TASK As a HRM consultant, you are commissioned by Sentosa Engineering to: (i) evaluate the current organizational system and put forward recommendations that would help the company overcome the HRM...

Sentosa Engineering – Managing in an Eastern Culture 1
Sentosa Engineering – Managing in an Eastern Culture
Sentosa Engineering – Managing in an Eastern Culture 2
Sentosa Engineering – Managing in an Eastern Culture
Introduction:
Human Resource Managers has various roles to play in an organization. The different
role includes Personnel Role, in which the Human Resource Manager advices the management
how to effectively use the human resources, they are involved in employee selection, training
and development and also assess the behaviors of the employee within the organization. Next is
the Welfare and Counselor‟s Role, here the Human Resource Managers motivated the
employees, council group as well as individuals and looks after the betterment of the employees.
Then comes the Administrative Role, where they used to maintain records and looks after the
wages and incentives of the employees. Last one is the Fire fighting and Legal Role, here the
Human Resource managers handle grievance of the employees, looks after the legal issues of the
organization and involves in consultation It is important for the organization to have proper HR
policies specially when operating on a global scale.
“HR should be defined not by what it does, but by what it delivers” (David Ulrich, 2000)
Human Resource Management helps in ensuring the efficient and effective use of the
personnel which focuses in accomplishing the organizational goals. It deals with several policies
and practices which are followed which includes recruiting training, compensation, motivation
and the overall development of the human resource. The main focus of the Human resource
management should be the success and enhanced performance and productivity of the
organization.
Human Resource is governed by great retention, high pay scale and strong training which
helps in the growth of the business as the productivity is governed by these factors. The
companies today are operating on a global scale which has made the human resource
Sentosa Engineering – Managing in an Eastern Culture 3
management more effective and important for the organization, as the companies operating at the
global perspective needs to have a strong focus on different aspects of the organization as well
the culture of the nation in which it operates. There are several issues that the organization faces
when operating on an international scale.
In this paper we will focus on analyzing the issues that is being faced by Sentosa
Engineering. The main issues are because of the cultural difference in the western and eastern
culture.
Issues faced by the company:
Sentosa Engineering is the company which is a subsidiary company of Sentosa shipyard.
The company being in a ship construction activities, there was diverse work generally for short
duration that lasts for six months. The company generally works on contract based working. In
developing companies, generally the company outsource or buy the skills pertaining to technical
and managerial expertise. The company had many expatriate staff who were arranged by the
Llyods shipyard, which was considered as the managing agent of Sentosa Engineering. As
Singapore was a developing country and with diverse and large population, the company also
focused on recruiting local personnel, the benefits and pay that was offered to expatriate was
about three times as compared to local personnel.
The company was facing different issues in respect to human resource and personnel
management, the company was facing high turnover specially in the middle management which
was hampering the working of the organization. With the expatriates and local personnel , the
local personnel faced and felt inequitable treatment, the company also highly lacked proper
communication in the organization along with insufficient recreational facilities.
Sentosa Engineering – Managing in an Eastern Culture 4
One of the greatest challenges that are faced by the organization that are operating on the
global perspective are the ability and the capacity of the human resource department of the
organization to adapt to the norms and values of different cultures across the globe. For this the
organization needs to focus on the human resource policies and the organization structure which
will help the company to facilitate its working across the globe.
Organizational system:
“There is no permanent organization chart for the world .... It is of supreme importance
to be ready at all times to take advantage of new opportunities”
ROBERT C. GOIZUETA, (Former) Chairman and CEO, Coca-Cola Company
The structure of the organization needs to be changed so that the company is able to
respond to the global competition. It is important for the organization structure to “Fit” to the
strategy that has been adopted by the organization so as to survive in the market. Some of the
factors that need to be taken before deciding the structure of the organization are the strategy,
size, technology and environment of the organization. Other factors that need to be considered
for deciding the organization structure of the organization are geographic dispersion.
There are different organization structure that are used by the organizations which work
on the international perspective. These structures are:
 Domestic structure plus export department
 Domestic structure plus foreign subsidiary
 International division
 Global functional structure
 Global product structure
 Matrix structure
Sentosa Engineering – Managing in an Eastern Culture 5
The best structure that will be appropriate for Sentosa in industries is domestic structure
plus foreign subsidiary. With a focus on this, the organization will be able to work with higher
efficiency and subsidiary managers will focus on having great deal of autonomy and will be able
to adapt and respond quickly to serve local markets. The firm may also focus on creating an
international division, which will be organized with a focus on functional, product, or
geographic lines. With the adoption of this structure, the various foreign subsidiaries are
organized under the international division, and subsidiary managers report to its head and are
typically given the title Vice President, International Division who reports to the CEO of the
corporation. With a focus on this structure the company will be able to implement the global
strategy. With a focus on this organizational structure the company will be able to allocate and
coordinate resources for foreign activities under one roof, which will help in improving the
ability of the firm to respond reactively and proactively, to different market opportunities. With
this the company will also be able to focus on decreasing its costs.
The company will focus more on the decentralized structure. With this the roles of HR
will be confide to the small group and to the senior management.
Analyses of cultural differences:
Hofstede brings into picture different dimensions in respect to the social behavior of the
people of different countries. The different cultural dimensions taken into consideration are
power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance and long term orientation.
Through these indexes the marketers are able to identify the nature of the people of the particular
culture. By studying Hofstede‟s indexes the marketers are able to develop different insights to
know the culture and behavior of the people across the world.
Sentosa Engineering – Managing in an Eastern Culture 6
Hofstede‟s five dimensions are (1) individualism and collectivism, (2) power distance,
(3) uncertainty avoidance, (4) masculinity and femininity, and (5) time orientation.
Comparing and contrast of Hofstede dimensions (Western Countries and Eastern
Countries):
Scores for Countries Using Hofstede’s Dimensions and Data
Country Power Distance Individualism Masculinity Uncertainty Avoidance
Western 36 90 61 51
Eastern 77 48 56 40
Source: From Geert Hofstede, Cultures and Organizations: Software of the
Mind (McGraw-Hill/UK, 1991).
Individualism and Collectivist:
Considering the individualism in Western countries we can see that the these countries
has high Individualism as compared to Eastern Countries. Eastern Countries has more
collectivism.
In Western countries, there are generally nuclear families and people look after
themselves and love to work individually focusing more on „I‟ concept whereas in Eastern
Countries people are generally born in the extended families and generally continue living in the
joint families, they generally work in groups or collectively and focus more on „We‟.
Eastern countries focuses on the concept „How to do‟, whereas western countries focuses
on „How to learn‟. In organizations, people build family links and relations in Eastern countries
whereas in Western countries people work on mutual advantage. Relationships have upper hand
Sentosa Engineering – Managing in an Eastern Culture 7
in Eastern Countries as compared to work whereas In Western Countries work has the upper
hand as compared to relations.
Power Distance:
Western Countries has low power distance as compared to Eastern Countries, which
states that inequalities among people are minimized whereas inequality in Eastern Countries is
expected. The organizations in Western Countries focus on adopting decentralized structure
whereas in Eastern Countries, Centralization is more popular in the organizations. In Western
Countries, the subordinates are generally consulted and then assigned the work accordingly
whereas, in Eastern Countries, subordinates are generally told what has to be done. The ideal
boss in Western Countries is democrat whereas in Eastern Countries, the ideal boss is autocrat.
Masculinity:
Eastern Countries is a male dominated society as compared to Western Countries. Men
are generally assertive and ambitious. The women are tender and takes care of the relationships
in the society.
Uncertainty Avoidance:
Western Countries has comparatively strong uncertainty...