Question 3 - What role did the "Open Work" environment play in the case? Open Work helped Sun to reduce the operating cost, increase employee satisfaction and maintain a strong productivity. The program utilized the tools, technologies and support to enable employees to work from anywhere, anytime. Despite these significant advantages there are a few limitations and disadvantages of this scheme. Sun had a suitability assessment for employees willing to participate in the program. This expressed their need for a flexible work schedule and a balanced professional and private life. James having previously experienced the scheme and finding it beneficial submitted the application on behalf of the whole team. He hoped to use Open Work to his globally distributed team’s advantage. The application was accepted and the team was signed on for the program without their consent. While accepting the Open Work program on behalf of the whole team James didn’t think about the culturally diverse nature his team members. He didn’t take into account the low ratings towards Open Work from “Work From Home Employees” and “Field Office Employees” based in the Asia-Pacific Zone. Being comparable with the Americas and Europe & Middle East in almost all respects the Asia-Pacific ratings was significantly different in terms of Distance Collaboration, Work Task Effectiveness, Workspace Effectiveness and HR Practice Effectiveness. The preference of the employees based in India was to have more face-to-face interactions with the team members. After the HS Holdings incident when James contacted Ashok in India, then only he came to know about the reasons behind those low ratings. He realised that the meeting times were not perfectly suitable for the India... ... middle of paper ... ...ons within the team – as happened with James’ team. Thus from the above discussion we can state that diversity within the team led to creation of deeper rift among the members. It happened because the team was not provided proper leadership by Greg. This in turn was because Greg was an excellent Engineer but lacked skills in managing an international team as a result of no prior experience. Works Cited Dahlin, K. B., Weingart, L. R., & Hinds, P. J. (2005). Team Diversity and Information Use. The Academy of Management Journal , 48 (6), 1107-1123. Zellmer-Bruhn, M., & Gibson, C. (2006). Multinational Organization Context: Implications for Team Learning and Performance. The Academy of Management Journal , 49 (3), 501 - 518. Hofstede, G. (1980). Culture's Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.
Geert Hofstede performed the most lauded research on The Dimensions of Culture theory. His findings and the model that he created were outlined in his 1980 book “Cultures Consequences.” The work was met with both acclaim and disregard from fellow academics. Hofstede’s work is generally quoted and cited without any hesitation even today and his model is still widely used the main guideline for dealing with human resources from a cultural perspective.
Triandis, H. C. (1963). Factors affecting employee selection in two cultures. Journal of Applied Psychology, 47, 89-96.
Triandis, H., & Wasti, S. (2008). Culture. In D. Stone, & E. Stone-Romeo, The influence of culture on human resource management processes and practices (pp. 1-24). Psychology Press
Keogh, Jack. "International Teams: Beyond Cultural Difference." www.jackkeogh.com. Keogh and Associate Consulting, LLC, n.d. Web. 6 May 2012. http://www.jackkeogh.com/Multicultural team article by JK.pdf
When composing a team, it is also very important that you choose a leader and team members who are passionate about working hard to accomplish the task or goal. All team leaders cannot be lucky when it comes to composing the “ideal” team. If there is a situation where the team leaders has to work with people who aren’t ideal, it will take hard work and dedication to train those individuals into being successful at their task. In a diverse team of individuals, everyone plays a different role, and has a specific purpose. Composing teams who know how to play off of each other’s strengths compensates for one another’s weaknesses, which shows team diversity, but is also a source of greater productivity and success. (Half, 2015) When a project requires team effort that means that no individual has the skills and experience to complete the task. The team leader’s job is to identify the skills and experience needed and either find those team members, or train those who you already have that you can depend on. Some team members are not open to learning new things. That will be a time when you choose new team members and replace those who aren’t willing to grow and learn new things to be
- The amount and diversification of a group of people effect the team’s knowledge resources, and their ability to converse with one another effectively. Bigger and a better mix of people within a team contributes to more knowledge, contacts, and other resources, although there is a negative which can cause some difficulty communicating and people may not get along. The bigger groups can cause some communication barriers in the fact some people may have trouble voicing their opinions to larger groups. The communication within bigger groups has to be straight to the point and formal so people all interpret the same message.
As companies began to offer workplace principles of independence, out of the box thinking and open-door policies; wouldn't it be even more important to have a cultured workplace. Workplace diversity is the here & now and also the wave of the future as markets expand into global territories. Setting the legal obligations asides a company should want to maximize its potential by reaching out beyond its current marketable persons and into other bodies of people. The cause of having such a diverse foundation shows growth and understanding to support the "changing of the times" of the modern workforce. The effects are how diversity impacts the company's personnel, economy, and global markets.
In the article, Cultural constraints in management theories, Geert Hofstede examines business management around the globe from a cultural perspective. He explains how he believes there are no universal practices when it comes to management and offers examples from the US, Germany, France, Japan, Holland, China and Russia. He demonstrates how business management theories and practices are very much subject to cultural norms and values and by understanding these differences, it can give managers an advantage in global business practices.
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.
Recent years, organisation are much more relay on diversity teams to developing products, making decisions and also gain the business success (When and how), therefore diversity team are becoming a very important element for the organisations. In USA, diversity usually refer to demographic characteristics such as age, gender, and ethnicity, however, diversity is not only refer to demographics, it also means the diversity in psychological characteristics like skills, personality, abilities, and education backgrounds (book diversity). Although team diversity leads to some benefits like the positive organisational cooperation, share the knowledge and experience, it can also leads some problems to the organisation, such as the tension between members
The workplace today goes beyond just the walls and ceilings that surround an office environment or office building. According to the International Telework Association and Council, 44.4 million Americans worked from home at least part of the time in 2004, up 7.5% from just on year earlier (Earthweb, 2005). Though it may be very convenient to work from home, the choice can bring its own set of problems. There are financial reasons, efficiencies, and even managing time are just a few to name that bring about many challenges and issues that any remote employee would face in that type of work environment.
Hutchinson, Paul. "Building Effective Teams." OB 221 Lecture. Boston University School of Management, Boston. 12 Feb. 2014. Lecture.
In recent decades, the process of globalization has accelerated and the world economy has become increasingly interdependent. The rise in the number of businesses that extensively operate in more than one foreign country, which is known as multinational corporations, plays an important role in the ongoing procedure of globalization. The United Nations has reported that multinational corporations hold one-third of world’s productive assets and control 70 percent of world trade (Schermerhorn et al., 2014). As there is a considerable growth in international businesses, worldwide economy is becoming more highly competitive. The global economy not only offers great opportunities for multinational enterprises but also on the other hand, creates many difficulties for them. Therefore, success in the large-scale economy requires a number of elements. One of the major determinants is dependent on global managers. In the operation of organizations, managers may encounter different international management challenges that restrict their business development. These challenges often include issues associated with the host countries, the global workforce diversity management, management across cultures, difficulties in competitive global business environment as well as in the process of global planning and controlling. This essay is going to discuss the above international management challenges in a broad sense and giving illustration in aspects of each challenge.
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:
According to Robbins, DeCenzo, and Coulter (2011) “motivation is the process by which a person’s efforts are energized, directed, and sustained toward attaining a goal” (p. 267). Organizations are always looking for new ways to motivate employees. In a global economy it is important to understand that cultural differences can impact how an organization can motivate its employees. Geert Hofstede (as cited in Sledge, Miles, & Coppage, 2008) believed there are five dimensions of culture. These five dimensions are power distance, individualism versus collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity versus femininity, and Confucian dynamism (p. 1670). This paper will discuss each dimension of culture and how they could effect employee motivation.