Intercultural Organizational Behavior & Human Resource.
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Introduction
Culture as a notion and as an actuality is wide and complex. On an everyday basis, it has an effect on people in families, individuals, professions, industries, communities, organizations, and nations, as well as how they interact with each other across and within national and regional borders. Culture is described as a set of beliefs and values with behavior that is learned and shared in a specific society (Reiche, Harzing & Tenzer, 2019). It provides some sense of belonging and identity. From values, language, symbolism, communication styles, religions and history to representation, and the manner of being. In both global and local organizational settings, individuals reflect their own cultures. Organizations bring an individual from different cultural contexts together. Consequently, human resource has to be considerately investigated and at times, changed for the maintenance of the goals of an organization (Reiche et al., 2019). It is pointed out by experts that for sustainability, the organization leadership has to expand their view from a global and local perspective.
Keywords: human resource, intercultural, organizational culture, human resource management
Literature Review
It has been shown by Self and Haynes (2011) that Hofstede’s cultural dimensions influence organizations in the United States and South Korea. The high scores of South Korea on power distance and collectivism, contrasted with the scores of the United States of power distance and individualism outcome in diverse practices, usually conflicting, in organizations. Whenever organizations shift their operations from their home nations, both the host and the home countries have to be sensitive to how the national cultural issues influence the organizational behavior and human resource practice. Since Self and Haynes (2011) do not conduct empirical research, they recommend that future research in the area could be better if empirical research is conducted on how best organizations can merge the diverse cultures, and the impact this would have on organizational performance and human resource practice.
Vetrakova and Smerek (2015) conducted a study in which they investigated the impact of corporate culture on human resource development in an environment characterized by intercultural behavior. They concluded that for managers to implement their goals and ideas of effective management, they ought to have willing and capable employees whose expectations are close to the operational and strategic objectives of the organization. It was established that each employee has unique behavior, performance, ideas, and work attitude, which may sometimes vary with those of the managers. The corporate culture is a reflection of the behavior and thinking of people, as well as a reflection of the present and the past in regards to achieving corporate objectives (Nyameh, 2013). Flexible cultures have a high rate of human resource development. It implies that businesses and organizations that tend to respond adaptably to the changing demands and requirements on human resource, place importance of the development of the human resource. The findings of the study were in line with the experts’ opinions. Nevertheless, they opened up space for discussion on the importance and complexity of the development of human resource and shaping of corporate culture that is ideal for most employees.
In another study conducted by Jerome (2013), it was established that the impact of organizational culture on human resource management is significant. That is in line with the findings of Kummerow and Kirby (2014) who established that organizational culture could impact employees’ morale, productivity, motivation, and efficiency at the workplace. The study also established a relationship between the culture of an organization and human resource. The Gifford, Zammuto, and Goodman (2002) study evaluated the connection between the culture of nurses and their work quality in seven hospitals in the West of the United States. The findings of the study indicated that the unit organizational culture affected the quality of labor of nurses and that the cultural values of human relations were positively related to the hospital culture. This implies that organizational culture should be monitored and improved HRM practices evolved for the maintenance of optimal employees’ performance. According to Firkola and Lim (2013), there is a lack of theory in the area of cross-cultural management that can explain the role of culture in organizational behavior. Methodological issues are partly the reason for the shortcoming. They assert that despite efforts by researchers to resolve the problem, numerous methodological issues still resist the solutions applied by researchers. Consequently, Firkola and Lim (2013) in their study aim at investigating the reasons for methodological issues and based on the evaluations suggest remedies for future research. In their study, they establish that most cross-cultural studies are based on qualitative data gathered from subjective opinion studies. That can be a direct outcome of methodological challenges in carrying out empirical research, therefore, resulting in a proliferation of qualitative articles.
Theoretical/Conceptual Framework
Human resource management plays an imperative role in the intercultural organizational behavior as it entails the individuals working in an organization, who develop and embrace certain cultures in the said organization (Kummerow & Kirby, 2014). Consequently, any change wanted in the organizational culture has to be implemented via the employees and by the employees. It means that human resource management and intercultural organizational behavior are connected, and it is fitting to treat the concepts in the same way. The policies of human resource management are impacted by the organizational culture, and meaningfully influence the employees (Kummerow & Kirby, 2014). Understanding organizational behavior in diverse cultural backgrounds has been a challenge for practitioners and academics. Owing to the complication of organizational life, variables connected to the people, the organization, and societal background should be incorporated in theory.
Hofstede’s (2001) work introduced the four national culture’s dimensions that can be applied in the description of cultural differences and in guiding managers in their efforts to make sense of cultural differences. These four dimensions including collectivism-individualism, power distance, masculinity-femininity, and uncertainty-avoidance have attracted a lot of attention, especially individualism-collectivism. The subsequent studies replicated most of these dimensions. One of the scarce meso-theories was by Kanungo and Jaeger (1990) who asserted that socio-cultural variables like power distance and individualism-collectivism influence the inner work culture of a company, which in turn impacts the human resource management practices like management of performance, work design, and the system of rewarding employees (Peterson & Thomas, 2007). Several studies have tried to test the model by use of one or more cultural samples; the most comprehensive investigation test of the model was performed by Aycan et al. (2000). They studied the impact of national culture dimensions on the internal organizational culture defined as the employee-related assumptions in 10 diverse nations. The variables at individual levels included supervisory practices, reward system, and job design. The study by Aycan et al. (2000) is an imperative step towards an improved understanding of the complication of organizations in an international view, yet it has some limitations that need to be handled. One of its limitations is that the variables were measured and analysis conducted at an individual level, even though the theoretical framework integrated the individual, organizational, and national levels. By failing to align the level of theory, measurement, and analysis, the researchers committed an ecological fallacy (An, Yom & Ruggiero, 2011). That is an inappropriate generalization of theoretical results across the analysis levels.
Problem Statement and Research Question(s)
The study will mainly seek to investigate intercultural organizational behavior and how it influences human resource and human resource management. The specific objectives of the study will be to;
Examine various cultures in different multinational companies
Evaluate how intercultural organizational behavior impacts human resource
Evaluate how intercultural organizational behavior impacts human resource management
Research questions
How does intercultural organizational behavior impact human resource?
How does intercultural organizational behavior impact human resource management?
Research hypotheses
In answering the research questions, and in the achievement of the research objectives, the hypotheses below were tested:
H1: Intercultural organizational behavior impacts human resource positively and significantly.
H0: Intercultural organizational behavior has no positive or significant impact on human resource.
H2: Intercultural organizational behavior impacts human resource management positively and significantly.
H0: Intercultural organizational behavior has no positive or significant impact on human resource management.
Research Method
Research methods are the procedures used in collecting data. The selection of a research method determines the type of research instruments and techniques to be applied. The research methodology includes the sampling design, data collection method, and data analysis methods. The choice of research method depends on the type of research and the required data, the type of respondents, money, and time constraints.
Research Design
The study used cross-sectional design since all the required data was collected at once, and the method used was qualitative research. The cross-sectional research design is especially suitable for studies that involve the collecting of data on behaviors and attitudes or that answers the questions across diverse settings. The study conducted involved the collection of data on organizational behavior. A research design acts as a guide to the researcher on the questions to research, relevant data to be collected, and how to analyze and interpret the results. Besides, research design covers the strategic decisions regarding the data collection methods, and decisions regarding sampling, questionnaires, measurement and scaling processes, and data analysis.
A self-administered questionnaire was used for the study to ensure there was no interviewer bias. The questionnaires were sent to different multinational companies that were in operational for more than five years and employed diverse workers in regards to culture. The respondents sent the questionnaires back after filling-in the questions.
Contribution
The study will be useful to human resource management and employees of various organizations. Managers and employees encounter people from diverse cultures who come in with their values, communication norms. Having an understanding of other cultures presupposes knowledge of one’s own culture and the acceptance of the variance in the culture of other people. The management will have an understanding of how human resource management can be adjusted to suit the employees from diverse cultures. They will also be guided on how to incorporate other cultures with the organizational culture.
References
An, J.-Y., Yom, Y.-H., & Ruggiero, J. (2011). Organizational Culture, Quality of Work Life, and Organizational Effectiveness in Korean University Hospitals. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 22, 1, 22-30.
Aycan, Z., Kanungo, R. N., Mendonca, M., Yu, K., Deller, J., Stahl, G. & Kurshid, A. (2000). Impact of culture on human resource management practices: A 10-country comparison. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 49, 192-221
Firkola & Lim (2003). Cross-cultural Management Research Issues. Economic Journal of Hokkaido University. 32, 45-68.
Gifford, B. D., Zammuto, R. F., & Goodman, E. A. (2002). The relationship between hospital unit culture and nurses’ quality of work life. Journal of Healthcare Management American College of Healthcare Executives, 47, 1.
Hofstede, G. (2001). Culture’s consequences: comparing values, behaviors, institutions and organizations across nations, 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
Reiche, B. S., Harzing, A.-W., & Tenzer, H. (2019). International human resource management. Los Angeles: SAGE
Wildman, J. L., In Griffith, R. L., & Armon, B. (2016). Critical issues in cross cultural management. Switzerland: Springer.
Jerome Nyameh (2013). Empirical Investigation of the Impact of Organizational Culture on Human Resource Management. International journal of Business and Science, 4, 5, 84-94.
Kanungo, R.N. & Jaeger, A.M. (1990). Introduction: The need for indigenous management in developing countries. In A.M. Jaeger & R.N. Kanungo (eds.), Management in developing countries (pp. 1-23). London: Routledge.
Kummerow, E., & Kirby, N. (2014). Organizational culture: Concept, context, and measurement. New Jersey: World Scientific
Nyameh, J. (2013). Empirical Investigation of the Impact of Organizational Culture on Human Resource Management. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 4(5), 84–93.
Peterson, M. F., & Thomas, D. C. (2007). Organizational behavior in multinational organizations. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 28, 3, 261-279.
Punnett, B. J. (2015). International perspectives on organizational behavior and human resource management. Abingdon, Oxon; New York, N.Y.: Routledge
Smerek and Vetrakova (2015). The impact of corporate culture on human resource development in an intercultural environment. Human Resource Management & Ergonomics. 9, 1, 109-122.