Reflective Journal on HRM, Motivation, and Cross-Cultural Issues

This report is a reflective journal analyzing a case study involving a Hydro Generation (HG) project and the challenges of cross-cultural management, employee motivation, and organizational structure. The report examines the role of Human Resource Management (HRM) in addressing issues such as accountability, the integration of religious values, and the application of motivational theories like Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory within a cross-cultural context. It discusses problems related to expatriate management, recruitment practices, and tribal rituals. The author reflects on the importance of communication, the need for effective organizational structures, and the adoption of motivational techniques to improve employee performance and commitment. The report highlights the importance of HRM practices to avoid negative impacts on the organization. The author also discusses the role of leadership in fostering effective communication, managing cross-cultural diversity, and ensuring employee accountability within an international project setting.

REFLECTIVE JOURNAL

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Podcast....................................................................................................................................3
Reflective Report....................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Human Resource Management is the process of managing the human
resource of the organization so that, firm will get competitive advantage
over competitors. It also includes the process of attracting employees,
process of selection, orientation and training of employees etc. Cross cultural
management refers to managing the team of employees that belongs to
different cultures. Motivation refers to the process that drives the employees
for the company to perform better. Motivation helps to achieve individual as
well as organizational goals. Company can provide financial or non financial
incentives for motivating their employees (Creelman, 2019). This Report will
summarize the background of the case study in the form of Podcast and also
describe the issues that are given in the case study. These issues will be
resolved with the help of different techniques and theories of motivation for
managing cross cultural teams. Further the Report will also outline the
reflection of the experience of working on the given task.
MAIN BODY
Podcast.
The case study is based on a Hydro Generation (HG) Project. Jones who
is the employee has already completed the starting stage and operation
stage of the project. Jones was very much eager to take construction project
of Tanzania in his hands. But, Steinberg has an opinion that the way of doing
business of Zones will create difference in organization culture of HG and the
method of performing business in foreign country (Sparrow, Brewster, C. and
Chung, 2016). And it will create unintended impact on the project. Lawrence
Bertelet who is the present CEO and Manager of the firm believes that the
activities of the business that are not related with religious values should
embody Christian values. Firstly, the responsibility of gaining support of local
community for successful completion of construction project, responsibility of
hiring workers for different tasks and to help engineers for working
comfortably in Tanzania (Gardner, 2018).

One of the important aspect of HRM is Accountability. Lawrence
Bertelet should hold all the workers accountable for the responsibilities that
was assigned to them. To held Jones accountable Human Resource
department should set up targets etc. If, employees are not held
accountable, then it may result in incomplete projects. Jones is also
responsible for clearly defining the goals of the project to all the personnels
that are responsible for local purchasing, overseeing the logistics, keeping
inventory etc.
Another major issue identified in the given Case study is that, Jones
was also had the responsibility of establishing an operating structure for
assigning the incoming Manager's responsibility of start up activities and
finding local people for performing various tasks of the job. To accomplish
this responsibility, Jones has to adopt different types of motivational
techniques such as Maslow's Need Hierarchy Theory etc. for motivating
the incoming Managers so that, they will perform their duties effectively.
Jones should motivate them by providing incentives on the basis of their
performance (Moutinho, L. and Vargas-Sanchez, 2018).
Another problem identified in the given Case study is that, construction
of dam requires huge amount of investment and Jones has been given the
responsibility of raising required amount of funds. After graduation, Jones
has worked with a small business during that time feeling of disdain in
respect of western workers and managers that are isolating themselves from
minority groups. People should not only consider themselves but, they
should respect other cultures also. To resolve such type of issues, Manager
of the organization should take steps for managing cross-cultural diversity,
adequate level of training should be provided so that, workers will not isolate
themselves from expatriate ghettos.
There is no proper rules, regulations and guidelines in HG regarding
the lifestyle of expatriate managers. Expatriate are the people that are living

in country other than their native place. Encouraging the standard of living of
workers is one of major responsibility of Human Resource Manager of the
organization. Team building exercise should also be conducted on weekly
basis, improve the independence of the employees etc (Collings, Wood, G.T.
and Szamosi, 2018).
Reflective Report.
From the given Case Study, I realized that, Jones already has the
experience of working on different stages like preliminary and operational
stage of various construction projects including dams etc. The way in which
Jones performs the functions of the company is different from culture of the
organization. In my opinion, Human Resource Manager of HG should take
steps for integrating the way of thinking of the staff with organizational
culture otherwise, it may create negative impact on the working of the firm.
Lawrence Bertelet should develop policies for integrating religious values
with the functions of the company. I believe that, such integration is
important because it may impact the local area people. If the organization
will ignore Christian values, then it will have to face opposition from people
living in Africa in respect of Dam construction.
Another important thing I have learned from the given Case study is
that, Manager of the firm should encourage the involvement of employees of
the organization and to achieve this, workers should be provided the
authority to make decision. This will motivate the workers to perform better.
I realized that, the responsibility of gaining support of people of other
country requires major efforts. This responsibility has been provided to Jones.
Accountability is a major aspect that helps the organization to improve work
performance of the employees. One of the important thing that I identified in
the Case study is that employees of the organization should be given the
authority to take decisions, but they must also be accountable for their work
towards superior. Accountability will help to improve the effectiveness and

efficiency of the work performance of HG. In my view, it is another important
role of Human Resource Department of HG to make Jones accountable for
the tasks that has been provided to him. If companies, failed in establishing
the accountability of staff, in that case it may result in non completion of the
targets. I have also analysed that Jones was having major responsibilities of
Project Liaison Specialist. Operational structure in the organization plays a
major role in allocating different tasks to workers as well as expatriate
managers of HG. I experienced that, establishing such type of structure is a
major responsibility of Jones. It is the role of project specialist to assign
various types of roles to the workers such as task of purchasing material,
maintaining inventory etc. Jones has adopted Maslow Need Hierarchical
Model for motivating the workers to accomplish their task on time (Brewster,
2017).
I also realized that I should have communication skills such that as per
the case study, Jones has to communicate with stakeholders, creditors etc.
for providing necessary financial help for dam construction, also required to
approach Government of Africa. Tanzanian project is facing opposition from
local communities of Africa because people living in communities have to
transfer at another place due to construction activity. Jones has assigned the
responsibility of contacting with group of Allies such as local agencies,
institutions, local Government etc. In addition to this, I also learn theory that
Zones should use in case study that is Herzberg Theory for motivating the
staff so that they will perform their responsibilities in effectively.The theory is
based on two factors that are hygiene factors and motivation factors.
Manager of HG should make efforts for maintaining hygiene factors like offer
adequate salary and better working conditions to incoming Managers and
workers so that, they will perform their tasks in better way (Creelman, 2019).
Zones should make efforts for maintaining good relationship with employees.
Other than hygiene factors, Zones should also consider motivational factors
like better job status, authority and opportunity of growth to workers and
incoming Managers also.

Moreover, I also learn Henry Mintzberg Model, as per the case
study, Jones is responsible for adopting proper business practices for
performing the role of project liaison specialist in effective manner. Steinberg
is also concerned of the lifestyle of Jones regarding the preference of
isolating himself from expatriate community and lack of involvement in local
tribal rituals. Human Resource Manager of HG should make efforts for
increasing the employment of workers such as Jones in Rituals of local
community. To improve their participation, firm should motivate the workers.
This will also help to improve the performance of Jones and it will result in
better communication with people living in local tribes of Africa.
As per the case study I also learn that Recruitment is one of the
major function of Human Resource Management. Normally recruitment
activity is performed by Jones through word of mouth. The major problem in
Case study is that, Jones should also consider other ways of recruitment not
only local people but also expatriate workers (Cascio, 2015). To remove long
term implications of the recruitment method, Jones should hire people from
other than local areas also because it will provide pool of workers that will
have necessary skills for performing the job. Another problem of such
recruitment practice is that it may have to penalty for violating anti-
corruption law as well as it may result in high payment that will be costly and
illegal activity. Jones should not follow such type of hiring practice because it
may motivate the workers to involve in the process of extortion.
Another major issue which I realizes that company is facing is Tribal
Ritual, HG has to pay resettlement package to tribals for renovation of
various schools etc. at new place. Jones has not participated in the ceremony
due to this, company has paid $10,000 for repeating the ceremony again. In
the given Case study, Steinberg was concerned regarding the act of Jones
and also worried about its negative impact on the reputation of the firm
(Creelman, 2019)
I realized that, there are various types of motivational techniques that
Human Resource Manager should adopt for improving the level of

commitment of employees towards the goals of the organization.
Communication skills plays an important role in every type of role. It helps to
influence other people such as communities, workers etc (Analoui, 2017). I
have experienced that effective communication has help Jones to get
financial information from banks and other institutions for constructing dam
in Tanzania. The practices adopted by Jones is not effective and Manager of
HG is also concern regarding Jones isolation from local communities of Africa.
I believed that, Manager of HG should adopt the model of Henry
Mintzberg for promoting the role of Liaison to Jones. All these issues will help
me a lot in facing such type of challenges in my life. Further, I realized that
unemployment is a major problem in Tanzania and Jones has adopted word-
of-mouth method for recruitment. But, In my view, the method is not legal
and effective. Therefore, firm should use other methods of recruiting not only
local people but expatriate workers as well. The problem of Tribal Ritual can
impact the reputation of the company in negative way. I believe that, it is a
major responsibility of HR Manager to motivate the workers.
There must be proper guidelines and regulations to change the lifestyle of
workers. I realized that recruitment practices that is followed by Jones will
have long term impact like firm will have to incur lot of expenses etc.
organizational structure plays an important role in organizing all the
activities and functions of the workers of HG. Company is having few or very
less levels of management that has resulted in disorganised work. In my
opinion, the organization should follow Hierarchical or divisional
organizational structure. Such type of structure will also help to reduce the
chances of labour turnover in HG (Aggerholm, H.K. and Andersen, 2018).
CONCLUSION
The Report has described the term HRM. Motivation. Employees of the firm
must be accountable for their work towards superior. Manager of the
company should promote the involvement of employees of the organization

Further, it has also explained that, workers must be accountable for their
work it will help to achieve targets on time. Maslow's Need Hierarchy Theory
should be use by HR Manager for motivating expatriate managers and
workers. Henry Mintzberg Model helps to improve the practices of the project
Liaison Specialist. There are various methods of recruitment that firm should
use not only word-of-mouth.
REFERENCES
Books and Journals -
Aggerholm, H.K. and Andersen, S.E., 2018. Social Media Recruitment 3.0:
Toward a new paradigm of strategic recruitment
communication. Journal of Communication Management, 22(2),
pp.122-137.
Analoui, F., 2017. Politics of Strategic Human Resource Management:
A'Choice'Model. In The Changing Patterns of Human Resource
Management (pp. 13-31). Routledge.
Brewster, C., 2017. The integration of human resource management and
corporate strategy. In Policy and practice in European human resource
management (pp. 22-35). Routledge.
Cascio, W.F., 2015. Costing human resources. Wiley Encyclopedia of
Management, pp.1-1.
Cascio, W.F., 2015. Managing human resources. McGraw-Hill.
Collings, D.G., Wood, G.T. and Szamosi, L.T., 2018. Human resource
management: A critical approach. In Human Resource
Management (pp. 1-23). Routledge.
Creelman, D., 2019. How to think like Mintzberg. HR Future, 2019(Feb 2019),
pp.12-13.
Gardner, A.K., 2018. How can best practices in recruitment and selection
improve diversity in surgery?. Annals of surgery, 267(1), pp.e1-e2.
Moutinho, L. and Vargas-Sanchez, A. eds., 2018. Strategic Management in
Tourism, CABI Tourism Texts. Cabi.

Sparrow, P., Brewster, C. and Chung, C., 2016. Globalizing human resource
management. Routledge.

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