Critical Evaluation of Cultural and HRM Issues for a UK Business Locating a Call Centre in Japan

This report evaluates the cultural and HRM issues faced by UK companies when locating a call centre operation in Japan. It discusses Hofstede's cultural dimension theory and the challenges faced by International Human Resource Managers.

BSc (Hons) Business Management Top up
BMP6003
International HRM
Critical evaluation of cultural and
HRM issues for a UK
business locating a call centre in
Japan
Contents
Introduction 2
A critical evaluation of cultural issues UK companies need
to take into consideration when locating a call centre
operation in Japan 3
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A critical evaluation of HRM issues UK companies need to
take into consideration when locating a call centre
operation in Japan 7
Conclusion 9
References 9
Introduction
International human resource management is the set of activities which helps
in managing human resource at international level. The thought of international
human resource is same as the regular human resource management. With the help
of IHRM the businesses can create innovative products and it helps the HR
managers to hire the best talent across the globe. Globalization is helping the
Human resource managers to create pressure on the employees, which helps the
employees to produce better outcomes (Adla, Gallego-Roquelaure and Calamel, 2019).
Internationalization helps a business to design new products and services which help
in fulfilling the needs and wants of the customers. This is a process which helps the
businesses to expand their business globally and build new customers across the
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globe. This report is the critical analysis of the issues which Human resource
managers will face while expanding their business in Japan. Further in this report the
cultural issues which have to be considered by the UK companies when locating
their call center in Japan have bee discussed. For HR managers it is important to
evaluate the market before expanding , so that they can make appropriate strategies
and can motivate employees.
A critical evaluation of cultural issues UK companies need
to take into consideration when locating a call center
operation in Japan
The Japanese economy is the third largest economy in
the world, the country is famous for producing innovative
products. The Japanese culture is different from that of UK's
culture, as their religious practices are different. Both the
countries are using different languages for communication, and
the use of gestures are also different. For evaluating the
cultures of both the countries hofstede's cultural dimension
theory has been discussed below-
Hofstede's cultural dimension theory- The model is proposed
by Geert Hofstede's, and this model is used to identify the
different cultures across the country.
 Power distance index- In this dimension the acceptance
of the less powerful members in the organization such as
family and friends are analyzed. Japan has scored 54 out
of 100 on PDI thus it is having moderate PDI (Chaudhary, 2020).
This means that the workers in Japan, listen to their
superior and do not question their decisions. Whereas UK
is at the 35th ranking on the PDI index, in UK the less
powerful employees accept the distributed power. The
countries having lower PDI have to distribute the power
equally.
 Collectivism vs. Individualism- In collectivism society
the focus is more on the relationships between the people,
they focus on the well being of the whole group. While in
individualistic societies the main focus is on the individuals
and their development. UK is having individualist society,
where the people are involved in themselves and highly
think of their image. Whereas Japan is having collectivist
society where people put emphasis on harmony among
the group instead of thinking about themselves.
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 Uncertainty avoidance index- This dimension states the
way how people will cope up with their anxiety. The
countries which are having high uncertainty index tend to
make their life predictable and have total control over their
life (Garg and et. al., 2021). Japan is ranked at 92, and is one of
the most uncertain countries in the world. Japan is facing
a lot of natural disasters, thus life is not predictable in
Japan. Whereas UK has a low score on the uncertainty
avoidance index which shows that the people are happy
and tend to control every decision of their life.
 Femininity vs. Masculinity- In this dimension the main
focus is on the differentiation of the gender role. The
dimension analyses whether the society is valuing
masculine or feminine roles. UK is highly masculinity
society, as they value competition and focuses on
success. Similarly, Japan is also considered masculine as
they also focuses on success and values the individuals
with their achievements.
 Short term vs. long- term orientation- This dimension
states the degree which shows whether the society is
focusing on long term goals or short term goals. UK
focuses more on short term goals and try to achieve them.
Whereas Japan is focusing on long- term orientation,
where they have more focus on their future.
 Restraint vs. Indulgence- In this dimension the the
society tends to fulfill their desires. UK is classified as the
indulgent society where the people are having less control
over their decisions. Whereas Japan is having stronger
control over their desires.
The hofstede's cultural model is helping the company in
understanding the different cultures and values developed by
both the countries. As the UK company is expanding their
horizons in Japan by setting up a call center, so this model will
be helpful to them as they can analyze the cultural problems
before developing their business in Japan (Hasanzal and et. al., 2019).
The business model is also helping the businesses to engage
with different countries and evaluate the similarities and
differences between them. Besides having advantages this
model is not accurate to most of the researchers. This model is
not focusing on communities as well as work ethics, thus most
of the researchers find it difficult to use. This models does not
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provide sufficient knowledge on the cultural differences and is
a outdated theory used by some researchers.
Japan UK
The Japanese companies take more
time make decisions. They are not
flexible while adapting to the changes in
the market.
The British companies are adaptable to
the changing environment and take
sudden decisions.
The Japanese employees tend to work
in a team and put more emphasis on
helping each other.
The individuals in UK are more happy
while working alone and they focus on
their self development.
Japanese people are more often to work
overtime, as this is the sign or working
hard. They also do not take long
holidays.
In UK people have a clear
understanding about their work and are
less likely to do overtime. For them it is
important to make work- life balance.
In Japan the customers are the first
priority and the employees work hard to
do the work which is given to them.
In UK the customers are considered as
partners and the employees are
allowed to refuse to the work which
they are not able to do.
While running an international business it is important that
the employees are talented and have skills which will help the
organization to increase productivity (Liu, Qingqing and Liu, 2021). In
this report the UK company is trying to locate their call center in
Japan. For setting up their call center in Japan the company
have to recruit new personnel and provide them with training.
This will require proper management of the activities of the
employees. The employees working with the company are in a
habit of dealing with the local clients, thus it is important that
they will get proper training so that the organization will not face
cultural issues. The role of IHRM with context of the UK
company is discussed below-
 If the company have to expand their business in Japan
then the IHRM have to make sure that their management
is best.
 The HR managers have to develop strategies according to
the customer base of Japan, so that they can influence
them to buy their products and services.
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 The employees working in the organization should be
provided with performance appraisal and rewards so that
they can be motivated and will yield greater productivity.
 The international Hr managers have to focus on the cross
cultural differences of UK and Japan (Macke and Genari, 2019).
They can organize several conferences and training
sessions for the employees so that they can overcome the
language barriers and cultural differences.
 For HR managers it is important to develop strategies
according to the global context and global customers so
the business can enter in new markets.
The UK company have to face several problems while
expanding their call center in Japan, as Japan is a completely
different country. Both the UK and Japan are having cultural
differences as well as language barriers which can become a
great hindrance while doing their business (Oehlhorn and et. al., 2020).
The UK company have to hire new employees which are highly
competitive and have proper knowledge about the culture of
Japan. The employees should be well versed with the business
operations in the international call centers. This will ensure that
the employees are yielding higher profits for the business. In
every business there must be three types of business
operations which can be proclamation, allocation and
utilization. These three activities have to be implemented
properly as they are very important for the UK company. The
should have knowledge about all the activities which are
involved in the process of international business activities. The
activities included in the International Human Resource
Management are hiring new employees, making new business
plan, remuneration, training and development and performance
management. So for the company it is important to focus on
these activities to become successful in Japan.
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A critical evaluation of HRM issues UK companies need to
take into consideration when locating a call center
operation in Japan
While expanding the business in Japan the UK company
can face International Human Resource Management. Setting
up business at international borders is not easy as the
businesses have to face challenges. The challenges can be
the political issues such as higher tax rates, cultural
challenges, language barriers and the customer tastes and
preferences. For the International Human Resource Managers
it is is important to overcome these challenges to make their
business successful. Challenge faced by the IHRM are
described below-
 Global hiring- Global hiring is a challenge for the HR
managers as they have to hire the employees from around
the world. This had resulted more diverse workforce in the
company and had attracted greater talent in the
organization. In international business it is hard for the
managers to meet every candidate face- to- face thus the
managers cannot evaluate them correctly. Hiring wrong
employees can become costly for the company as they
have to be trained, thus the company will waste their time
and money on wrong employee.
 International compliance- For global companies it is
difficult to handle the offices worldwide. The human
resource managers have to make sure that the business
is following the local rules and regulations of every country
(Rana and Sharma, 2019). For International HR it is important that
they know the local rules and regulations when they are
hiring or terminating any employee.
 Sharing knowledge across borders- Sharing knowledge
is important while working internationally, as it is important
that all the offices are working in the same direction. The
HR have to focus on sharing appropriate information to
the employees so that they can work with better
productivity. If the information shared with the employees
is not appropriate then their productivity will decrease and
this will directly affect the business.
 Building company culture- Building a sustainable
business culture is different for the managers. The
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international companies are hiring employees from all over
the world, thus it is hard to maintain a sustainable culture.
For the HR managers it is important to schedule regular
meetings with the whole organization (Stahl and et. al., 2020).
This will ensure that the employees are working properly
and are getting proper feedback on their work.
The major challenges or issues experienced in IHRM are
language barriers, cultural differences, ineffective selection of
employees or less business opportunities. For the managers it
is important to overcome these challenges to make their
business successful across the globe. The HR managers have
to hire the top talents which can bring innovative ideas and
thoughts in the company. It is important to focus on employee
retention, which will help the managers in recruiting less
number employee. This will save their time and cost as the
company do not have to pay for their training and development
and also for the salaries. The managers have to focus that
proper leadership style is followed in the organization. It is
important that the leaders are friendly and are not overusing
their powers on the employees. Ineffective leadership practices
will demotivate the employees and they will not be able to work
properly (Westerman and et. al.,2020). The major challenge for the HR
managers is to bridge the gap between the cultural differences.
The HR managers can focus on different marketing strategies
which will help them to communicate with their customers
effectively. The product message should be clearly defined in
the advertisements and the pamphlets so that the customers
will be influenced to buy the products. For the managers it is
important that they can handle the change and address them
quickly. It is the role of the managers to inform their employees
about the changes which can occur in the business operations,
this will help the employees to adapt to the changes in the
short period of time.
Conclusion
From the above report it is concluded that the International Human Resource
management practice is important for every HR manager as it helps in providing
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training and development support to the company. It is evaluated that there are
various challenges which have to be faced by the managers. There are various
challenges like cultural barriers, language barriers and taxation issues which have to
be faced by the companies while expanding in International countries. In this report
Hofstede's cultural theory is discussed which will help the managers in analysing the
cultures of both the countries. The managers can solve the issues by hiring new
talent and have to retain them. Thus for the international businesses it is important
to manage the business activities.
References
Adla, L., Gallego-Roquelaure, V. and Calamel, L., 2019. Human resource management and
innovation in SMEs. Personnel Review, 49(8), pp.1519-1535.
Chaudhary, R., 2020. Green human resource management and employee green behavior: an
empirical analysis. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental
Management, 27(2), pp.630-641.
Garg and et. al., 2021. A review of machine learning applications in human resource
management. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management.
Hasanzal and et. al., 2019. Designing a framework for Entrepreneur-oriented Human
Resource Management in the Public Sector. Public Administration
Perspaective, 10(2), pp.159-185.
Liu, P., Qingqing, W. and Liu, W., 2021. Enterprise human resource management platform
based on FPGA and data mining. Microprocessors and Microsystems, 80, p.103330.
Macke, J. and Genari, D., 2019. Systematic literature review on sustainable human resource
management. Journal of cleaner production, 208, pp.806-815.
Oehlhorn and et. al., 2020. Human resource management and its impact on strategic
business-IT alignment: A literature review and avenues for future research. The
Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 29(4), p.101641.
Rana, G. and Sharma, R., 2019. Emerging human resource management practices in Industry
4.0. Strategic HR Review.
Stahl and et. al., 2020. Enhancing the role of human resource management in corporate
sustainability and social responsibility: A multi-stakeholder, multidimensional
approach to HRM. Human Resource Management Review, 30(3), p.100708.
Westerman and et. al.,2020. Sustainable human resource management and the triple bottom
line: Multi-stakeholder strategies, concepts, and engagement. Human Resource
Management Review, 30(3), p.100742.
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