Introduction
With globalisation having become the ubiquitous notion that has entered the realm of every organisation operating on a global level, the importance of diversity as the main tool in keeping staff members motivated and highly interested in the economic success of their organisation. The increase in diversity levels has had an undeniably positive effect on the issues such as innovativeness, knowledge sharing, and cooperation between a company and its employees. The goal of this report is to consider how intercultural communication can be managed in the workplace setting.
Influences Affecting Resourcing
When addressing the situation under analysis, one should keep in mind that the organisation will be attempting at entering the market of a completely different culture with the culture that is mostly unfamiliar to this organisation. Therefore, the process of recruiting new managers should start with the study of the key cultural specifics of the target state and the attitudes that these cultural characteristics have on peopleâs perception of the roles and responsibilities of a manager. When entering the realm of the Chinese labour force market, one should keep in mind that rigid compliance with set regulations and the consistent focus on performing workplace tasks are the characteristics that define peopleâs idea of an HR manager (Li et al. 2017). Therefore, it is recommended to start the recruitment process by placing an advertisement that details the specifics of an HR managerâs responsibilities along with the benefits that the organisation will offer in return. The described approach is likely to appeal to Chinese candidates with its straightforwardness and the understanding of the core needs of the target demographic, specifically, career development opportunities.
The selection process, in turn, will also have to be performed with the focus on the unique properties of the local culture and Chinese traditions of communication. With rather strict standards for communication in the workplace, Chinese people are prone to believing that ratings and other systems of appraisal cannot be fully trusted, which is why interpersonal communication is typically sought as the means of locating the best possible candidates for the job (Newman, Rose & Teo 2016). Therefore, to create a proper impression and reassure the target population that the organisation has serious intentions in staying in the Chinese market and building relationships with its managers, an HR expert will have to use a persona interview as the main selection tool (Zhang et al. 2015). Although the application of personal interviews as the means of choosing the right person for the position of an HR is likely to be quite lengthy and resource-consuming, it will guarantee that the target demographic will perceive the organisation as legitimate and worth trusting. As a result, creating long-lasting, strong, and reliable relationships with a potential HR manager will be possible once the specified approach to recruitment is adopted.
The Role of HRM in Establishing a Common Culture: Performance, Development and Reward
Another crucial aspect of an HR managerâs function in a new organisational setting and a new cultural environment concerns setting the appropriate standards for encouraging positive performance. Introducing incentives into the organisational setting should be addressed with due caution since the lack of appropriate encouragement may result in an unmotivated and dysfunctional staff, whereas the overly emphasised reward system may cause a rise in competition between staff members, causing disruptions in the management of corporate processes as well (Xing et al. 2016). Therefore, as an HR manager, one has to find the right balance between the use of monetary reward and the application of social recognition of an employeeâs success.
Another crucial aspect of the organisational management in the target setting includes encouraging staff members to gain new skills and accept new perspectives provided by the organisation. Whereas the issue of acquiring new competencies and developing a new skill set is unlikely to be met with any tangible resistance, the idea of adopting corporate values for decision-making within the organisation may become quite an issue when recruiting staff members from China. The focus on collectivism, which is cultivated in Chain despite a comparatively autocratic approach toward leadership in most organisations, the company leaders may need to apply additional efforts to encourage newly recruited Chinese employees to provide individual solutions and independent opinions concerning work-related issues (Fu et al. 2019). Therefore, reaching a compromise in the specified cross-cultural issue will be needed. For this reason, the careful introduction of employees to the principles of the UK-based culture of decision-making will have to be combined with the reinforcement of the idea of collaboration that stems from collective decision-making philosophy (Zhao, Lee & Moon 2019). Thus, the organisation will be able to reach a compromise with its staff members and establish negotiation principles based on the idea of collaboration.
In addition, opportunities for professional development of staff members should be seen as a critical element of the reward system. However, unlike the rest of the opportunities, which will be provided to those that will have reached a particular milestone in their performance within an organisation, the integration of opportunities for training and the acquisition of additional competencies in the workplace should become an equal opportunity for every staff member. Thus, the extent of their professionalism will increase along with their loyalty to the organisation and their willingness to provide their best performance. For this reason, an elaborate human resource development (HRD) model will have to be introduced to the setting of the target company. Specifically, it will be necessary to create the environment of positive stress for staff members to keep them engaged and willing to improve their skills (Meyer & Xin 2018). According to the research by Hargrove et al. (2015), the development of the environment with the elements of positive stress in it will prompt greater caution in decision-making coupled with an increase in the willingness to amplify the output.
Therefore, creating the culture in which staff members are focused on excelling in their job and reaching new levels of expertise is one of the main roles that an HR manager will have to play in order to assist the company in entering the target market and recruiting new members in it. That being said, the approach toward recruitment for managers will be slightly different than that one for staff members. For managers, outlining professional development options will be especially important, which is why detailed clarification concerning career development options and the training sessions that will allow newly recruited managers to build an impressive skill set will be indispensable in the context of the target company.
Promoting and Shaping the Corporate Culture
Another crucial role that one needs to play as an HR manager in the target setting is the one of a mediator between an organisationâs leaders and staff members. In order to develop loyalty and responsibility, staff members need to know that their voices are heard and that the company is willing to meet their requirements. For this reason, communication channels between the firm and its staff will have to be built, with the HR manager having a crucial function in the specified process. The development of communication channels between the company and its staff should also be seen as an opportunity to foster corporate values and philosophy in staff member and encourage them to follow the model provided by the HR manager and the company. For instance, by rewarding the behaviours that meet the criteria established by the organisation, employees will receive financial incentives and recognition within the corporation.
Encouraging Effective Talent Management
The connection between the enhancement of staff membersâ professional development and the effective management of intercultural differences might not be seen as obvious at first, yet a closer look at the two factors under analysis will show the obvious link. Specifically, by ensuring that every member of the organisation has a distinct role of which they are aware, a set of responsibilities that they can handle, and a range of strategies to use when communicating within a team, an HR manager can ensure that the cross-cultural dialogue takes place at a natural pace and without major disruptions. The introduction of talent management techniques helps to avoid the issues linked to staffâs dissatisfaction and the loss of motivation (Noe et al. 2017).
In addition, effective talent management also suggests that an HR has a strong insight into the specifics of the Chinese culture. To ensure high-impact talent management, one will require a culture based on the principles of strong leadership and the consistent, unceasing learning. Due to the appreciation for knowledge development in the Chinese culture, the idea of the regular acquisition of new competencies has tricked into the corporate culture quite quickly in the Chinese business environment (Noe et al. 2017). Therefore, the promotion of learning based on knowledge and experience sharing will be needed.
Additionally, to ensure that staff members are motivated to gain new skills and are willing to become more productive in their performance, the company will require a more transparent corporate culture. Unlike the UK business environment, where transparency is desirable, but not indispensable, the Chinese organisational environment requires the specified characteristic drastically (Hargrove et al. 2015). By promoting the corporate culture based on the idea of cooperation and mutual respect, the company will gain the loyalty of its new members due to the ability to connect to them through their culture and showing appreciation for the traditions on which Chinese business is based.
Employment and Communication
The issue of the company-employee dialogue is of very high significance for the organisation given the unique properties of the Chinese labour market and the workplace etiquette of Chinese people. As emphasised above, there is a distinct gap between the quite straightforward manner of communication in the UK business culture and a much more nuanced approach toward business dialogue in the Chinese one (Noe et al. 2017). Therefore, tools for promoting the cross-cultural conversation without the threat of messages being misunderstood or misconstrued will be required.
Thus, establishing the relationships based on mutual communication and trust will be essential for an HR manager when attempting at recruiting new staff members, as well as people in the higher positions of the companyâs hierarchy. In order to build an effective communication channel, an HR manager will have to use several tools at once to ensure that employees have the access to very possible medium for communication. Specifically, blogs will be provided for references in case new recruits will need basic information about the organisation and its rules. In addition, a more advanced and mutual dialogue will occur within social media, where staff members will communicate directly with each other and companyâs managers, namely, the HR manager, who will serve as the mediator between the leaders and the staff.
Finally, mobile applications for receiving basic feedback fast and addressing emergent issues promptly will be designed. While applications will also be used to check the technical aspects of the companyâs functionality, they will also be used to receive general feedback from employees as the repository of data that will inform the future choices in organisationâs development. The integration of the communication strategies in question will help to establish strong rapport with newly recruited members of the organisation, thus addressing possible cross-cultural issues. As soon as the dialogue becomes consistent and transparent, improvements in navigating the communication channels and managing the feedback from staff members, as well as the overall score of the organisation in the target setting, re expected to rise.
Equality and Diversity
The enhancement of equality and diversity is another critical role that an HRM leader as to play in an organisation. For this reason, it is crucial for an HR manager to be aware of the key protected characteristics mentioned in the Equality Act 2010 (Bryson 2017). By gaining stronger understanding of what the key protected characteristics are, why they are deemed as such, and what strategies can be used to ensure that vulnerable groups are provided with the necessary resources, an HR manager will create a safe environment for the target population. Thus, as an HR expert, one has to be cognisant of the differences between equality and equity (Mawdsley & Lewis 2017). In other words, ensuring that every member of the team has equal opportunities is one of the crucial functions that an HR manager has to accomplish. As a result, the opportunity to provide every member of the organisation with equal opportunities emerges.
In addition, as an HR manager, one has to remember about the difference between equality and equity. While the concept of equality has been the focus of HRM strategies for years, a more recent addition to the notion of equal rights and opportunities allows levelling the chances of vulnerable, underserviced, and underrepresented groups to have their voices heard (Ryan 2016). The notion of equity is a critical corporate value bears especially high value in the companies where most staff members are represented by the majority, and the number of representatives of vulnerable communities is very small (Ryan 2016). By creating levelled opportunities for every staff member, and HR manager will maintain the dynamics of fairness in the organisational setting, allowing employees to increase the extent and efficacy of their performance and creating the environment of healthy competition combined with interdisciplinary collaboration and affective teamwork (Ryan 2016). For this purpose, understanding the unique needs of every population represented by the staff members is essential, which is why reciprocal cross-cultural dialogue is needed.
In relation to the Chinese setting, one will have to consider the issue of gender equality. Although some progress has been made in the past several decades regarding employment opportunities for the female residents of China, the problem of women in the workplace remains open, as a study performed lately shows (Seo, Huang & Han 2017). Therefore, when performing the process of recruitment and selection, an HR manager will have to pay particular attention to the provision of extra opportunities to female employees. Similarly, deploying cultural sensitivity when creating the workplace environment for newly recruited staff members will be needed, including culture-specific needs of female employees and managers.
As an HR manager, one should also consider different levels at which change can be implemented in an organisation. While the enhancement of social progress and the introduction of staff members to different behaviours than the ones that they are used to exhibit in the workplace are important stages, the management of equality and equity in the workplace on the legal level is also paramount. Using the existing legal standards, an HR manager can shape the organisational policies and introduce a greater range of options for creating equity and offering employees from disadvantaged backgrounds more room for their professional development.
Therefore, a profound knowledge of the letter of the law along with the skills of applying the said legal standards to the management of workplace issues and the development of organisational rules is another critical role that an HR manager has to play in the organisational environment (Lee 2016). To implement the recruitment process properly, one will need a detailed understanding of Chinese labour laws, specifically, the issues concerning compensation and insurance, which have recently been updated.
According to the reintroduced principles of legal relationships between a Chinese employee and an organisation, the social insurance rates have been reduced significantly, which means that employees will receive a greater benefit package (Franceschini, Siu & Chan 2016). Moreover, the rigid system of employment contracts dictates that one of the three types thereof has to be selected so that the relationships between a manager and a company could be established legally. The contracts in question include fixed-term labour ones, open-term ones, and specific-task labour ones (Seo, Huang & Han 2017). Since the titles of the contracts are quite self-explanatory, it will be best for the company to consider the use of the open-term one since it suggests a greater range of flexibility (Franceschini, Siu & Chan 2016). Moreover, several other crucial characteristics of the Chinese labour law will have to be considered prior to the recruitment and selection process.
As the overview performed above has showed, the roles and functions of an HR manager in an organisation, especially the ne that involves any kind of obstacles to equity among staff members, is complex and multilateral. While there are general guidelines for defining vulnerable groups, namely, determining the age, gender, ethnicity, and family status of an employee, there are multiple other characteristics that make a staff member face difficulties reaching the same extent of opportunities that the rest of staff members enjoy. Therefore, it is the job of an HR manager to ensure that all possible inequalities are addressed effectively. For this purpose, a communication channel between the key stakeholders, namely, staff members and the organisation, has to be built. Receiving feedback concerning workplace conditions, experienced challenges.
Summary/Conclusion
As the analysis of the situation in China and the roles and responsibilities of an HR manager in regard to the recruitment and selection of HR experts from China into a UK company has demonstrated, including an approach based on a profound study of the local culture specifics and legal characteristics is essential for achieving success. The rigidity of the Chinese legal standards suggests that the approaches toward recruitment and selection, as well as the further choice of managing relationships in the workplace have to be well, thought-out to prevent possible legal issues (Chen 2016). For this reason, providing clear and accurate descriptions of the job and the related details, including responsibilities and benefits, will be strongly required. In addition, taking the specifics of the Chinese culture into account, one will need to reduce the threat of conflicts in the workplace and promote active communication between the newly recruited staff members and the company. Thus, possible issues concerning the mismanagement of the target audienceâs needs will be avoided.
Recommendations
Overall, it is strongly advised to create a safe and welcoming environment for staff members in order to help them to build corporate social responsibility and loyalty to the organisation. Therefore, the introduction of the practices that allow company members to recognise and appreciate diversity should become the main step in introducing the organisational change that will allow the recognition of every company memberâs dignity, establishment of justice-driven corporate policies, and promotion of equality. The emphasis on diversity will become possible once a global leader is introduced into the team to create the vision, practices, and corporate philosophy that will lead a company to success by building a motivated and loyal team. The described objectives can be achieved by communicating and negotiating with employees to determine their needs and culture specifics, thus creating a unique space where they will have the opportunity to feel completely safe and validated.
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