Essay Preview: IhrmReport this essay1 IntroductionThe cultural issue associated with the development of globalisation seems to become more and more outstanding in business field, especially in an international context, which makes the management and development of people require considerations of culture diversity and related challenges. A company that is able to deal with culture diversity functionally may obtain the intangible cultural competitive advantages in the industry field it belongs to; vice versa, it may lose such important advantages because of its poor management of potential cultural conflicts. In this article, the relationship between cultural issue, management style and performance, which mainly focuses on the potential problems and the possible strategies that may help depress them in International Joint Venture Corporations, will be discussed based on Hofstede’s five cultural dimensions theory. More specifically, to manage a cross-cultural company effectively for the purpose of maximising its productivity, following three issues will be proposed in the text: the first one is about how to clearly identify the nature and implications of national culture diversities within an international working team; the second one refers to how to establish a basis for building knowledge and awareness on culture diversities and an example of explaining and managing the expatriation issues will be given in more details; and the third one is concerning how to set a framework for developing a high performing team, where the cultural issues will be thought over.
2 Three Issues Referring to Managing the Relationship between Cultural Issue, Management Style and Performance2.1 Identifying and discussing the nature and implications of culture diversitiesBefore embarking on any other activities, it should be essential and important to get a clear understanding of the nature and implication of culture diversity because national culture is reflected in the designs of a company as culture influences a person’s relation to authority, conception of self, and ways of dealing with conflict (Inkeles et al, 1969). Different kinds of frameworks about this have been developed by many researchers so far, but among them, a famous and widely accepted one is Hofstede’s five dimensions theory. Four dimensions which are Power Distance, Uncertainty Avoidance, Individualism and Masculinity, were found based on factor analysis and theoretical reasoning. Later, it was found by the Chinese Value Survey (CVS) that there was not so much relation between the Confucian work dynamism and any of Hofstedes four dimensions (Hofstede et al, 1988), which is the main reason why this dimension renamed formally as Long-term Orientation finally, was recognised as another dimension (i.e. the fifth one) in Hofstedes study (Hofstede, 1991).Although the five dimensions are listed separately, in some occasion, some or all of them may have effect on one aspect shoulder to shoulder. For instance, power distance and individualism/collectivism are two main dimensions that have effect on management style; power distance and uncertainty avoidance are two main dimensions that have effect on organisation structure; but all of them can together affect the motivation system (Bi Pengcheng et al, 2002). Also, uncertainty avoidance can affect a company’s entry mode to a foreign market (holding high avoidance culture, French companies prefer to adopt joint venture as their entry mode to a foreign market (Paul Evans et al, 2002a).
To some extent, this framework can illustrate the delicate relationship between managers and their subordinates, which represents either the managers’ response to their underlings’ working styles or the subordinates’ response to their managers’ management styles. Following is one example of explanation for this. Assuming three other dimensions are equal, the difference of power distance and individualism can have different (either positive or negative) effect on management style. More concretely, the employees from high power distance culture such as Japan, who usually like to work collectively, may be more cooperative, because in this kind of culture, mostly, they think it is natural for managers to give orders or instructions and they may just do what and how they are told. One of the results, which is based on supposing the manager is from a similar culture or a different culture but he/she has been trained localised before expatriation, can be that the assignment is finished at a level as the managers wish, but not absolutely the best performance that could have been achieved, for example, in the case that if all of them including manager and employees share their thoughts and find out a best scheme for the project and then accomplish it together; while another result, which is tenable when supposing the manager is not trained localised, might be that the performance is very low because of the inconsonance between managers’ management style and subordinates’ working style; however, a third result, the performance is terribly high, also takes a chance to happen, e.g. if they cooperate very well. Therefore, to provide the expatriates culture diversity training (e.g. a certain degree of localisation according to the real situation) before sending them out can sometimes be a better choice for achieving higher performance under a bigger chance.
Although these five dimensions can usually be logically and reasonably considered as a principle or rule for explaining cultural issues or relaxing certain cultural frictions, some software such as interpersonal relationship can be the aspect that is difficult to deal with simply by following any present conventions (Paul Evans, 2002b).
2.2 Building knowledge and awareness on culture diversity, providing more details on managing expatriation issuesWith the increase of culture diversity in the global market, many marketing executives are failing to communicate successfully with their employees (Victoria D. Bush et al, 2000). This may be an issue that IHRM (International Human Resource Management) people can help to decompress. To some extent, it is just the reason why keeping a high sensitivity on culture diversity, here which means a rapid awareness or response to culture differences, in the team is usually recognised as an important competence that a good IHR managers should possess. Another reason for this could be that cross-cultural knowledge and awareness can assist executives to improve management skills and more importantly, it can also help business leaders make the right strategic decisions (Zhao Shuming, 2006). Once an IJV has been established, what the
2.2 Building knowledge and awareness on culture diversity, providing more details on managing expatriation issues
For the example of this organisation, I’ve created a framework to outline a “culture identity” and describe how the identity is best represented along with other cultural elements that are in common. This is an extremely useful and flexible tool if you are thinking of moving from one platform to another (a topic I’ll outline in greater depth in a future post). This is an approach that I use to develop a brand identity and, with great benefit, bring a greater level of cultural diversity to our clients.
What culture identity?
2.2 A culture identity is being created for one or at least two groups, each of which has an identity with which it aligns with the other group.
3.1 Using various social media platforms and tools to reach people.
3.1.1 The people to contact and their contact address, and whether they have been in touch with their staff, company or their boss.
2.2 Understanding how to reach people through various tools.
2.2.1 As part of my ongoing training, I had one person introduce a new way of interacting with clients to help reach them. In my experience, if an employee with multiple interests and experiences is engaging in communication, they may become an early adopter. It makes sense at first to try and have users do this kind of thing as it makes sense within the context of that environment. For example, there seems to be a tendency to respond to a customer as the customer becomes more involved in the company, and by doing so, the idea of contact does begin to carry some meaning. When a customer is very involved in the communication, this can be one of their most effective things to do. This gives me and a few other people opportunities to interact. This is a good way to build a culture identity, since it’s one that can bring about a greater level of trust between employees.
3.2.2 The value of our work environment.
2.2.3 A working environment is a place full of people with varying levels of interest. I usually take part in daily interactions with people and their workplaces that my group has to work with. During these types of conversations, my role can be to offer assistance and help to keep them from being pushed around or bullied. This creates an environment where people are encouraged directly to seek out someone and engage and develop meaningful relationships.
3.3.3 An important thing to take into consideration during your interactions.
3.3.4 The importance of being respectful of everyone within a group.
3.3.5 People with different backgrounds and different backgrounds.
3.3.6 In your interactions with your team, people with different backgrounds and different backgrounds will work cooperatively for a variety of reasons. For example, we all often share an interest in developing a personal business relationship that provides many of the same opportunities as a professional one
3.4.1 When working alone or for a network of multiple people on a team, our work environment or environment will be very important. For example, I like to work alone as opposed to with people as I like to work for a work group. Because of the impact this may have on my colleagues and my team, I try to help them get through this work without giving one too much away. This can be a good thing for your internal business growth and for the company when people come from different backgrounds and take part in each other’s work environments.