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21889-08-HRMinaGlobalContext.pdf

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P R O J E C T : F U T U R E

Dr Helena Liu

2 1 8 8 9

Week 8 — HRM in a Global Context

Last week in this subject, we examined

diversities and the backlash against them.

We explored feminist and anti-racist

challenges against inequality at work and

societies.

REVIEW

REVIEW OF WEEK 6 WHAT DOES DIVERSITY MEAN? Diversity management is understood in diverse ways in different

countries and in different organisations. In many organisations, it is

reduced to the idea of counting women.

IDENTITY IS SOCIALLY CONSTRUCTED What it means to be a ‘man’, ‘woman’, ‘white’, ‘Black’, etc. has changed

over time and across contexts. A sociological analysis looks at how these

cultural understandings of identity are shaped by power.

GENDERED AND RACIALISED ORGANISATIONS Rather than focusing on individual and interpersonal actions, we can

examine the ways organisations are inherently gendered and racialised

to understand institutionalised patriarchy and white supremacy.

FEMINISMS, QUEERING AND ANTI-RACISM Challenging the ideologies of patriarchy, heteronormativity and white

supremacy requires systemic interventions.

D I V E R S I T Y A N D

I N C L U S I O N

Dr Helena Liu

2 1 8 8 3

Runs in Autumn sessions every year. See the subject description at: https://handbook.uts.edu.au/subjects/details/21883.html

Photograph of the Civil Rights March on Washington, 28th August, 1963 courtesy of the National Archives.

MULTIPLE CHOICE QUIZ REVIEW

HRM IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT

AGENDA HRM in a global context

• What are the processes of international HRM?

• What is cross-cultural management and how can

it be problematic?

• Hofstede’s cultural dimensions

• Backdrop of imperialism

• Decolonising HRM

I N T E R N A T I O N A L H R M P R O C E S S E S

S E C T I O N

Organisations operating across nations need to bridge the divide between being globally coherent with their human resource policies

and practices while being sensitive to local requirements.

(Harzing and Pinnington, 2014)

A holistic approach advocates preparing

expatriates for native languages,

communication styles and cultural values.

Traditionally, organisations focussed on

technical skills and neglected the ways each

specific assignment context may demand a

particular combination of skills, abilities and

personalities.

PREPARATION AND TRAINING

PREPARATION AND TRAINING As international assignments are, fundamentally, social

encounters, the role of emotions cannot be ignored (Tan et al.,

2005).

In Boncori and Vine’s (2014) article, emotions (or lack thereof)

were vital aspects of communication and identity.

Coping with the psycho-emotional adjustment of an

international assignment also contributed to exhaustion and

burnout.

C R O S S - C U L T U R A L M A N A G E M E N T

S E C T I O N

CROSS-CULTURAL MANAGEMENT Cross-cultural management is one of the areas in international

human resources most entrenched in imperialist ideology.

Cultural Frameworks Although international human resource management argues for the

need for universal knowledge, the concepts, theories, models and the

scholars who inscribe them are typically Anglo-American (Banerjee and

Linstead, 2001; Kwek, 2003; Westwood, 2001). The purpose of such

frameworks is to provide simple, digestible overviews of non-Western

countries so that corporations (usually in the United States) can formulate

strategies for international expansion.

CROSS-CULTURAL MANAGEMENT Unsurprisingly… Underlying this work is often the notion that managerial competencies

outside the West are inferior. For example, cross-cultural management

texts have argued that the Middle Eastern is said to prefer technocratic

managers who focus on sterile considerations such as efficiency,

productivity and output; India and Indonesia are frequently characterised

as deeply paternalistic, which is said to be due to the propensity for their

population to accept a passive and dependent role; the Japanese is

allegedly a highly formal country based on their feudalist traditions which

would suggest a limited capacity for leadership initiative among

professionals, and so on and so forth.

(Jack and Westwood, 2009)

CULTURAL ESSENTIALISM Most cross-cultural theories assume that culture (sometimes

lumped in with nationality, ethnicity and race) is a deep-rooted

determinant of behaviour shared across an entire social group.

When I studied international HRM, it struck me that ‘China’ was

described as an unitary culture that is collectivist and

Confucian but also backward, oppressive, corrupt and difficult

(Kwek, 2003). But what is ‘Chinese culture’ and does it even

exist? (see Ang, 2014)

Geert Hofstede (1928–)

In Culture’s Consequences, Hofstede (1980,

p. 44) claimed to have “uncover[ed] the

secrets of entire national cultures”. Using

data from employee attitude surveys across

66 IBM subsidiaries, he created profiles for

each country.

CULTURAL DIMENSIONS

Cultural Dimensions

Individualism vs

Collectivism

Power Distance

Uncertainty Avoidance

Masculinity versus

Femininity

Long- vs Short-Term Orientation

CULTURAL DIMENSIONS Within Hofstede’s framework, profiles for 15 of the

countries evaluated were extrapolated from fewer

than 200 survey responses. However, as Hofstede

assumed each country was culturally homogenous,

small sample sizes were deemed irrelevant to the

framework’s accuracy.

I M P E R I A L I S M S E C T I O N

The European colonial project defined

other cultures and peoples from the

perspective of the West, dominating

through not just military power but the

imposition of European worldviews

(Chakrabarty, 1992).

IMPERIALISM

The three races according to the German

Meyers Konversations-Lexikon of 1885-90.

Fundamental to European worldviews is the assumption that the primitive, savage and unruly non-West is incapable of self-definition and

thus necessitates ‘objective’ Western scientific classification.

(Said, 1978)

Lord Cromer (1841–1917, right) instructed that “Orientals … could

not learn to walk on sidewalks, could not tell the truth, could

not use logic”. Meanwhile, a missionary lamented that “the

Hindu is inherently untruthful and lacks moral courage”.

(Said, 1994, p.151)

THINKING SOCIOLOGICALLY Most studies of expatriation assumes the default of a ‘Western’

professional who goes abroad. This assumption traditionally

overlooked family relations.

At the same time, we have ignored voices from the host

countries conducted outside the West. How their work and

lives are impacted by expatriates remain under-explored

(Abdelrehim et al., 2018; Boncori and Vine, 2014).

D E C O L O N I S A T I O N S E C T I O N

DECOLONISING HRM The first decolonial intervention of management is to ‘see the

strange’ in management theory and practice.

Overwhelming focus on functionalism.

What is not said (e.g., cultural control, the social construction of

identity, race and colonialism, etc.) offers important insights

into the function of management and organisations.

(Ruggunan, 2016)

DECOLONISING HRM Colonial Double Consciousness Management beyond ‘the West’ needs to free itself from the

dominant Anglo-American idealisations of management

(Gantman, Yousfi and Alcadipani, 2015).

Speaking from his context of South Africa, Ruggunan (2016, p.

110) traces how the so-called management sciences normalised

racial categorisations and treated Black bodies as resources to

be “controlled, disciplined and punished”.

DECOLONISING HRM For whom do we do HRM and for what purpose?

Is it only to increase organisational and performance

efficiencies? Is it to increase the career mobility of

professionals (or of academics)? Or is it to maintain

the socio-political status quo?

By critically asking and answering these questions,

we may begin to identify and challenge the dominant

power structures in our society.

WEEK 10 The Failings of HRM

Crisis, resistance and activism

Read the required readings, attend the

lecture and tutorial.

NEXT WEEK

REFERENCES DECOLONIAL THEORY

Banerjee, S.B. and Linstead, S. (2001), ‘Globalization, multiculturalism and other fictions: Colonialism for the new millennium?’, Organization, 8(4), pp. 683–722.

Bhambra, G.K., Gebrial, D. and Nişancıoğlu, K. (eds.) (2018), Decolonising the University. London: Pluto Press.

Chakrabarty, D. (1992), ‘Postcoloniality and the artifice of history: Who speaks for “Indian” pasts?’, Representations, (37), pp. 1–26.

Gantman, E.R., Yousfi, H. and Alcadipani, R. (2015), ‘Challenging Anglo-Saxon dominance in management and organizational knowledge’, Revista de Administração de Empresas, 55(2), pp. 126–129.

* Kwek, D. (2003), ‘Decolonizing and re-presenting culture’s consequences: A postcolonial critique of cross- cultural studies in management’, in Prasad, A. (ed.) Postcolonial Theory and Organizational Analysis: A Critical Engagement. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 121–146.

Ruggunan, S.D. (2016), ‘Decolonising management studies: A love story’, in Critical Management Studies in the South African Context. Cape Town: Acta Commercii. pp. 103–259. Available at: http://www.scielo.org.za/pdf/acom/v16n2/05.pdf.

Said, E.W. (1994), Culture and Imperialism. New York: Vintage Books.

Said, E.W. (1978), Orientalism. London: Penguin.

* = the required readings of the topic

REFERENCES INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Abdelrehim, N., Ramnath, A., Smith, A., et al. (2018), ‘Ambiguous decolonisation: A postcolonial reading of the IHRM strategy of the Burmah Oil Company’, Business History, pp. 1–29. doi:00076791.2018.1448384.

* Boncori, I. and Vine, T. (2014), ‘“Learning without thought is labour lost, thought without learning is perilous”: The importance of pre-departure training and emotions management for expatriates working in China’, International Journal of Work Organisation and Emotion, 6(2), pp. 155–177.

Harzing, A.W. and Pinnington, A. (2014), International Human Resource Management. 4th edn. London: Sage.

Hofstede, G. (1980), ‘Motivation, leadership, and organization: Do American theories apply abroad?’, Organizational Dynamics, 9(1), pp. 42–63.

Hofstede, G. (2001), Culture’s consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions and Organizations across Nations. 2nd edn. Thousand Oaks: Sage.

Jack, G. and Westwood, R. (2009), International and Cross-Cultural Management Studies: A Postcolonial Reading. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Tan, J.A.C, Härtel, C.E.J., Panipucci, D. and Strybosch, V.E. (2005), ‘The effect of emotions in cross-cultural expatriate experiences’, Cross Cultural Management: An International Journal, 12(2), p. 12.

REFERENCES INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Westwood, R. (2001), ‘Appropriating the Other in the discourses of comparative management’, in Westwood, R. and Linstead, S. (eds.) The Language of Organization. London: Sage, pp. 242–283.

CULTURAL STUDIES AND HISTORY

Ang, I. (2014), ‘Beyond Chinese groupism: Chinese Australians between assimilation, multiculturalism and diaspora’, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 37(7), pp. 1184–1196.

Hage, G. (1998), White Nation: Fantasies of White Supremacy in a Multicultural Society. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis.

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