Assignment Sample on M31738 Critical Essay on Ethical Issues Prevailing In Primark
Introduction
The assignment will define how the ethical issues prevailing in the workplace environment get identified and resolved with the help of various Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. The “Hofstede’s cultural dimension theory” is a theoretical framework that is used for developing cross cultural communications in the society and the business organisations (Huang & Crotts, 2019). This framework has been selected for resolving the ethical issue of poor working conditions and exploitation of labour in the “Primark” company.
Ethical issues in “Primark”
“Primark” is the UK based retail business organisation that manufactures and sells their fashion products in 12 countries of the world in about 370 stores (Primark.com, 2021). This assignment will use the arguments of “al Habibi”, “Xydia” and “Hofstede” for providing critical evaluation and augmented study based on the ethical issue of poor HRM management. The views provided by “al Habibi” and “Xydia” will get balanced with the views of “Hofstede” in this assignment. This essay will suggest that how the ethical issues prevailing in “Primark” can be resolved in different cultures by using different “Hofstede’s cultural dimensions”.
Firstly this assignment will consider about the role of various “Hofsted’s cultural dimensions” in overcoming the ethical issue prevailing in “Primark” company. The ethical issues of poor working conditions and labour exploitation in stores of “Primark” located in different countries of the world have been identified and analysed. The dimensions of the Hofstede framework can be taken into consideration for resolving the ethical issues prevailing in the business organization. The first dimension of the Hofstede cultural dimensions is “Power distance” that can help in evaluating the issue of human equality that has been faced by the workforce of the “Primark” organization. The “Primark” organisation has been focusing towards resolving the issue of human inequality by recruiting the employees from diverse cultures and uniting them together by adopting appropriate leadership styles. As argued by al Habibi (2019), the “Primark” business organization has been facing the ethical dilemma of monitoring the behaviour of individual employees on computers. The organisation can overcome this dilemma by enhancing the security of their computer systems. The Hofstede cultural dimension of “Masculinity/Femininity” can help in maintaining the equality and emotional roles among the males and females working in a common workplace (Hofstede, 2011). The “Primark” organization has adopted this dimension by providing equal working opportunities to the people. Therefore, the organisation has been effectively moving towards resolving their ethical issues of Human resource management. There are many other ethical issues that have been faced by the “Primark” business organisation.
Further to this, the “Primark” business organization has been facing the ethical issue of sustainability and supply chain management. The poor workplace conditions of the “Primark’’ company have been impacting the sustainable business environment of the company. As argued by Xydia (2019), the “Primark” business have been moving their business to sustainability by using paper bags for packaging their products instead of plastic bags. On the contrary, the “Primark” business organisation has been bringing sustainability to their business by manufacturing environment friendly apparels. The CSR activities executed by the “Primark” company include storage of unsold items and giving them to the poor people. The supply chain of the “Primark” business organisation has got disrupted because the company is not able to manage the cultural differences among the suppliers who are present in different countries. The ethical issue related to sustainability can be resolved by considering the dimension of uncertainty avoidance that can help in measuring the stress level of the society for analysing the future. The ethical issue of the supply chain of the “Primark” business organisation can be overcome with the help of “long term/short term oriented” dimension of “Hofstede cultural dimension theory”. This dimension can help the organisation in attaining long term and short term business profits by developing trustful and loyal relations with the individuals (Rojo et al. 2020). The supply chain management of the business organisation can be improved by managing the manufacturing and production processes of the business organisation.
Furthermore it can be seen that the issue of human resource management and supply chain management have been argued in the two different journals. The journals based on “Hofstede’s cultural dimension” have effectively balanced the ethical issues discussed in the above two journals. The “Primark” business organisation can gain huge business profits only when it is able to analyse and evaluate its ethical issues appropriately. The firm needs to effectively manage their supply chain activities so that they can gain great competitive advantage in the market. The dilemma of human resource management also coincides with the ethical issue of sustainability and supply chain. This is because human resources of the organisation are the individuals who contribute in managing all the business processes of the organisation (Brewster, 2017). The business firm can manage their human resources effectively by providing them a motivating and hygienic workplace environment. The organization can make an effective use of information technology for managing their human resources effectively and provide them rewards and pay according to their talents and performance levels. The organisation needs to follow the “National minimum wage act 1998” that emphasizes on providing appropriate wages to employees so that they can fulfil their basic needs of life (Gov.uk, 2021). The firm also needs to follow employment and consumer protection laws for managing their business operations and resolve all the ethical issues.
Conclusion
The applications of cultural dimension theory can help in resolving all the cultural differences that are faced by the “Primark” company in different locations of the world. The assignment has discussed the concept of ethical issues resolved with the help of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. The augmented studies have clearly explained the ethical issues but the journal has not provided appropriate measures for resolving those issues. The evidence for the ethical issue of poor human resource management prevailing in “Primark” company was given by the author “al Habibi” in his journal. In contrast to him the other author represented the ethical issue of sustainability and supply chain that are in relation with the proper human resource management. The leaders and HR managers of the organisation needs to be trained well so that they can manage essential resources of the organisation effectively.
References
al Habibi, B. (2019). HR practices of Marks & Spencer, Selfridges, Primark, and Sainsbury’s (Doctoral dissertation, University of Science & Technology). <https://www.academia.edu/download/58994399/HR_practices_of_Marks___Spencer__Selfridges__Primark__and_Sainsburys_Fundamentals_of_HRM__MBA-641__AUST20190422-13756-1nofjvu.pdf>
Brewster, C. (2017). The integration of human resource management and corporate strategy. Policy and practice in European human resource management, 22-35. <https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=5jwlDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA22&dq=human+resource+of+organisation&ots=tmVZyfrNRu&sig=ePWhKCfzPQ_T1jjCTDsgwJnnn5A&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=human%20resource%20of%20organisation&f=false>
Gov.uk (2021) “National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates” <https://www.gov.uk/national-minimum-wage-rates>
Hofstede, G. (2011). Dimensionalizing cultures: The Hofstede model in context. Online readings in psychology and culture, 2(1), 2307-0919. <http://mchmielecki.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/64591689/hofstede_dobre.pdf>
Huang, S. S., & Crotts, J. (2019). Relationships between Hofstede’s cultural dimensions and tourist satisfaction: A cross-country cross-sample examination. Tourism Management, 72, 232-241. <https://123project.ir/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Relationships-between-Hofstedes-cultural-dimensions-and-tourist-satisfaction-A-cross-country-cross-sample-examination.pdf>
Primark.com (2021) “Primark Retail company” <http://www.primark.com/>
Rojo, J., Everett, B., Ramjan, L. M., Hunt, L., & Salamonson, Y. (2020). Hofstede’s cultural dimensions as the explanatory framework for performance issues during clinical placement: A mixed methods study. Nurse Education Today, 94, 104581. <https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0260691720314313>
Xydia, N. (2019). Sustainably-conscious consumers’ perceptions, attitudes and behaviours towards the fast fashion industry: A Case of Primark. <https://www.academia.edu/download/64141260/MN7020%20-%20159006920.pdf>
