Culture and Human Resource Management

Culture and Human Resource Management
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Culture and Human Resource Management
In the context of human resource, culture between different countries is always diverse due to a number of reasons. For instance, in the case of the U.S. Company deciding to buy a Nigerian company, that is, Arik Air might pose a number of challenges especially to the management due to the disparities between the two countries. Besides, the degree in which employees are being handled in the United States may differ from that of Nigeria. According to Hofstede, the cultural values for the U.S differ from those in Nigeria.
Individualism refers to the self image that people refer themselves. For instance, in a society people may tend to refer themselves as "I" or even "We". In the case of an individualist society people will cater for themselves and their families as well. This is contrary to a society of collectivist in which the majority of people are categorized into groups. In this regard, the U.S level of individualism is highest with 91 than that of Nigeria that has 30 (Hofstede, 2012). In this regard, it is evident that in the U.S people tend to rely on them contrary to Nigeria where groups manifest.
Power distance implies the inequality between employees in institutions. Moreover, employees are talented differently thereby bringing in their uniqueness in work. Therefore, others will tend to be more powerful than others. In this case, senior employees will exert power over the junior ones. This also applies in the top management of organizations where the managers have the power to influence the junior staffs on what and how to do. When comparing the United States and Nigerians perception towards power and distance, Nigeria dominates with a large number of 80 whereas the U.S. power distance is at 40. However, at times power varies depending on the different levels of management in the institutions. Therefore, the top hierarchy will tend to exert more power.
The aspect of uncertainty avoidance refers to the way in which a firm deals with the unexpected in the future. Some of the organizations may plan on the future whereas others may wait and see on how it will happen. This depicts the way different cultures might react to the future uncertainties and avoidance. From the table, the U.S way in handling uncertainties is below average at 46 whereas on the other hand Nigeria scores above average at 51 (Hofstede, 2012). In this case the U.S will be tolerant on views from different people thus there will be freedom of expression in the organization.
The two countries tend to have disparities in the three aspects of culture. For instance, since individualism is high in the U.S, organizations will be highly efficient since people will have a propensity to work towards the organizational goals. Therefore, employees will be more hard working and self motivated. On the other hand, Nigeria’s level of individualism is low hence the workers in the organization will be dependent of working as groups and therefore the outcome might not be good as expected (Adekola & Sergi, 2007). This is because employees that wait for orders from the top management will be less efficient. In reference to power distance, Nigeria high...