HRMT20025: Culture Shock Analysis & HRM Strategies at Woolworths

This essay analyzes culture shock within the Woolworths Group, a major Australian retail company, and evaluates the role of International Human Resource Management (IHRM) in mitigating its effects. It defines culture shock, explores its causes such as unfamiliar social rules and language barriers, ...Read More

Running head: International human resource management
International human resource management

International human resource management
The main aim of this task is to analyze and evaluate the culture shock in the organization.
Woolworths group has been taken in the task to identify the causes of culture issues. It is one of
the biggest retail companies in Australia which provides enormous products and services to
customers across the world. Furthermore, it explains how Woolworths manages culture shock
and also the paper depicts that how the firm motivates the workers to perform task and duties
effectively. Culture shock is the biggest problem in the organization which influences goodwill
of Woolworths adversely. Further details of the task have been stated below.
Culture shock may be defined as an experience of a person may have when one moves to
a cultural environment which is completely different from one’s own (Furham, 2012). There are
several causes of culture shock which influence the success and growth of the firm. The causes
of cultural shock include unfamiliar rules for social interaction, different attitudes, expectation,
strange environment and climate (Hemmasi & Downes, 2013). There are enormous problems
occurred due to culture shock such as language barrier, generation gap, skill interdependence,
information overload, infinite regress, boredom and technology gap. There is no way to prevent
and reduce cultural shock in the organization. Honeymoon, Adaptation, negotiation and
adjustment are four phases of culture shock. Culture shock arises in many companies due to
differences in foreign languages and cultures (Naranjo-Valencia, Jiménez-Jiménez & Sanz-
Valle, 2011).
Woolworths group is a good example where culture shock raises effectively as it
influence the progress of the firm. It is a major Australian company which was formed in 1924.
Woolworths is the second biggest organization in Australia measured by revenue. The firm has
approx 3,000 stores having 205,000 employees who serves more than 29 million customers
across the world. The mission of the organization is to deliver best and unique quality of
products to the customers. It will also help to gain competitive advantages in the marketplace.
Apart from this, the firm uses effective and dynamic strategies to build good relations with its
potential customers in the world. Culture shock plays a critical role in Woolworths group which
helps to increase productivity and performance of the firm as well as employees. People come
from different countries and they follow different and rules. As a result, culture shock problem
arises in the organization (Woolworths group, 2018). No company can survive its business
activities and operations without knowing and understanding the culture of different countries. .
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International human resource management
HRM plays an important role to reduce and prevent cultural differences within the organization.
HRM makes different policies and strategies which could help to manage the difference of
culture (Hong, 2013). Various policies and practices are initiated by HRM in the organization to
deal with culture shock that has been stated below.
Appropriate expatriate recruitment: The selection of future expatriates is an important
function of HRM that should be performed in the organization effectively and successfully. It
helps to measure and identify the professional and technical skills within the organization. It is
an effective policy of HRM to prevent culture shock widely. There are various elements that
need to be taken into consideration before sending a worker foreign that are very difficult to
evaluate accurately and effectively. Therefore, the firm should focus on the recruitment and
selection methods to appoint suitable and potential candidates in the organization. It will help to
reduce culture differences in foreign countries (Santoso & Loosemore 2013).
Training and development coaching: Training and development coaching is an effective
practice of HRM which helps to improve and enhance the performance and productivity of the
employees. Along with this, to reduce culture shock the HRM needs to monitor the activities and
operations of the workers. Woolworths group conducts enormous training and development
coaching programs to know and understand the language of the different nations. Also it will
help to manage culture issues and challenges within the organization (Mendenhall, Arnardottir,
Oddou & Burke, 2013).
An expatriate’s qualification profile: Characteristics and traits have been recognized as
predictors of expatriates success and progress. These characteristics and traits include technical
ability, cultural empathy, diplomacy, language ability, managerial skills, emotional stability and
maturity. There are 8 dimension of cultural shock which includes ethnocentrism, intellectual
experience, behavioral flex, cognitive flex, general intercultural knowledge, specific intellectual
knowledge, adequate behavior, and interpersonal skills (Passmore, 2013).
Create a welcoming Kit: HRM should implement and initiate a policy of giving welcoming kits
to new workers. These kits include plants for their desk, silly calendars, and photo frames. It will
help to motivate and encourage the workers for doing work in a hassle free manner. Also, it will
help to eliminate culture differences in the organization.
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International human resource management
Set daily tasks ahead of time: HRM should set daily tasks and duties to manage culture shock
and to manage customs differences effectively. If HRM sets tasks and duties of the employees
then they can easily understand assign tasks and duties. Therefore, culture shock issue will not
arise in the firm. Along with this, Woolworths can easily overcome the competitors by assigning
proper task and duties to the workers.
Hofstede cross cultural dimension model: This model is used and initiated by HRM to manage
and deal with cross cultural issues at the marketplace. This model includes individualism,
collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, power distance and masculinity femininity (Bird &
Mendenhall, 2016).
Bridge the gap through mentorship: There should be a gap between the young workers and
older workers. If this gap contributes to new worker’s culture shock, it needs to be counteracted.
Thus, a system of mentorship should be implemented between new employees and management
to reduce culture shock issues. Mentorship plays a vital role to manage culture shock effectively
and efficiently. Also, it will help to learn desires, requirements and expectations of the
organization.
Implement an ambassador: It is an effective and important practice performed by HRM in
Woolworths. The ambassador can act as a liaison between the new hire and other workers,
introduce the new workers to coworkers and work side by side with the new employees until
they are adjusted to the environment.
Induction programs: It is one of the significant practices that are being performed by HRM in
Woolworths. Induction programs are an effective and dynamic way to familiarize new workers
with office policies including HR policies, work timings, account policies, performance, leave
policies and appraisals. It is a perfect and unique eye opener to manage culture differences
among new employees. The induction programs also help to improve and enhance the
knowledge, skills and experience of the expatriates. It will also reduce cross cultural issues in the
competitive market. All these policies and practices are used and initiated by HRM to control
and manage culture shock. All these practices and policies also help to know and understand the
needs, preferences and choices of the customers in the rivalry market. Along with this, effective
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International human resource management
and unique HR policies and practices are also important to attain desired goals and objectives
(Kelly & Moogan, 2012).
On the above mentioned analysis, it can be concluded that culture shock is a major
challenge and issue for Woolworths which can affect the financial position of the firm in the
marketplace. Along with this, it may also influence the profit and revenue of the organization. To
eliminate culture shock, HRM plays a empirical role in each and every organization. Woolworths
maintains sustainable human resource department to handle cross cultural issues in the
workplace. Now it is recommended that the company should motivate and inspire the new
workers to understand and know the culture of other countries successfully.
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International human resource management
References
Bird, A., & Mendenhall, M. E. (2016). From cross-cultural management to global leadership:
Evolution and adaptation.Journal of World Business, 51(1), 115-126.
Furham, A. (2012). Culture shock. Revista de Psicologéa de la Educación, 7.
Hemmasi, M., & Downes, M. (2013). Cultural distance and expatriate adjustment
revisited. Journal of Global Mobility: The Home of Expatriate Management
Research, 1(1), 72-91.
Hong, Y. Y. (2013). A dynamic constructivist approach to culture: Moving from describing
culture to explaining culture. InUnderstanding Culture (pp. 18-38). Psychology Press.
Kelly, P., & Moogan, Y. (2012). Culture shock and higher education performance: Implications
for teaching. Higher Education Quarterly, 66(1), 24-46.
Mendenhall, M. E., Arnardottir, A. A., Oddou, G. R., & Burke, L. A. (2013). Developing cross-
cultural competencies in management education via cognitive-behavior therapy.Academy
of Management Learning & Education, 12(3), 436-451.
Naranjo-Valencia, J. C., Jiménez-Jiménez, D., & Sanz-Valle, R. (2011). Innovation or imitation?
The role of organizational culture. Management Decision, 49(1), 55-72.
Passmore, J. (Ed.). (2013). Diversity in coaching: Working with gender, culture, race and age.
Kogan Page Publishers.
Santoso, J., & Loosemore, M. (2013). Expatriate management in Australian multinational
enterprises. Construction Management and Economics, 31(11), 1098-1109.
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Woolworthsgroup.(2018).Aboutus[Online].Availableat:
https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/page/about-us. [ Accessed as on 1st April 2018).
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