Assignment Sample 7BSP1303 International and Comp HRM
Introduction
The purpose of this report is to understand the importance’s of cultural differences for international firms operating business outside their domestic regions. However, workplace diversity HRM policy is concentrated to understand how cultural differences manages by MNCs (Mateescu, 2017). Tesco instance is appropriate one to explain the adaptation of workplace diversity policy to manage diversified cultural employees in international market. Tesco is British based supermarket which operates in approx., 13 countries including India. This report would identify how MNCs manages the cultural differences in India market through application of cultural theory. The cultural theory is important to address as it gives proper explanation, opinions or assumptions about the cultural barriers, different factors that could influences the business in international market. The cultural difference is becoming more important post-globalisation when business starts working outside their domestic boundaries or having limited understanding about the different cultural aspects. To be successful, cultural differences knowledge is important to understand as it helps the business HR managers to get awareness about diverse cultural group. It makes it convenient to function the business operations in different countries (Ozgen et al., 2017). In perspective of HR manager, the international business expansion achievement is largely depended on dealing diverse cultural people in workplace or market. The management of multiple culture only become possible with the adaptation of right HR policies.
This report will make discussion about HR policy that Tesco is using to function in international market like Australia. Furthermore, the impact of selected HR policy will be evaluated on Tesco and identify how much it brings success for firm to manage cultural differences (Roberson, 2019). Based on impact of policy, critical argument will be done on policy aspect so that reader could understand the significances of HR policy to manage cultural diversity.
Conclude with the implications for the MNCs
Workplace diversity policy (DVA’s) is the important HR policy which is reliable to manage cultural differences. The purpose of this policy is to encourage the equity and fairness and eliminate all source of discrimination. However, workplace diversity policy is appropriate for international cultural management as its an umbrella for strategies that recognise the differences in ethnic, cultural and socio-economic backgrounds, different beliefs and religious values etc (Pelau and Pop, 2018). The major aspect of this policy is that it believes in equality or fair treatment regardless to training, remuneration and recruitment and selection or performances management etc. This principle of workplace diversity policy brings lot of benefits for the organisation in terms to increased innovation and creativity with the motivated employees followed by improved customer services and built strong teamwork and internal/external relationships. These areas are important to attain for getting success in international market.
In context to MNCs like Tesco to manage cultural differences in India market adopts workplace diversity policy via Hofstede cultural dimension theory. This theory is the framework for cross-cultural communication. Basically, Hofstede dimension supports to describe the cultural differences of country and allows international business HR to act according to cultural difference. Similarly, Tesco to operate in international business has applied this theory to understand the cultural differences of European or Asian countries culture (Minkov and Kaasa, 2020). The application of this theory has proved it well for Tesco to gain huge competences in Asian countries like India, Malaysia etc. Tesco uses Hofstede to find out cultural differences through undertake cultural dimensions in the following manner: –
Power Distance: – India has high power distance in compare to UK which indicates that inequalities amongst people in more present in India population.
Individualism/Collectivism: – India people follow cultural of collectivism where their decisions are highly directed by their family, friends or relatives etc. Whereas, UK culture is more individualism where decisions are completely relied on individuals only (Beugelsdijk and Welzel, 2018).
Masculinity/Feminine: – India has masculinity culture where dominant values in society exist while UK culture is more feminine society where quality of life is the sign of success.
Uncertainty avoidances: – India has modern preferences for avoiding uncertainty as there is acceptance of imperfection. It religiously follows traditions where at times changes will be avoided. UK to some extent favours the uncertainty avoidances through bring changes as per the required situation whether changing customer behaviour or market trends (PÎRLOG, 2021).
Long-term orientation: – India has high long-term orientation which indicates that religion or culture is valued and traditions are kept and honoured. Whereas, UK culture follow religion but to certain extent as they more value time or innovation to improve the society or economy.
Indulgence: – India has low indulgences as this cultural society many of times control their desires due to which Indian still struggling for gaining recognition whereas, this problem is not with the UK culture as people are moving freely towards their desires without getting any tradition restriction.
On the basis of these aspects of cultural theory, Tesco determine the cultural differences in international market or operate the business accordingly. In respect to manage cultural differences in India, diversity workplace policy is adopted by Tesco in a way to bring mutual coordination between the diversified cultural people (Huang and Crotts, 2019). Since UK people are more focused towards innovation opportunities or more are individualism in their decisions then Tesco prefer to target the people in a way of collectivism cultural values where it designs its training or task activities in a way that maximum people develop similar spirit or sense of belonginess to each other. The diversity workplace policy includes encouragement of fairness and equality in workplace so this policy influences to design right remuneration structure so that all hierarchical people feel recognized. This aspect of DVA’s support Tesco to manage multiple conflicts in business. Since India culture follow power hierarchical structure in business so it somewhere influences the middle-level employee retentions as they feel undervalued at time in regards to get underpay or not fulfil training requirements. This influences the retention level of employees. Additionally, this policy also helps to manages the language or perception different employees. It is the critical concern area in international market as differences in opinion or cultural values influences the perception of an individual and many of times these differences create misunderstanding among employees which influences the work productivity. But Tesco, applied the workplace diversity policy in proper manner where every culture people value system or beliefs are respected or even built the team-work through conduct the training sessions so that people could learn about each other and become friendly. This kind of practices are achieved with the implementation of workplace diversity policy (Davis et al., 2016). This policy helps the Tesco to learn about the cultural differences in international market or implement the changes in training or workplace setup accordingly. It became a cause why Tesco stores are growing in Asian countries as well. Overall, the cultural differences theory clearly reflects the positive influences of workplace diversity policy for Tesco to manage multi-cultural people under single roof.
Arguments
Based on workplace diversity policy application on Tesco shown the positive influences to manage the diversity cultural policy. Tesco has proved its significant position in global platform through use of diversity cultural policy. In relation to this example, Rajendran et al. (2017) believed that this policy is significant to increase the innovation and creativity in workplace as equality in workplace supports to make employee motivated and it is true that encouraged people always contribute best efforts to achieve high productivity. Therefore, the adaptation of this policy supports to understand different employees’ strength and factors of motivations. It supports to manage multiple-cultural people. In a similar manner, Hopf et al. (2021) found that proper execution of diversity cultural policy could also support to attract or retain quality employees. It’s known that retention or attraction of talents become a critical task in present scenario where strong competition exist to hire or retain the talents. In that case, the diversity policy supports to outline the respectful environment, right performances management or fair appraisal decisions etc. These assist the employees to feel motivated to continue their sustainability with the growth of firm.
In respect to cultural differences, the major problems are found out related to differences in views, cultural values as that direct their actions. The interaction of multiple cultural people under single roof then chances of misunderstanding is always present. But, Abur and Spaaij (2016) believed that workplace diversity policy supports to built strong communication network through allows people to work together as a team through provide them opportunity to act on single task. It become possible with the direct leader direction. It is important for HR manager to have right leader who influences the behaviour of multiple-cultural people in positive manner that they feel motivated to work with each other. The policy includes the actions like participation in the recreational activities so that people learn about each other personally as well and this practice could help them to exchange opinion with each other or it somewhere contribute well for achieving the desired goals and objectives (Al-Jenaibi, 2017). It is known that today’s generation people want to associate with those firms which have multiple kind of talents as working with talents one support them to bring improvement in their skills. It could support individual to enhance their professional career in better manner. In regards to DVA policy implementation, Tamunomiebi and John-Eke, (2020) found the positive outcome on the workplace in a way that diversity policy assists to bring equal treatment to every employee regardless to culture or gender. Likewise, employees are those seeking employment with DVA policy are feel treated fairly and they always want to be associated with the firm who perform its hiring policy fairly. The policy also presents the importance of having diversified cultural people to bring creativity or innovations. Moreover, Guillaume et al., (2017) found that workplace diversified policy is also efficient to bring positive workplace atmosphere as MNCs have common problem of harassment or bullying behaviour’s which is especially done when diverse cultured people. But this policy principle supports to prevent employees from harassment by building strict action plan by managers and employees. This way, the diversified cultural policy assists the business to maintain healthy workplace environment where every cultural people get rightful behaviour and feel comfortable in working. Furthermore, Ng and Sears (2020) found that policy also support to make proper communication network between diversified cultural people in a way to include certain activities like weekly meeting where encourage individuals to share their views or appreciate the best creative idea. This is another important aspect to boost the morale of different cultural people. Even sharing of views or opinion also reflect their cultural values or behaviour so it guides the manager about the particular people strength and weakness. This helps the managers to take up the performance’s improvement step accordingly. It turns out to be effective for individual future growth. Graham et al. (2017) believed that leadership has an important role to manage the diversified cultural people as if leader is autocratic in nature or does not support of creativity or exchange of opinion or views then it never supports to make constructive working environment. It could influence the business growth in poor manner at international market. Therefore, this critical analysis and discussion reflected the significances of workplace diversity policy to manage difference cultural people in international market or gain competence in foreign regions.
Conclusion
From the above analysis, it is concluded that HR workplace diversity policy implementation is important in modern organisation to manage the diversified cultural group. It is because Tesco example justified that managing diverse cultural people is critical area to deal with different languages, opinion which often become a cause of conflicts. In that case, the workplace diversity policy supports to the implementation of proper cultural theories to understand the cultural differences. As a result of these cultural understanding, the business gain benefits of improved customer service, motivated employees and proper influences of leadership over people. These areas give rise to the excellent workplace environment which contributes towards productive outcomes. The critical analysis in report has proved that Tesco gained success in 13 countries with making proper understanding of cultural values which allows them to function their operations properly in the international market.
References
Abur, W. and Spaaij, R., 2016. Settlement and employment experiences of South Sudanese people from refugee backgrounds in Melbourne, Australia. Australasian Review of African Studies, The, 37(2), pp.107-128.
Al-Jenaibi, B., 2017. The scope and impact of workplace diversity in the United Arab Emirates–A preliminary study. Geografia-Malaysian Journal of Society and Space, 8(1).
Beugelsdijk, S. and Welzel, C., 2018. Dimensions and dynamics of national culture: Synthesizing Hofstede with Inglehart. Journal of cross-cultural psychology, 49(10), pp.1469-1505.
Davis, P.J., Frolova, Y. and Callahan, W., 2016. Workplace diversity management in Australia: what do managers think and what are organisations doing?. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal.
Graham, M.E., Belliveau, M.A. and Hotchkiss, J.L., 2017. The view at the top or signing at the bottom? Workplace diversity responsibility and women’s representation in management. ILR Review, 70(1), pp.223-258.
Guillaume, Y.R., Dawson, J.F., Otaye‐Ebede, L., Woods, S.A. and West, M.A., 2017. Harnessing demographic differences in organizations: What moderates the effects of workplace diversity?. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 38(2), pp.276-303.
Hopf, S.C., Crowe, K., Verdon, S., Blake, H.L. and McLeod, S., 2021. Advancing Workplace Diversity Through the Culturally Responsive Teamwork Framework. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 30(5), pp.1949-1961.
Huang, S.S. and Crotts, J., 2019. Relationships between Hofstede’s cultural dimensions and tourist satisfaction: A cross-country cross-sample examination. Tourism management, 72, pp.232-241.
Mateescu, M.V., 2017. Cultural diversity in the workplace-discourse and perspectives. Online Journal Modelling the New Europe, (24), pp.23-35.
Minkov, M. and Kaasa, A., 2020. A test of Hofstede’s model of culture following his own approach. Cross Cultural & Strategic Management.
Ng, E.S. and Sears, G.J., 2020. Walking the talk on diversity: CEO beliefs, moral values, and the implementation of workplace diversity practices. Journal of Business Ethics, 164(3), pp.437-450.
Ozgen, C., Nijkamp, P. and Poot, J., 2017. The elusive effects of workplace diversity on innovation. Papers in Regional Science, 96, pp.S29-S49.
Pelau, C. and Pop, N.A., 2018. Implications for the energy policy derived from the relation between the cultural dimensions of Hofstede’s model and the consumption of renewable energies. Energy Policy, 118, pp.160-168.
PÎRLOG, A., 2021. National Cultural Profile in the Republic of Moldova According Hofstede and Trompenaars-Hampden-Turner Models. În: The Review of International Comparative Management, 22(4).
Rajendran, D., Farquharson, K. and Hewege, C., 2017. Workplace integration: the lived experiences of highly skilled migrants in Australia. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal.
Roberson, Q.M., 2019. Diversity in the workplace: A review, synthesis, and future research agenda. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 6, pp.69-88.
Reflection
This section reflects my working in a cross-cultural group during this module preparation. It was a great learning experiences for me as I learned many new things within the group members. Likewise, I learnt about different HR policies or how it relates with the learning about cultural differences. I also learnt to apply on the business reports. The working with diversified cultural people also helped me to improved my creativity or understanding about different cultural values. I understood that every cultural people having similar kind of process to follow in report preparation and the only differences in the presentation of work. Likewise, people believe in more use of keywords or others focus more on theories.
The cross-cultural group also helped me to learn about my strength and weakness. It would be a great opportunity for me to self-assess so that right improvements can be done. Likewise, I realised that I am good at communicating the things to people as group-members appreciate my skill to present my ideas to them. This skill is something which could help me to become business analyst in future as interpretation of ideas are important to appeal the audience’s positive response. However, I also figured out since I am introvert sometime people find me arrogant which give wrong appearances about my personality. This area also become a cause why many of group members hesitate to make friendly communication. In regards to weakness, I felt less confident when it comes to attempt new work or interact to people at first time. This is something which I need to work upon. It could only change when I improve my knowledge about different subject matter as I get more topics or areas to discuss with people. The time-management is another problem within which I am struggling currently as management of personal live with completing given task on time become critical for me especially after pandemic. This is another important aspect which require special attention. This weakness I am managing through start preparing to-do list so that I remember things to be done on a day without missing anything important. Besides that, I am also taking part in online workshops to become vocal or overcome my fear to meet new people so that I could able to grab the bright opportunities in future to work in reputed MNCs or will reach to top-level hierarchy.
Overall, the working in cross-cultural people in module development is definitely learning experiences as I got chance to strengthen my communication, leadership or even time-management skills. In future perspective, I will be looking to do something related to improve my analysis area so that I could get the business analyst profile in an international market where I will meet new people or able to become more friendly with them or get chance to overcome the problem of hesitation or fear of new people interaction.
This reflection helps me to outline my strength and weakness or even allows me to focus on improvement areas to get the desired professional goal.
