Introduction
Over the last two decades there has been a profound shift in thinking about the role that people play in the success of the business, with growing perception that the HRM is a key organisational capability and one which should be highly integrated with the strategic aims of the business.
“Human Resource Management (HRM) is a strategic approach to managing employee relations which emphasizes that leveraging people’s capabilities is critical to achieving sustainable competitive advantage, this being achieved through a distinctive set of integrated employment policies, programmes and practices.”
It is undeniable that the world is full of competition and it is essential that every individual should have the ability to compete especially those who have the responsibility to manage the people within the organisation i.e. HRM. The statement means that HRM who are assigned to manage the employees must be able to strategically consider their staff as the most important part of the organisation, that without them, the mission, vision and goal of the organisation to competently adjust with the stiff competition of the marketplace will not be successfully achieve.
Managing people in an organization or a working place is commonly the responsibilities of the human resources management of an organisation. It includes a variety of activities, decides on staffing needs such as how to fill needed positions within the budget, employing, orienting and training the working force and ensuring that these employees will perform well in order to contribute for the growth of the organisation. In addition, the HRM are also accountable for managing employees’ benefits and compensation, keeping employee records, legal issues, and relations with unions.
Consequently, it is significant to note the HRM plays a vital and essential task in the organization in order to make the employees be a valuable asset for the whole organization. HRM has a key role to play in leveraging the knowledge of the organization including the employees.
In addition, the HRM is the one who sets boundaries, expectations and ensure that the workgroup or the organisation per se is on track with its objective and mission and that it meets the organisational needs. In addition, they need to “manage’ a certain relationship, structure and systems which are not in a controlling or manipulating sense but in the sense of nurturing with proper consideration and understanding, intervening, growing, supporting and directing. It is very important to know that the effective and strategic management of human resources is increasingly being recognized as a major determinant of success or failure of an organisation, in practice many organisations are still coming to terms with the human resources issues associated.
HRM is considered as one of the main assets for every organisation. The proper management of Human Resources is significant in determining the success of a certain organisation. Being aware of management value and the ability to manage the human resources in an organisation-wide will have great impact on progress results. Consequently, it is said that the philosophy of HRM is based on the simple belief that human resources are the most important asset in achieving and sustained business success. This realisation became the driving force behind the creation of HRM resulting in organisations taking a strategic technique to manage their human resources.
Human Resource Management (HRM) is a strategic approach to managing employee relations which emphasises that leveraging people’s capabilities is critical to achieving sustainable competitive advantage, this being achieved through a distinctive set of integrated employment policies, programmes and practices. Personnel policies, including welfare programs, sports, and recreational activities, are initiated by management unilaterally or in consultation with plant or works committees which are usually separate from the union.
Managing people in an organisation or a working place is commonly the responsibilities of the human resources management of an organisation. It includes a variety of activities, decides on staffing needs such as how to fill needed positions within the budget, employing, orienting and training the working force and ensuring that these employees will perform well in order to contribute for the growth of the organisation. In addition, the HRM are also accountable for managing employees’ benefits and compensation, keeping employee records, legal issues, and relations with unions.
In human resource management, there are certain issues and concerns that must be given attention and one of this is managing culture. The goal of this paper is to determine whether culture management is an important aspect of high performing organisations.
Cultural Diversity Issue
The concept of diversity has been described roughly as groups of two or more individuals which characteristically denote demographic dissimilarities among group members. Concurrently, recent studies have been created to describe the abundant dimensions for categorising these demographic dissimilarities. Nonetheless, it is recurrent that hypothesising diverse results for individuals and work clusters, particularly those relating to the level and disposition of those diversity. To illustrate, the study of created one set of calculations regarding the implications of ethnic diversity among the members of the group clusters. He have also posited another assertion regarding the implications of functional background diversity, which is fundamentally centring on the manifestation of race as well as other work-related operating setting. On the other hand, the works of other scholars were created to discern the implications of diversity dependent on the cultural differences of the group members, corporal, intrinsic and unassailableor those relating to role and job-related miscellany.
Similarly, it is noted that cultural identities originate from affiliation in factions that are socially and culturally divergent. They are time and again connected with specific physical (skin colour), biological (genitalia), or stylistic (dress) attributes, despite the fact that these may be comparatively exclusive, depending to a certain extent on people’s alternatives about whether and how they yearn for to be acknowledged by others. Affiliates of a cultural identity group have a propensity to contribute to certain worldviews, norms, values, goal precedence, and socio-cultural legacy. The cultural indicators of such clusters can be publicised through communication techniques, rules, communal connotation, and even vernaculars or verbal communication, which others may or may not admit as ethnically connected.
The level to which one individually distinguishes with one’s cultural distinctiveness and the worth one consigns on them modifies transversely through cultural factions and across members within cultural groups. Additionally, a human being may vary in the degree to which he or she associate with, principles, or articulate a specific cultural personality at any prearranged instance, dependent on the salience and denotation of that characteristics in the perspective within which he or she is in commission. For this reason, cultural identity, as understood in this selection, is communally constructed, multifaceted, and self-motivated.
The views on effective management of diversity in general and cultural diversity in particular, are scattered and it is hard to find a common line of agreement among the earlier writers. In one stream, there are writers arguing that a culturally mixed work force holds a potential competitive advantage for organisations. In another stream are the writers who stress that similarity helps to develop cohesion which, in turn, is related to the success of a group. There are some other authors whose position lies in the middle of these streams.
Leadership is a key issue in the development of groups, organisations and nations. The study of leadership plays a crucial role in the behavioural and management sciences. It is generally accepted that good leadership is essential to the functioning of an organisation. It may be useful to think of the leadership process as the interaction between the situation, the leader, and the followers. Leadership is behaviour so it is defined as a function of the leader’s personality.
Culture is an important factor in understanding organisation, because for any organisation to operate effectively it must for some extent have a general set of believe and assumptions. Because understanding the term of the culture metaphor helps organisations to be aware of how employees are thinking about the organisation phenomena, and to recognise how different attitudes, value and beliefs affect the workplace.
Understanding and assessing the national culture and organisation’s culture can mean the difference between success and failure in today’s fast changing organisational environment. Cultural assessment can provide measurable data about the real organisational values and norms that can be used to get management’s attention.
Accordingly, culture is inseparable form the nation of human society which makes defining it a complicated task. As a result, there are many definitions for culture. define culture as “an integrated system of learned behaviour patterns, characteristic of the members of any given society”. In addition identifies culture as “collective programming of the mind”.
Cultural Assessment
Culture is an important factor in understanding organisation, because for any organisation to operate effectively it must for some extent have a general set of believe and assumptions. Because understanding the term of the culture metaphor helps organisations to be aware of how employees are thinking about the organisation phenomena, and to recognise how different attitudes, value and beliefs affect the workplace.
Understanding and assessing the national culture and organisation’s culture can mean the difference between success and failure in today’s fast changing organisational environment. Cultural assessment can provide measurable data about the real organisational values and norms that can be used to get management’s attention. Though, it can be said that the basic assumption, values and norms drive practices and behaviours. Hence when a culture is created it becomes a driving force for the shape and scope of the organisation.
The framework for national culture has been developed by researcher. While the respective merits and drawback of different framework are widely discussed, the Hofstede basic module of culture can be seen as a helpful framework to illustrate the major issues that need to be considered in change process.
Culture environment is one of the important principles that influence the organisation. Some studies had been able to identify four dimensions that differentiate cultures at a national level (power distance, individualism-collectivism, masculinity-femininity, uncertainty avoidance), which help to understand that people arrive to organisations with their own national culture.
Therefore, it is only necessary to understand the relation between organisation itself and its culture. For that reason Hall (1979) identifies two classifications of culture that have an impact on business activity, the “High Context Culture” and the “low context culture”. The high context cultures have a very high prevailing homogenous view on nationality, religious values and beliefs. Such culture can be found in Japan and Arab countries; the context of communication is more valued such as body language and gestures. However in the low context culture, communication context is more of formal written records, such culture can be found in the UK and USA.
Many studies about international organisations have been undertaken. However, a brief review of the literature about the sociology of international organisations indicates that these studies which have been conducted mostly by former employees of such organisations and were largely undertaken by white males who have tended to belittle the role of staff members from developing countries.
These authors have suggested that employees of international secretariats, hailing from developing countries are responsible for incompetence and inefficiency in these organisations as they are employed due to the principle of equitable geographical distribution and not because of their competence, qualifications and experience.
The process of making an organisation is simultaneously the growth and maintenance of relationships among individuals who are working towards a common goal and the actual accomplishment of tasks, individually and collectively. In any organisation, there exist two dimensions. The technical dimension includes elements that are generally visible but hard to decipher like the control systems (recruitment mechanisms, administrative rules and procedures, etc.), structures (departments and divisions and physical facilities), and techniques and procedures (performance, working methods).
The cultural/political dimension is more intangible and strategic in nature. This dimension explains the assumption about the essence of the Secretariat’s culture. It includes rituals and myths, symbols and games. Due to the common behavior, an internal integration within the organisation is developed. In a sense, all cultural learning reflects the original values of individuals and their sense of what ought to be as distinct from what is.
Argues that organisations build their multicultural capacities in three ways. Affirmative action creates a diverse staff by recruiting previously excluded individuals into homogeneous organisations. Valuing cultural diversity builds understanding and helps people learn to appreciate this new diversity. Managing diversity attacks institutional racism, reallocates power, and promotes justice in the work place while enhancing the work environment. Diversity is otherness or those human qualities that are different from our own and outside the groups, to which we belong, yet present in other individuals and groups.
Dimensions of diversity include, but are not limited to: age, ethnicity, ancestry, gender, physical abilities/qualities, race, sexual orientation, educational background, geographic location, income, marital status, military experience, religious beliefs, parental status, and work experience. It’s important to understand how these dimensions affect performance, motivation, success, and interactions with others. Institutional structures and practices that have presented barriers to some dimensions of diversity should be examined, challenged, and removed.
Cultural Diversity and Managing Culture
Defines cultural diversity as the “representation, in one social system, of people with distinctly different group affiliations of cultural significance. ” To identify and measure the effects of diversity, it is necessary to examine an organisation’s culture. Traditionally, organisational culture encompasses the shared values, beliefs, behavior, and background of the organisation’s members. Members share a common socio-cultural heritage. Culture once portrayed ethnic or nationality groups but in recent years cultural factors now include race, gender, sexual orientation, age, or disability.
People of different ethnic backgrounds possess different attitudes, values, and norms. Increasing cultural diversity in both public and private sectors focuses attention on the distinctions between various ethnic groups in their attitudes and performance at work. For example, examine the similarities and differences in work climate perception and levels of job satisfaction among Anglo-American and Mexican-American local government employees.
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