Human Resour ce

Issues in
Tr anscultur al
Or ganizations
Ashmita Ghosh
Swati V Shetty
Rituparna Srinivas

Management Practices for Business

Excellence
 Overview
Basic Overview of Human Resource
Management

Issues in Transcultural Organizations

Case Study 1: Arte TV, France/Germany

Case study 2: Grapefruit Branding Agency

Case Study 3: Stockholm Public Dental Service

Definition :
Human Resource Management is a
management function that helps
managers recruit , select , train and
develop members for an organization .
 Basic Overview of HRM
•Organizations run on the people who are a part of it.
•
•HRM involves the application of management principles in
acquisition, development, retaining and remuneration of people.
•
•HRM must be viewed holistically and not in isolation to other
functional areas.
•
•HRM decisions must bolster the efficiency and effectiveness of
organizations.
(producing high quality products and delivering high quality
services)
•
•Scope extends not only to business establishments but to education,
healthcare, hospitality, defense and so on.
 Evolution of HRM
18 th Century - Industrial Revolution ( Textile , Steam , Iron
Industries )

1913 - WOMEN WELFARE OFFICERS

World War 1 : Surge in the demand of products called for

hiring of Women .

1920 : LABOUR MANAGERS ( recruitment , queries , remuneration )

1930s : PERSONNEL MANAGERS

( Benefits and Allowances to motivate )

1940s : World War 2 ( Personnel

 Evolution of HRM
Post WW2: 1945-1979 EMPLOYMENT MANAGER

(motivation, promotion, morale boosting)

Bargaining between Employees and Employers.

1980: Human Resource Management

(present scope)

1990’s Shift in paradigm brought about in Toyota Japan.

 Toyota Human Resource
Management

vStrict and rigorous selection and recruitment .

v
vHigh level of training , especially induction training and on
the job training .

vTeam working .
v
vMultitasking .
v
vBetter management - worker communications .
v
vUse of quality circles and an emphasis on right first time
quality .
v
vEncouragement of employee suggestions and innovation .
v
vSingle status symbols such as common canteens and corporate
uniforms .

v
 Pioneers in HRM
Kautiliyas Arthashastras (4th Century B.C.)

Fredrik W Taylor (Father of Scientific Management)

BF Goldrich Company (First Company to adopt HRM policies)

Elton Mayo (Experiments)

David Guest (HRM Model)

Sakichi Toyoda

House of TATA
 Models of HRM
Provide a structured approach to designing Human Resource
Strategies .

The Fombrun Model

The Harvard Model

The Warwick Model

The Guest Model

The Guest Model is the most recent model and claims to be the
most superior of the predecessors .

It implicates the direct relationship between HR Strategies

and Financial Outcomes .
 The Guest Model

Higher Hiring
ROI Training
Profits Appraisal

Productivit
y Commitment
Quality Quality
Turnover Flexibility
Absenteeism
 TRANSCULTURAL
ORGANISATIONS

What is transcultural organisation?

Transcultural organization defines the way in

which an individual is programmed to
behave in the environment.
 What Is Culture
• Culture is explained as a man’s medium that forms the
human life of an individual.
•
• Culture can also be defined as Overt behaviors eg. how
people dress, eat, walk, talk ,relate to one another
,conduct themselves during public ceremonies such
as weddings.
•

• Culture is furthermore defined as the shared value that

characterize a society and lie beneath its art and
architecture, clothes, food, ways of greeting and
meeting, ways of working together, ways of
communicating etc…
•
• Hofstede believes that culture is a collective
programming of mind based on values. He has found
four dimensions for explaining differences among
cultures, namely power distance, uncertainity
 Problems in Transcultural
Organisations
• The culturally diverse person have different
backgrounds and experiences and therefore they
hold different perspectives and assumptions.
•

• The risk for tension, disagreements, and conflicts

rises in a diverse workforce due to
misunderstanding miscommunication, and mutual
stereotyping of each others competences and
contribution.
•

• Furthermore, the problem is different perceptions

and attitudes that individuals have about the
organizations diversity efforts.
•
 Problems in
transcultural
•
organisations ( cont ’ d …)
• communication

communication across cultural lines is really

important to avoid cross cultural
problems.

Some of the sources of miscommunication are :

•
1. Differences in body language or gestures.
2. Different meanings for the same word.
3.
 ways of avoiding
miscommunication
• Some of the ways in which miscommunication
can be avoided are :
•

• Seeking Clarification at the slightest doubt .

• Understanding the details .
• Summarization of the discussion after the
meetings.
• Using simple words that are easily understood
and avoiding unnecessary jargons.
•
Cross - Cultural Differences &
Engineering Firms
Reasons for cross cultural issues
arising at the organizational level:

1.Relative hierarchy of departments

2.Way information is shared and
distributed
3.Significant differences in the types
of skills that companies in
different countries look for in
candidates
 Approaches to Engineering
Problem Solving
•
• The approaches used by engineers of different
cultural backgrounds to tackle the same
technical problem are likely to differ widely.
•
• The type of approach used to solve
engineering problems is often a reflection of
what is emphasized in educational curricula
leading to engineering degrees in various
countries. Eg…
•
• In France and Greece, for example, engineers
tend to emphasize theoretical or mathematical
approaches over experimental or numerical
ones.
•
• Other countries, such as Canada and the
United States, tend to favor experimental or
Approaches to Engineering
Problem Solving ( cont ’ d )…
• There is no absolute "right way" to
approach technical problems, issues
are likely to arise when engineers with
different inclinations work together to
solve them.
•
• For example, high labour costs and the
availability of skilled workers make
process automation and the use of
heavy equipment valuable in
developed countries, while using large
numbers of unskilled workers may be a
preferred approach in some developing
 How Cross - Cultural
organizations can help
• Can shorten the learning curve by delivering
training to companies in a timely and targeted
fashion.
•
• The necessary cross-cultural information should
be shared with all employees involved in
international ventures, rather than being
limited to those who had experience with
them.
•

• Cross-cultural training organizations are experts

in the area of cross-cultural relationships and
can provide training on many topics, including
how to:
1. Do business in a given country or region.
2. Make presentations in a given country of
region.
3. Select the right people for international
 How Cross-Cultural
organizations can help (cont’d)
…
• Building a shared culture.
• Consensus  agreement  on important  matters.
• Building   an  understanding  climate.
• Identify / use  the  rich  points  in  each  culture.
• Concentrate  on the  things  you  know.
• Understanding  various  religious  practices.
• Understanding  various  food   practices.
• Understanding  various  dress   practices.
• Showing  patience  always.
• Showing  good  manner   always.
• Showing  sense  of  humor  always.
• Showing  tolerance  always.
• Showing  respect   always.
•
•
• Case Study -1: Arte TV,
France/Germany
Background

ARTE is a European public-service cultural television

channel. Its originality lays in the fact that it targets
audiences from different cultural backgrounds, in
particular French and German. It is composed of three
entities: the headquarters in Strasbourg and two member
organisations responsible for programme production and
delivery: ARTE France and ARTE Deutschland.
•
• Together these currently provide three-quarters of
ARTE’s programming in equal proportions, the
remainder being provided by ARTE G.E.I.E. and
broadcasters cooperating with ARTE. Some of the
programmes provided by the members are not only
produced in France and Germany, but also in other
European countries.
•
• The founding fathers of ARTE believed that a joint
television channel should bring French and German
citizens closer on a cultural level and promote
cultural integration throughout Europe. Creating a
television channel for two audiences was a first in
television’s history and is still an exception in the
global TV market to this date.
•
•
Study
•

• ARTE broadcasts all its programmes in French and

German, and all the channel’s operations are bilingual.
There is an in-house language department for
translation and interpretation as, every single day,
programmes have several interpreters on air (more
than 2,000 interpreter-days per year).
•

• In the process, ARTE has identified and developed

special skills for TV and media interpretation, training
its interpreters to become good media
communicators.
•

•
•

• As there are no similar training modules on the

market, ARTE has been asked to train staff interpreters
for the European institutions, NATO, the Council of
Europe and other big organisations.
•

• Today ARTE is well established in both Germany and

France, and is synonymous throughout Europe with
high-quality creative broadcasting. Its leitmotif is
open-mindedness towards theworld, towards new
topics and new narrative forms.
•
• Conclusions
•

• The ARTE network offers some of the most creative

TV programming to be found not only in Europe, but
worldwide, with input from both the German and the
French sides. It is highly creative in the strictly artistic
sense, but also very creative in the manner in which it
plans and operates the network.
•

• Working in an international context, ARTE’s

programmers and filmmakers are confronted every
day with people from different cultural backgrounds
and have to adapt to different ways of thinking, of
working.
•

• This confrontation between different worlds may

sometimes be destabilising, but in the end it’s very
creative and stimulating.
•

• Today ARTE is well established in both Germany and

France and is synonymous throughout Europe with
high-quality creative broadcasting. Its leitmotif is
open-mindedness towards the world, towards new
topics and new narrative forms.
•
•

• Case Study-2 : Weber Shandwick

communication consultancy,
International
• Background
•

• Weber Shandwick is a public relations/public affairs

consulting company with offices in every European
capital. Its services include communication
programmes that are either in the local languages or
in languages that can reach audiences in multiple
regions. Each regional office is run by persons from
that region, while the Brussels office consists of a
team of 60,representing 17 different nationalities.
•
Despite the very similar nature of the work done in
the regional offices (which are more monocultural and
speak their local language plus English) there is a
distinct difference in the way creativity is achieved in
the Brussels office (which is multilingual and
multicultural). Beyond the communication possibilities
that come with a multilingual team, there is the
culture that develops in a multicultural organisation.
•

• As most of the team have travelled widely, live far

from their mother land or were born into multicultural
families, there is an innate understanding of how to
create a third culture, the behaviours that will make it
work and the benefits of having a tightly woven team.
In this environment, people have more patience to
listen, are slower to judge, and are curious to lean
about other’s views – attributes that foster creativity.
Study
•

• A brainstorm session on the same subject was run

in two offices – a generally monolingual office and the
multilingual office (Brussels). In the monolingual
office, the group jumped quickly into the problem
without a thorough understanding of the brief and
immediately started generating potential solutions.
While many interesting ideas surfaced, very few had
anything to do with the actual problem.
• Meanwhile the multilingual group in Brussels was still
discussing the problem and, in the end, pulled
together as a team with a common understanding of
what needed to be achieved. While this team
developed fewer ideas, the ideas it did generate were
more creative and more applicable.
•

• The multilingual group uses its variety of languages to

its advantage. As teams move through the process of
innovation, they need to explain to their colleagues
their understanding of the problem, the options they
find and the how the solution will work.
•
• Conclusions
•

• Creativity requires openness, time,

discussion, and permission – speaking
languages and living among other cultures
contributes to the mental flexibility that is
required in the act of creation Working on
creative projects with multilingual groups
often generates new ideas in the process of
translation, discussion and brainstorming.
•

• Through the filters of translation, inevitable

misunderstandings happen and often lead to
reinterpretations of the problem and better ideas
being generated.
•

• Crossing language barriers requires additional

discussion, analogies and examples - these visual
explanations of the situation activate people’s creative
brains as they try to understand each other. So
multilingual discussions generate more ideas and can
result in concepts that are more thought through.
•

• Case Study -3: Grapefruit

branding agency, Romania
Background
•

• Romanians Marius Ursache and Stefan Liute are

bilingual, having spoken English since early childhood,
while their personal backgrounds exposed them
intimately to the British and American cultures. Ten
years ago they founded Grapefruit, a branding agency
based in Iasi and Bucharest.
• From the very beginning, Grapefruit worked for
international clients, mainly based in English-speaking
countries, providing brand identity, design and
strategy services. Grapefruit is now one of Romania’s
top branding agencies, employing a team of 16 in its
two offices and catering to a large variety of clients.
•

• More than half of its work, both creative and strategic,

is executed and delivered in English. This language is
lingua franca not only for Grapefruit’s international
clients, but also for those at home. The agency is, and
has always been, truly bilingual in its business
communications, as are all its people, quite a few of
whom are multilingual.
• Study
•

• Grapefruit helps businesses and organizations build and

maintain strong brands. It does so by:
•• developing brand strategies that make or keep brands
relevant to their audiences
•• creating brand identities and communication
materials/activities that effectively reflect the underlying
brand strategies
•• helping clients manage their brands through planning,
evaluation and training.
• Grapefruit conjures up ways of bringing new brands to
life, or revitalising existing ones: everything and
anything from core, abstract ideas via slogans, logos
and visuals to brand management plans.
•
• All these activities are intrinsically creative, since no
market or industry has viable formulas or recipes for
brand success. Moreover, successfully mixing business
strategy and considerations with visual or verbal
artistic talent is often a complex and thoroughly
creative process in its own right.
•
• Grapefruit’s creativity has driven its continued
commercial success and has generated international
recognition over the years. Most recently, Grapefruit
was the most widely nominated and awarded
Romanian agency at Rebrand 100 (USA), Identity: Best
of the Best 2007 (Russia) and Pentawards 2007 &
2008 (France).
• Conclusions
•

• Bilingualism, allied with multilingualism, has allowed

Grapefruit and its founders to gain the business and
professional insights they have applied to their
venture since its inception. It allows all members of
the company to draw on large swathes of universal
culture, both classic and contemporary, that are
simply less accessible in their native tongue.
• This in turn has encouraged the circulation,
identification, and ultimately combination and
exploitation, of ideas that would have been
unreachable for Grapefruit and its people, had they
been monolingual.
•

• In many respects, multilingualism has helped

Grapefruit to think and act in a more global, sensitive
and business-savvy way. It has been a vital part of
Grapefruit’s competitive advantage and part of its
influence on the people the agency interacts with.
•

•
Learning from
the case studies
• Inference:
•

• These case studies demonstrate in practice, in a

variety of ways, the contribution of multilingualism to
creativity.
•

• The common theme that links them is that, thanks to

the multilingual and multinational composition of the
teams and the ways these initiatives have been
organised, all have been both innovative and
successful.
 Case Study

Stockholm Public
Dental Service ( SPDS )

Stockholm , Sweden
 Company Trivia
vEurope’s largest dental care company.
v
vPublic sector enterprise responsible for
providing dental care to over 400,000
customers.
v
vAnnual turnover of close to 1 billion
Euros.
v
vOver 120 clinics spread across Stockholm
with 2200 employees that include Doctors,
Nurses and other support staff.
 Company Trivia
qDuring the year 2001 the company was
suffering from an economic deficit of more
than 200 million Euros .
q
qMrs . Bemurdez Svankvist was appointed as the
director for the company .
q
qShe had a totally unconventional way of
thinking and was determined to revive the
company .
q
qWithin 2 years the company was back on its
feet and was able to turn its deficit into a
surplus .
q
qThe corner stone for this change was the
employing of culturally diverse staff.
q
Mrs . Bemurdez Svankvist had 3
main goals in mind .

1 . Revival ( turn the Deficit into a

Surplus )
2.
3 . Decrease the unemployment by hiring
more people .
4.
5 . Venture into untapped markets for the
company .
 De- Merits of a Transcultural
Organization
qDifficulty to predict behavior of people.
q
qComplications concerning gender bias.
q
qComplications concerning dignity of labor.
q
qPrejudice against certain cultures.
q
qCommunication difficulties.
 Benefits of a Transcultural Staff

qAttracts best talent from all corners of the world.

q
qMore variety of ideas, suggestions and higher degree of
innovation.
q
qMultiple approaches to problem solving.
q
qTax financed and therefore reassuring to diverse
communities.
q
qAugment the customer base.
q
qIncrease the credibility of the Organization.
q
q
 Results
qThe company recovered from its economic deficit
with a turnover of more than 1.3 billion Euros.
q
qThe customer base of the company grew by 18%.
q
qThe attrition rate within the company reduced from
14 to 9 %.
q
qThe level of satisfaction of the employees increased.
q
qSPDS is on its way to changing from competent to
dominant in the dental care market.
People must be judged
not on the basis on the
color of their skin , or
the beliefs in their
faith but the merit of
their ability and
content of their
character .
- Dr. Bemurdez Svankvist