Page 39 - DMGT548_GLOBAL_HRM

Global HRM

Notes In many countries, the most important goal concerned is the achievement, environment conditions
and employment conditions like pay and work hours, but there are certain cultural differences
across different countries which the organisation must consider before designing the motivational
policies:
1. English speaking countries ranked higher on individual achievement and lower on the
desire for security.
2. French-speaking countries gave importance to security and to challenging work.
3. Germany ranked highest on security and fringe benefits and highest on “getting ahead.”

4. Japan ranked second highest on challenge and lowest on autonomy with a strong emphasis
on good working conditions and a friendly working environment.
The above motivational theories are used in designing the jobs, developing the work centrality
and rewards policy by the MNCs internationally. In Japan, quality of work life is more emphasised
with structured task, low individualism, and strong emphasis on the security. Individual-risk
taking is not encouraged and they are used to take orders from their superiors. Emphasis is laid
out on money and material symbols of success. They heavily depend on money as a motivator
to motivate them and get the work done.
Work centrality focuses on the significance which individual places on the work in comparison
to other areas of personal interest such as family, religion, etc. it varies from culture to culture.
Job satisfaction is most important factor motivating the employees across cultures. Americans
are more satisfied with the job challenges, team work opportunities and ability to make a
significant contribution at workplace.
Reward system also motivates the individual. But to standardise the reward policy of the MNCs
is the biggest challenge especially when the firm functions internationally. Americans prefer to
work for organisations that provide merit-based rewards for the individuals, while Japan and
Korean workers prefer to group performance for rewards.
Global firms pay more attention to the workplace relationships which create motivating climate.
The employees are motivated by the structures they work in. Management are using the teams
to enrich and motivate the productive work. Japanese work on this concept and developed a
small team of volunteers from the same work area who met on a regular basis in order to
identify, analyse and resolve production problems. It increases the efficiency. Team performance
and team bonus is more important for them than the individual performance as in case of
Americans.
So, when the MNCs transcends the national borders, they have to take care of the cultural factors
in motivating the employees by designing the compensation and reward policies based on the
cultural aspects of the countries.

2.4.1 Cross-culture Communication

Communication is the exchange of meaning: it is my attempt to let you know what I mean.
Communication includes any behaviour that another human being perceives and interprets.
Communication includes sending both verbal messages (words) and nonverbal messages (tone
of voice, facial expression, behaviour, and physical setting). It includes consciously sent messages
as well as messages that the sender is totally unaware of sending.
Cross-cultural communication occurs when a person from one culture sends a message to a
person from another culture. Cross-cultural miscommunication occurs when the person from
the second culture does not receive the sender’s intended message. The greater the difference

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