E III

Harshad Savant

PHD01003 A 25/03/2021

Human Resource Management (HRM

Professor Parul Malik

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SECTION A

Ans (1) Intercountry differences that influence IHRM

The use of technology along with rapid globalization has ensured that every individual is
connected and in a way being influenced by other individuals. The impact of rapid
industrialization on businesses has forced businesses to be more competitive in terms of offering
goods and services, pricing them as well as producing them. This has led to businesses
manufacturing a product (Eg Cloth) that source raw materials from one country (Egypt, India
etc) manufacture in one country (Vietnam, China, Bangladesh), and sell in another country
(Singapore, Australia, EU, US, Canada etc). These interconnection of various business activities
over a huge geographic region has led to the differences in terms of – Culture, Social, Legal,
Political as well as Economic differences.

1. Cultural differences: Culture plays one of the important roles for IHRM. Culture can be
defined as the amalgamation of language, values, perception and behavior of a group of
individuals that is distinct and easily differentiated due to geography, history, language or
traditions. If one fails to recognize cultural differences, then the company may suffer
irreparable damages. Eg when Coke launched its products in Middle east, it failed to
realizes that Arabic countries read from right to left instead of left to right and its
billboards had completely opposite effect which showed a refreshed guy drinking coke
led him to tiredness.

Cultural factors can be captured from 5 key factors -

Individualism: It represents how society encourages the values and achievements of an

individual and how much it promotes individualism.

 Power Distance: How the dominant power plays a role over influencing the weaker
sections of society.
 Gender: the influence a gender (masculine vs feminine) plays over decision making.
 Avoidance to uncertainty: Response of individuals to uncertain situations.
 Long-term Orientation: ability of an individual to think and plan for long term.
 2. Social Factors: Many countries had collectivism or individualism as their key factor to
social influence during decision making. Also, other social factors such as respect to
hierarchy, importance given to advice and consultations from seniors and the tradeoff of
social influence over individual gains make it difficult for HRM to understand and
address the situation according to the social norms and factors that are distinct from one
country to another
3. Legal Factors: Every country has their own laws and regulations that need to be adhered
by all businesses. Labour laws, company formations, company regulations as well as
other statutory factors are distinct and need to be looked upon.
4. Political Factors: Many western countries have lobbying for their respective industries
which ensures that all laws and regulations are in favor of that industry. In a country like
India, there are political influences that influence the view of Indian population and thus
many businesses need to be cautious.
5. Economic Factors: Economic factors such as average salary of an individual, their
ability to spend and at the same time the availability of goods and services influence key
decision making of individuals. Countries from East Asia and BRICS are economically
poor and thus, they would always look for basic needs and necessities such as food,
shelter etc and thus they would prefer to work for higher pay. While individuals from
developed countries would like to work with companies that give them additional
benefits such as travel and fitness or ability to work from home or flexible timings
instead of focusing more on the amount that they are paid.

Ans (2)

I feel that the cross-cultural intelligence plays important role for sustainable competitive
advantage. Following are the reasons

1) Cultural differences of country help in understanding the strategies with which the
company should promote their product in market. Eg – KFC is focused on non-veg line
and the Indian requirements made them to rethink about their options to target the
vegetarians from Indian populations.
 2) Sensitivity towards religious norms and conditions helps them better understand what is
acceptable and what is not. Eg Arabic countries adhere to halal meat and also have strict
dressing code which means that they do not focus on other colour options apart from
prescribed in their religion.
3) Geographic conditions means that the aspects of terrain, regional climate and access to
basic necessities play critical factor. Eg – Countries like Russia and Canada have winters
and thus their roads are blocked due to snow and they are unable to commute to work or
are stuck in between.

Ans (3) Reasons for harmonious IR. Trends and Challenges of IR in India

Industrial Relations can be termed as the connection of a business with the social norms where it
is operation. Social norms can be the labour, local management, government as well as
customers. By ensuring a harmonious relationship across these stakeholders, a business is able to
provide an encouraging environment for itself as well as the stakeholders where it creates a win-
win situation for both of them to grow towards prosperity. Following can be the reasons for
maintaining a harmonious Industrial Relations -

1. Growth of Organization as well as Society – Companies are able to motivate individuals

to make them grow personally as well as professionally and thus it creates a more able
individuals in society that contribute towards social well-being. This also creates more
potential employees that are desirable for any organization.
2. Increased loyalty of customers, employees as well as a general consensus of approval in
the society
3. Higher level of incentives for workers – Workers are encouraged to work for their
personal goals that are beyond the needs and requirements that they had initially desired.
4. Government is able to provide a secure environment for industrial innovation and
technological leap due to competent businesses
5. Adoption of Laws and regulations that exceed the basic requirements and expectations
Challenges of Industrial Relations in India

1) India faces the main issue of child labor employment. These children are employed and
they have to give up education at young age.
2) Influence by political parties and individual politicians for their own personal gains
3) Unionization of issues that focus on unnecessary aspects of the problem and instead the
main underlying problem remains the same
4) Legal disputes are not addressed at short time. Thus, many pending legal disputes drag on
leading to wastage of time, energy as well as financial losses
5) Workers don’t know their rights and duties and thus they have undue influence for anti-
social elements. This leads to situations where workers are exploited without giving them
their wages or adequate time.

SECTION B

Ans (1) Amanda Trembley the right choice as CSS’s Vietnam GM

Amanda Trembley had the skills and knowledge for implementation of the CSS’s venture in the
Vietnam market. Her idea of providing a no-frills package of SAAS that offered the core
functionalities in exchange of limited customization focused on the fact that the overall costs was
reduced (which was critical for small and mid-sized businesses of Vietnam) and also to control
the overall expenses in acquiring and retaining clients. This can also be verified that they had
96% retention rate, 71% gross margins in recurring revenues and assurance for break-even and
turning to profitability within 5 years. Further, McGraw and Fiensted both agreed to the fact that
Trembley was the right choice for Vietnam market as she had done the initial reporting of
exploring the Vietnam market and her work ethic, interpersonal skills and business intellect were
the perfect fit for the new position.

But, McGraw and Fiensted both overlooked one critical aspect of the difference found between
Canada and Vietnam – the cultural aspect. As Amanda Trembley was a woman, Vietnamese
executives found it initially very difficult to accept her as a boss and take instructions and advise
from her. Further, she was used to the casual work culture of Canada where a person who has
been given authority is given enough power to take decisions as and when required. This was in
stark contrast to the work culture of Vietnam, which focused on hierarchy as well as taking
advice and instructions for every small issues that executives faced.

Apart from the culture aspect, Amanda lacked the Vietnamese language proficiency and hence
she could not gel up with her team that well. This was because there were always differences in
understanding the instructions or arguments that were lost when they were translated from one
language to another (Vietnamese to English and vice versa). This also made it difficult for
Amanda to overcome the bureaucratic hurdles during initial setup.

In conclusion, although Amanda Trembley was the perfect candidate in terms of the pre-
requisites for the role of GM of CSS’s Vietnam division, she could not navigate the language,
cultural as well as gender barriers that the Vietnam work culture has in comparison to the
Canadian work culture.

As Mark Fiensted I would consider all the above situations and also consider for the fact that
some of the variables that were initially agreed upon were changed and yet Amanda was able to
secure many contracts as well as keep expenses in check while at the same time being able to
cope up with the different work environment and keep on expanding her Vietnam team. This
never-give-up spirit of Amanda was the primary reason why Fiensted had agreed to place her for
this role and which had been proved to be the right choice. Thus, as Mark Fiensted I would be
highly satisfied with what Amanda was able to achieve till date given the situation that she has
been put in.

Ans (2) Amanda’s response to poor performance of internal technical consultants

As Amanda was in a senior position, she had the rights and authority to question the performance
of internal technical consultants. But she could not take a strict stand on her decisions because
she felt that she would somehow annoy her team members. This was due to the fact that at times
Amanda was unable to understand the true thoughts of her team members as there were cultural,
language as well as gender differences. Amanda tried to overcome those differences by being
honest in her opinions, trying to reach a consensus for every decision made and at the same time
ensuring that she spoke slow and clear so that there was no misunderstanding.
Such an approach made Amanda overly cautious and in a way her role of being a boss or senior
manager was slightly undermined as she focused more on pleasing everyone and being in the
good books of her subordinates. This led to instances where Amanda had to adjust for her
viewpoints and at times being forced to agree to something which she initially had clearly
decided not to implement (eg – in case of customization requests from small clients, the main
issue was that the price of SAAS was lowered by not customizing but once the request was
approved to win one major client then every sales representative began to push for customization
of SAAS for their clients) which led to further complications in her role for handling these
situations.

As Amanda had the right and responsibility as GM for CSS Vietnam, she should use her
authority to say no to things for certain demands. She should be sensitive enough to understand
where she can agree and where she can deny while not being rude or overly aggressive. Also, she
should not only listen but at the same time question the performance of consultants for a given
time period. This can be easily done by having a weekly group meeting and checking on
performance of every consultants’ target has been met or not. Those who fail to meet their
respective targets can then be met individually to understand their issues. This will make
Amanda more responsible and at the same time her team would not make her gullible for every
decision taken.