How does culture affect human resource management practices in different countries?

Culture is a broad collection of beliefs and traditions that affect behavior, often without conscious awareness. While human resource managers are tasked with the challenge of following the law and implementing good policies no matter where the business is located, local culture -- as well as the culture of a business -- can create specific challenges for an HR department. This may affect certain HR policies or necessitate the development of policies that help a business avoid recurrent problems.

Hiring Decisions

The culture of the area in which your business is located can greatly affect the pool of potential employees. For example, if you start a business in a technology-rich location with lots of recent engineering graduates, you'll have better luck finding employees if you're involved in technology. HR may have to adjust hiring policies -- either by lowering or raising standards -- to accommodate for local culture. Recruiting also can be affected; in some areas, aggressive recruiting may be viewed as favorable, but it may be considered as a negative in others.

Employee Relationships

Culture can strongly affect interpersonal styles. In some areas of the world, it's considered rude to touch someone during conversation or to speak in an expressive or affectionate way; in other areas, this behavior is expected and welcomed. Similarly, a business' culture can affect interactions. Some businesses maintain a casual, fun-loving environment, while others are highly formal. HR departments may need to make policy adjustments depending upon the standards at the business. Local culture also can pose potential problems for employee relationships. For example, in a culture where frequent touching is the norm, sexual harassment can be a concern, and HR may need to institute training sessions on appropriate physical contact.

Discrimination

Discrimination against minorities, such as the disabled, women and people of color, can pose major problems to businesses. These hurdles can include lawsuits, rapid turnover and a hostile or uncomfortable work environment. Businesses with a male-dominated culture or with little experience with minority groups may need additional HR policies to prevent discrimination. If the business is located in a country with a history of discrimination or that treats discrimination as a cultural norm, HR may need to conduct extensive anti-discrimination training.

Communication

Businesses often establish their own cultural approach to communication, and local cultures also can affect communication styles. When communication is unclear or employees are afraid to report problems, problems may escalate quickly out of control. HR departments may need to establish clear channels of communication as well as policies that encourage employees to communicate with management and HR.

References

Writer Bio

Van Thompson is an attorney and writer. A former martial arts instructor, he holds bachelor's degrees in music and computer science from Westchester University, and a juris doctor from Georgia State University. He is the recipient of numerous writing awards, including a 2009 CALI Legal Writing Award.

Human resources do have a challenging role to play in organizational culture, as it is the employees who work for the organization, who embrace and improve a particular culture within the organization. Any desired change to the culture of the organization has to be done through the employees and by the employees.

Organizational Culture and HR Practices

Basic HRM exercises like recruitment, selection, and training affect the performance and stability of an organization. These exercises have the ability to influence employee behavior and build values that develop the organizational culture.

Change in behavior defines how one acts or conducts oneself in any situation. Therefore, if HR exercises could positively affect the behavior, improving positive thinking about organizational initiatives towards the employees, it would lead to positive results for the business. Cultural values are part of the external factors that influence HR exercises. Cultural values command employee behavior.

In organizational cultures where employee engagement is common, it is more likely to have higher employee satisfaction and encouragement than the ones that do not favor employee involvement.

Anyhow, there might be various reasons why employees do not want to or speak out. Some employees might see this as an unnecessary risk, while others might simply have personal reasons like being shy or not being comfortable with the management.

Management Styles

An organization experiences different management styles that may change or remain steady with time.

There are different management styles that we come across while observing the management patterns of different private and public sector companies.

Let us take a look at the following management styles −

Collegial Style

In the collegial style, resources and rewards are uniformly distributed. The management control over the employees is restricted, resulting into employee empowerment. Individual duty is the basis of organizational performance.

Organizational success depends on the commitment that an employee has towards the work and the business. This key element and distributed values help create a unity of direction and focus on the part of the employees.

Meritocratic Style

In the meritocratic style, employees are bothered about productivity and cohesion. The management puts stress on performance. In short, this management style believes in the fact that power should be distributed on the merit basis.

Appointments are made and duties are assigned to individuals on the basis of their "merits", namely intelligence, credentials, and education, which are determined through evaluations or examinations, for example, Civil Service Exams.

Elite Style

In the elite management style, the organizational hierarchy is highly improvised. Power, resources, and rewards are focused at the top levels of the hierarchy. Employees have no say in the decisions made by the senior management.

Leadership Style

The leadership style of management has a lot in common with the elite style of management, but rather than a faction of leaders at the top level, it has leaders at different levels of the hierarchy. For example: the army.

In the next chapter, we will throw some light on how to manage diversity in workplace efficiently.

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