Page 38 - DMGT548_GLOBAL_HRM

Unit 2: Cultural Aspect of International Assignments

Notes
Example: In countries of the Middle East, and in India and China, status in life is derived
from birth, age, sex, family, and social connections more than through one’s achievement.
Where the orientation is towards ‘containing’ (Japan, Thailand), focus is on self-control. Striving
is for balance between feelings and doing.
5. The fifth orientation is the temporal focus of human activity. When it is ‘future’ oriented
(e.g. US), the belief is that a better future can be planned and controlled. On the other hand,
if the orientation is towards the ‘past’, like in India, Pakistan, and the Middle East, people
base their decisions on lesson learned from the past.

6. Concept of space in the minds of people: How much people value privacy is the other
orientation. If people think space is ‘public’ then a notice that a meeting is in progress is
interrupted as a request to stay out. In countries like China, space is more ‘public’ when
doors are closed. People suspect something fishy. In the western countries, space is more
‘private’. People like their chambers and always knock before entering others’ rooms.
So, these orientation patterns play a great role in determining and comparing the cultures
across nations and help the organisation in designing their strategies accordingly.

Self Assessment

Fill in the blanks:
11. The knowledge of the culture helps in understanding the beliefs, ………. and orientation
of the employees and workers from the countries internationally.

12. In the western countries, people like their own chambers and always ………. before entering
others’ rooms.

2.4 Motivation and Communication across Culture

Motivation of the employees is most important task which the managers and the organisations
have to perform. Motivated employee results in the increased productivity and creates personal
effectiveness at the workplace. For motivating the employees internationally, MNCs must be
aware about the cultural norms and regulations. There are basically two motivation theories
that are used to analyse the behaviour of the individual. They are: individual dimensions focusing
on the individual aspect, while other is team dimension which focuses on the team behaviour
and motivation of the employees.

Maslow has identified the five basic needs of the human beings which form a hierarchy. They
are physiological, safety, social, esteem and self-actualisation needs. Unless the lower order
needs are met, the higher order needs cannot be satisfies. In countries like Greece and Japan,
need motives of the employees are strong than the self-actualisation needs. In these countries,
employees consider the lifetime employment and job-security more important than having a
challenging job. In countries like Pakistan, people tend to stress more on the social needs. But for
an American, self-actualisation needs are more important than social needs.
Hertzberg’s two-factor motivational theory states that hygiene factors which are associated
with the environment surrounding the job only de-motivate the employees. The motivators
associated with the job itself have the power to motivate the people. But culture again is an
influencing factor that motivates and demotivates the employees’ behaviour. The highly
individualistic, productive-oriented American culture focus is on the job enrichment while in
Sweden and Norway, quality of the working life is given more emphasis which acts as a
motivating factor for the employees.

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