MGT307: Cultural Differences in Different Countries Influencing HRM Functions - Recruitment & Staff | Human Resource Management Assessment Answers

you have different perceptions – researching an assigned HRM function and seeing how this might be performed in two different countries. Emphasis should be given to comparing and contrasting the cultural differences between these two countries and determining if this is a factor in explaining differences in practice between the two countries.

This assignment will require research and presentation skills and good communication between each student in the team. Non-cooperation is not an acceptable response as you will depend on ach others efforts.

The HRM functions that could be assigned are;

• Recruiting and selecting staff
• Performance management – pay and rewards
• Training
• Occupational health and safety standards
• Industrial Relations – the role of trade unions
• Work-life balance issues

Introduction

With the globalization & liberalization, there is a rapid increase in companies expanding their business across the globe. which This helps in increase increasing profit margins but it makes the job of an HR manager complex, especially in starting recruitment & selection process. When a company goes global the HR needs to deal with different ,differentlyin different geographies in a different way.. These could be as per its the region’s culture, rules and & regulations, labor relations, etcand and also the task of getting the right set of people onboard, so that the company’s objectives are fulfilled.(Dowling, Schuler & Welch, 1994).

In any organization, different individuals with different skillsets are recruited. This is done after matching the job requirements with their expertise & then aligned aligning them to contribute to delivering company objectives. butBut when companies goes global, the HR needs to handle both locals & and expatriates, who and each of these needs to be handled differently. as This is because every each individual is from a different culture defining which defines his unique personal traits like attitude, beliefs, values, etcand values which too impacts their his way of working. So, the organization needs to take careensure that these cultural differences does not act as a hindrance in to the work & impact the work culture negatively &and also that function smoothly in compliance to both both country’s & a country’s law are in compliance to a company’s HR functions. company’s law. The HR should ensures that these culturally different nationals are assets to the company. (Lytle, Brett & Shapiro 2004).

Influence of cultural differences on recruitment & selection

Managing a diverse workforce at workplace:

Human resource management starts from HR planning itselfand & one of the important elements is ‘recruitment and & selection’, because getting another important factor being getting the right candidates at the right cost to fulfill organization objectives is very important. With companies going global, culture plays an important role during candidate selectionthe selection of candidates & and it cannot be ignored. Culture of a country is defined by the way the people of that country behaves behave & and it is influenced by a lot of things factors like such as language, religion, food, music, art, beliefs, values, education, govt.the government policies, and also achievements from these policies etc. Multinationals haves diverse workforces who havethat include people from different social status, personalitypersonalities, ethnicitiesy, and sexual orientation, etc. (Kossek, Lobel & Brown 2006).

Cultural differences given due value:

Cultural differences, which highly influence the HR and other functions in any organization, and it cannot be isolated. It They influences the way in which the management dealsdeals with a particular problem. With an increase in number of expatriates in currentcurrently in the business world, the job of a the HR becomes more complex as they need to culturally deal with culture wise differently employees within same organization. And, in the same organization & many a times within same department people from both low context & high context culture have to work together to complete the work in an effective manner. It becomes really critical for the HR to recruit right set of people & develop policies related to transfer, promotions, appraisals, etc accordingly. For example- If a Japanese MNC has its plant in UK there will be employees from both UK & Japan working together & who will have different style of working so HR needs to get right people onboard so that it does not impacts the everyday operations. While Japanese are from high context culture in which lot of unspoken information gets implicitly transferred & they highly believe in team work, long term relationships, fewer rules & structural implementation while UK nationals do not believe in long term relationships & more task oriented. All the information are explicitly transferred through message in all communication. So, the Japanese MNC needs to deal with this situation tactly because there will be some work for which they definitely need to have UK nationals so the job needs to be divided accordingly.

Different Recruitment & Selection process

HR follows different selection processes in different countries. Since, in Japan education is valued much HR gives higher value to grades & then go for structured interviews and along with personal skills also give preference to people with team work spirit. Whereas in UK, as per the individualistic culture, HR recruits on the basis of aptitude test, interviews and gives preference on past experiences than subject studied. So, in Japan more preference is being given to team than individual & grades play an important role but in UK more preference is being given to individuals & their past experience.(Tungli & Peiperi, 2009).

Conclusion

With the rise in globalization leading to professionals moving across nations there is increase in diversity at workplace all over the globe. Due to this, there are different individuals from different countries under one roof & who need to work together to deliver long term & short term organizational objectives and all these individuals carry their own culture which highly impacts the work culture. Since, these cultural differences play significant role it can’t be ignored & HR needs to take due care during recruitment & selection and use the same wisely. Although there is a cultural difference between employees but individually culture wise everyone has some positives which needs to be used for the betterment of the organization& it should be ensured that these cultural differences does not hamper the image & work culture of the company.