Role of Culture and its Influence on HR Practices
QUESTIONS:
1. “Of all the factors affecting International Human Resource Management (IHRM) perhaps none is
more effective than culture”. How does culture influences HR practices. Justify your answer
2. Explore the problems encountered due to the nature of western-based HRM practices within the
context of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions in African country mentioned in the case.
INSTRUCTIONS:
Total marks for the case is 15
The students should submit the analysis through safe assign
Plagiarism maximum 20 percent
Solution
Of all the factors affecting International Human Resource Management (IHRM)
perhaps none is more effective than culture”. How does culture influence HR practices?
Justify your answer.
In the current modern world where business are continuously adjusting their mode of
operation so as to enhance employees productivity, effective human resource management has
stood out as an integral part of any organization. Therefore, human resource management can be
regarded as the most important aspect of any organization as it determines the organization’s
culture. Organizational culture demonstrates the beliefs, values and the expectations of the
organization (Alvesson, 2013). It can therefore be defined as the magic that ensures the
employees remain motivated; this explains why a good culture is important as it enhances the
employees’ experiences within the workplace. According to Sartorius, Merno and Carmichael
(2011), the Hofstede index model effectively measures the impact of culture on HRM within an
organization. In any organization, the employee’s culture affects the HR practices and this
explains why the leaders of an organization have to create a balance that would ensure that the
culture of the employees is upheld as this affects their productivity and the overall growth of the
company.
Globalization has created a multi-cultured business environment as organizations
continue to hire individuals from different cultures. Therefore, an organization HRM deals with
employees from diverse cultures and this explain why such organizations adopt a collectivist
culture which emphasizes on the employees needs as a whole, rather than the individualistic
culture which centers on the needs of every individual employee. In this regards, in order to
ensure that every employee feel valued, the organizational leaders should adopt an effective
INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT 3
collectivist culture approach. The case by Sartorius, Merno and Carmichael (2011), revealed that
in Western-based HRM practices emphasize on individualistic approaches as way of motivating
and managing people, while in Africa, the collective approach has been argued to result to
improved organization performance. Generally, the collective nature of the entire Africans labor
force emphasizes on the value of interpersonal relationships and this explains how culture affects
the HRM Practices (Storey and Bacon, 1993).
2. Explore the problems encountered due to the nature of western-based HRM practices
within the context of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions in African country mentioned in the
case.
In the African context, an individual can be regarded as a complete individual through
other people and a collective need is placed above that of an individual as opposed to the western
based HRM that roots for individualism as the most preferred way to motivate people (Sartorius,
Merno and Carmichael, 2011). The case by explored the problems encountered due to the
adoption of western-based HRM practices which were related to compensation, and performance
measurement. The case revealed that multinational companies which mainly adopt western-
based HRM practices in Africa used individualistic approach and thus failed to compensate
employees based on their overall performance rather, the employees were compensated based on
their position within the organization, where the senior employees were compensated more than
the junior employees who mainly handled most of the operations. On the other hand, the power
distance index considers the extent to which inequality and power are tolerated. In Mozambique,
workers were unhappy with their new job titles; they wanted better titles as titles are perceived to
be important in the country. In this case, newly trained workers felt that they should have the
INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT 4
status of a technician and not operators. Some wanted to be paid more because of the dangerous
conditions and because foreigners were paid more.
According to Sartorius, Merno and Carmichael (2011), the masculinity vs. femininity
cultural dimension considers attitude towards gender equality and behavior. In African context,
masculinity roles determine the duties that can be performed by men as opposed to those duties
that can traditionally be performed by women only. A case of North Africa revealed that, the
local people were pro femininity and the non-locals were pro masculinity. From the beginning
the workers felt that management was unresponsive and unaware of their culture as the
organization adopted western based HRM practice which is pro masculinity based.
INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT 5
References
Sartorius, Kurt , Merino, Andrés and Carmichael, Teresa(2011) 'Human resource management
and cultural diversity: a case study in Mozambique', The International Journal of Human
Resource Management, 22: 9, 1963-1985 DOI: 10.1080/09585192.2011.573973
Alvesson, M. (2013).Understanding organizational culture. Los Angeles London: SAGE.
https://books.google.com/books?id=BDsV8eHp0_MC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Under
standing+organizational+culture&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiQ2oPy7JfoAhXNQkEA
HW1IBIEQ6AEIJzAA#v=onepage&q=Understanding%20organizational%20culture&f=
false
Storey, J., & Bacon, N. (1993). Individualism and collectivism: Into the 1990s. International
Journal of Human Resource Management, 4(3), 665-684.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233035397_Individualism_and_collectivism_In
to_the_1990s/link/551c2dc50cf20d5fbde37a78/download
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