International Human Resource Management And Hofstede Model: A Case Study Of Travel Shark In Australia - Essay.

Application And Comparison of Hofstede Model to Singapore And Australia

The international human resource management is basically conceptualized as the method of managing people by considering the international setting. According to Dickmann, Brewster and Sparrow (2016), the international human resource management deals with the problems occurred in the multinational firms in the foreign subsidiaries. It defines the HRM issues and establishes the relationships between the organisations and foreign environments. The IHRM approaches include ethnocentric, geocentric, polycentric, and geocentric factors (Minbaeva & De Cieri, 2014). The employees need to pay attention towards acquiring and transferring knowledge. Managing the business functions for the foreign subsidiary is also one of the major concerns for assigning the job in the foreign country. Establishing the communication is much helpful for accomplishing such purpose. The study analyses the repatriation process of 10 people from Travel Shark, Singapore. The senior level executives are shifted to Australia for operating the subsidiary business.  

Australia signifies the diverse cultural dimensions for the business aspect. Especially, people from the overseas country need to understand the cultural requirements to perform the business functionalities (Rees & Smith, 2017). Starting from the dress code, the different cultural approaches are also needed to be adopted by the people repatriated for the business purposes (Collings, Wood & Caligiuri, 2014). The people from Singapore are accustomed with the Asian culture, which is quite different to the Australian culture. It is important to consider the cultural differences in Australia. Accordingly, the human resource management needs to consider the staffing process, recruitment techniques, and the training and development factors in the overseas country. On the other hand, it is also necessary to structure the remuneration package for the repatriates. The study would develop such concerns for establishing the subsidiary business in Australia.

Culture is one of an important component, which reflects the pride of a nation. In-depth knowledge about culture can be achieved from the application of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. As a matter of specification, wide arena of the word “dimensions” relates to the cross cultural communications that take place between the nations (Dartey, 2013). Religion, gender, family background, languages, food habits and recreation are the various dimensions of culture as proposed by Hofstede in his cultural theory.

Overseas expansion of the business merges the identity of both the countries. This results in the cross cultural communications between the marketing team of Travel Shark with the Australian delegates in terms of obtaining assistance in overseas market penetration. The personnel belong to different background and religion, which attains a negative connotation in terms of possessing a common goal in terms of expanding the business. Delving deep into the aspect, business communications preserves the culture and values, which possesses flexibility for luring large scale customer loyalty, trust and dependence (Tung, 2016).

Staffing Process

The delegates of both Singapore and Australia possess authoritative power; however, capability to make rational application of the possessed power reflects the adherence and compliance to the cultural values. Exposure of collaborative output fades the individual attempts of the delegates of Travel Shark in Australia; however, it results in the achievement of successful completion of the tasks within the stipulated time. Herein lays the awareness towards time management, which projects the adherence to organizational culture. Indulgence in setting long term goals enhances the masculinity of the marketing team of Travel Shark in Australia.

Maintenance of consistency in the execution of evaluation sheds away uncertainty from the status of the business activities (Rees & Smith, 2017). Conjunction of both the sentences ties the components of Hofstede’s cultural theory with the same thread (Dartey, 2013). The motive of the previous sentence sheds light on the importance of unity and coordination for Travel Shark in terms of enhancing their fame and glory in the threshold of Australia.

In global context, it has been observed that the human resource management considers the unique staffing processes. In managing the staffing process for Travel Shark in Australia, it is essential to identify the global competitiveness by recognizing the potentiality of the suitable candidates. According to Hurn (2014), the international human resource management requires deriving the in-depth knowledge related to the global staffing process by selecting the relevant IHRM approach. The general aim to recruit people in the globalised context suggests the appropriate selection of the right people as per the suitability of the organisation (Reiche et al., 2016). In generalized form, the human resource management in Australia needs to undertake these three basic approaches for selecting and recruiting the right people in the subsidiary of Travel Shark. These specific approaches are discussed further:

Ethnocentric Approach

Rowlands and Iles (2017) implied that the ethnocentric centric approach is mainly adopted when an organisation is selecting the citizens of the parent country to work in Host Nation. The senior executives and the human resource management of Travel Shark have planned to recruit people from Australia as well. It will be beneficial enough to engage people from diverse culture (Rees & Smith, 2017). When the Australian citizens will be recruited to work with the Singaporean employees, the business functionalities would be more innovative and creative. The team members would be able to communicate with each other to understand the cultural diversification (Kang & Shen, 2016). In general cases, it has been observed that the higher-level positions are filled by the expatriate people from the parent country (Dowling 2013). Ethnocentric approach is mainly concentrating on representing the headquarters’ interests. In such cases, the recruitment process is associated with four different stages, such as self-selection, technical skills assessment, creating the candidate pool, and mutual decision making. According to Lakshman et al., (2017), the self-selection process involves the employees’ decision making process about the future goals in the international ground. In the next step, the candidate pool is created as per the requirement of the company. This data will be utilized to select the suitable person for the global skill assessment purposes. At the final stage, such database is analyzed to identify the suitable candidate for the company.

Polycentric Approach

Polycentric approach determines the adoption of the specific strategy for limiting the recruitment process of the host country. The approach determines that the local people are well aware of the market conditions. In addition to this, the people from the local market are quite knowledgeable regarding the political scenario as well as the cultural and legal requirements. The primary purpose is to reduce the extra cost for the foreign operations (Gupta, 2013). However, the specific motif of the company is to formulate a diverse cultural people. Hence, recruiting the Australian citizens is necessary for the business purposes. The human resource management of Travel Shark is also looking forward to hire people from Australia to understand the market needs and expectations. The supports derived from their knowledgeable approaches would be beneficial for the company to conduct business in the foreign country.

Geocentric Approach

The Geocentric Approach concentrates on the strategy of engaging the suitable person for the particular business position as per the job requirement. It is important to mention that global centric companies need to adopt the approach for managing the integrated business strategy. This strategy basically helps in developing the global trends in terms of selecting and recruiting the right people. Their contribution to the business performance helps the company to accomplish the business goals in a remarkable way (Rees & Smith, 2017). Travel Shark is looking forward to develop the reputed organisational ground in the Australian market. Moreover, it is quite challenging for the company to establish the strengthened position in a different cultural ground where the native competitors already exist. Hence, it is one of the major concerns for the human resource management to select the suitable people who can drive the organisation towards success. If the human resource management of Travel Shark can adopt such Geocentric Selection process for the staffing purposes, it would be beneficial for the company to secure their competitive ground in Australia (Rowlands & Iles, 2017).

The above discussion provides the three specific selection techniques that can be applied to the international human resource management to recruit for the company. People from the diverse cultural background generally help in building the innovative and creative business functionalities. However, it is necessary to follow the sequential structure of the human resource planning.

The foreign subsidiaries are sometimes using the expatriates for accomplishing both the short-term and long-term goals. Especially, in terms of determining the international job assignments, it is essential to understand the variety of purposes. For example, the employees need to pay attention towards acquiring and transferring knowledge. Managing the business functions for the foreign subsidiary is also one of the major concerns for assigning the job in the foreign country (Collings, Wood & Caligiuri, 2014). Establishing the communication is much helpful for accomplishing such purpose. The human resource management of Travel Shark is concentrating on cross cultural training purposes to increase the knowledge and skills of the expatriates. According to (Rowlands & Iles (2017), cross cultural training is considered as the planning intervention that is designed to enhance the professional efficiency of the expatriates. In addition to this, the cross cultural training is advocated to facilitate the interactions. The human resource management needs to provide the proper training and development session to the recruited people in order to facilitate the diverse working culture (Rees & Smith, 2017). The maintenance of the suitable corporate communication and building the interpersonal skills would be much beneficial in determining the business development in Australia.

Remuneration acts as an agent in terms of luring the employees to make the most of their preconceived skills, expertise and knowledge. This is applicable for both the senior and junior employees. Typical components of this package are basic salary, allowances for car, house, hardship, agreement salary and housing deduction. For the senior employees, the remuneration package needs to be more in terms of their experience and the efforts that they are giving for the enhancement of their professionalism (Nazir, Shah & Zaman, 2014).

Table 1: Balance Sheet

(Source: Created by Author)

The balance sheet is the proof for the remuneration package developed by the marketing team of Travel Shark for the expatriates. Stagnancy in the gross basic pay before and after expatriation reflects the negligent attitude of the marketing personnel regarding the payment of minimum wage. On the other hand, fluctuations in the allowances turn the negligence into active participation for valuation of the hard work, dedication and commitment displayed by the senior and experienced personnel towards taking the company to the peak of success. Escalation in the total tax amount, before, after and during expatriation seems vague in comparison to the sincere efforts of the senior and the experienced employees (Tornikoski, Suutari & Festing, 2014).

Conclusion

International Human Resource Management manages the workforce in the global setting. Travel Shark, the tourism company based on the Singapore market, is looking forward to develop the subsidiary business in Australia. In order to develop diversified cultural team, the application of hofstede model is much beneficial. The use of the ethnocentric, polycentric and geocentric approaches is necessary for the selection purposes. On the other hand, the human resource management needs to provide the proper training and development session to the recruited people in order to facilitate the diverse working culture. Remuneration acts as an agent in terms of luring the employees to make the most of their preconceived skills, expertise and knowledge. The balance sheet added to the study is proving the planning for the remuneration package for the expatriates.

References

Collings, D., Wood, G. T., & Caligiuri, P. M. (Eds.). (2014). The Routledge companion to international human resource management. Routledge.

Dartey-Baah, K. (2013). The cultural approach to the management of the international human resource: An analysis of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. International Journal of Business Administration, 4(2), 39.

Dickmann, M., Brewster, C., & Sparrow, P. R. (2016). Introduction and overview of IHRM.

Dowling, P. J. (2013). The Strategic adaptation process in international human resource management: a case study. Human Resource Planning: Solutions to Key Business Issues Selected Articles, 14(1), 137.

Giousmpasoglou, C., & Marinakou, E. (2017). Culture and managers in a globalised world. In Handbook of Research on Human Resources Strategies for the New Millennial Workforce (pp. 1-27). IGI Global.

Gupta, A. (2013). International hrm in sustaining international business operations. Educationaia Confab, 2(5), 43-49.

Hurn, B. (2014). The challenges facing international HRM in an increasingly globalised environment. Industrial and commercial training, 46(7), 371-378.

Kang, H., & Shen, J. (2016). International human resource management policies and practices. Management in South Korea Revisited, 42.

Lakshman, S., Lakshman, S., Lakshman, C., Lakshman, C., Estay, C., & Estay, C. (2017). The relationship between MNCs’ strategies and executive staffing. International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 25(2), 233-250.

Minbaeva, D. B., & De Cieri, H. (2014). Strategy and IHRM. The Routledge Companion to International Human Resource Management, Routledge, New York, NY, 13-28.

Nazir, T., Shah, S. F. H., & Zaman, K. (2014). Review of literature on expatriate compensation and its implication for offshore workforce. Iranian Journal of Management Studies, 7(2), 189.

Rees, G., & Smith, P. (Eds.). (2017). Strategic human resource management: An international perspective. Sage.

Reiche, B. S., Mendenhall, M. E., & Stahl, G. K. (Eds.). (2016). Readings and cases in international human resource management. Taylor & Francis.

Rowlands, K. E., & Iles, P. (2017). MANAGING IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT. Strategic Human Resource Management: An International Perspective, 466.

Tarique, I., Briscoe, D. R., & Schuler, R. S. (2015). International human resource management: Policies and practices for multinational enterprises. Routledge.

Tornikoski, C., Suutari, V., & Festing, M. (2014). Compensation package of international assignees. The Routledge companion to international human resource management, 289-307.

Tung, R. L. (2016). New perspectives on human resource management in a global context. Journal of World Business, 51(1), 142-152.

Tung, R. L. (2016). New perspectives on human resource management in a global context. Journal of World Business, 51(1), 142-152.