BUS3011: HR Issues Report for Franklin & Sons Expansion

This report analyzes the HR-related challenges and opportunities for Franklin & Sons, a shoe manufacturer based in Northampton, as it considers expanding its business operations, specifically focusing on a partial manufacturing shift to China. The report employs Hofstede's cultural dimensions model to evaluate the cultural differences between the UK and China, assessing factors such as power distance, individualism versus collectivism, masculinity versus femininity, uncertainty avoidance, long-term orientation, and indulgence versus restraint. The analysis aims to identify potential threats and opportunities related to employee relations, labor mobility, leadership, management, and training within the context of the company's expansion plans. The report provides recommendations based on the cultural dimensions to facilitate effective cross-cultural management and ensure the successful implementation of the expansion strategy.

BUS3011HR-RELATED
ISSUES

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY ..................................................................................................................................3
Comparison in between different nation cultures.......................................................................3
Power distance index:.................................................................................................................5
Individualism vs collective:........................................................................................................5
Masculinity vs femininity:..........................................................................................................6
Uncertainty avoidance:................................................................................................................7
Long term orientation vs short term orientation.........................................................................7
Indulgence vs restraints...............................................................................................................8
Recommendation.........................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Human resources management is the part of management system within the firm. In
which they have various roles and responsibility in order to carry out all function of company
effectively. The major roles that performed by HR manger is to recruit, select, appraise and train
employees. While carrying out this, they faces so many problem and that will be discussed in this
present report (Kumar and Usmani, 2017). For this, Franklin and Sons company is selected,
which are the manufacturer of shoes. Northampton is found as a most famous and prestigious
shoe making hub of England and this company also located there. Now this company wish to
expand its business at various location for the partial manufacturing shift. In which in current
assignment chain is selected for expansion. Opportunity along with threat on chosen nation is
analysed in this report with the help of Hofstede's model.
MAIN BODY
Comparison in between different nation cultures
Each organisation consist various employees within the firm of different nations as well
as company operates their business at various location for the accomplishment of organisation
goal related with the enhancement of productivity and profitability of company. For this it is vital
for firm to have proper knowledge about all culture so that they will able to mange all members
of company effectively. In relevance to selected firm, franklin and Sons, they wish to expands
their business in china. For which, it is important for the entities of company to have proper
knowledge about that nation as well as candidates (Dash, 2020). With the help of hofstede model
company will able to identity the threat and opportunity within the context of company for
expansion of business at new location which is china. Some of the key issues related to HRM are
as follows:
Employee relation: It refers to connection or bond among employees within a company.
It is vital for management team to maintain positive and good relation between employees so that
operational efficiency and profitability of company will increased. In context of chosen firm they
wish to expand their business in china and for this, they need some employees in order to carry
out operations. Hiring and section process need to be conducted. So now this company holds
peoples off different nation such as china and UK. It become cross culture or diversified
company. If an individual who belong to UK does not know the language of china. Then there

will be chances of evolution of conflicts due to miscommunication and by this company will
face many challenges in managing the employee relations.
Mobility of labour : Mobility of labour means employees or individual will move from
one place to another place for working purpose as well as for the economy. As franklin and Sons
wants to expand its business in china. It is not possible for management team of company to
recruit all employee from top level to lower level so they have to transfer their some skilled
employee from UK to china. In which come peoples many not feel happy or they are not flexible
to adopt changes. During that company will faces so many problems in order to manage or
handle this problem.
Leadership and management: leadership refers to getting individuals to comprehend
and believes that the set goal of company will achieved within time frame by doing hard work
where as management is about administration and ensuring that all work will carry out
effectively (Folger and Whiting, 2020). If there is absent of both of these, then company will
face many problems such as entities will nor able to deal with others at different cultures of
mentioned person origin culture. As well as in management difference may arises towards
attitudes, behaviours. Functioning communication problems along with culture implications.
Management training & professional management of employees: Cross culture is an
essential component of any multinational company. In which training is a tool that optimizes the
corporate position within the global areas. Culture factors affects all aspects of business by
educating, preparing corporations, employees, families by maximizing their cross culture
adjustments and by assisting in preventions of premature returns. In order to carry out innovation
and creation in product it is crucial to give proper training and development sessions to employee
so that they will able to perform all task in effective without any hurdle.
In order to understand in detailed, a Hofstede model of culture dimensions is carried
out. So that threats and opportunity of all the nations will be determined effectively in order to
carry out partial production shift:
Partial production shift: In order to increase the market shares and profitability of
company, entities of company think to expands its business at other nation and in relevance to
selected firm they wish to carry out partial expansion in which they shifts their production on
small scale initially and if they will get success and growth then they can enhance their business
Hofstede model :

This is a framework that is used by the entities of company in order to carry out effective
communication with employees of diverse nations. This model was developed by the Geert
Hofstede. This represents the impacts of society's culture on values of their members as well as
how these values are related with the behaviour. In which it includes various dimension such as
power distance index (PDI), individual vs collectivism( IDV), uncertainty avoidance(UAI),
masculinity vs femininity(MAS), long term orientation vs short term orientations(LTO),
indulgence vs restraints(IND) (Asadullah, and et.al., 2020). With the help of all dimensions, the
entities of chosen company will able to determine the threat and opportunity in china for the
expansion of company. Organisation culture is about the difference in practices between or
within the same organisation.
Power distance index:
This component deal with the concept that all individual or peoples of society are not
equal in term of behaviour, culture, attitudes beliefs , knowledge and so many other factors. In
which power distance can be defined as the degree to which the low power distinct members of
company or institute within a nations expect and accepts the power that is distributed unequally.
In context of china, it consist high power distinct index which means the people of that
nations believes that inequalities among peoples are acceptable. So that employee- employer
relation leads to a polarized and there will be no chances of defence against power that is
distributed by superiors. Individual are influenced by formal authority and are in normal
optimistic about workers capacity for leadership and initiatives so this would be acts as
opportunity for chosen company for the expansion of company as the PDI of UK is very low. As
the society people won't believe that inequality among people need to be minimized (Madhani,
2020). The PDI of UK seems to be very in congruent with the well establishment. So if selected
firm will open company at China then there will be chances of getting success on the basis of this
factors. As people will be in controlled.
Individualism vs collective:
This factors is related with the extent of interdependence a society maintains among their
members. In which it has been identify that the self image of people is defined by term I or we.
In individualism people are assumed to looked after each other and families. Whereas in
collectivism belong belong to carry out all function in a group by taking care of all members in
exchange for loyalty.

In relevance to china, there society people believe in collectivism that means peoples act
in interested of group not only with themselves. In group intellection, it affects hiring and
promotion with closers in group and that gets as preferential treatment. In which the employee
commitment is very low within the firm. Relationship among employee will be cooperative in
the group. So personal relationships prevail over projects as well as firm. On the other hand the
score of individualism is highest in UK. UK consist highly individual and private peoples. In this
parents taught to their children from early age for thinking about themselves as well as to figure
out what will be the unique purposes of life and how uniquely they can contributes to society and
this lacking factor in peoples of china so that can be cat as threat for the company while
operating business in china. This is because they will not be able to launch innovative product at
marketplace as people will not posses ability to think unique (Gupta, 2020). This is considered as
similar factor is all the three nations
Masculinity vs femininity:
The high rate of Masculinity dimension means society will be driven by competition,
achievement and success that refers to winner or best in specific field. Whereas the low refers to
dominant values in society that cares for others and quality of life. A feminine society is one
where quality of life is the sign of success and standing out from crowed of peoples. In which the
fundamental issues could be which factors motivates peoples in order to become masculine.
It has been analysed that china has masculine society which means they are oriented
towards success and driven. In feminise society, they shares modest and caring views equaly to
men. And in highly feminism society means women are somewhat assertive and competitive but
notability less than men. In which the requirement in order to make sure the success can be
determine by the facts that most of the chines peoples will left their home and scarifies family
over work (Baskar, 2016). This means they are more focused towards performing and that will
be beneficial for franklin and sons by expanding business at china. So this factors is similar in
both the nations. Which means there is low partiality on the basis of gender. This will maintain
equality ion company and gives strength to employees for performing well in order to
accomplish the goal of organisation. In this also company has more opportunity in china over
Vietnam and Ethiopia.

Uncertainty avoidance:
This factor is related with this fact that a society deals with a concept that future can
never be known, either future could be controlled or just let it be happen what happens. This
brings anxiety and different culture peoples needs to deal with that in different ways. This refers
to the limit by which member of different culture need to feel threatened by ambiguous or
unknown situations as well as to create beliefs and institutions for avoiding uncertainties.
In context of UK, there low score on uncertainty avoidance that means peoples of that
nations will not be scared what will happen in futures and they are quite happy to work with the
present instead of thinking what will happen in future. As low UAI country, people are more
comfortable in indeterminate conditions. Where as in china the score is 30 which means Chinese
people are comfortable with the ambiguity as Chinese language is full of ambiguous that will be
difficult for western peoples to follow. Due to this company will not able to mange the
workforce of company and the Chinese peoples are adaptable and entrepreneurial so there will
less chances of getting peoples in company for conducting operation at china. In which franklin
and sons needs to hire peoples of other nation in order to carry out all operations (Malisetty,
Archana and Kumari, 2017). Along with this threat, company have opportunity too as peoples
have ability to face with anxiety & deal with threat over Vietnam and Ethiopia.
Long term orientation vs short term orientation
Long term orientation means association with the connection of past to future or present
action. A lower index tends to tradition are honoured and kept while steadfastness is valued
where as high degree index shows that adaptions and circumstantial, pragmatic problem solving
as a necessity.
In context of china it holds 87 score with regards to long term orientations which means
country developed a level of prosperity which makes pragmatic culture and that will proves
beneficial for company in order to mange peoples of different nations as long term orientations
leads to adaptions of circumstances. So the chosen company needs to carried out their
investigation at china for the successful executions of expansion for the partial manufacturing
sift in order to produce shoes (Moskalenko, 2018). In Vietnam and Ethiopia company has low
opportunity for carrying out partial manufacturing process of shoes.

Indulgence vs restraints
This dimension means the limit by which an individual can control its desires and
impulsive. It has been found that Ethiopia has no score in this dimensions where as in china and
Vietnam is 24 and 35 dimension score accordingly (Mitchell and Gamlem, 2017). So on the
basis of this factor, Ethiopia would be the viable nation for expansion of company over china and
Vietnam.
From all above mentioned points it has been analysed that the china would be the best
nation for chosen firm, franklin and sons for carry out partial manufacturing process of shoes. As
most of the factors of hofstede model is in favour.
Recommendation
 For the successful execution of expansion of small company it is vital for entities of
company to carry out effective research about market and then analysis the threat and
opportunity. So that enterprise will able to accomplish its goal of expansion. In relevance
to selected firm, it is also small firm so that they are low with the capital for which it is
important to carry out appropriate and effective research.
 SME companies are limited with the resources and capital so it is essential for company
to carry out their operation efficiently and effectively with the limited resources then only
they will able to attain their goal of partial production shift successfully.
 Another recommendation for chosen firm could be that entities of company needs to have
knowledge about culture governance in order to mange different nations peoples or to
carry out diversified culture in company for managing employee relation, workforce

environment as well as to remove or avoid the uncertainty that may be arises dure to lack
of culture awareness.
CONCLUSION
From above discussed report it has been analysed that it is not a simple task to perform
the job role of Human Resource manager as many issues will be arises while hiring peoples of
different nations as well as to understand the culture of varied nations. Some of contemporary
issues that may be arises in order to hire peoples at various location could be communication
barrier, culture barrier etc. So it become vital for company to analyse all opportunity and threat
before expansion of company at new locations and with the help of Hofstede model corporation
will easily able to understand and determines the culture of peoples. From above summarised
report it has been found that china would be the viable or more appropriate country over Vietnam
and Ethiopia for the partial production shift as this nations has low in uncertainty avoidance
which means peoples possess ability to handle or mange anxiety and threats.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Asadullah, M. A., and et.al., 2020. Perceptual asymmetries in perceived quality of HR function
resulting from ownership transformation: A public‐to‐private scenario. Journal of Public
Affairs, p.e2324.
Baskar, S., 2016. The Influence of HR Policy Dimensions on the Job Satisfaction of Employees
of Public Sector Banks: A Study on Indian Overseas Bank. IUP Journal of Bank
Management. 15(4).
Dash, S., 2020. Rewriting the HR Playbook for the Future. NHRD Network Journal,
p.2631454120963406.
Folger, R. and Whiting, S. W., 2020. HR Research and Practice from a Deonance Perspective.
In Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management. Emerald Publishing
Limited.
Gupta, A. D., 2020. Strategic Human Resource Management: Formulating and Implementing
HR Strategies for a Competitive Advantage. CRC Press.
Kumar, R. and Usmani, A., 2017. HR Relevance for Indian Banking Sector. Splint International
Journal of Professionals. 4(3). p.82.
Madhani, P. M., 2020. Enhancing HR competitiveness: a Six Sigma approach. WorldatWork
Journal, 27(2). pp.30-37.
Malisetty, S., Archana, R. V. and Kumari, K. V., 2017. Predictive analytics in HR
management. Indian Journal of Public Health Research & Development, 8(3), pp.115-120.
Mitchell, B. and Gamlem, C., 2017. The big book of HR. Red Wheel/Weiser.
Moskalenko, A. A., 2018. Methodological characteristics of the use of strategic analysis in HR-
related decision-making. Academy of Strategic Management Journal, 17(4), pp.1-7.