International Human Resource Management

Introduction

This paper examines how management and national cultures relate. It does so by analyzing the financial performance of a multinational company in Europe and Asia by utilizing Hofstedes five national culture dimensions and analogous management practices (Newman & Nollen, 1996). The paper was written by Newman L. K. & Nollen D. S and was published in the Journal of International business studies.

Thesis

The author’s major thesis for this research is that multinational enterprises need to adopt their management practices to the national cultures in which they operate in order to achieve high business performance. To them, work units that are managed consistently with national cultural expectations will be better performing than work units whose management practices do not fit with national cultures.

Supporting arguments

The article begins by defining culture as beliefs and assumptions learned in early childhood that distinguish one people or the other (Beck & Moore 1985) and Hoftedes definition of culture as software of the mind (1991). It further goes on to point out the fact that national cultures vary and that management practices across these cultures varies and these cultures and management practices do affect work performance. To support this argument, the article has measured work performance in different countries in Asia and Europe and the United States based on Hofstedes five national culture dimensions which are power distance, uncertainty avoidance, Individualism- collectivism, Masculinity- femininity and Long term vs. short term orientation.

Article summary

From their studies, the article concludes that work performance is higher when management practices are congruent with national culture due to the fact that the hypothesis is supported by four of the five culture dimensions analyzed.

In particular, the study found that there was higher work performance in countries with lower power distance when participation was high and that work performance was lower in countries with higher power distance when participation was high and the opposite also held true (Newman L. K. & Nollen D. S. 1996).

In individualistic countries, the study concludes that performance is higher when management emphasized on individual employee contributions and that in collective cultures, performance was higher in work units that emphasized less on individual employee contributions (Newman & Nollen, 1996).

The hypothesis also held true on masculinity femininity dimension of culture where they found out that work units in masculine cultures tend to be higher performing when management made more use of merit based rewards for pay and promotions while in feminine cultures work units did better when less merit based reward systems was used.

In long term orientation cultures, work units whose management practices valued long term permanent solutions did better than those that stressed on quick fixes and the opposite was true for short term oriented cultures. Furthermore, in long term oriented cultures work units with more employment security did better than work units with less employment securities and the opposite was also true for the short term oriented cultures (Newman & Nollen, 1996).

Lastly, the hypothesis that there is congruence between uncertainty avoidance in the national culture and the clarity of management practices being important for high work unit performance was only partially supported since in low uncertainty avoidance cultures there was no consistent performance difference between congruent and non congruent work units (Newman & Nollen, 1996).

Analysis

In my opinion I do find this paper to be reliable due to the fact that it has managed to utilize actual data in order to prove whether their argument is correct or not. Therefore the study placed emphasis on factual information rather than opinions.

Secondly the article acknowledges the shortcomings that it has rather than avoiding to point this out in order to come up only with arguments that support their theory.

The main weak point also comes from its strong point which is data. The study did not gather its own data but relied on secondary materials and as such there is a possibility that this data may not be very accurate a situation which may lead to different outcomes.

Application

This article is very relevant to HR practices since it shows a clear correlation of how cultural settings can affect productivity depending on whether the HR practices are aligned to those cultural settings or not. For example in my place of work participation by employees in the decision making process is very important because we live in a low power distance society and if the organization were to change this strategy and adopt less employee participation, then employee morale will go down and the organization is going to have less productivity.

Conclusion

This paper provides a clear understanding of how cultural backgrounds affect work performance and how important it is to align HR practices to cultural expectations in multinational firms by providing a factual analysis of how culture affects work productivity.

References

Beck, B. E.F. & Moore, L. E. (1985). Linking the host culture to organizational variables. In P.J. Frost et al., Organizational culture, 335-54. Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage.

Hofstede, G. (1980). Culture's consequences. Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage.

Newman L. K. & Nollen D. S. (1996) Culture and Congruence: The fit between management practices and national culture. Journal of International Business Studies, 27(4), p 753- 779: Retrieved from http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.proxy- library.ashford.edu/eds/results?sid=e4a423bd-f2ec-41ba-9f57- 9d9ef6a22bd4%40sessionmgr4003&vid=0&hid=4205&bquery=Culture+and+Congruenc e%3a+The+fit+between+management+practices+and+national+culture&bdata=JmNsaT A9RlQmY2x2MD1ZJnR5cGU9MCZzaXRlPWVkcy1saXZl