Christine William MGT 6220. E1, Exercise 1
by Christine William – Friday, 7 January 2022, 11:12 PM
It is obvious that HRM is different in Eastern hemisphere versus in the Western hemisphere. Each hemisphere is different in the way they motivate their employees. They are also different in ways they reward their employees. For instance, eastern countries focus on group reward and the team progress. In westerner countries, they focus on individuals and compensation packages. In the westerner world, competitiveness is noticeable when the individual practice being initiative and rewarded by personal growth. However, in the easterner countries, they are more practiced by individuals who are seniority or high performing teams rather than individuals. Communication between the two hemispheres is very different. In the eastern countries, employers tend to speak indirectly to their employees to save face, while westerner countries are more direct with their employees. In the easterner countries, they observe more with the individual’s nonverbal cues such as bowing etiquettes, facial expression, and the employee being punctual to work. In the westerner countries, emails and networking forum are being used the biggest importance. For conflicts, easterner and westerner countries handle conflicts completely differently. In the easterner world, employers work towards harmony and holistic approach to disagreement. However, in the westerner world, employers tend want to avoid the conflict and not address it. In conclusion, westerner countries are motivated by individuals and their achievements while the easterner countries are motivated by team achievements. To manage human resources effectively, it is important for companies to have culture awareness and to respond quickly to different type of environments.
Ltd, A. A. (2021, December 31). Comparing Human Resources United States and Japan commerce essay. UK Essays. Retrieved January 8, 2022, from https://www.ukessays.com/essays/commerce/comparing-human-resources-united-states-and-japan-commerce-essay.php
Discussion Post
by Oanh Thi Yen Pham – Wednesday, 15 December 2021, 11:56 AM
The HRM department is considered a vital part of any organization because it has a crucial impact on the development of the organization. Although the jobs of the HRM department of organizations are to attract, recruit, motivate, retain employees, managers of human resources have to face many challenges in regulating and conducting human resource planning, staffing, evaluating, rewarding, and training in the globalization and cross-cultural interaction. Consequently, cultural differences may affect the Assessment of strategic choices (Casseres, 1989), and would be expected to lead to differences in expectations regarding company operations, structure, and policies such as organizational structure, motivational programs, hiring policy, communication, and conflict resolution on competitiveness.
When Vietnam has joined some international trade organizations such as WTO, ASEAN, and AFTA (ASIAN Free Trade Area), it also created tremendous competition between local enterprises and foreign ones. Hence, Vietnamese enterprises have been challenged with implementing internal changes for managing human resources to keep pace with the competitors in the era of economic integration. Similarly, the multinational corporations operating in Vietnam are facing cultural differences in operations, especially in the HRM department, to compete with the local enterprises to attract more quality employees and retain the talents.
I would like to take the example of the United States and Vietnam to compare the cultural differences and HRM policies to respond to those differences.
Firstly, I use Hofstede Insight to compare the three typical cultural dimensions between the United States and Vietnam.
Dimension Vietnam The United States
Power Distance 70 (High) 40 (Low)
Individualism 20 (Low) 91 (High)
Uncertainty Avoidance 30 (Low) 46 (High)
According to Hofstede (2001), there are implications of three-dimension as follows
Implications of High Low
Power Distance More likely to accept the power inequality (Vietnam) All members are equal (USA)
Individualism Focus on the individual (USA) Focus on the relationship of the group as a whole (Vietnam)
Uncertainty Avoidance Willing to try something new (USA) People believe that there should be no more rules than are necessary. (Vietnam)
Based on the different cultural dimensions of these two countries, the international HRM departments should have the appropriate HRM policies in organizational structure, motivational programs, hiring policy, communication, and conflict resolution between countries to manage such differences.
For example, in a country of high power distance like Vietnam, employees will often equate age with wisdom and seniority. Therefore, the HRM department in Vietnam tends to hire experienced old people to manage or take leadership positions in the organization while the HRM department in the United States tends to qualified employees to leadership positions regardless of age. Another example is promotion and rewarding policy, for countries with high individualism like the United States, individuals are valued for their achievements and are rewarded and recognized for such achievements. In contrast, Vietnamese employees are hired and promoted mostly on the basis of association with a larger group. If the HRM department applies individualism rewarding policy of the United States to Vietnamese employees; consequently, it can result in tensions because the individual team member may become stigmatized.
For more precise, I would like to present the below table to compare some other different practices in the HRM departments between Vietnam and the United States.
Issues HRM Practices of Vietnam HRM Practices of the United States
Conflict Resolution HRM department practices conflict resolution in the tendency toward harmony and reducing animosity and avoiding violent actions that will weaken the relationship (Barki et al, 2004) HRM tends to exploit someone else.
Communication Communication is mostly contextual and indirect because of the need to save face, especially when employees’ performance dissatisfy company’s goal Verbally direct communication
Motivation or Rewarding HRM managers value collective rewards and steady progression Individual workers stand out when they exercise personal initiative and are duly rewarded through competitive remuneration and opportunities for growth.
As HRM plays a strategic role in contributing to an organization’s profitability, managers of the HRM department need to develop innovative practices to respond to cultural differences effectively to retain talents and recruit appropriate employees in the integrated competitive trade.
Reference:
Barki et al. (2004). Conceptualizing the construct of interpersonal conflict. International Journal of Conflict Management, 15(3), 216-44
Casseres, Gomes B. (1989). Joint Ventures in the Face of Global Competition. Sloan Management Review, 30(3), 17–26.
Hofstede, Geert (2001). Culture’s Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions, and Organizations Across Nations (2nd ed.). CA: Sage Publications. 107-108
Hofstede Insight (n.d). Compare Countries. https://www.hofstede-insights.com/product/compare-countries/
MGT 6220, Christine William, E1, Exercise 1
Friday, January 7, 2022, 11:12 PM by Christine William
HRM is clearly different in the Eastern hemisphere than in the Western hemisphere. The way each hemisphere motivates its people is distinct. They also have diverse approaches to rewarding their personnel. Eastern cultures, for example, place a premium on group rewards and team progress. Individuals and remuneration packages are the focus in western countries. Competitiveness is visible in the western culture when individuals exercise taking initiative and are rewarded with personal growth. Individuals with a high level of seniority or well-performing teams, rather than individuals, practice them in eastern countries. The two hemispheres communicate in very different ways. Eastern European countries
