Essay on International Staffing and Cultural Differences - MgMT20144

This essay explores the complexities of international staffing and the impact of cultural differences on International Human Resource Management (IHRM). It defines IHRM, highlighting its role in managing global resources and addressing cross-cultural challenges. The essay examines recruitment, CV screening, and interview challenges, emphasizing the importance of understanding diverse cultural perspectives. It discusses expatriate issues, using Gamescorp Plc as a case study to illustrate the application of Hofstede's cultural dimensions in adapting staffing practices to different cultural contexts, specifically comparing the UK and China. The essay also provides practical solutions, including promoting open communication, conducting thorough research, and developing associations with diverse cultural groups to overcome challenges and ensure successful international staffing. The essay emphasizes the importance of embracing cultural differences to foster creativity and innovation in the workplace.

Running Head: MANAGEMENT 0
INTERNATIONAL STAFFING AND CULTURAL DIFFERENCE

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Operating human resource across cultural and geographic boundaries often found
challenging and difficult for the organisations. As the business started to expand into global
marketplaces or as they start recruiting employees from diverse cultural and geographic
backgrounds, they may face various approaches towards cultural diversity and differences in
order to synchronise individual goal with the organisational mission and strategies (Stahl et
al, 2012). However, before exploring challenges the organisation faces with their
international staffing in the context of cultural differences, it is important to under the
concept of IHRM.
International Human Resource Management (IHRM) is an innovative and dynamic
changing extent with including various HR practices in the international marketplace. Tarique
& Schuler (2010) defined it as a club of actions used to control and manage all the resources
at global level to attain the company objective effectively. It is not just concerned with global
hiring but also including training, coaching and resolving challenges that the organisation
face due to any of issues such as cultural difference and cross cultural activities. Hence, one
of the key advantages of global HRM is to create awareness related to cross cultural activities
through the geographical boundaries as with advent to strong forces of globalisation, it is
significant and builds and implement a significant level of flexibility. With regards to this, a
contemporary organisation also needs to sustain an organisational standard for building
efficient and capable workforce system.
Conferring to a New York Times report, there are only 5 African-American CEOs out
of Fortune 500 corporations (Donnelly, 2018). This shows that how much cultural difference
impacts international HR practices of an organisation. Business firms undertaking their work
in international environment select a model of their organisational culture and a degree of
national culture influence or strategies and firms decision rules. The cross cultural challenge
just starts with finding sources of recruitment and selecting the right channels of job
marketing is the very first step on the way to hire the best applicant for the vacant position
(Daim et al, 2012). Every time company needs to ensure that job posting is available in
official social profiles and online webpages such as LinkedIn. As a hiring manager, one

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requires to consider various things into the account. The next thing is the CV screening as
individual from different cultural backgrounds have un-similar way of presentation of CV.
For instance, in most of Asian nations like China, South Korea and Japan, applicants often
treat education as the most significant aspect in resume/cv and therefore, place the related
information on top just right below personal information. On the other hand, Western
recruiters generally assess resume depend on applicant experiences and skills. The next
challenge comes in staffing is the interview, recruiters may face problem as of differences in
cultural perception. As in international staffing, each candidate will have a different way to
answer in terms of verbal language, body language postures and so on. It may hamper the
staffing process and can be a reason to reject potential talent by the interviewer. At last, at the
time of hiring decision, the ultimate objective is to recruit the potential applicant who can
contribute to best of the organisation and fit with the organisation culture. This requires more
efforts from the side of recruiters and the most ideal recruitment team should have member
engagement from various cultures.
The next unique challenge that an organisation can face in case of international
staffing is the “expatriate issue”. Expatriates are the citizens of one nation working in another
and some of common issue with expatriates assignment in cultural context includes – work
adjustments, lifestyle issue, family adjustment, poor performance, language skills and
difficult with new environments (Colakoglu & Caligiuri, 2008). This also results in difficulty
in training as company is required to develop training plan differently for each employee
comes from different cultural background so as to use best of the skills. Sometimes, this
situation results in cultural shock which can be defined as distressing reaction to rapid change
in cultural setting and therefore, negatively impact on individual ability. However, majority
of the people overcome cultural shock in their own time, however, some might unable to
continue with their position and become overwhelmed.
Taking an example of corporate organisation, Gamescorp Plc is an UK-based
organisation that offers PC playoffs and currently running their corporate successfully in
Europe. The company is looking for another market to expand their business and therefore,
decided China as a preferable marketplace. However, they are required to take out proper
study on cultural difference to undertake their staffing practices successfully and effectively.
In such scenario, International Resource Management plays a significant role in extent of
attaining overall goals of the organisation. The HR manager team in the company is required

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to evaluate major differences between China and Europe to practice their staffing practices
effectively. Hence, they used Hofstede six dimensions in the cultural model.
The first dimension is the power difference where China admits a society with
disparity and individual in UK thinks that disparities must be minimised (Bian & Veloutsou,
2017). Furthermore, the class system constantly been a challenge for the society and
organisation in the British culture. To expand in China, the company considers ability of
leadership differs from individual to individual. As in China, there are inequalities in the
society, it must have eased the process of company in case of staffing in extent with
government support. The next dimensions are collectivism and individualism. In UK, there is
a culture of individualistic where children at very early age choose for their aims of life that
uniquely contributes to the community as well (Bian & Veloutsou, 2017). On the other hand,
China includes a culture of collectivist and considering this, individuals offer care in return of
loyalty. In Gamescorp Plc, the ream work thus is highly rely on the leaders and their
directions. The next dimension of Hofstede model is Masculinity which includes orientation
and value system towards success. In China, there are more chances to increase their
productivity and success in China as Chinese individuals sacrifice their family and freedom
by giving more priority to their work and thus offer their best possible services irrespective of
time. On the other hand, there is masculinity driven culture in the UK where their
understatement is at odds with involving a fundamental value system for achievement. As
China is also known to be a labour intensive country, Gamescorp can save huge cost with
setting up the business.
The next dimension of Hofstede is Avoidance of uncertainty. As per UK culture,
avoiding uncertainty does not give due importance. In UK, there is a general attitude that
company do not want to take any extra steps before any uncertainty whereas the Chinese
individuals are more ease with uncertainty and their language has significances which define
ambiguity degree. They are adaptable and entrepreneurial. Hence, Gamescorp has gained
various creative ideas with increased productivity. Orientation for long term is the next
dimensions where China is represented as a pragmatic society and most of the population
there believes that truth relies and changes as per the situation. They fit into different cultures
and peoples easily and on the other hand there is a dominant preference in UK (Zhou &
Todman, 2008). With expansion in China, it will help Gamescorp with less turnover of
employees as employees recruited in China can easily be fitted with new organisational
culture. The last dimensions are the indulgence aspect which is the degree to which urges and

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impulses are managed by the individuals. In this Hofstede dimensions, British are categorised
as Indulgent and on the other hand, China is a restrained society with representing a high
degree of control considering their wishes and focus more on work. Considering individual, it
is not beneficial but for the company operating there, it is the biggest advantage. Gamescorp
may have seen that there is less distraction to the employees during the work and thus their
operations are carried out more efficiently.
To overcome the challenges in international staffing in context of cultural difference,
there are several established practices and measures needed to be considered. For instance, in
order to evade expatriate failure, organisations must hire the best possible talent to send
foreign and provide them with intensive training and development. The employees sent
foreign must have full knowledge of cultural differences and recruit internationally, “HR
divisions also requires to be responsive to the cultural, political and legal environments both
domestically and abroad when hiring internationally (Farndale, Scullion & Sparrow, 2010).
Therefore, providing right training help the management to reduce cultural barriers during the
procedure of staffing.
The next creative solution is promotion of open communication as when managing
staff from different parts of the world, successful organisation realize that good
communication is everything. For international companies, the level of communication may
help in determining corporate life or death. It can be started with understanding different
people from different cultures using different styles of communication. A key reason for this
is because communication styles vary from one culture to another and because of the
differences in beliefs and communication styles, many multicultural teams are prone to
resistance (Ma & Allen, 2009).
The next solution can be taking out explicit research while doing international
staffing. Before recruiting any individual in the organisation or expanding into another
country, the company must conduct explicit research so as to match respective workforce
talent with the organisational environment and cultural setting. Undertaking this step in
advance will help the organisation to save huge cost in the beginning and therefore, help the
management before any conflict arises. With regards to this, a company should also
undertake different approaches to include various teams and departments in this task such as
marketing division of organisation, research and development division and so forth.

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The last recommendation is developing associations with companies and cultural
groups those operate in diverse societies; it includes communication and interacting with
local immigrant service agencies which can give occupation advice and facilities to study of
various programmes and plans and therefore help organisation to gain various significant
aspects of the cultural history of both individual and country (Tung, 2016). It can also be
done by perplexing the misunderstandings about occupation in the non-profit sector and
similarly by joining networking events and job fairgrounds.
To conclude, it is important for the company to be aware of cultural differences when
they plan to expand internationally or recruiting employees from different cultural
backgrounds. To be higher effective, managers are required to be attuned to different cultural
surroundings and therefore also considers different communication practices. Embracing
cultural differences during the international staffing is a significant and head step for
businesses that want to be competitive on a global scale. With regards to this, the
organisation should not perceive diverse cultural perspectives as a challenge to the
organisation as it can inspire creativity and drive innovation in the workplace. Therefore, “the
best way to ensure the development of new ideas is through an inclusive and diverse
workforce”.

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