Module 8: Portfolio Project

Running head: PM6OP1: CULTURAL CHALLENGES 1

PM6OP1: Cultural Challenges

Sean Bender

Colorado State University – Global Campus

HRM570 – Global Human Resource Management Leadership

Dr. Tiffanie Deloach

March 22, 2020

PM6OP1: CULTURAL CHALLENGES 2

PM6OP1: Cultural Challenges

Culture is defined as the collection of social behaviors found in human societies.

Additionally, culture is the knowledge, laws, beliefs, arts, habits, and capabilities of the

individual groups within societies (Cobley, 2017). On the other hand, international human

resource management (IHRM), defined by Rao (2019), as “the process of acquiring, allocating,

and utilizing human resources in a global environment to achieve the stipulated goals” (Rao,

2019, para 17).

An important issue in an IHRM context is making sure that they can understand and

maintain cultural diversity. Also, it is seen that working with individuals from diverse locales

and national/cultural/social circumstances means acclimating the organization’s workstyle to

novel concepts, as well as fresh means of communication, in addition to new and inexperienced

societal practices.

This essay seeks to develop a framework with which the international human resource

management (IHRM) function can be able to address. An example of a cultural challenge here is

a professional misunderstanding due to cultural differences. One can think of three steps to

include in the framework of IHRM to address the cultural challenges affecting them.

Due Diligence (Step One)

In this step, the IHRM must identify the issues concerning HR culture that affect cost.

Therefore, it is crucial to determine any hidden potential cost liabilities and looking at the costs

of aligning rewards. Also, it is critical to ensure that the international HR management team has

the right people by identifying key positions, positions under restructuring, and management

retention. The international HR management should also get the management focused on other

PM6OP1: CULTURAL CHALLENGES 3

right things by communicating clearly and regularly to stakeholders and making sure to achieve

the common goal. Other important aspects of this step are that the international HR management

should drive the right behaviors through business, put in place and deliver a proper management

change program, and deliver the operational HR during integration.

Merger Steps

Mergers in HRM are the process of amalgamating two or more organizations under one

common goal and management structure (Rodríguez-Sánchez, Mora-Valentín, & Ortiz-de-

Urbina-Criado, 2019) into one. There are various ways in which international HR management

can address the cultural challenges using this step. For instance, international HR management

should identify the specific cultural issues. Later, the HRM should take deliberate steps to create

a clear and compelling vision of the cultural change, which will enable the organization to thrive.

The HRM should then plan to tackle and succeed in their process of addressing cultural issues.

Post-Merger Steps

Post-merger steps are the last in the process of the framework that usually come after the

merger steps. This means that the HRM needs to bring two completely different workforces

together in a way that it will be a success in the future (Weber, 2019). Therefore, when

addressing the cultural issues in the post-merger steps, the HRM must create a performance

review system where they can review whether their addressing of the cultural challenge was a

success. Additionally, the HRM needs to create a training and development plan which will seek

to identify any cultural issue and tackle it. Lastly, there is a necessity for the development of

communication strategies of international HRM, where the policies of HR get communicated to

employees and stakeholders regarding the culture.

PM6OP1: CULTURAL CHALLENGES 4

References

Cobley, P. (2017). Culture, Definitions of. The international encyclopedia of intercultural

communication, 1-5. doi:10.1002/9781118783665.ieicc0020

Larsson, R., & Finkelstein, S. (1999). Integrating strategic, organizational, and human resource

perspectives on mergers and acquisitions: A case survey of synergy

realization. Organization Science, 10(1), 1-26. Retrieved from

www.jstor.org/stable/2640385

Rao, P. S. (2019). International human resource management: Meaning, need, challenges and

issues. Retrieved from https://www.businessmanagementideas.com/international-human-

resource-management/international-human-resource-management/19613

Rodríguez-Sánchez, J., Mora-Valentín, E., & Ortiz-de-Urbina-Criado, M. (2019). Human

resource management in merger and acquisition planning. Journal of Organizational

Change Management, 33(1), 16-28. doi:10.1108/jocm-01-2018-0007

Weber, Y. (2019). The role of organizational identity in post-merger integration. Palgrave

Studies in Cross-disciplinary Business Research, In Association with EuroMed Academy

of Business, 91-107. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-17523-8_5