1. Introduction The purpose of this essay is analyze the case of IKEA, which has involved in the HR management. Meanwhile, choose two topics to identify the IKEA current situation, including training and development and cross-cultural management. From those two points, give some forward suggestions on the IKEA HR management practice. 2. Training and development. According to Mathis and Jackson (2003) referred to the definition of training and development. It can be known that these behaviors are designed by the organization. In order to improve the performance of staffs. Training and development contain a large number of educational techniques and programs. “Training can consist of on-job training, off-job training, formal training, skill …show more content…
The management of cross-cultural is another challenge, which have to face during the develop entering into market process. According to (Dong and Liu, 2010, p. 233) mentioned that “Cultural distance between the home and host country can have significant influence on selection, training and performance management system.” When IKEA develop the Chinese market, it affected by different culture background as well. As the case mentioned (China teaches IKEA limits of homogeneity, 2009) that, in other countries, IKEA stores are far away to the city with a lower rental and larger place for the consumers. However, in China, IKEA sets their stores close to the city, where are easier able to arrive by public transportation. Because of the different consumption habits, Chinese customers prefer to choose the methods of home delivery to shop. Furthermore, owing to lacking of DIY (do it yourself) culture, the consumers have a highly demand on the workers of furniture packaging. From the HR managers’ perspective, this home assembled services are more common used in China, thus, they need to adjust the recruitment plan to hire more assembled furniture workers. Meanwhile, it can be acknowledged that “scientific evidence indicates that certain human resource (HR) practices are positively related to organizational performance.” (COMBS et al., 2006) For example, in China, IKEA HR managers …show more content…
According to (Hofstede, Hofstede, & Minkov, 2010) described that the culture can be defined as it is made up of “thinking, feeling, and potential acting” that all people carry within themselves, which he terms as “mental programs.” Likewise, after did a large number of research, Hofstede decided to divide cultural differences into five dimensions, they are power distance, Individualism vs. Collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, Masculinity vs. Femininity and long-term vs. short-term orientation respectively. Putting more details into these five
Before writing this paper, I interviewed several of my colleagues. Among the questions I asked were: if they could give me a definition of culture and what their culture was like. Interestingly I got the same answer, just in different words and terms. Culture to them was what was popular in their family when they grew up. And when they answered what their culture was like, they would label it: Mexican, Chinese, American culture, etcetera. This is why I believe it is vital to know the definition of “culture...
Giger (2013) defines culture as a response in behavior that is shaped over time by values, beliefs, norms and practices shared by members of one's cultural group. A person's culture influences most aspects of his or her life including beliefs, conduct, perceptions, emotions, language, diet, body image, and attitudes about illness and pain (He...
This written assignment will be based on how various organisations engage in finding and developing talented individuals to the point at which fully capable employees are born. The two companies that are selected would be IKEA and Walmart. IKEA and Walmart were chosen as there are various unique ways in which talented individuals are developed in these organisations. Walmart was established in 1962 by Sam Walton and was first opened in Rogers, Ark. In the 1970’s, Walmart went international through the establishment of The Walmart Foundation. They had become America’s Top Retailer in a span of 20 years from 1971. As of today, over 2.2 million associates worldwide are employed in 11,000 stores around 27 countries. The idea of IKEA began in the 1920’s when 5 year old Ingvar Kamprad started selling matches to his neighbours. In 1940’s, Ingvar Kamprad started developing IKEA into a furniture retailer. 20 years later, the IKEA concept started to take shape wherein hero product developed such as
Based on his research, Hofstede prescribed five dimensions for understanding international differences and similarities of culture, taking into account many macro and micro-level factors affecting culture, like ”demographic, goegraphic, economic and political aspects of society (Kale and Barnes, 1992).” The five dimentstions described by Hofstede are: Individual-collectivism, Uncertainty avoidance, Power distance, Feminitiy-masculinity, and Long-term orientation.
Geert Hofstede, a Dutch psychologist, was hired by the International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) in the 1960s and 1970s to examine the values and concerns of their employees around the world. While performing this task, Hofstede intentionally explored values related to individualism to understand and compare various cultures. By observing significant differences between cultures, Hofstede was able to formulate the cultural dimensions theory in an attempt to understand cultural trends between cultures, incorporate cultural contexts, and compare individual’s ways of thinking socially. Personally the attempt to quantify culture through various dimensions intrigues me, as I believe that it may be possible. However, I believe that Hofstadter’s current model lacks the proper controls necessary to account for the complex nature of culture.
When one identifies culture we as sociologist include many characteristics such as: beliefs, behaviors, objects, language, values, etc. It is through our culture that we can identify ourselves and through this we conform into specific areas in our society. The term culture can be used interchangeably, for example; if one says “you are well cultured” we identify this as well rounded and looked at with a higher prestige. When we think of culture and specific ethnicities and their cultures we begin to categorize them based off a rank “well cultured to having no culture.” Culture is set on the boundaries of learned behaviors and beliefs that then will allow us to classify them amongst different societies. A few of the cultures I will be discussing
Culture can be defined as a pattern of ideas, customs and a system of predefined behavior shared by a group of common people. Culture distinguishes groups of people from one another and it contributes to the richness and uniqueness of each group of people based on the patterns or customs that they follow. Cultural distinction may include some or all the listed characteristic subset language, age, ethnicity, gender, socio-economic class, sexual orientation, religion and spiritual beliefs, educational background geographic origin, personal background and even group history (Gibson, Lisanne 2010.)
Is it necessary to take collective action against environmental issues occurring in our planet? In modern times, environmental issues are not taken seriously. Our planet is in risk of pollution and global warming/climate change. These problems call for the solution of sustainability. These which are the actions and qualities where an individual one is not being harmful to the environment or exhausting natural resources. IKEA’s sustainability practices help construct awareness around the world by the creation of the “People & Planet Positive Strategy,” the willingness to make change, and the direct impact on individuals.
Cultural Differences in Hofstede’s Six Dimensions According to Professor Geert Hofstede, dimensionalizing a culture requires a complex analysis of a multitude of categories including differing nations, regions, ethnic groups, religions, organizations, and genders. Hofstede defines culture as "the collective programming of the mind distinguishing the members of one group or category of people from another". Throughout his many years of contribution as a social scientist, he has conducted arguably the most comprehensive study of how values in the workplace are influenced by culture, leading to the establishment of the Six Dimensions of National Culture. From this research model, the dimensions of Power Distance, Individualism, Masculinity, Uncertainty Avoidance, Long Term Orientation, and Indulgence are defined according to their implication on individual countries, which when comparatively examined provide a broad understanding of cultural diversity as it relates to the workplace. Identification and Definition of the Six Dimensions In initially defining each of Hofstede's dimensions, a foundational understanding of the six categories is established, from which a greater understanding of different cultures can be built off of.
The dimensions of culture came as a result of a research conducted by Greet Hofstede. The study investigated how culture in a workplace can be influenced by values of the people. In his view, culture is defined as the collective programming of the human brain that helps in distinguishing a group from another one. Moreover, the programming of the human mind influences the patterns, values and perspectives that define a certain community or nation. Hofstede developed a model of the national culture that is made of six dimensions. In addition to that, the cultural dimensions demonstrate the personal preferences on affairs that can be easily distinguished from that of individuals from another nation. Using the model, it is easy to identify systematic differences between the selected nations in terms of values (Hofstede). This paper discusses the cultural dimensions to compare the United States of America and China. The dimensions include Power Distance, Masculinity versus Femininity, Uncertainty Avoidance Index, and Individualism versus collectivism, Indulgence versus Restraint and long-term orientation versus short term normative orientation.
In advertising its products, the IKEA catalogs played a primary role as they were attractive and easy to use. The efficiency of IKEA products and quality of design were emphasized in the catalogs. Every household in the area surrounding a new store received a copy of the catalog during the busy years of expansion. Although direct mail-order sales usually represented a very small portion of the total sales. The whole IKEA range was not offered by the catalogs. To attract new customers to the stores, they were always a key factor. Throughout the world, IKEA continued to open stores in different locations and attracted various customers. It was interesting to look at a company offering the same basic products at all stores and do well in many different cultures with different tastes. Lastly, the IKEA’s current number of employees in retail and expansion functions is 116,500 as of 2015. Thus, the total sum of employee worldwide in 2015 was 155, 000. Literally, the rate of employee would be increased in terms of business development in the future. (Brammer, Jackson, and Matten,
Basically, Hofstede’s cultural dimension is divided into five dimensions along which national culture could be described: power distance (PDI), individualism-collectivism (IDV), masculinity-femininity (MAS), uncertainty avoidance (UAI) and long-term orientation versus short-term normative orientation (LTO).
The Hofstede model of national culture differences, based on research carried out in the early seventies, is the first major study to receive worldwide attention. This influential model of cultural traits identifies five dimensions of culture that help to explain how and why people from various cultures behave as they do. According to Hofstede (1997) culture is Ù[ collective programming of the mind? This referring to a set of assumptions, beliefs, values and practices that a group of people has condoned as a result of the history of their engagements with one another and their environment over time. In this study, culture refers to a set of core values and behavioural patterns people have due to socialisation to a certain culture. The author̼ theoretical framework will be applied to compare differing management practices in China and the West. The five measurements of culture identified by the author are:
In this environment conscious world, there is a growing argument about the ways in which a business should run its activities that should not have any negative impact on the environment overall. Raderbauer, M. (2011) A research done at the University of Exeter indicated that Industry has been the perpetrator behind ruining the environment for fulfilling its short-term profits instead of long-term environment consequences. Many businesses have understood the importance of preserving the environment and thus it is in the betterment of its own business, keeping in mind the long-term profits they can have while making environment responsible decisions. Business are more affected by environment because they run with the help of all the raw materials
This essay attempted to define Human Resource Development (HRD) with the purpose of providing strategic contribution to the organisations. The emphasis is on development instead of training. The concepts and practices of the learning organisation are presented as the approach to individual and organisational learning, thus set the principles of HRD within the context of organisational and HR strategy.