversity. No candidate should be disqualified due to behaving in a certain manner during the interview the management should investigate the reason for this behavior. Cultural norms affect the process to a great extent. This has seen qualified candidates lacking the opportunities for employment due to miscommunication arising from cultural difference. The reputations of several multinational companies have been put on the spot over this issue. It is therefore advisable for the multinationals to include the locals in the interview panels so as to explain to the others why the interviews are behaving in a certain manner. The native companies should also do the same when it comes to expatriates. This will avoid the chances of miscommunication. Apart from this inclusion, it is necessary to train the interviewers on the issues of cultural difference so as that they can be equipped with the knowledge of how to deal with all the candidates regardless of their cultural backgrounds. Performance Management This is mainly the process of trying to bring out the best potential of employees so as to meet the goals and objectives of the organization. This process mainly includes giving the employees their correct job descriptions and training them on the concepts of performance management (Paauwe, 2002). The employees are also given targets which they must attain. Total mainly depend on this concept so as to ensure the growth of the company and its profitability. This is mainly guided by results that will be posted by the employees. Job description is a thus a powerful tool used by multinationals to manage performance. Poor performance on the part of the employees leads to a lot of repercussions and some have even been sacked or dismissed for this reason. The employees are thus subjected to practices they are not used to so as to deliver the desired results regardless of their cultural backgrounds. Performance management may at times be quite challenging for Total in the UAE. This is mainly because some of the practices that have to be done by the individuals are quite new to the employees. The job description may suggest that the employees work during days or times of worship. In some cases the employees will have to be grouped together during training sessions so as to discus methods and ways of solving certain issues. Some of the natives are not used to this arrangement and end up being offended during the training due to remarks made by certain individuals. This causes conflicts which are also difficult to solve. This greatly affects the employees and also the company. In some instances when the employees do not perform well and they are subjected to some forms of interrogations, they end up feeling quite demoralized. Some of the natives and even expatriates are not used to the idea of being made to explain themselves in public. This causes embarrassment which leads to conflicts among the managers and the employees. The performance management practice of giving the employees their correct job descriptions, targets and subjecting them to punishments incase of poor performance is at times demoralizing. This is because some of them end up taking g the blame for issues beyond their control. The employees may have performed poorly due to problems at the management level (Panayotopoulou, 2003). In the end the employee will have to bear the brunt for performing poorly. It is therefore recommended that the multinationals should empower the employees to be able to make independent decisions. This will avoid conflicts since the employee will have a chance of pointing out any errors at an early stage and thus avoid carrying the blame in the end. It is thus recommended that the employees be adequately trained on the concepts of performance management and also empowered to make decisions on maters that may end up affecting their performance. The employees should to fully enlighten the concepts of performance management to the employee. All the cultural barriers should be identified and solutions should be found. The penalties should be reviewed to ensure that no one is punished due to reasons that arose due to cultural diversity. The human resource management should be flexible enough to allow the employees to work without violating their cultural practices. The management should also encourage the employees to work together in spirit of consultation to reduce the cultural barriers. The process should also be flexible enough so that it may be consistent with the cultural norms of the locals. The job descriptions should be considerate of the needs of the locals working for the organization. Since performance management is about delivery of services and achieving the aims and objectives, it is common for the Total to extend working hours and even days. In the UAE most of the locals are from the Muslim faith while the multinationals are from the western nations. In the job descriptions the working days may end up conflicting with days of worship and other important cultural days. It is therefore recommended that the managers should consider these cultural practices in the job descriptions so as to avoid poor performance and conflicts. This is the main cause of failure of this human resource management practice. However with such considerations in place, the operations will be smooth. Training and Development This is an important human resource management concept that is aimed at equipping the employees with the necessary knowledge when carrying out their mandate. The most important aspect of this concept is training the employees through attending seminars. The duration of the seminars usually varies depending on the concepts the employees have to learn (Singh, 2003). Total usually use this opportunity to ensure that the employees learn to work as a team as well as gaining knowledge required for the operations of the company. The trainers may be from different counties or even cultures, the practices during the trainings may this be decided by the trainers. The main objective however is to ensure that the employees learn the concepts being taught. During the seminars, it is very common to find that the Total using experts from different countries. This could be mainly because they understand the concepts better than the locals. However this usually leads to a cultural problem. To some extent some of the employees end up understanding very little or nothing at all and thus makes the training irrelevant. This hinders the development of the company. The main problem is communication barrier between the locals and the trainers. Most foreign trainers do not understand the culture of the locals and ends up passing the information in the wrong way that is not acceptable to the locals. Some of the discussions are usually affected completely. This is mainly because lack of communication makes the discussions quite boring. During the training process and seminars, it is important to ensure that the employees who are the locals understand the concepts fully so as to prevent the chances of the training becoming futile. It is thus important for the multinationals to consider that the training is done in the most appropriate manner. Communication being an important tool should be given the first priority. It is recommended that the training be conducted by the locals. Some of the locals should first be trained then they should be given the opportunity to train the rest of the employees. This will greatly solve the communication problems due to cultural differences (Milliken, 1996). Training should be conducted at the most appropriate time to ensure that al the employees are trained effectively. It is recommended that the training program be carried out on monthly basis. This will encourage close working relationship among the employees and thus reduce the cultural barriers. Interactions should also be encouraged during the training so as to reduce the cultural barriers. This will ensure harmony among the employees and thus the development of the company. A mechanism should also be put in place to ensure that everyone benefits from the training. The efficiency of this practice is very important as it will translate into more knowledge within the organization. In order to make this process more efficient, it is important to determine the ratio between the employees who are to be trained and the trainers. This will also enable free consultations during the discussions and everyone will easily get a chance to contribute. This will be important in ensuring that the employees have clearly understood the concepts of the training. The means of communication should also be clearly defined so that no one is left behind due to misinterpretation. Conclusion According to the paper, human resource management concepts are very important in determining the success of the organization. It is also evident that cultural difference has a lot of influences on the delivery of the concepts. Most multinationals are also finding it difficult to implement some of the concepts and ends up with the wrong decisions. It is however clear from the paper that the success of Total will be determined on how they interpret the cultural practices of the locals which have effects on the operations of the organizations. References Aycan, Z. (2000). Impact of Culture on Human Resource Management Practices: A 10-Country Comparison. Applied Psychology: An International Review Vol 49 (1), 192-221 Kim, P. (1999). Globalization of Human Resource Management: A Cross-Cultural Perspective for the Public Sector Journal article by; Public Personnel Management, Vol. 28 Paauwe, J. et al (2002). Challenging (Strategic) Human Resource Management Theory: Integration of Resource-Based approaches and new institutionalism. Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), Rotterdam School of Management, ERS-2002- 40-ORG (29 pages) Panayotopoulou, L. et al (2003). Strategic human resource management and its effects on firm performance: an implementation of the competing values framework. International Journal of Human Resource Management. Vol 14(4), 680-699 Singh, K. (2003). The effect of human resources practices on firm performance in India. Human Resource Development International 6(1), 101-116 Milliken, J. (1996) Searching for Common Threads: Understanding the Multiple Effects of Diversity in Organizational Groups, Academy of Management Review, 21(4), 402-433. Read More