BMP6003 - IHRM: Evaluating Cultural & HRM Issues for UK Call Centre

This report critically examines the cultural and HRM issues that UK organizations need to consider when locating a call centre operation in Japan. It addresses challenges such as cultural differences, managing a diverse workforce, communication barriers, local employment laws, staffing issues, and performance management. The report also highlights the advantages of establishing a call centre in Japan, including improved customer satisfaction, providing marketing information, strong economic performance, promoting brands, increasing sales, and gaining a competitive advantage. It emphasizes the importance of understanding and addressing these issues to ensure successful international operations.

INTERNATIONAL HRM

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK...............................................................................................................................................3
Critically examine what cultural and HRM issues UK organizations need to take into
consideration while locating a call centre operation in the Japan...............................................3
Advantages.......................................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
International human resource management refer to set of actions and practices that a HR
manager and their team has been conducted for purpose of running and managing specific
organization growth, regarding which they are conducting a lot of efforts. It is also considered as
procedure of procuring, allocating and appropriately using skilled workers in a multination brand
that operates and run their venture activities within international market. The current assignment
will be based on varied examples related to UK companies. The study will explain cultural as
well as human resource management problems that firms need to take into their considerations,
when they locate a call centre operation in the Japan. It will also highlight the advantages of
conducting this practice.
TASK
Critically examine what cultural and HRM issues UK organizations need to take into
consideration while locating a call centre operation in the Japan
In the world of business, there are different types and sizes of companies accessible, among
which each firm conduct their practice to reach desire outcomes in term of aim achievement. For
example, UK firms may plan to enter into new nation or market such as Japan, where they tend
to locate a call centre operation in systematic and successful way. While conducting this activity,
they may take varied things into key consideration, which is quite essential and beneficial for
them to do that appropriately. As they may take cultural and HRM problems into consideration,
that may put negative impact on each company in term of decreasing organizational performance
and productivity as well as profitability.
Cultural differences-
It is one of those issues, that HRM and their team’s member in the UK companies need to
consider as it is related to cultural factor, that may put direct impact on the way a candidate may
take initiative to achieve organizational aim (THE TOP TEN CULTURAL RISKS FOR GLOBAL
BUSINESS, 2018). For example, cultural differences between existing and new employees, who
belong to different nations may put negative impact on their productiveness. As they may face
issue to respect each other and norms that individual person follow while working in the Japan or
UK. It can be said that cultural issues in a company occur when culture conflicts with aim and
other cultures emerge. It is important for organizations to consider this thing and take mandatory

actions accordingly, which may prevent their ventures from any disaster or losses. It is fact that
culture emerges with shared information and experiences of teams and it is not managed or
designed by any. It is important for each and every company to overcome the negative impact of
this issue in effective manner. The differences between existing & new employees on the basis of
culture they prefer to follow, may put impact on organizational success negatively.
Managing diverse workforce-
Another issue that UK companies need to consider and take into recognition, when they
plan to locate a call centre operation in the Japan, is current one. It can be said that while
entering into new market or nation, a firm human resource department face this challenge, which
may put negative impact on their current practices as well as further (Human Resource
Management Challenges, 2021). It is quite challenging for human resource management or
department, to manage wide and diverse work force at specific work place, where individual
person performs to achieve common aim, but still face issue to reach expect outcome. UK
companies need to consider this category of challenge, because it may aware them to take better
action and develop appropriate solution before entering into Japan, for purpose of locating a call
centre, which in turn provide a lot of benefits to each company, whether it is short or long, public
or private. In the recent time, organizations seek to enter into international market, but to cultural
and HRM issues they are unable to do that appropriately and in effective manner, which put
direct effect on their success factors.
Communication barrier-
Effective communication plays significant role in the context of organizational growth
and success, in term of increasing productiveness, performance and profitability. It may also
contribute to increase operational effectiveness or efficiency even better than last few years or
months within a company (Cooke and et.al., 2019). While taking action to enter into Japan, UK
companies may need to consider this factor as well as most of the firms may face challenge to
build effective communication relation between all the workers including whom with they are
working earlier and now. It is one of the biggest HRM issue that may lead to decrease individual
person productiveness and confidence level. It may become a human resource management
problem because of specific reason such as language barrier. As those workers who are working
within UK brands, are unable to speak in Japanese language as they do not have appropriate
understanding regarding the same thing, which create more complications for them to work with

Japanese candidates in effective and productive manner. It may bring more challenges for HRM
to manage organizational and candidate’s performance, which is quite essential for them to do
that.
Local employment laws knowledge-
Along with above three, this issue is also included in category of HRM challenges that
UK firms may need to focus on, before taking any action or decision in regard to locate call
centre in the Japan, where the laws are quite different from British regulatory frameworks. It is
essential for them to consider this factor as well, just like above, because of preventing operation
from any harmful factor that lead to decrease operational efficiency and affect each success
factor negatively. While entering into new market, it is necessary for human resource department
to consider the laws related to employment in the Japan, which they have to follow, before hiring
and selecting skilled employees, who are capable to work with them and contribute to achieve set
aims appropriately. It is included in list of human resource management issue, because
differences between two or more nations on the basis of local employment regulations and laws
may put direct impact on HRM practices. As it may drive their attention toward taking strategic
actions after falling into critical situation that may bring many issues along with current one.
Staffing issue-
Human resource department while performing in any company in the UK may deal with
major challenges that put a lot of pressure on them to act ethically and strategically (Singh and
et.al., 2019). For example, UK companies and their HR section may concentrate on cultural and
HRM issues, when they take decision to enter into Japan, with aim of locating a call centre and
managing the same operation. It is a challenge for, HR manager to hire new candidates in new
nation, where they do not be able to manage everything easily and quickly as they may face issue
to recruit & select appropriate worker, who are up to mark according to specific designation
requirement within UK firms. It can be said that staffing is one of the most challenging task for
HR department as they are accountable to hire right candidate who may take approach to grow a
company, whether it is large or small. This problem may put impact on the way human resource
team develop plan to select any candidate and also influence negatively in the context of
recruitment and selection approaches they may take into their consideration.
Performance management-

Human resource department is responsible to manage varied things related to employees
who are working within a UK company. For example, it’s their responsibility to manage staff
performance in effective manner, because it may enable them to build wide and strong teams of
candidates who may take initiative and develop commitment to achieve short, long and medium
term goals. They may consider the performance management challenge as HRM issue into
consideration while entering into Japan and developing a call centre within this nation. It is quite
essential for them to that because of eliminating the reason behind creating this problem, which
may put negative affect on UK company’s success and expected progress, according to each
stakeholder who may expect to gain existing business growth opportunities that are accessible
within new and existing market or sector. By considering this as well as other issues, human
resource management may develop a plan and tactic to deal with further situations that they may
face in the Japan as new market, where business, social and cultural environment is quite
different from a country such as UK, where they came from.
Advantages
Improving customer satisfaction and experience- Customers in japan are ready to pay
for the services and high quality goods, when locating in this country, company can improve
satisfaction level of customers by providing them facilities (Furusawa and Brewster, 2018). Call
centres are not established just for answering inbound calls which is made by clients. In order to
truly create a reputation of company in front of customers, every business needs to make
customer friendly environment. if the Tesco plc expand its business and locate its call centre in
japan they can easily solve the issues on phone calls and create a brand image. Nowadays,
customers want instant respond in order to solve their problems, if the company locate its call
centre in various location for the convenience of customer then they can create their huge
customer base. When a customer calls in, they talk to employees who has deep knowledge of
how to manage things and have enough information to solve the issues. Japan employees work
effectively in order to manage things with the help of their communication and interpersonal
skills.
Providing marketing information- when customer does contact the customer service
centre, the agents who respond to the call can evaluate and provide marketing information to
their leaders. By understanding the problems and needs of customers, firm can easily provide
marketing information to people. By accessing to all the information of customer, company can

achieve deeper knowledge of customer analytics and improve communication system between
people.
Strong economic performance- if the company expand its business and locate call centre
in japan then more effective marketing campaign can be helpful. As the business growth in japan
is steadily rising, it will bridge the economic gap which is beneficial for the performance of
brand. With the increase demand in customer service, business process outsourcing offers japan
as the perfect solution in order to reduce or eliminate costs and provide strong economic
performance.
Promoting brands- japan is one of the leading and educated society, with one of the highest
per capita allotments, if the company expand its business and establish call centre in country they
can easily develop customer experience. it will promote brand image which is beneficial for
performance of the firm. By providing on time customer service, the company can offer good
and better experience to customers of japan and worldwide clients.
Increase sales- By locating call centre in japan, company can increase its sales and improve
its marketplace. A dedicated working environment which is already exist in japan employees,
they ensure they do not miss those calls made by customers to solve their problems. The
company have opportunity to turn those calls into sales and make profit out of it by satisfying the
wants of customers and solving problems.
Competitive advantage- japan is the country who is famous for its business operations and
their marketing strategy. The employees and owners of japan company, competitor use various
strategies to satisfy its customers (Advantages of a call centre, 2020). If the Tesco plc is
supported by japan market they will be able to gain competitive advantage because of their skills
and knowledge. Human resources team of the company needs to concentrate on planning a
smooth call flow and provide multiple contact points in order to support customers.
If the company wants to expand its business and locate its call centre they need to educate
their management team about how to talk in front of people so that they can easily satisfy
customers. It is necessary for human resource management team to hire for soft skill sessions for
employees so that they can offer great customer service. In addition, to keep a strong
organisational culture when locating call centre in japan, the management team need to keep in
mind about the values of firm (Zhu and Hennings, 2019). when selecting and hiring people for
team company needs to provide training and development session and find out their knowledge

level by taking test. As japan has different language and culture, the employees of the firm needs
to learn soft skills and interpersonal skills to handle customer on phone. The firm needs to make
investment in training and development of people, by doing so they make sure everyone in the
call centre knows customer service and support them is priority. The company needs to focus on
traditional values, local employment laws, rules and regulation, practices done in japan and
employment culture also.
CONCLUSION
From above analysis, it has been concluded that organizations have overcome the negative
impact of cultural and HRM issues in effective manner by using strategic approaches and
developing effective plans. They had retained and acquired skilled workforce, among which each
candidate is able to achieve set aims and objectives of companies that are operating ventures
within UK and has planned to locate their call centre in the Japan. Furthermore, from above
discussion, it has been summarized that organizations have gained competitive advantages in
bulk after locating their call centre in effective and systematic manner.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Cooke, F.L and et.al., 2019. Human resource management and industrial relations in
multinational corporations in and from China: Challenges and new insights. Human
Resource Management. 58(5). pp.455-471.
Furusawa, M. and Brewster, C., 2018. Japanese self‐initiated expatriates as boundary spanners in
Chinese subsidiaries of Japanese MNEs: Antecedents, social capital, and HRM
practices. Thunderbird International Business Review. 60(6). pp.911-919.
Singh, D and et.al., 2019. Subsidiary staffing, cultural friction, and subsidiary performance:
Evidence from Korean subsidiaries in 63 countries. Human Resource Management. 58(2).
pp.219-234.
Zhu, Y. and Hennings, M., 2019. Emerging mid-career transformation in Japan. The
International Journal of Human Resource Management. pp.1-36.
Online
Advantages of a call centre. 2020. [Online]. Available through: <
https://www.listentrust.com/advantages-of-a-callcenter/>
Human Resource Management Challenges. 2021. [Online]. Available Through: <
https://www.villanovau.com/resources/hr/human-resource-management-challenges/>
THE TOP TEN CULTURAL RISKS FOR GLOBAL BUSINESS. 2018. [Online]. Available
Through: < https://cultureplusconsulting.com/2015/06/23/top-ten-cultural-risks-global-
business/>