Culture and Human Resource Practices

Upon successful completion of this week’s lesson, you should be prepared to:

· Debate the effects of Culture and Human Resources practices within the workplace

Review this week’s Learning Resources, especially:

· Chapter 14 – (See attachment )

· W8 Lecture – Global Expansion (See attachment)

· Managing in a Global Economy Unit 5 International Human Resource Management – YouTube

Mello, J. (2015). Strategic Human Resources Management (4th edition). South-Western, Cengage Learning ISBN: 9781285426792

Assignment:

Assignment:

Respond to two or more colleagues, preferably ones that have yet to receive a response, in the following way:

· Propose two suggestions on something your colleague can do in the future to positively change the behavior they identified.

· Provide a rationale for your suggestions based on your experience and the Learning Resources for the week.

· 3 – 4 paragraphs

· No plagiarism

· APA citing

1st Colleague – Tania Darders

Tania Darder Week 8

How can culture impact globalization and Human Resources practices, and what are the risks when conducting business in a foreign country?

Businesses gaining access to new capital in foreign countries and markets is call globalization. Bringing employees together in a foreign market can pose different challenges and risks that leaders, managers and human resource professionals will face and will have to resolve. One of the risks organizations face is finding language services such as translations especially when it comes to establishing contacts, as well as expanding their staff to tend to current employees but also provide support for new employees. When globalizing a business human resource departments need to be aware of the countries culture and how it may affect the workplace (Natter, 2020). . I work in Civil Engineering and have worked as a Construction Inspector. As a female it is not uncommon to see women working in positions or serving in role that stereotypically are “males”. The military in a way is a globalized organization where Local Nationals are part of the work force and the culture of the country affects the workplace. I was deployed to Saudi Arabia in 2009 as Construction Inspector, however, I was pulled from many of my jobs because of the culture. In the civilian sector this can be labeled as gender discrimination. The cultural differences is the biggest risk in conducting business in foreign countries. I think of Wal-Mart’s failure in expanding to Germany, when Wal-Mart began business in Germany in the late 90s, they attempted to bring a concept which was successful in the United States without taking into consideration the German culture and demands.

Another impact of globalization is that Human Resource departments need to be familiar with the country’s labor and environmental laws, and the differences of tax rates. I defer back to Walmart’s failure in understanding German laws prohibits companies from using a ‘below-cost strategy’ (Thomas, n.d.). Another risk an organization can face when operating business in foreign countries comes to working with the country’s Union. Wal-Mart is a non-unionized organization and is accustomed to operating businesses where there is not wage bargaining system. In Germany, the Union and companies work closely together so employees are taken care of and the companies are meeting their organizational goals. Wal-Mart is a prime example of risks and challenges that Human Resources and management face when expanding business to other countries and how the expansion can fail when not considering the culture of the country and workplace.

References

Mello, J. (2015). Strategic Human Resource Management. 4th edition ebook. Cengage.

Natter, E. (2020, July 8). Effects of Globalization on Human Resources Management. Human Resource Plans. https://smallbusiness.chron.com/effects-globalization-human-resources-management-61611.html.

Thomas, M. (n.d.). 9 Reasons Walmart Failed in Germany . Retrieved from QuerySprout: https://querysprout.com/why-walmart-failed-in-germany/

2nd Colleague – Stephen Jarman

Stephen Jarman

Week 8 Discussion Assignment – Culture and Human Resource Practices

Top of Form

Hi everyone, and happy week 8!

I appreciate this week’s question both from the perspective of Mello and from my own experience. I look forward to reading your responses and your threads. Wishing everyone a great weekend.

Impact of Culture on Different Globalization Scenarios

Mello does a good job of summarizing in table 14.1 (reproduced below) with focus and considerations that HR would need to consider across an array of approaches to the globalization question. This information could serve as a useful tool to the HR professional for accommodating the organization’s human capital in any one of the four orientations.

Orientation

Aspect of the Enterprise

Ethnocentric

Polycentric

Regiocentric

Geocentric

Standard Setting, Evaluation, & Control

By home country HQ

By local subsidiary management

Coordination across countries in the region

Global as well as local standards & control

Communication & Coordination

From HQ to local subsidiary

Little among subsidiaries, little between subsidiary & HQ

Little between subsidiary & HQ, medium to high among subsidiaries in region

Totally connected network of subsidiaries & subsidiaries with headquarters

Staffing

Home country managers

Host country managers

Managers may come from nations within region

Best people where they can be best used

(Mello, 2015). In each of the three aspects that Mello has listed, comparisons between categorizations would be an early exercise for establishing policies and practices. As an example, in consideration of setting standards between the ethnocentric and polycentric orientation, I have seen where common manufacturing safety rules in the US cannot, and should not, be enforced in Sweden. That may sound like Sweden’s safety rules are more suspect but, in fact, it’s the opposite. While I was working as an expat in a factory in central Sweden that was owned by my American employer that operated under an ethnocentric orientation, the V.P. of global operations insisted that workers in that factory had to wear hearing protection. At first, I agreed with this because I, as an American, also assumed that to be correct. But the factory manager, who was from that area, argued that if his people had to wear hearing protection, they had failed to create a working environment that was safe! I had to agree with him on that and learned an important lesson – Americans tend to administrate safety after-the-fact, rather than design it into the process.

Example of Risks of Conducting Business in a Foreign Country

The risks of doing business globally are manifold in regard to profitability, liability, human and intellectual capital risks, among other areas that could be damaged if mistakes are made. One example is, Walmart attempted to establish discount retail grocery outlets in Germany in the early 2000s. Walmart’s deeply discounted, store-branding merchandizing model works in the U.S., but it flopped in Germany for two main reasons: i) Germany’s discount grocery outlets such as Lidl and Aldi had well-established supply chains in the EU that Walmart couldn’t gain an advantage of scale, and ii) Walmart did not understand the German shopper who was offended when their groceries were bagged by store employees…seems minor but Germans do not want others touching their food items. In summary, local markets are not always amenable to other country’s business models and some supply chains are not available as they are in the home market (David, 2006).