The Six Leadership Styles - by BusinessEssay.net

One of the greatest assets of an organization is that strong managers create an environment to encourage members and motivate their high energy (Taggart, 1989). Effective leadership has drawn great attention from organization management in recent years due to its contribution to organizations’ competitive advantage and sustainable profitability. Leadership is as a critical management skill in various organizations, which influences and motivates a group toward the achievement of organizational goals (Rafferty & Griffin 2004). Leadership must be differentiated from management. Some commentators propose the view that management function includes leadership, that it is possible to be a good manager without being a good leader. In contrast, other commentators argued that leadership is different form the “managership”. The difference is obvious, that the leader shows incremental influence beyond his or her authority, he or her will influence instead of purely performing planning, organising, and controlling activities. It is possible, therefore, for an individual to be a good manager without being an effective leader. There are some overlaps between leadership task and management task, and the distinction is not always clear, Davidson and Griffin (2006) summaries the differences between the roles are often difference of degree rather than of kind. “Managers and leaders differ in how they go about creating an agenda, developing a rationale for achieving the agenda and executing plans, and in the types of outcome they achieve”.

There are abundant books and articles on leadership styles and also ‘Leadership Experts’ who have made careers out of testing and coaching of leaders. At the end of it all, one may not be wiser still. The author Daniel Goleman – who is well known for his two books ‘Emotional Intelligence’ and ‘Working with Emotional Intelligence’ – in an article titled “Leadership That Get Results” in Harvard Business Review dated March-April 2000 attributes this reason for lack of quantitative research that demonstrates which precise leadership behavior yield which type of organizational results. He points out the research of consulting firm Hay/McBer on random sample of 3871 executives selected from a database of more than 20,000 executives worldwide which has demystified the effective leadership. The research found six distinct leadership styles, each springing different components of emotional intelligence. It offers a fine understanding of how six different styles affect which type of organizational performance and results. It also offers guidance how an effective leader switches between these styles seamlessly and also uses a combination of these styles depending on the business situation. As such, in the context of the effective leadership, we will discuss it in the following sections. The six distinctive styles of leadership are: coercive, authoritative, affiliative, democratic, pacesetting, and lastly, coaching style.

1. The Coercive Style. 

Leader is one who demands immediate compliance to his dictates. His style is ‘Do What I Tell You’. He creates a reign of terror, bullying and demeaning his executives, roaring his displeasure at the slightest missteps in achieving the business goals. This style is the least effective, because of top-down decision making; it snuffs the ideas and the creativity from the bottom rung of employees. And, high-performing employees who are motivated by more than money, this style erode their performance. But it has its use. It can break failed business habits, shock people into new ways of working. And in turning around a company or when a hostile takeover is looming.

2. The Authoritative Style. 

Leader is a visionary; he motivates people by making clear to them how their work fits into a larger vision of the organization. This style maximizes commitment to the organization’s goals and strategy. By framing the individual tasks within a grand vision, this leader defines standards – giving performance feedback positive and negative – which revolves around that vision. This style works well in almost any business situation, particularly, when a business is adrift. But while working with a team of experts or peers, who are more, experienced than the authoritative leader, it gives an impression that the leader is being pompous and out-of-touch. If this leader becomes overbearing, he also undermines the egalitarian spirit of an effective team.

3. The Affiliative Style. 

Revolves around its people – its proponents value individuals and their emotions more than tasks and goals. The leader keeps his employees happy and creates harmony among them, which has positive effect on communication leading to sharing ideas, inspiration and building trust. Because of this style, flexibility also rises among employees giving employees freedom to do their job in the way they think is most effective. This leader gives ample positive feedback on their day-to-day efforts, which is all the more motivating. These leaders are natural relationship builders. This style should not be used alone. Its exclusive focus on praise can allow poor performance to go uncorrected, employees may perceive that mediocrity is tolerated. If one uses this style in close conjunction with the authoritative style, he would have a potent combination.

4. The Democratic Style. 

Leader builds trust, respect and commitment by spending time, getting his people’s ideas and buy-in. By letting his employees themselves have a say in decisions that affect their goals and how they do their work, this leader drive up flexibility and responsibility. He also by listening to employees learns to what to do, to keep morale high. In this democratic set-up, his followers are realistic what can and cannot be accomplished. This approach is ideal when a leader is himself uncertain about the best direction to take and needs ideas and guidance. The drawback of this system is, it can lead to endless meetings where ideas are mulled over, consensus remains elusive, and the only visible result is more meetings, particularly when crucial decision have to be taken. In times such as this people end up confused and leaderless. This style also makes much less sense when employees are not competent or informed enough to offer sound advice.

5. The Pacesetting Style. 

Leader sets extremely high performance standards and exemplifies them himself. He is obsessive about doing things better and faster. He pinpoints poor performers and demands more from them. If they don’t raise to the occasion, they will be replaced who can. This destroys the organization climate, as employees feel overwhelmed by pacesetter’s demand for excellence and their morale drops. Guidelines for working may be clear in the leader’s head, but he/she does not state them clearly; he/she expects employees to know what to do. The pacesetter either gives no feedback on how people are doing or jumps in to take over when he/she thinks they’re lagging. And if the pacesetter leaves, his flock suddenly becomes directionless. This style should be sparingly used, and works best when all the employees are self-motivated professionals, highly competent and need little direction and coordination, like in R&D and legal firms.

6. The Coaching Style. 

Leader helps employees identify their unique strengths and weaknesses and tie them to their personal and career aspirations, encouraging them to establish long-term development goals and help them to conceptualize a plan for attaining them. They give plenty of feedback and instruction. Coaching leaders excel at delegating, even if it meant the tasks would not be accomplished. Their prime motive is long-term learning of their followers. Although this style works best, it is seldom used, because many leaders don’t have time in this high-pressure economy for the slow and tedious work of teaching employees to grow. This style works well in many business situations and works particularly well when employees are already aware of their weaknesses and would like to improve their performance. In contrast, the coaching style makes little sense when employees, for whatever reason, are resistant to learning or changing their ways. The other danger of this style is when the leader lacks the expertise to help the employees to grow.

References, Bibliography and other Readings

Brech, E.F.L. & Aldrich, R.M. 1968, The Principles and Practice of Management, 2nd edn, Longmans, Green and Company Limited, London.

Certo, S.C. 2000, Modern Management: Diversity, Quality, Ethics, and the Global Environment, 8th edn, Prentice Hall, USA

Chapman, A. 2006, Adams’ equity theory, Viewed August 4, 2007, Available online:< http://www.businessballs.com/adamsequitytheory.htm >.

Hellriegel, D., Slocum, J. & Woodman, R.W. 1998, Organizational Behavior, 8th edn, South-Western College Publishing, USA.

House, R.J. & Mitchell, T.R. 1994, ‘Path-goal theory of leadership’, Journal of Contemporary Business, vol. 3, pp. 21-36.

Ivancevich, J.M. & Matteson, M.T. 1990, Organizational Behavior and Management, 2nd edn, Richard D. Irein, US.

Kotter, J 1990, A force for Change: How leadership differs from management, Free Press, New York.

Luthans 2005，Organizational Behavior, 10th edn, McGraw-Hill, Singapore.

Mitchell, T. R. 1988, People in Organizations: An Introduction to Organizational Behaviour in Australia, McGraw-Hill, Australia.

Rafferty, A. E. & Griffin, M. A. 2004, Dimensions of transformational leadership: Conceptual and empirical extensions, The Leadership Journal, Vol.15, No. 3, pp. 329–54.

Robbins, S. P. & Mukerji, D. 1990, Managing Organization: New Challenges & Perspectives, Prentice Hall, New Jersey.

Robbins, S. & Coulter, M. 2003, Management, Prentice Hall, USA.

Taggart, J. 1989, Motivation and Leadership: For Executive Members, Managers, Committee Chairs, Factsheet: Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food, No.89-178.

Turknett, R. L. & Turknett, C. N. 2005, Decent People, Decent Company: How to Lead with Character in Work and in Life.

Yukl, G. 1994, Leadership in Organizations, 3rd edn, Prentice-Hall, New Jersey.

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Case Study on Organisational Change in Ermenegildo Zegna; by BusinessEssay.net

ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE IN ERMENEGILDO ZEGNA

Introduction

This paper present a successful change management programs recently completed in Ermenegildo Zegna (“Zegna”). A study of the successful organization transformation program enables us to understand the steps and approaches used in real life in changing an organizational culture. In the following sections, the paper is arranged as follow. Firstly, the situational context of the change process is introduced and articulated. For this, the forces pushing forward for a change process, the nature of the change process, the level of the change process as well as the respective change agents involved in change process are discussed. Then, the approaches employed in the change process are also outlined. The impacts from these approaches are also discussed. Then, the relevant stages of the change process are summarized. Lastly, the effectiveness of the change process is discussed. For this, the skills and experiences of the change agents are outlined. The evidences of success and effectiveness of the change process are also demonstrated. Overall, this paper is relevant for those who wish to learn more about a successful change process, and to understand how change process is being implemented in a corporation in real business life, in the recent years.

Situational Context of the Change Process

Forces Demanding the Change Process

Prior to the change process, Zegna is a family owned business. In 2000, the management of the company was taken over by younger generation of family members (Tyler-Cagni & Hills, 2008). Apparently, the younger negation of senior management is more ambitious, and is committed to bring the firm to greater heights. External consultants and change agents are employed (namely, Lynda Tyler-Cagni and Jan Hills). Thus, apparently, one of the key factors leading to the change process in Zegna is due to change of management, whereby the new management is currently more ambitious, and obviously has the opinion that a change is required to bring the organization to better performance and greater profitability.

From the industry wide perspective, the fashion industry in Italy is facing increasing competitive business environment. The entire fashion industry in the country is undergoing a period of consolidation in the luxury market segment (Tyler-Cagni & Hills, 2008). From these statements, it is reasonable for us to believe that factors in external environment are pressing the firm to change. As the industry of luxury goods become more competitive, firms in the industry must adapt and evolve to suit the new environment (Colli and Merlo, 2007), for survival as well as for better performance in the future. As such, change is required in the organization to ensure that Zegna can remain competitive in the every challenging industry landscape. To understand the driving and restricting forces in the change process, Lewin’s Force Field Model is presented as in Figure 1 below:



Figure 1: Lewin’s Force Field Model





Nature of the Change Process
The objective of the change process is to transform Zegna into a high performing organization with a performance oriented culture (Tyler-Cagni & Hills, 2008). To do this, the management had identified several areas of change. These areas include: structure, skill and attitude, policies and systems, education of the customers as well as moving towards a more result oriented culture.

Level of the Change Process
The change process performed is executed at the organizational level. The entire organization is affected, all people working in the firm involved in the change process. As will be discussed in the following sections, the change process firstly involves only the HR department, but later is organized to change the entire organization, which includes Zegna business units in foreign countries around the world. According to Tyler-Cagni & Hills (2008), the duration of the entire change process took about 6 years. As such, the level of change can be categorized as ‘Gamma’, as the change process involves a paradigm shift.

Change Agents
According to Tyler-Cagni & Hills (2008), the newly appointed company group executive vice president, namely Lynda Tyler-Cagni (whom was previously an external consultant) was responsible in changing the company HR department from a previously traditional and transactional focused division into a business-oriented team. The transformed HR department later becomes the role model for the rest of the divisions in the organization. When the HR department is becoming more capable of handling emerging external threats and internal challenges, the department took over the role to influence and change the rest of the departments in Zegna.

Thus, another critical change agent in the change process is the HR department in Zegna. That department was leaded by Jan Hills, who is given the responsibilities to lead the transformation process in the other part of the organization. After the HR department is successfully transformed, they in turn acted as the business partner and change agent to lead the ultimate change programs in the firm.

Approaches Used in the Change Process
Several approaches have been employed to successfully and effectively change Zegna into a performance oriented company. A study on the change process had identified several approaches employed by the senior management to change the culture of the organization. These approaches are outlined in the following paragraphs.

Hiring of external consultants. The change process is performed through the hiring of external consultants, namely Lynda Tyler-Cagni and Jan Hills to bring new fresh perspectives and ideas to the organization. These external consultants are appointed to work in the organization, and then to analyze the existing structure, culture, and policies of the firms, in order to formulate viable change programs for the firm. Several approaches were used in analyzing the scenario and situations in the organization during the consultation process. These approaches include: (a) surveys to understand the existing HR perceptions of the change program and the future – using Ulrich model, (b) face to face interviews on key managers in Zegna, (c) discussions with HR managers on how they could be transformed to involve in strategic business issues in organization, and (d) dialogues with the other staffs in the organization whenever it is necessary.

Engaging HR department as the business partner and change agent. The change process started with changing one of the key department in the organization, and then to use that department to change the other departments in the organization. HR department is selected, as that is the best possible move to change the organization. According to Tyler-Cagni & Hills (2008), prior to the change process, the company is managed through a paternalistic approach. It is the organization commitment to hire the most talented employees as well as to utilize their skills and talents effectively. As such, it is critical to firstly transform the HR function in the firm, before other workforce can be influence and changed. In the change process, HR was capable of affecting the employees from other divisions and then to support the organizational needs to change and to move towards a more result and performance oriented company.

Organizing workshop to re-educate the HR personnel. Re-education programs were organized to teach the employees from HR department on the necessary change and knowledge needed to transform themselves from a traditional and transactional HR department into one that able to support the strategic directions of the company. The programs are tailored to teach the employees on how to work under a more business focus approach. According to Tyler-Cagni & Hills (2008), several series of workshop had been launched for the purpose of re-educating the workforce. The subjects taught and discussed in the workshop include: (a) business planning (i.e., it is about discussions of new business missions and the respective challenges), (b) HR initiatives (i.e., it is about the identification of HR services that can support, facilitate and drive the growth of the business), (c) new skills and training, (d) new HR system, processes and skills, (e) measures of progress and lastly (f) adjustments or corrective actions to be taken if required.

Emphasizing on the potential benefits to be reaped from the change program. Besides, the benefits that can be reaped from the outcomes of the change process were communicated to the employees, through the re-education programs. The potential advantages or values to be reaped by the HR personnel by taking up new roles and responsibilities are communicated often, to ensure that these HR personnel can see the benefits bring to them by taking up new roles in the change process as in supporting the change process through HR functions. Thus, HR personnel is trained to learn the new ways, and then to serve as the role models for others in the firm to follow and learned from. When people can see the positive side of the change, they can focus on the positive points, and subsequently become more open minded and having better attitudes to participate and involve in the change process. This can provide great motivation for them to change, as contrast to resist changes when they do not understand the reasons that they must change, or when they perceive that change process may harm or hurt them in the future.

Working together with HR department, further execute the change programs to other departments in the organization. After the HR personnel are transformed and changed, line managers are then taught about the value and benefits to be reaped through the change process. At this point of time, HR personnel and department serve as the change agent, and the business partner of the consultants to change people in other departments. As the key line managers buy into the ideas on the needs to change, as well as understand the benefits and potential advantages to the organization from the change process, these benefits, ideas, and values are then delivered, communicated and transferred to other staffs in the respective departments. As a result, people now aware and understand the reasons they must change, and their doubts on the viability and ambiguity of the change programs can be cleared.

Emphasizing key ideas required for successful change program along the change process. Apart from that, it is also noted that the external consultants are found to constantly communicate several crucial ideas to people in the organization that can help to facilitate the change process. The key ideas communicated on a continuous basis include: (a) people need to have the courage to change, (b) stay focus on the change, and (c) change is an ongoing process. As a result, people become more open to change, and their resistance to change is lessening, as they were currently supported by the change agents. Instead of blaming others for the need to change, the now can take the change as something necessary, for them to move forward for a better future. With the awareness that change in an ongoing process, people inherently understand the hard work required in the process, and more persistent in working towards the successful implementation of change programs in Zegna.

Overall, the change strategies can be summarized using Kurt Lewin’s Ice Cube Model as in Table 1 below.



Table 1: Kurt Lewin’s Ice Cube Model




Stages of the Change Process

A study of the change process in Zegna revealed that the change process indeed was carried out in several stages. The first stage is the hiring of external consultants to act as the key change agent to kick start the change process in Zegna. External consultants were hired as one of the top managers in the organization. After that, a study of the organization is performed by the change agents. The initial change process was focused on changing the HR department in Zegna. After the HR department is changed, and had agreed to change the other staffs from other departments, HR department is managed as the change partner to facilitate change in the organization. To change the behaviors, mindset and processes in the other department, change agents had targeted their efforts on the line managers first. When the line managers bought into the change process, the change programs were then executed to all other employees in the firm.

In order to present a better view on the stages of the change process, the CONSULT model is presented in Table 2 as follow:



Table 2: CONSULT Model





Effectiveness of the Change Process
Skills and Experience of the Change Agents
Obviously, from a study on the change process implemented by Lynda Tyler-Cagni and Jan Hills, it is found that they possess several important skills and experiences that make the change process a success possible. The crucial skills and experiences contributing to the change process identified include:

Wide experiences in business management. Prior to joining Zegna, both the external consultants already were having wide experiences in business management. They were serving as senior management in other corporations. As they had been working on managerial position prior to taking the roles as change agents for Zegna, it is reasonable to expect that they are indeed experienced manager and understand the twist and turns of managing people and implementing effective change program in the context of a big corporations.

Managerial skills. As discussed before, the external change agents employed are having wide experiences prior to joining Zegna. Thus, it can be expected that they possess the relevant skills in managing businesses. Managerial skills such as planning, coordinating, facilitating, supporting, leading and managing employees and work flow in an organizational should not be something of huge challenges to them.

Communication skills. Ability to persuade others to change is crucial to any change process. As cited in Colli and Merlo (2007), one of the key reasons that the business transformation in Zegna was successful was because the change agents able to persuade the people in the organization to buy into the ideas that they need to change. Without good communication skills, it is not possible for the change agents to persuade the people to try out something new, particularly when these people are happy to stick with their previous roles and responsibilities (This is explicitly acknowledged by the change agent, as cited in Tyler-Cagni & Hills, 2008). Thus, we can easily deduce that the change agents are having excellent communication skills to talk to, and to persuade people to not to stay in status quo, and to take up new risks to move towards a new direction for better future.

An understanding on the requirement of change process. The entire business transformation and change process is performed smoothly, although it is also acknowledged by the change agents that the route was never smooth and easy. However, viewing from the difficulties of a change program, it is reasonable to deduce that the change agents understand the critical issues in successfully implementation of a change program. This is not hard to discern, considering the fact that the change process is carried out in sequence, and the change agents understand the delicate and complicated people management issues in Zegna – and successfully change the HR department and ultimately use the HR department as the change partner to properly carry out the change process in Zegna.

Ability to handle resistance to change. There were resistance to change in the organization but that were handled properly and effectively by the change agents. To handle the resistance to change, it is observed that the change agents had been stressing on the benefits to be reaped from the change process, constantly communicate with people in Zegna, support them when required, as well as to allow them to participate and involve in the change process.

An in-depth understanding on the industry. Possessing industry specific skills and certain degree of technical know-how is critical to the success of the change process. When the change agents had better technical competencies, it is more likely that people will believe in them, and then to buy into their ideas on the directions and methods to change.

Effectiveness of the Change Agents
The change process is a highly successful one. After the change process, the previously struggling firm is now performing in an excellent and profitable manner. According to the statistics provided by the change agents, as cited in Tyler-Cagni & Hills (2008), the business grow to a bigger corporations with 7500 employees (whereby 50% of these employees are based in Italy), and able to achieve a turnover rate of Euro 779.4 million in the year of 2006 (i.e., 6 years after the year 2000, where the change process is started).  Apart from the numerical and financial achievement obtained by the change agents, Zegna had also become a case study being referenced in academic research. The change process in Zegna is currently served as one of the success case study for researchers from the field of change management and business management to study. The success case study is cited in Human Resource Management International Digest, and is later quoted by Colli and Merlo (2007) in the discussion of best performing fashion corporations from Italy. Viewing from these facts, it can be concluded safely that the change process indeed is pretty successful.

Conclusion
Change management and successful implementation of a change process is never an easy task. Several guideline and requirements must exist before the change process can be effectively or successfully implemented. It is found that the successful change program in Zegna indeed followed systematic approaches to change. The change agents are also experienced and skillful. Many of the approaches employed are also consistent with theories suggested from change management literature. All these contribute to the success of that change process in Zegna. These present us a valuable case study and lessons to be learned from Zegna, and serve as good reference for managers that are about to implement change programs in their respective organization.

References & Bibliography
Anon. (2009). Business transformation at Zegna: human resources as a change agent. Human Resources Management International Digest, 17(3), 8-10.

Beardwell, J. & Claydon, T. (2007). Human Resource Management: A Contemporary Approach, (5th edn). Prentice Hall

Briscoe, D., & Schuler, R. (2004). International Human Resource Management 2e. Routledge: London.

Colli, A., & Merlo, E. (2007). Family business and luxury business in Italy. Enterprise Et Histoire, 46, 112-124.

Dessler, G. (2011) Human Resource Management ,12th edition,   Prentice Hall,

Legge, K. (2004). Human Resource Management: Rhetorics and Realities (Management, Work and Organisations), (Ed. Edition). Palgrave Macmillan.

McShane, S. L., & Von Glinow, M. A. V. (2010). Organizational Behavior: emerging knowledge and practice for the real world (5th Edition). McGraw Hill.

Robbins, S.P. (2005). Organizational Behavior, 11th edn, Pearson Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ.

Tyler-Cagni, L., & Hills, J. (2008). HR leading by example during Zegna transformation. Strategic HR Review, 7(1), 22-27.

Wilson F.M. (2004) Organizational Behaviour and Work, Oxford, Oxford University Press.


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Checklist for award-winning entries at HR Excellence Awards 2018

Employee Healthcare Interactive: Asia’s only regional conference on workforce healthcare and corporate wellness strategy. Request your invite now to this exclusive, by-invite forum

In this part two of the series, Priya Veeriah showcases our judges’ key checklist that will help you craft an award-worthy entry for the upcoming HR Excellence Awards.

Dato’ Norashikin binti Ismail, human resources director, Synthomer

How to win — A burning passion for continuous improvement, going the extra mile to achieve this, and possessing a winning spirit to be an over achiever are the signs that Dato’ Norashikin is looking out for.

HR’s role — She breaks it down into three specific areas:

• As part of talent management, a steady talent pipeline, competent leadership and a nurturing culture are all important.
• Secondly, building an open and safe workplace that encourages employee engagement, and lastly a competitive rewards scheme are all necessary for HR to achieve functional excellence.
• “HR’s ability to deliver and gain credibility from its business partners would deem it as trustworthy,” she says, thereby adding value to the business in the long run.

Angeline Low, divisional general manager, group talent management, Eco World Development Group

How to win — “A team should be agile and forward thinking to stand out!” remarks Low as she points out that winners will be identified based on their knowledge on latest market trends, ability to reinvent and benchmarking against best practices.

She draws references to the Aon model of “say, stay and strive” particularly when building an engaged workforce, by looking at the wide spectrum across an employee’s life cycle.

HR’s role — Data mastery has become an imperative skill for HR leaders as HR functions shift away from administration and reporting, towards analysing and prediction. This enables HR to become a value adding partner by ensuring parallel business and people strategies.

Siau Swee Furn, general manager – group human capital management, Telekom Malaysia 

How to win — Furn is on the lookout for organisations that push the boundaries of people strategy through people analytics while balancing between data transparency and governance, innovation in redefining workplace and flexible workplace arrangements with proven increased productivity.

“HR teams need to demonstrate how they successfully leverage on digitisation and digitalisation of the workplace to create an ecosystem that accentuates people experience and ultimately creating business value,” she affirms.

HR’s role — This includes creating experiences at workplaces and delivering them with sincerity and genuine purpose at heart with the best interests of the company and employees. Individuals who possess high integrity, right values, and strong purpose to serve the greater good are needed. 

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About HR Excellence Awards 2018

This is Asia’s only regional awards that serve as a platform to honour and celebrate organisations that deliver business growth alongside strategic human capital strategy with confidence in scaling the HR industry. 

Top 5 HR Challenges - as posted by HumanResourceonline- for reference.

HR leaders from McCain Foods, MoneySmart, P&G, Schneider Electric, and Tan Chong Group shed light on the trends and challenges in the HR landscape for 2018, in interviews with Jerene Ang.

The world of work is evolving every year, and so is the HR landscape.

In this feature, we speak to five HR leaders across Malaysia, Singapore, and the rest of Asia to present a special focus on some of the key HR considerations anticipated in the coming year.

1. A challenging recruitment and retention landscape

Chiou Thien Ling (Michelle), head of group human resources, head of group employee relations and organisational development, Tan Chong Group, shared that as the conglomerate expands into Indo-China, one of the major challenge faced is recruitment and retention especially when it comes to the younger generation.

“The younger generation is quite selective; they have the tendency to think they want to be a manager in five years. But it’s about how they can get there, whether or not a degree is sufficient. We have issues trying to get people who have language capabilities and who are open to learning beyond their degree and who put in effort to learn beyond what they have already learnt. They also have to be able to adapt to different cultures and environments. That is what makes anyone successful even without a degree,” she said.

She added that in an expanding business like Tan Chong Group, it is necessary to post people to different areas.

However, Chiou noted that employees may have an apprehension to try new fields or environments, adding that “they have this mentality that if they are away from home, they can’t accomplish anything or they might fail in the new assignment – that fear is there.”

To overcome this challenge, she shared: “It is all about people, the communication and the psychology of what people needs and wants at a given time. If you don’t know how to motivate people, communicate it effectively and get people to feel comfortable in an environment they are unfamiliar with, you will have these challenges of getting people to do other new things, and go elsewhere where we need them to develop themselves with the business.”

2. Adding value to the business through work-life balance

Another way HR can help retain people and add value to the business is to provide them with a good environment to work in.

Choong Wai Bin, HR director – Korea, SEA and Taiwan, McCain Foods, shared: “Nowadays, HR is different from how it used to be traditionally. To me it is important that HR should add value to the business in the sense that we should look into not just management, but also look into taking care of our employees especially work life balance. I think this is part of retention to me. If you want to retain people, I think you have to have a good environment to work in.”

Choong is of the opinion that employers should think about empowering and trusting employees especially when it comes to implementing flexi-timings to support work-life balance.

“If you hire this line manager, I think you should trust them. That is important because at the end of the day, whether the employee is performing or not, it is the line manager’s responsibility as well. Also, as long as the line managers agree that this is the working time they have with their direct reports, I think that’s perfectly fine.

Unless there is an issue where the employee takes it for granted – and it will happen; that is when HR will step in to take necessary action, or rather to have a conversation with the employee and see how serious it is. If it affects their performance, I think the necessary steps will have to be implemented.”

She shared that in her previous experience flexi-timings really helped to retain employees – especially working mothers.

“In KL, traffic is really bad during peak hours. So flexi timings help allows them to avoid this morning rush when they send their children to school in the mornings. It also gives them the choice to pick up their children after school. As a result of this, they actually value the company more. It also helps them see the value in life.”

ALSO READ: The top 5 challenges employee mobility is likely to face in 2018

3. Leveraging on digital technologies

Olivier Blum, chief human resources officer, and executive vice president, at Schneider Electric, believes that digital technologies not only transforms businesses, but also the HR function.

“The power of digital and data analytics can help to transform the HR function in decision making and managing a company. This is one of the biggest transformations at Schneider Electric, that we already have in place.

“Moving forward into 2018, we are looking to accelerate the use of digital technology. Digital has allowed us to perform many talent and project management processes more efficiently. For example, the use of HR systems that can help manage digital expenses for employees, as well as improving the organisation of performance management and feedback.”

Blum added that technologies such as mobile applications have been deployed to support employees in their overall job functions. This includes a global recognition program which allows employees to connect and recognise people everywhere in the world, to build a true culture of appreciation easily and quickly – simply by using a smartphone.

The company has also invested in data and smart analytics to anticipate and make decisions in areas of strategic talent management and will be starting a pilot with artificial intelligence (AI) for recruitment where AI will be used to do the initial screening of candidates.

Sharing the reason behind the pilot, Blum said: “Today, most people have their profiles on LinkedIn, and one of the challenges for a large company is how to connect job opportunities with the people who are most suitable for them. We see opportunities for technology to help us with this.”

In line with this, MoneySmart’s head of talent, Ian Jongho Im, said:” In 2018, we will see employers more aggressively searching for talent skilled in new technology capabilities and engineering, While this trend was previously attributed to supply and demand, it is now being driven by companies who want less outsourcing of these functions to other countries.”

4. Diversity and inclusion

Vinitaa Jayson, vice president – HR, P&G Asia, noted that more companies are now driving focused efforts to create a diverse workforce.

Shedding light on the multi-national consumer goods company’s view on the matter, Jayson said: “At P&G, we believe that a diverse organisation outperforms a homogenous organisation every time. So we are committed to developing the most diverse mix of talent by gender, ethnicity, culture, geography, experiences, personality and so on. As a consumer products company, the more we reflect and mirror the consumers we serve, the better equipped we are.”

Jayson pointed out that the majority of people who buy P&G’s products are women. Hence the company believes in gender equality – with equal voice and equal representation.

“Our #WeSeeEqual program empowers women, inside and outside the company – it’s our vision to create a world free from gender bias. In Asia, we are proud that over 50% of our managers are women. We hire men and women equally at entry level. We provide equal pay, equal benefits and flexible work arrangements.

“We manage our talent pipeline to ensure we have a diverse pool of experienced talent at all levels. We have affinity groups and women’s networks in each site for informal advice and peer coaching. We work to create an inclusive culture where women can be successful at P&G, and we educate our men on their crucial role as allies in closing the gender gap.”

P&G is not the only company prioritising diversity and inclusion. Schneider Electric’s Blum noted that diversity and inclusion is also a core priority for the technology company.

“Our diversity and inclusion philosophy aims to provide equal opportunities to everyone everywhere, and ensure that all our employees feel uniquely valued and safe to contribute their best. This year, Schneider Electric was included in the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index, among 104 companies across sectors worldwide. Our inclusion in the index reinforces our commitment to create an inclusive culture where all forms of diversity are valued,” Blum said.

5. Localisation

Another trend pointed out by MoneySmart’s Im is localisation.

“Employees who have deep understanding of cultural nuances in specific markets will also be highly sought after, as businesses develop more localised go-to market strategies for better relevance and audience engagement.”

Case Study by BusinessEssay.net:

EXAMINE THE FACTORS THAT AFFECT SUCCESS IN MULTICULTURAL WORKPLACE

Introduction

In the ever globalized workplace and business environment, interaction of people from different culture is nothing can be neglected by effective managers. Besides, the increasing participation rate of women in workplace had also contributing to a diverse workforce. All these are drawing managers’ attentions to how to manage multi-cultural workplace. It is now important for effective managers to understand how the diverse and multicultural workforce of different background, sex, age, experiences, beliefs, can be managed effectively to contribute for high performing organizational success.

In this essay, the various factors that will contribute to successful management of multicultural workplace will be discussed. The cultural issues in the business context are not something new. There are many literatures arguing that cultural factors are something must be handled properly by business managers. Fortunately, a review of the many literature available suggests that the many factors leading to successful or effective management of multicultural workplace can be separated into two main categories, firstly the manager/ leadership factors, and secondly the organizational factors. The essay will be arranged according to such view. The first part of the essay will discuss how the managers can lead to the success or failure of the organizational performance; while the second part will deal with the organizational factors leading to the successful management of multicultural workplace.

Managerial Factors Leading to Successful Multicultural Workplace

Factors Inhibiting Successful Management of Multicultural Workplace

Before the essay focus on the factors required for successful management of multicultural workplace, those factors leading to failure of management of multicultural workplace will be discussed. According to Copeland, Certain manager attitudes can lead to failure of multicultural workplace, among them include: stereotyping certain group of people, wrong assumptions on others, inability to understand differences between culture, embracing policies encouraging the exclusivity of ‘white-man’ club, as well as practicing double standard in managing a diverse workforce (i.e., certain group of people may be favored, while others may be discriminated). Besides, Mamman (1996) also argued that managerial characteristics such as ethnocentrism as well as prejudice will also lead to failure of multicultural workplace.

Manager as the Key Factors Leading to Successful Multicultural Workplace

As we had discussed above that if the manager or leader in an organization exhibit certain unwanted behaviors or attitudes in managing multicultural workplace, superior organizational success is likely impossible. Thus, in order to successfully manage organizational success, manager must have certain attitudes, beliefs, competencies as well as inter-personal skills. All these are factors that will eventually lead to successful management of multicultural workplace.

According to Copeland (1988), the attitudes of manager are critical in determining if success multicultural workplace can be ensured. He cited that those managers with the following attitudes will be more successful in managing multicultural workplace, which are: ability to challenge and aware on personal assumptions on others, continuously striving to ensure that all employees are invited to the ‘club’, share the unwritten rules, as well as appreciate diversity. To explain, managers that able to understand how his certain assumptions may not be helpful toward managing people from different cultures will be able to correct his tendencies and attitudes. Be not stereotyping or discriminating against from other background, and thus inviting them to truly join the workplace as a united team, success in multicultural workplace can be achieved. Then, an appreciation on the diversity will also ensure that people from different background felt being valued, and thus more willing to integrate into the workplace as a team member.

Apart from that, Chang and Tharenou (2004) argued that managers must possess several traits for successful management of multicultural workplace. Among these include: cultural empathy, ability to learn on the job, communication competence, generic management skills, as well as personal style. Among these traits, Yli-Jokipii (1997) perceived that communication skills are the most important element that will ensure success in multicultural workplace. Nevertheless, it is simply understandable that managers that can understand the differences between culture, able to communicate well to people from different background or different culture, having excellent intrapersonal relationship-based skills, competence in managing workplace, as well as having a cheering, positive, open-minded, respecting and charismatic attitudes will more likely to be an effective managers in a multicultural workplace. In short, the more knowledgeable a manager is, and the more experiences and success cases on how he had managed people from different cultural setting before, it is more likely that he can perform better, and contributing to the effective management of a multicultural workplace.

According to Wong, Wong & Heng (2010), there are evidences of certain leadership style may be beneficial to effective and successful management of multicultural workplace. For example, a degree of people-oriented leadership style will ensure that the feelings or employees, particularly those from the minorities group will be taken care off. Besides, leaders that have the ability to manage change in organizational context will more likely able to manage multicultural workplace, he can more readily lead people to new behaviors that embrace diversity in workplace in the future.

Organizational Factors Leading to Successful Multicultural Workplace

In the organizational context, there are many factors that can lead to a successful or effective management of multicultural workplace. This should be not surprising, as how the organizational structure, system policies, practices, culture and climate may affect the employees’ behaviors and attitudes. When people come to work together, the conditions as well as the situation presented to them in the workplace will definitely affect them significantly. Thus, how the organizational settings should be formulated or designed will have huge impacts if a multi-cultural workforce can be united and guided to perform together for achievement of organizational goals. In the successful organization, the weaknesses of a person can be mitigated, while the strengths of the particular person can be used to contribute greatly for organizational performance. Diversity will be great assets to such organization, as people from different background tend to have different ideas, competencies, insights and abilities.

Composition of workplace can affect the success or failure of integrating multicultural workforce.

According to Mamman (1996), it is asserted that in a multicultural workplace, the fewer number of diverse workforces, the harder it will be to adjust those majorities for effective management of multicultural workplace. Such a view is also supported by Oerlemans and Peeters (2010). This is not hard to understand, a when a workplace is consisted of the majority, other opinions are easily discarded or ignored. The way of doing things as well as the people behaviors will be adjusted to suit the majority.

Organizational training and development to support multicultural workplace. 

According to Shames, providing training classes to the workforce is highly important to ensure the different employees from different background able to work together, understand each other, and combine or utilize the diversity advantages to contribute to organizational success and performance. For this, Mamman (1996) had also argued that employees need to be train to work in a multicultural workplace as well as to interact or communicate with the others from different background or cultural settings. For this, many training or development programs can be organized periodically in workplace. Employees are then required to participate and learn the materials seriously. The subjects that should be taught can include the following: inter-personal skills, communication skills, differences between people from different cultural settings, differences between different religions, how belief system affect people thinking style and attitudes, cultural awareness as well as how to deal with conflicts in workplace. Besides, other organizational development (OD) tools can also be employed. For example, team building to further enhance the relationships between the workforce as well as the team work between people from different background can be held. Management can then concentrate on teaching how to utilize the diversity advantage for problem solving purposes. During the celebration of festival of certain group of people in the workplace, company can also organize trip to visit those workers to further enhance the relationship between people from different background.

An organizational climate of mutual respect. 

According to Egge (1999), an organizational environment that value respects and appreciation of other culture and thinking style is critical to manage people from different socio-cultural setting. When people can respect each other, even if they do not necessary agree on others’ opinions, conflicts can be avoided in organization. Respecting among each others will lead people to work together towards a solution, instead on emphasizing on the differences that exist among the people in a team or workplace. Besides, when the people understand how diversity can contribute to performance and competitive advantages of a firm, they will appreciate the people from different background. That will certainly produce highly conducive environment for the people of diverse background and culture to contribute their specific strengths of competencies towards fulfillment of company’s missions or vision.

Organizational culture. 

Different types of organizational culture have different impacts and influence towards the issues of managing a multicultural workplace. Certain organizational culture will be more effective to manage a diverse workforce, while others may not (Mamman, 1996). For instance, organizational culture that embraces change, creativity and innovative efforts is more likely to be successful in managing or utilizing the multicultural workplace for competitive advantages. In such culture, the differences of ideas and perceptions will be highly valued, and people tend to be more open-minded. When people are open to other perceptions, able to think differently, see from other’s points of view, the multicultural workplace can be easily managed.

Conclusion

Overall, it is argued in this essay that the many factors affecting the success in multicultural workplace can be categorized into managerial factors as well as the organizational factors. 

Managerial factors can be referred to the;

attitudes, 

knowledge,

experiences, and 

perceptions 

of the manager or leader in an organization. 

However, the organizational factors are referred to the;

organizational structure, 

system policies, 

practices, 

culture and

climate. 

An understanding on how these factors can affect the success or failure of multicultural workplace is critical, as to effectively manage people from a diverse cultural background, all these factors will essentially become the new objectives of the organization. By fulfilling the requirement of all these factors, then only a truly successful multicultural workplace can be created.

References & Bibliography

Chang, S., & Tharenou, P. (2004). Competencies needed for managing a multicultural workgroup. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources. 42(1), 56-75.

Copeland, L. (1988). Learning to manage a multicultural workforce. Training, 25(5), 48-56.

Egge, S. A. M. (1999). Creating an environment of mutual respect within the multicultural workplace both at home and globally. Management Decision, 37(1), 24-28.

Europe Arab Bank counts on intercultural training: Courses highlight ways of building effective relationships. (2010). Human Resource Management International Digest, 18(7), 38-40.

Mamman, A. (1996). A diverse employee in a changing workplace. Organizational Studies, 17(3), 449-477.

Oerlemans, W. G. M., & Peeters, M. C. W. (2010). The multicultural workplace: interactive acculturation and intergroup relations. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 25(5), 460-478.

Shames, G.  (1986). Training for the Multicultural Workplace. Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, 26(4), 25.

Wong, J., Wong, P. N. K., & Heng, L. (2007). An investigation of leadership styles and relationship cultures of Chinese and expatriate managers in multinational construction companies in Hong Kong. Construction Management and Economics, 25(1), 95.

Yli-Jokipii, H.  (1997). CrossTalk: Communicating in a Multicultural Workplace. International Journal of Commerce & Management, 7(1), 111-113.

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Case Study by BusinessEssay.net: Importance of HRM for Sucessful International Strategic Alliances"

IMPORTANCE OF HRM FOR SUCCESSFUL INTERNATIONAL STRATEGIC ALLIANCES

Outline the importance of human resources management for the successful operation of international strategic alliances. Assess the significance of the major problems encountered by partners in the design and implementation of effective human resources management practices.

Introduction

In the ever competitive, challenging and dynamic business environment, businesses no longer able to stay alone or to compete effectively with other businesses in the ever globalized world. Today, competition is leveled to the extent whereby a network of companies is competing with another network of companies. A single entity or corporations is hard to survive or to fulfilled the ever demanding customers’ needs and expectations, while it is also not effective for only a company to compete against the well-established network of competitors. In fact, the competition between businesses had intensified in the recent years in an ever globalized and integrated world, whereby business cooperation or strategic alliances had extent beyond borders. Today, businesses are partnering with businesses from other nations, to form stronger partnership or collaborations between businesses of different countries for different types of benefits.

In the context of international strategic alliances, one highly critical issue to be aware of by senior management is the human resources management (HRM) practices or system to be applied in the organizations involved in the strategic alliances (Dessler, 2011). Although many HRM issues that is critical for an organization persist in managing people in the international strategic alliances context, the people management issues is more complex in an international strategic alliances arrangement, due to potentially distinctively different cross cultural and social factors. Thus, in this article, the importance of HRM for successful implementation of international strategic alliance will be discussed. Furthermore, the problems faced in the implementation and design of effective HRM practices that could be encountered by partners in the design and implementation of effective HRM will be discussed as well.

Importance of HRM for Successful International Strategic Alliances

In business management, human resources management is a very important area to be managed, as human are ultimately the key contributors towards the success or failure of an organization. In fact, in the ever competitive business environment, the requirements of human resources management are becoming more prevalent. Firstly, as the world enter into a knowledge based economy, people skills and competencies had now replace the other sources of competitive advantages, such as capital, machinery or other forms of business assets in determining the relative performance of a firm in the challenging world. Secondly, as the business landscape is becoming more competitive, businesses are competing to recruit and retain talents in the organization. Talent wars are not something uncommon today. Thus, all these are causing that HRM is increasingly important to an organization in the new economy system.

In such a scenario, the importance of HRM is becoming more obvious and prevalent as the businesses expand towards the global arena for bigger market shares, to growth and profitability, as well as to reach better economies of scale or stronger brand name in the world. In the context of international strategic alliances or partnerships, human capital has been the key criteria determining the degree of successfulness or effectiveness of cross countries collaboration or alliances (Ming, 2002). This is because cross cultural or cross nations expansion and collaborations are complex and complicated process, whereby the organization must become more changeable, adaptable, flexible and responsible in the different business environment, due to the differences and sometimes, even contradictory social cultural environment and consumers preferences, attitudes and behaviors. In facing with the challenges to operate or cooperate in a different business environment, it is becoming more important for the corporations to have smart, talented, dynamic and motivated employees to deal with the challenges troubling the firms in daily operations or decision making process. In such a scenario, HRM is very important in assisting a firm to become more effective and successful in the international strategic alliances process. Besides, from another perspective, HRM is also crucial to ensure effective and proper management within the organization. HRM is not only crucial towards achievement for success of competitive advantages of international strategic alliances in the external environment, but is also very important in coordinating smooth, responsive and effective operations internally. Within the firm, HRM is crucial to bring the people, primarily from different cultural background, of different behaviors, attitudes, beliefs and assumptions into a team (Dessler, 2011) that can focus and work together in the accomplishment of the corporation missions and visions.

In fact, the importance of HRM in international strategic alliances is nothing can be denied by the practitioners, as people have been observing that cross nations or cross cultural alliances have been hard to achieve success due to people issues (Berrell et. al., 1999). This can be witnessed by the abundance of literature of cross nation or international strategic alliances to be linked to the issues of human resources management. This is nothing hard to understand, as managing of people and workforce is complex, particularly in the context of managing people from different cultural settings. Besides, when people of different background and cultural settings interact, the psychological process due to the interaction can be complex, dynamic and hardly predictable. Thus, it is not hard to see that researchers are arguing that cross cultural management is a new topic to be taught to business students, and in the context of real world corporation business management, to the many employees. It is argued extensively that education, training and development of employees related to cross cultural issues, in terms of cross cultural interaction, and alliances is critical for any firms to become effective in collaborating with other firms from other nations.

Problems Faced in Implementation and Design of Effective HRM Practices

As argued above, the importance of HRM towards successful design or implementation of international strategic alliances is not something that can be denied. Nonetheless, although the importance of HRM is acknowledged, the challenges or problems usually faced by management in the context of international strategic alliances are something worth discussing. It is very crucial to understand and investigate these issues in depth, so that as the managers understand the potential challenges or difficulties, they can set their expectations accurately and plan in advance to deal with these problems or challenges.

Employee Selection Process. 

One of the key issues of international strategic alliances in the context of HRM is the staffing process to be employed in the joint venture or alliances. Staffing can be crucial as people may be highly sensitive to the appointment of people to fill the different positions in the joint venture. For example, one very sensitive issue is about who should take the leadership position, and in case of conflicts, who has the main say to deal with the difficult decision making process. Besides, the leadership of key management positions is sensitive as each partner will definitely want to appoint their personnel to safeguard their respective interests and well beings in the strategic alliances. Not only is that, it is also crucial to understand if the personnel appointed understand the cross cultural different and able to lead the people from diverse background, social cultural settings or mindset toward achievement of the goals set forwards in the international strategic alliances. In many joint ventures, the operations fail badly due to the fact that people from one side do not want to obey the order sincerely from the management, whom is appointed from the other partner. It is also not something uncommon that the key leader appointed simply unable to lead the diverse workforce, and had made deadly wrong decisions in managing the people.

Reward System. 

Apart from that, another common problem faced in international is about the promotional process in the alliances. For this issue, it tends to arise when the parent companies send certain personnel from the parent companies to work in the joint venture. As the career path design and the HRM system or practices in the parent companies may be distinctively different from that of the system employed in the joint venture, these personnel may face harder promotional issues in the newly formed strategic alliances. Besides, people may not be willing to try out new things, or to face the risk of uncertain career path or promotional opportunities when they are asked to join the new venture. Thus, overall, it is crucial to understand that the differences between promotional opportunities of the concerning promotional system or career path designed for the employees may be working against the senior management intention to send the relevant or best people to spearhead the joint venture. The system to attract good staffs to the new joint venture is critical and impactful towards affecting if experienced staffs are willing to take up the risks to participate in a new business venture under the international strategic alliance. It is crucial for the firm to understand how the reward system differ from the parents companies to that of the new joint venture. It can be reasonably expected that people may need time to get accustomed to the new rewards system and to make sense of that system. Besides, there are also questions if the reward system is relevant and effective in managing workforce. If the reward system is not designed properly, people simply may not able to work effectively (Ming, 2002), or to adopt different attitudes to gaming the reward system for personal benefits.

Performance Management System. 

Similar to the reward system, the performance management system in the newly formed joint venture between two companies in the international context may not be effective or accurate in managing the workforce. For example, it is definitely not easy to decide which companies’ performance management system to be used in the newly formed joint venture. Besides, it is also challenging to decide which companies’ performance appraisal or management system to be adopted in the new venture, and if these policies, practices or procedure will require adjustment or amendment to fit the local context. Negotiation between the two parents companies may be a long process. However, it is reasonable also to expect that if the agreed upon performance management system can effectively guide and lead the employee performance in the newly formed corporations. In this issue, the different cultural settings, or workforce mindset, assumptions, expectations and educational background may be great challenges to be handled (Thang et. al., 2007). In fact, it is also reasonable and mind boggling to ask if there really exist any effective or great performance management system to manage people of different cultural, experiences, educational or social background (Matveev et. al., 2004).

Employees’ Loyalty. 

Not only is that, there are also issues of employees loyalty in the newly formed joint venture under the theme of international strategic alliances. As people may be transferred from the parent companies to the new joint venture, it is uncertain if the staffs working under the new joint venture are loyal to the new company. Besides, it is also issues if the people from different companies can work together effectively, with trustful relationships among the many staffs in the new venture. This is important as the degree of trust will affect how people interact. For example, without trust within the people, people may not able to work effective for common goals, to share ideas, to support each other and to work in a team for better performance and attainment of certain organizational objectives. When trust does not present, conflicts between people can be more serious and frequent, and when that happen, people no longer able to work effective, or simply to concentrate on the work, but instead engage in detrimental or non-productive activities to deal with the tricky situations or non trustworthy staffs from the other parent companies.

Decision Making Process. 

When two different entity, particularly those with different corporate culture or corporate values, meet together, there is bound to have huge problems in the decision making process of the newly formed joint venture. For example, people from different corporations may have very different rules or practices in decision making process, as they are guided by different cultural factors of values previously. People are likely to get stunned when they found that the people from other side of the partner tend to have very different ideas, and judgmental rulers in the decision making process’ particularly one that is contradicting or opposing to their current beliefs or practices. Thus conflicts management within the organization between the staffs are crucial and indeed, not to be ignored. There must be proper ways to solve the conflicts between people in the organization, and how to utilize the different ideas, and the advantages offered by the diversity of workforce for better achievement and performance in the newly formed company. In fact, as we had discussed above, the decision to choose who is the key person that can make the ultimate decisions are crucial to the success of any joint venture. The practices or policies must be fair, and take the interests of both parties involved in the international strategic alliances into account before any materials decision is to be made.

Cross cultural communication. 

As discussed before, cultural differences between people in the context of international strategic alliances is the key barrier preventing effective or successful joint venture between many firms from the west to firms in the east. In fact, the culture between different regions of the world is so obvious that researchers have developed different framework to characterize the different cultural dimensions between people around the world. According to Hofstede (2003), cultural differences can be analyzed from four key dimensions, such as high or low power distance, individualism or collectivism culture, either masculinity or femininity, and lastly, either high or low uncertainty avoidance. All these will certainly affect the effectiveness of cross cultural communication, as people may not see eyes to eyes or able to understand the intended meanings to be conveyed by the counterparty of different cultural background (Harvey et. al., 2002). In fact, in many of the instances, people may simply not able to realize they the way they behave or communicate had already offended the other with different cultural beliefs or assumptions. Thus, it is important for management to understand the difficulties of communication within the joint venture, and to understand if the information technologies or communication channels available in the joint venture is effective and relevant. There are also challenges to which how the management can set up best practices to aid the accurate communication process between people from different cultural or social background. In event that the people are not able to speak a same language (Matveev et. al., 2004), the challenges in the strategic alliances is even more critical.

Unfamiliarity or cultural shocks. 

Depending on the location of the joint venture, there is bound to have unfamiliarity or cultural shocks of certain people in the new environment (Awang et. al., 2010). For example, when people working in the UK is sent to take up managerial expatriate roles in the new company in China, these expatriates will certainly faced some degree of unfamiliarity and challenges to adapt to the new business or workplace environment. Thus, it is important for the senior management to understand that such issues of unfamiliarity can be great impendent to proper performance from these employees, which definitely need certain time frame to suit the new business landscape or workplace (Dunbar et. al., 1990). The learning curve of these expatriates can be steep (Hogan et. al., 1990). Thus, it is crucial for HRM personnel to develop effective training and development program to assist these expatriate to become more culturally fit in the different environment (Caudron, 1991).

Conclusion

Overall, this paper had discussed the how the competition landscape in business environment around the world had evolved. Today, businesses are competing in a network manner, where companies are required to partner with other strategic partners for mutual benefits in the every challenging marketplace. This gave rise to the issues of international strategic alliances. As the competition is becoming more global, and the process of globalization is not expected to be reversible, international strategic alliances are not something that can be ignored by business managers or academicians. In fact, this article had also discussed extensively on how HRM are important in the context of international strategic alliances. In the first part of the writing, it is argued that human resources management is crucial for the success and superior performance of the joint venture. This is not hard to understand as people is the moving forces that work together in a team under a joint venture between firms from different culture or nations, towards achievement of the predefined company or cooperation objectives. In the second part, the challenges, problems, common issues as well as the difficulties faced by managers in international strategic alliances are discussed. All these are critical as it provide accurate awareness and expectation for managers to ponder upon before they enter into any strategic alliances across nations or culture.

References & Bibliography

Awang, F., & Roach-Duncan, J. (2010). Cultural differences and their effects on conflict resolution in business settings. Cultural Differences and Conflict Resolution, 27-26.

Berrell, M., Wright, P., & Hoa, T. T. V. (1999). The influence of culture on managerial behaviour. The Journal of Management Development, 18(7), 578-589.

Caudron, S. (1991). Training ensures success overseas. Personnel Journal. 70(12), 27-30.

Dessler, G. (2011) Human Resource Management ,12th edition,   Prentice Hall,

Dunbar, E., & Katcher, A. (1990). Preparing managers for foreign assignments. Training & Development Journal, 44(9), 45-47.

Dyer, L., & Holder, G. W. (1988). A strategic perspective of HRM. In L. Dyer & G.W. Holder (Eds.), Human Resource Management: Evolving Roles and Responsibilities. Washington, D.C.: Bureau of National Affairs.

Fisher, G. B., & Hartel, E. J. (2003). Cross-cultural effectiveness of Western expatriate – Thai client interactions: lessons learned for IHRM Research and Theory. Cross Cultural Management, 10(4), 4-26.

Harvey, M. G., & Griffith, D. A. (2002). Developing effective intercultural relationships: the importance of communication strategies. Thunderbird International Business Review, 44(5), 455-476.

Hofstede, G. (1993). Cultural constraints in management theories. The Executive, 7(1), 81-93.

Hogan, G. W., & Goodson, J. R. (1990). The key to expatriate success. Training and Development Journal, 44(1), 50-52.

Li, X., and Putterill, M. (2007). Strategy implications of business culture differences between Japan and China. Business Strategy Series, 8(2), 148-154.

Martinsons, M. G., & Ma, D. (2009). Sub-cultural differences in information ethics across China: focus on Chinese Management Generation Gaps. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 10, 816-833.

Matveev, A. V., & Nelson, P. E. (2004). Cross cultural communication competence and multicultural team performance. International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, 4(2), 253-270.

Ming, W. (2002). Strategic Human Resource Management. Academy of Chongqing Institute of Commerce: Beijing.

Ramalu, S. S., Rose, R. C., Uli, J., & Kumar, N. (2010).Personality and cross cultural adjustment among expatriate assignees in Malaysia. International Business Research, 3(4), 96-101.

Siljanen, T. & Lamsa, A. M. (2009). The changing nature of expatriation: exploring cross-cultural adaptation through narrativity. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 20(7), 1468-1486.

Stening, B. W. (1994). Expatriate management: lessons from the British in India. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 5(2), 385-404.

Thang, L. C., Rowley, C., Quang, T., & Warner, M. (2007). To what extent can management practices be transferred between countries?: The case of human resource management in Vietnam. Journal of World Business, 42(1), 113.

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