model established by professor Geert Hofstede to implement cultural comparison of key cultural dimensions that influence performance planning

Abstract

The familiarity of cultural impacts assists IHRM in understanding cultural perspectives in a cross-cultural workplace. Since differences in culture can inhibit organization performance, it is good to explore how cultural dimensions can impact decision making. This report utilizes the model established by professor Geert Hofstede to implement cultural comparison of key cultural dimensions that influence performance planning and how work can be executed in the U.S. as compared to China.

This report concludes that cultural training will be needed to encourage Chinese team members to work beyond institutional norms, task execution and fully participate in growing the company’s success. Similarly, the expatriates will need cultural training to understand the significance of cultural disparity so they can adjust their communication practices accordingly. This will help the Chinese to understand the expatriates and overcome cultural barriers that inhibit the effective implementation of the adopted management system.

Introduction

Background

The internationalization of companies makes International Human Resource Management (IHRM) an essential tool for grasping better concepts concerning business globalization. IHRM has assisted international corporations and business organizations to learn a robust process that serves as an integral aspect to entrepreneurs in comprehending distinct and variable cultural and institutional differences in a company. Illes and Zhang (2013) identify the idea of national recognition of corporate firms as growing obsolete; hence there is a need for a continuous understanding of the internationalization process of businesses. Based on this comprehension, this paper presents a report of Headquarters (H.Q.) of Dell-EMC, which is a Multinational Corporation (MNC) that is a big player in the enterprise computing sector in the United States of America. Dell-EMC has plans underway to execute a common international talent management approach and training development management strategy across one of its global subsidiaries in China.

Harzing and Pinnington (2015) note that globalization has introduced a plethora of opportunities for international connectivity and relations to the professional world. As a result, organizational professionals are encountering a myriad of cultural differences in their subsidiary environments. Edwards and Rees (2011) warn that without a broader understanding of the variations in corporate culture, company professionals endanger inhibiting corporate success.

1.  Cultural and Institutional Approaches: Cultural Comparisons of U.S. And China

Cultural Dimensions by Hofstede

Professor Geert Hofstede carried out a robust study concerning how workplace values influence culture. By accumulating his outcomes based on several endeavors, Hofstede established a comprehensive model that demonstrated five fundamental dimensions to help multicultural managers in variating cultures. The dimensions are:

• Power Distance – PDI
• Individualism -IDV
• Masculinity -MAS
• Uncertainty Avoidance – UAD
• Long-Term Orientation – LTO (Crawley et al. 2013)

These five dimensions, as shown by Hofstede, can be applied in correlating the religious and cultural paradigms that exist in multi-nationalization. The outcomes of every dimension for each nation are supported by survey information from more than 45 regions and countries. While Hofstede’s content was expanded and updated in 1991, 2001, and 2005, it is still relevant, and applicable as well since multiple pieces of literature have used and cited by management practitioners and scholars. After updating and expansion of Hofstede’s work, contemporary results for 74 region and countries, partly centered on extensions and replications of Hofstede’s study on various international demographics (Crawley et al. 2013).

Hofstede’s cultural dimensions framework can be used for comparing the culture of the U.S. and the nation of China. Results from the comparison are shown below in figure 1. Scale by Hofstede systematically summarizes and categorizes major cultural dimensions that impact specific areas of the world. As shown in the graph, there are remarkable differences that exist between the outcomes in five of the four categories, exhibiting some very critical different cultural features between these two nations. Every different critical dimension is explored below:

Figure 1. Cultural Comparisons of the U.S. and China. This figure compares Professor Hofstede’s cultural dimension values for the United States of America to highlight cultural differences between the two nations.

Power Distance Relations

The PDI (power distance index) determines the degree that inferior members of the team expect and accept that power is equally distributed. Crawley et al. (2013) explain that the PDI, the level of skill in a society inequality, is steered by leaders and followers.  Figure 1 shows there is a huge variation between the United States and Chinese culture. The PDI of china score at 78 is much higher than that of America, which is at 40. This indicates that people from China readily accept inequalities.

Individualistic Against Collectivist Element

The individualism (IDV) dimension is a representation of the extent to which people are integrated into various groups. The IDV indicates a high score of 92 for the United States in figure 1 demonstrate their high levels of individualism. This implies that bonds between people are loose, and each individual is expected to look after himself. The low score by China at 21 indicates that it is a high rate of the spirit of characteristic collectivist, meaning the Chinese population is readily combined into influential, cohesive groups supported with loyalty other members of the group (Crawley, 2013).

Uncertainty Avoidance Against Acceptance

The uncertainty avoidance index (UAI) explores the team’s endurance for uncertainty. Additionally, the UAI shows the degree to which an ethnic framework its members to find comfortability in unstructured situations. From figure 1, the score for the U.S. is 45 of UAI, higher than the score for China 30, which shows that America slightly endures opinions that are different from what is familiar to them. They try to reduce uncertainty through the implementation of stringent laws and regulations.

Long-Term Against Short Term-Oriented Societies

The Long-Term Orientation (LTO) dimension evaluates the degree of a culture that takes part in long term relationships. On the LTO score, China record 120 nearly maxed out the scale bigger than the U.S. meagre score of 30, which implies that Chinese population values include perseverance and thrift more than the United States of America (Crawley et al. 2013).

2.   Knowledge of Cultural Dimension Can Assist Subsidiary Managers

Cultural dimensions knowledge will help the two female and two male managers to understand the perspective concerns of all stakeholders in China. The fact that cultural differences can be among significant business performance barriers, it will be crucial for the managers to consider the extent to which cultural dimensions affect the decision-making process. Edwards and Rees (2011) performed research that highlighted some of the beliefs and values of indigenous Chinese culture that will have to reshaped to match the IHRM guidelines. Their study was aimed at measuring areas that have conflicts with china’s culture, which can become a barrier when implementing the project management procedure in a cross-cultural setting. Since Edwards and Rees (2011) had the urge to perform this, by itself, it is a clear indication that it is a kind of problem that can be controlled.

They summarized that traditional beliefs and values of a strong family, boss, hierarchy and consciousness comprise empirically are significant cultural barriers. However, the doctrine of mean has zero influence on cultural inhibition. Conducting cross-cultural management education is vital to eradicating these cultural hindrances. The subsidiary project managers will have to develop cross-practical teams and communicate to individuals of disparity cultural backgrounds; therefore, it will be necessary for the managers to measure the effect of cultural barriers on the company’s task implementation.

The Doctrine of Mean (DOM)

Effective integration is an excellent tool for the success of globalization. Rees & Smith (2017) assert that integration needs that IHRM considers different opinions and surfaces for acknowledgement and discussion that can purposefully make cross-cultural teams invest in an insightful analysis of the company situations. It will be important for the managers to know that conflict in new cultures is unavoidable. So, they should formulate strategies that are aimed at finding solutions that are maturely centered on promoting healthy conversations across all the company staff. However, this will only be determined by the strategies that the managers will apply in conflict resolution. According to Confucian’s DOM, in the Chinese culture, IHRM is urged to foster harmony since it is the most precious tool when developing relationships among people and their intercultural dimensions. DOM emphasizes that IHRM should manage conflicts among individuals by advocating for their various views and opinions below the surface (Cooke et al., 2019).

Additionally, it is also expected that globalized organizational management should focus on less confrontational management strategies, and these techniques need to offer a direct way of addressing disagreements to protect people’s and own images. DOM advocates for people to apply to smooth and compromising approaches in handling conflict. Among the Chinese people, disputes are, therefore, buried and subsidiary company managers should look into ways of providing cultural training to assist Chinese people to take part in organizational rules fully. Consequentially, their input will be highly expected, and as a natural happening, some disagreements will be inevitable.

Horizontal Management Against Strong Hierarchical Dimensions

Cross-cultural management, as noted by Harzing and Pinnington (2015), emphasizes on the use of a horizontal management approach that is different from a vertical management design by encouraging a superior-subordinate and robust relationship. An individual’s status originates from their daily endeavors rather than their identity. Since most of the team members will be borrowed from functional society members and departments from Del-EMC in the U.S., Farndale et al., (2017) add that cross-cultural managers should consolidate their efforts without applying excessive effort to manage the people. With the availability of specific authority regarding the degree of accountability, the only way IHRM can enhance effective job performance is through influence (Farndale et al., 2017).

In contrast to this, in Chinese culture, the emphasis is on respect for the culture. Moreover, in traditional Chinese businesses, a junior manager must respect the senior manager and ensure obedience runs across the system. It is the role of the senior manager to guarantee protection and consideration to the junior manager. Since Chinese culture encourages organizational centralization and hierarchical policy formulation causes difficulties for the cross-operation, horizontal partnership and participative management that is needed by contemporary management activities.

Integrated Teams Against Family Consciousness

A cross-cultural manager is a person who oversees workers from a culture that is different from his own or manages employees in a team that come from different nations (Chung, 2015). In a cross-cultural environment, each discipline serves a crucial duty to ensure the successful implementation of activities within the company. On the other hand, Chinese culture focuses on kinship and family relations in executing business duties. Most of the relationships in China are described as being ones within family members. Additionally, members of the family are connected by different types of individual links that serve in concentric circles, with immediate family members sitting at the center and distant relatives, acquaintances and friends planned on the periphery regarding the distance of the interaction and the level of trust. Due to this, capable cross-cultural managers may find it challenging to operate in the traditional Chinese workplace unless they form family or kinship ties within the subsidiary organization (Minbaeva & De Cieri, 2014).

Task Orientation versus Boss Orientation

In Chinese culture, IHRM professional appears to be task-oriented, not person or boss oriented. The focus is to get everything done as scheduled. The Chinese culture carries the traditional benefits and values of a stable hierarchy (Wang et al., 2014). The Chinese people are characterized as keeping the boss happy instead of getting the job done. This is because the Chinese see the hierarchical position as the most crucial strategy for respecting and evaluating managers. This means that the duty of the managers to get the task done is seen as a secondary consideration in china. Therefore, the subsidiary company managers should know that boss orientation will be a significant cultural barrier, hence the need to get the job finished and keeping the boss’s strategies should be devised for the success of the company.

Neo-Liberalism Versus Neo-Corporatist

The U.S. culture believes in neo-liberalism doctrine. This concept focuses on the desirability and potency of economic process in resource allocation and generating economic wealth and efficiency (Adekola & Sergi, 2016). In a neo-liberalism culture, free movement of labor and capital is adopted, as an individual potential of economic actors to be accountable for their own actions. Therefore, the significant concern of IHRM is to ascertain that commercial systems stay deregulated, this means, the state should not disrupt in the primary behavior of economic players and that the freedom to control occurs without much pressure.

Neo-liberalism is an extremely an influential governmental element in the United States of America. Wang et al., (2017) note that Emerging from this, a damaging perspective is implemented of state-owned sectors and unionism, both of which are deemed as owning a collectivistic and monopolistic preference that operate to inhibit the free movement of market forces.

On the contrary Chinese population believes in the institutional ideology of neo-corporatist, which emphasizes the proactive role of the state is looking for mediation and integration concerns of several mighty communal gatherings, especially those representing capital and labor. In contrast to neoliberalism, neo-corporatist ideology is that the movement approach by economic forces potentially triggers irregular results (Quer et al., 2017). Additionally, it is related with considerable inequity of material within the societal setting, which is devastating to the public beneficial as well as permanent economic competitiveness.

In China, neo-corporatist maintains that market preference should be moderated by immense social familiarity of market results, that is prompted via unanimity decision making with the inclusion of vital societal players. Social partnership is among the prevalent institutional model promoted by the neo-corporatist school that involves representatives of capital and labor in policy formulation at different levels of the economy. This model of economic management upholds that worker commitment and skill acquisition to organizational goals and it is advocated on national systems and infrastructures that are highly established for social wellness (Bücker et al., 2014). Neo-corporatist philosophy is authoritative in China, which is commonly named as CMEs (coordinated market economies).

3.  Advantages and Disadvantages of Working in A Diverse and Multicultural Group.

Advantages

If the two women and men expect the subsidiary company to compete and succeed in china, they will want to examine a close examination of the advantages and disadvantages of cross-cultural and diversity in the workplace. Working in cross-cultural settings is associated with better financial outcomes. Multiple studies have demonstrated that MNC operates with diverse employees who have more returns than a homogenous business. A report by Zhu et al. (2014) on public companies identified that MNC with interracial and cultural diversity in their management were 40% more probable to have significant financial returns. A diverse managerial comprising of two women and men will form a channel for informal and formal human resource associated approaches, which will help the subsidiary company their administrative ability to foster competitiveness. Graves (2016) competitiveness is accomplished by designing practices aimed at finding the right talent, career planning, alignment of employee positions, encouraging for working skills development and rewarding workers for their influence in the company growth.

The diverse managerial group enhances fact-based decision making. Multicultural managerial groups appear to focus on facts when formulating sound decisions. They go beyond the old-school method of thinking, investigating and re-examining events to uphold objective, hence making better decisions for their subsidiary organization. Multinational corporations’ groups can quickly discover their prejudices and serve to avoid them when implementing significant business policies. Another advantage that the diverse managerial group will enjoy is the availability of creativity and innovative thinking associated with working in a multicultural group.

If every individual think and acts alike, the chances are that you are probable to see similar-old when concerning practices to goods, distribution, sales, marketing, and management. However, when many individuals approach problems and difficulties from various perspectives, managers will identify more innovative solutions. Research by Niles (2019) has posited that MNC has diversity, which boosts innovation and advances market growth. The four managers will have an opportunity to understand cross-cultural settings. In this growing diverse world, intercultural understanding will bring a better working atmosphere and a better world. Rather than depending on a crutch of obsolete world misconceptions and prejudices, cross-cultural workgroups will improve both internal and external outcomes for businesses.

Disadvantages

Since Dell-EMC will just be starting to recognize the forces of diversification, there will be a likelihood of problems of creating a comprehensive workplace. According to Gullestrup, (2016), old-school way of thinking and entrenched prejudices my barricade the organizational efforts as well as creating conflict and tension. Further, during cultural collisions, there will be misunderstandings of various meanings. Therefore, the management will want to buy in and train employees across the board if Dell-EMC subsidiary in china if it plans to have its primary measure of success. Another possible disadvantage that will significantly impact the cross-cultural management group is the temporary cost expenditure. Relying on how long the managers have been in the company world, they could already be aware of the challenges associated with accommodations in the workplace. For instance, if the company will have Muslim employees, the managers will be forced to provide them with space and time for daily prayers.

Moreover, transgender employees will need individual bathrooms designed for them. Therefore, as the managers face a more diversified workplace, they should prepare for associated costs that they did not consider before.

4.  The Role of The Expatriate

The expatriate’s role will be understanding trends in the labor market in China environments. They will also be tasked with obtaining and executing data regarding the availability of skills, demographics like the racial mix, gender and ag surrounding the market rates pay and the subsidiary (Rodriguez-Clare, 2018). They will need to have Familiarity with traditional laws affecting the recruitment and severance process, which may inhibit desired policies. It is also the role of the expatriate to plan for worker and management mobility between the subsidiary and the parent company as well as across subsidiary practices to satisfy global business requirements. Dowd et al. (2017) state that expatriates do the facilitation of international recruitment. So, they will have to gain knowledge about the training and educational qualifications in China and vary them with global approaches to recruitment and selection.

If they will be recruiting staff from abroad, that is employing potential expatriates; there will be the need for testing specific competencies and qualities, for instance, personal adaptability, language skills, and cross-cultural sensitivity (Kotabe & Kothari, 2016). It will be the role of the expatriates to plan for international training and development. Since the subsidiary will be straddling global limits, earning Familiarity of diverse institutional practices and training and development in the national systems of china will be an excellent task at hand for the expatriates. This could be related to the extent of active partnership between work and educational establishments and, more specifically, the degree of corporate or national investment into education and training. Graves (2016) suggests that if preparing international leaders to take overseas functions, a particular set of training requirements is most likely to erupt, associating to competence in intercultural communication and working.

Additionally, the expatriates are also tasked for providing international pay and rewards, execute international performance management and consultative obligations.

5.  Conclusions and Recommendations

Conclusions

The IHRM should consider best international practices by following the processes described in the framework that is being embraced by several countries across the world. The cross-cultural managers should be used to develop a common baseline of understanding during the collaborations of multicultural teams from various nations. Professional expatriates certificate training on the recruitment approaches should advocate for measures aimed at overcoming cultural hindrances. Furthermore, due to the globalization of marketplaces, expatriates’ professionals are expected to apply communication designs and communicate with multicultural teams that address the menace of cultural barriers. Based on these summations, this report forwards the recommendations elaborated below.

Recommendations

Organize Professional Training

Professional training has the potential to curb cultural barriers. Cultural barriers in Chinese enterprises find it challenging to adopt horizontal and cross-functional management approaches, which are key in IHRM (Niles, (2019). However, professional training in terms of certification training will play a major role in reshaping work-based values and benefits needed in the subsidiary company. This is because organizational managers in China recognize the change in their way of thinking and operating after getting a certificate.

Consider the Context of Intercultural Messages

Cultural context is the pattern of implicit understanding, cues, and environmental stimuli understanding that aid a person to comprehend one another. In highly contexed cultures, communications forms such as gestures, voice, and facial look offer cues that help the receiver to understand the message. But in low context cultures, verbal communication is the center stage. Therefore, cross-cultural managers are advised to ensure that team members from different cultures understand their words.

Consider the Decision-Making Procedure

The procedure for making decisions is adversely affected by cultural disparities. In low context cultures of the U.S., making the decision is a quick process. However, Chinese are having a high context culture, so focusing on details is seen as a show of openness and honesty. Ignoring the details can be translated as being evasive. The cross-cultural managers will need to consider this and figure out how the decision process is going to be implemented.

Be Culture-Sensitive During Negotiations

During negotiations, the Chinese prefer to develop relationships first that will promote long-term ties, unlike in the U.S., where consultation is considered personal. The managers will, therefore, have to adopt chines negotiating approaches during negotiations. It will not help to treat people in China the way you think you want to be handed due to cultural diversity. You just have to handle them the way they want to be treated.

Avoiding Ethical Conflicts

The best approach to avert ethical wrangles in the intercultural setting will be:

• Looking for mutual ground by practicing flexibility and the will to compromise
• Respecting cultural disparities by accepting other people’s needs and preserving his or her dignity
• Practicing honest by observing things as they appear and acknowledge the differences between cultures
• Avoiding being judgmental and recognizing interculturalism
• Avoid unnecessary stereotyping

Cross-cultural communication needs overcoming the traditional human habit of seeing one’s own culture as superior. While sometimes, it is good to apply constructive stereotyping and determine how various cultures respond to different situations and messages, unconstructive stereotyping should be avoided when assessing different cultures. Adekola & Sergi (2016) stereotyping can lead to poor decisions because of depending on false data. So, the managers need to avoid the prediction of Chinese behavior based on their cultural identity.

6.  Personal reflection

According to McArthur et al., (2018), language is among the core hindrances for multicultural teams, more specifically for those individuals who rely on English as their second language and solely express their thoughts and views in English will have their confidence affected. When I am in a multicultural team during seminars, I hardly make any constructive discussion or argument or even make a proactive expression of my views. This is since I have an extreme phobia for becoming a laughing stock from my fellow team members due to my English mastery skills as a result of my Chinese accent and pronunciation influence. This had been the tendency until the time when I encountered two students from foreign nations whose first language was not English just like me.

I noticed that the two were extra active than even the native speakers of English found in our team. The international students always received praise due to their innovativeness, also if they find it hard to elaborate their views in a precise approach.

This got me surprised! I reckoned my thoughts and began to figure out how I can advance my communication skills in English. It came to my realization that I had not been maximizing on the multitude of communication opportunities that the multinational team members were given to me. I have been misusing much of my time by not putting in necessary efforts needed for an individual who needs to learn and understand a second language. To move forward, I chose to contemplate on how I would make significant use of the multinational groups to enhance my verbal skills in English. I challenged myself that having had robust exposure to English back in China, I had no reason to feel unnecessary fear and nervousness.

Therefore, I decided to take proactive steps by utilizing every chance given to me while in the multinational seminar. Furthermore, I also decided to make use of my teachers’ advice, which he always shares when training us in the seminar. While my teacher had previously discouraged me from causing interruptions in between discussions in the seminar, I was determined to everything to master English as my second language. I will put in practice my teacher’s advice that I should learn to say sorry before beginning a conversation in the middle of a discussion in the multinational team. This will assist me in not being afraid to interject my team members when they are talking. Although this is not the norm in China, as the Chinese believe that one should not express his or her disagreements directly to others, and one should also wait for others to finish their statements as it is the way they can provide their perspectives.

By practicing these strategies while in the multicultural team discussions, I began to express my opinions and asking questions where necessary. I slowly began to gain a sense of belonging with English, saved time and improved my verbal skills. Now I feel comfortable while with my team members as I have put my worries aside.

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