Management Assignment: Impact Of Cultural Diversity On Employee-Engagement
Question
Task:
The Management Assignment Task
To write a “Senior Management” Report discussing, exploring and evaluating some of the key opportunities, challenges and issues inherent in implementing an “employee-engagement” strategy across several different regions of the world.
Imagine that you are promoted to be the head of the HR Division of an organisation with subsidiaries in China, India and England. You can relate this to a previous employer if this “fits”?
You have been tasked with producing an internal report to the Senior Management Team, in which they have asked that you to discuss an “employee engagement” strategy.
The Management Team wants to make sure that teamwork, motivation, engagement and work performance is effective and functioning to a high level across all of these locations.
In your report you need to clearly identify the opportunities such a strategy offers the company but (more importantly) you also need to identify and evaluate the different issues, problems and challenges which you would associate with implementing this type of working across these different cultures and also within these different countries. Please provide related context information as you see fit.
You should examine and address any relevant issues around leading and managing people in these countries. If you can see clear preferences for certain communication styles, are those associated with cultural patterns (of all underlying cultures) and if so, do those advance or hinder the development of good co-operation within these dispersed cross-cultural teams? How do you envision communication taking place and what issues might you associate with these communication processes?
In essence, “what would you summarise as the commonalities which can be introduced right across these different cultures when developing and implementing the “employee-engagement” strategy and what would need to be tailored for any specific country?” (China, India or England)
You need to make practical, specific and relevant recommendations that you consider would help future co-operation and employee-engagement.
You are required to critically evaluate and academically substantiate your proposed considerations and recommendations.
Answer
Background Of Management Assignment
The global business environment has become very competitive. Organizations are constantly trying to expand their businesses in the global market. This is done by invading into several countries across the world. When an organization starts expanding in the global market, organizational changes occur significantly. Changes come with various challenges like conflicts and grievances among internal stakeholders of the firm. This can be solved by HR division of the firm. HR managers tend to understand the grievances among employees in the workplace. Once, they are well-aware of the grievances they try to resolve the conflicts. Conflict resolution is negatively correlated with employee performance (Agusioma, 2019). Effective resolution of conflict within the workplace also enhances the level of motivation of the employees. The aim of this report is to discuss about various challenges that organizational members may encounter while working in different cultures. Various motivational tools to overcome those challenges are also discussed in this report.
Literature Review
The organization that has been selected for the report is a multi-national firm and has recently opened it subsidiary in India, China and England. Intercultural communication and working in diverse background often throw several challenges to the members of the organization. Challenges might have an impact on the performance of employees in the workplace. These challenges can be overcome by the organization with the help of several motivational tools, employee involvement tools and many more. According to the study conducted by Alfayad and Arif, (2017), Herzberg’s two factor theory is one of the renowned motivational theory that enhances the level of job satisfaction among employees across the world. According to this theory, satisfaction level of employees within the workplace is dependent upon two different factors, they are motivational factors and hygiene factors. Motivational factors include recognition, promotion and many more. On the other hand, hygiene factors include pay, supervision, attitudes of co-workers, work environment and many more. However, as opined by Al-Zawahreh and Al-Madi, (2012), equity theory of motivation also plays a major role in helping organizational members to work under different cultural background. When resources are fairly distributed among employees within the workplace, irrespective of their culture, ethnicity and race, it is known as equity theory of motivation. Pay equity, reward equity, equity in working conditions are several factors that can enhance the level of motivation of employees in the workplace. Moreover, employees within the workplace can be motivated on the basis of their character. According to the study conducted by ?ahin, (2012), Theory X and Theory Y are theories that have close association with human work as well as motivation. Managers who follow Theory X assume that people within the workplace dislike each other and are not willing to take any kind of responsibility. Employees with such attitudes can decrease the effectiveness of workplace. Thus, HR members of organizations across the world must focus on changing these negative attitudes by engaging them in within the core activities of the firm.
When an organization operates in various parts of the world, they need to emphasize on effective team building and team development. According to the study conducted by Batenburg and van Walbeek, (2013), Belbin teamwork theory can play a major role in developing diverse team and enhancing the performance of the team. When members of team behave, interrelate and communicate with other members of the team on the basis of the situation and in a particular way it is known as Belbin’s teamwork theory. Belbin suggested that if team members are not compatible with their peers then it can decrease the level of successful performance within the team. Moreover, it is also the responsibility of the members to focus on undertaking various roles like action-oriented, people-oriented and thought-oriented to develop team and facilitate the work of its members. However, as opined by Talib, Rahman and Qureshi, (2012), team development can only be possible if the service quality of the team members is constantly monitored. This can be done with the help of TQM. TQM helps in increasing the power of collaboration and coordination of team members irrespective of their cultural or linguistic background.
Furthermore, in the current business environment, organizations are constantly facing intense competition in the global market. Thus, expanding the business in various parts of the world will not help the firm achieve competitive advantage. The managers of the firm should simultaneously focus on enhancing the performance of the employees and the organization as a whole. According to the study conducted by Ramdhani, Ramdhani and Ainissyifa, (2017), training and development of employees are an important dimension of organizational culture that further have an impact on the effectiveness of the organization’s performance. Training helps in development of cultural competencies and other soft skills among employees, that further help them to achieve organizational objectives, mission and vision. It also informs and aware employees about relevant changes inside and outside of the organization. However, as opined by Ladyshewsky and Flavell, (2012), 360-degree leadership development program is the most effective improvement tool that have an impact on the work performance of employees within the firm and can also engage employees in the workplace. Effective leadership is important at different levels of an organization and this can be done with proper leadership development.
According to Chen and DiVall (2018), an engagement tool is used by a customer that helps to find the right tools to interact in better ways with customers. The tool helps a business to acquire, retain as well as engage customers all through their lifestyle. This in turn improves interaction as well as customer communication thus making them more dynamic, contextually relevant as well as personalised. The job reward system aims to reward performances of employees that helps to motivate them. On the other hand, Robinson engagement model encourages employees to thrive in an organization.
Implementing motivational tools on China, India and England
Challenges and communication issues
The major challenge that is witnessed while leading as well as managing individuals in China include low self-confidence that follows reasonable organizational structure. Achievement anxiety also acts as a major challenge in India where a flat organizational structure is followed. In other words, anxious employees become less motivated thus losing interest in carrying out any tasks. On the other hand, rigid as well as complicated organizational structures that is followed in England acts as a biggest culprit to implement effective communication. This leads to ineffective communication bringing about frustration among employees.
Motivational tools
The above-mentioned issues as well as challenges could be addressed with the help of motivational tools that incudes Herzberg Two Factors Theory and Equity theory of motivation. Employee demotivation is very common among the three countries that could be solved by applying the Herzberg's theory to real-world practice. In order to reduce achievement anxiety as well as improve self-confidence it is imperative to make sure that the employees are placed in positions that utilizes their talent and not demoralise them (Alfayad and Arif, 2017). The employees should be recognized at every level for the accomplishments on their job. Their successes do not have to be colossal before they justify their recognition, but the praise requires to be sincere. Since India China and England follow different organizational structure, it is imperious to maintain an elevated motivation levels among the employees. In other words, the organizational structure that is followed in India is mostly flat with diversity as well as complexity. On the other hand, China follows a reasonable organizational structure. England on the other hand, follows a matrix structure. The equity theory makes sure that the team feels motivated as well as appreciated for their work. This will have a direct impact on job commitment as well as communication thus eradicating ineffective communication. Equity theory of motivation will make it easier for employees among the three countries to compare themselves with each other doing different roles as well as earning diverse compensation.
Implementing teamwork on China, India and England
Challenges and communication issues
Teamwork in organizations is an essential component with increased competition in the business environment. However, employees from different cultural and social backgrounds often face various challenges and communication issues that hamper teamwork productivity in the organizations. The three nations have different culture, language, ways of doing business and etiquettes that often influence the way employees behave with each other in a team. This gives rise to various issues such as lack of clarity, trust issues, personality conflicts, withholding information, lack of proper communication, reduced engagement, excessive staff members, habitual clashes, philosophical differences, opposing goals and interior competition. These challenges and issues lead to reduced productivity and performance in teamwork.
Teamwork tools
Belbin’s theory of teamwork and total quality management can be used as implementation models for reducing the challenges and communication issues. Belbin has provided team roles divided into three categories of action-oriented, people-oriented and thought-oriented ones. Here, the action-oriented roles can be used for the nation of China including shaper, implementer and completer or finisher focusing excessively on success and achievement (Giudici and Filimonau, 2019). Action-oriented roles have the ability to engage Chinese employees. When mission and vision of the firm is communicated to the employees, their engagement automatically increases. People-oriented roles involve coordinator, team workers and resource investigator that are best suitable for the cultural and business context of India with focus on people. In India, teamwork and team building plays a major role in engaging employees within the core activities of the firm. Besides, when workers have expert knowledge in one particular area they are allocated with thought-oriented roles. This type of work culture suits well in the context of England. For example, Belbin’s team role theory has been implemented by one of the renowned London based firm known as Marks & Spencer. The organization focus on individual and team development by initiating changes within the workplace (M&S, 2022). On the other hand, total quality management theory can be helpful for resolving the challenges and communication issues prevalent in the businesses of all three nations as the theory focuses on long-term success of the firms (Dubey, Gunasekaran and Ali, 2015). Here, all members of the organization including low level workers, middle level management, senior executives, leaders and others focus on enhancing the quality of products, services and operations of the firms to ensure customer satisfaction. Providing employee feedback is a part of TQM. Moreover, unbiased feedback to the employees across the world can engage employees of China, India and England in the core activities of the firm. For example, Starbucks which is a renowned firm operating in various parts of the world have effectively TQM (Foodnews, 2022). The objective behind this implementation is to focus on continual business operations by engaging employees and enhancing the level of customer satisfaction.
Implementing involvement on China, India and England
Challenges and communication issues
Involvement of employees in the core activities of an organization is important because it has a close association with the performance of the organization. In cross-cultural scenario, employees often find it difficult to communicate with their peers. Information are often not clearly transmitted from the supervisors or managers to their team members. Unclear information can create several issues or conflicts in the workplace and this also prevents employee to engage themselves in the decision-making and problem-solving sessions. Furthermore, information gaps not only decrease employee involvement but it can also have an impact on the performance of the employees and the firm.
Employee involvement tools
The above-mentioned challenges and communication issues can be handled with the help of two models of engagement, namely, job reward system and Robinson engagement model. In this regard, job reward system is more beneficial for applying in the organizational context of China and England as they both score higher on the masculinity dimensions of Hofstede model (Hofstede, 2021). This indicates that both these cultures are driven by achievement, competition and success defined by clear winners. Job reward system will help in acknowledging the achievement and efforts of the employees in these two national cultures, thereby reducing any challenges or communication issues (Martono, Khoiruddin and Wulansari, 2018). This model has been implemented one of the e-commerce giants of China named Alibaba. The cultural dimensions of the different nations are understood with the help of this model in order to enhance employee involvement (Pratesi, et.al., 2021). On the other hand, Robinson engagement model is useful for India as it has a more feministic culture focusing on being involved and feeling valued in the organization. In this culture, caring for others and quality of life are more important. This model will help in addressing the concerns of employees by providing them with an opportunity to voice their opinions, displaying concern about their health and wellbeing, senior managers showing how they value employees, providing them with good suggestions, involving them in the decision-making process, listening to their problems and offering opportunities to develop their jobs (Tomar, 2020).
Implementing work performance on China, India and England
Challenges and communication issues
Cultural differences can be marked as an important challenge. Language barriers can also create ambiguity and unclear goals and vision might get transmitted among employees that can have an impact on their performance. Moreover, eastern employees are often not aware of the culture of the western countries and vice versa. This can be marked as one of the important challenges that can be faced by the managers of the HR division of the company who has started their business simultaneously in India, China and England.
Work performance tool
These challenges can be overcome with the help of several work performance tools. Training is one such tool that can help the HR managers to overcome the above-mentioned challenges. Cultural competence training can play a major role in increasing cultural awareness among employees (Govere and Govere, 2016). India and China tend to follow a hierarchical based work culture. On the other hand, people of England are more intrigued towards decentralized organizational structure (Cooke, Saini and Wang, 2014). Thus, to keep a balance in the work performance, it is the responsibility of the HR managers of the firm to provide wide range of training that can further help the employees to work in diverse team and with people of different mindset. For example, TCS has developed a Digital learning Programme known as TCS ion and this intends to provide training and engaging employees in the workplace (TCS, 2022). Moreover, 360-degree leadership development program can also be implemented to enhance work performance of the firm. This leadership development program enhances organizational performance because effective leaders have the ability to acquire and integrate required skills within the workplace (Day, et.al., 2014). When an organization operates in various countries with different cultural background, strong global leadership is important. Strong global leaders can increase the level of commitment and engagement of employees towards the organization by motivating them, informing them and keeping them aware of the global market changes. This further has an impact on their performance. For example, Google has adopted 360-degree leadership development program. The program aims at informing employees within the workplace about the challenges in the market place and how it can be reduced (Eurac, 2022). This program not only develop leaders but also increase the level of engagement of employees towards the firm.
Recommendation
The objective of this section of the report is to provide few recommendations that can lead to successful implementation of the above-mentioned tools.
- As mentioned earlier, communication barrier is one of the important challenges that is faced by the organization operating in various parts of the world. Thus, it is highly recommended to the members of the organization to develop communication policies and procedures in the workplace.
- Low self-confidence among employees have also been identified as one of the challenges faced by firms operating in various parts of the world. Thus, it is recommended to enhance the confidence of these employees by ensuring equal distribution of resources, acknowledgement of their performance and many more.
Conclusion
The aim of this report was to focus on discussing few tools that can further help in development of employee engagement strategy. Thus, the report concludes that it is the responsibility of the HR division of the organization to create a positive environment where employee can perform and flourish positively. Positive emotional connection among employees in the workplace irrespective of their culture and linguistic background should be developed for successful implementation of employee engagement strategy. Finally, senior managers, team leaders and other supervisors should also provide growth opportunities to the employees. When employees are provided with growth opportunities, their involvement towards the workplace increases automatically.
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Reference List
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