Cultural Differences In HR Practices

Culture and the understanding and respect for individual and/or group behaviors and attitudes must be a consideration when approaching HR practices such as motivation, recruitment, employee-employer communications, and performance and reward systems. Organizational cross-cultural competency, or the ability for employees to understand their own culture as it relates to other cultures to successfully reconcile differences, is a key challenge to HR practices. As the world gets smaller and cultural connections intersect and expand, there is real opportunity for HR to influence cultural integration and adaption in the global workforce. Looking at the cultural dimensions of several countries such as Russia, Germany, Japan and Mexico, HR practices …show more content…
It operates in a collectivist manner, with personal relationships being extremely significant in the organization. Given the high degree of power distance, Russians are very autocratic in their leadership styles (Williams, 2015) and do not value the ideas and judgment of subordinates. Long-term incentive plans are only offered to top management (rewards of power) (Patterson, 2013). Lower and mid-level Russian employees are motivated more by meaningful work and the opportunity to advance than by monetary incentives. Additionally, performance appraisals focus more on a team effort (collectivist) rather than on individual contribution. Russians have a high work-life balance, with only .2% of their workforce working excessive hours (Safdar, 2012). They are a Feminine culture, concerned more with liking what they do than striving to be the best (The Hofstede Centre, n.d.). The implications of Russian culture on an MNE establishing HR practices include supporting a hierarchical organization structure, training and education programs to motivate employees to develop into upper level positions, developing high performance work teams, annual team goals for performance reviews and incentive plans, and additional work-life programs such as telecommuting, flexible schedules, and generous paid time