Cross-Cultural Differences in Attitudes - Report Example

Running Head: Cross-Cultural Differences in Attitudes Cross-Cultural Differences in Attitudes [Institute’s Cross-cultural Differences in Attitudes Culture is a unique set of norms and characteristics typically associated with a group of people. It defines the way a society lives; and the relationships, roles, values and standards of behaviour it sets for its people. Cultures vary across organisations, firms, geographical locations etc. Every organisation has a unique culture, derived from its internal and external environment. The effect of culture at workplace can be seen best in industries, involving manual work and high contact with the clients in the form of social habits, caste feelings, attitude and behaviour of a person (Srivastava, pp. 54-55, 2005). With the world now being a global village, effect of culture can be seen in the form of cross cultural differences at the workplace. In regions with diverse cultures, the workplace can comprise of people from different origins, countries, cultures and backgrounds. It is important that companies, organisations, service providers consider methods and strategies in to attract and retain their employees that come from different cultural backgrounds. In specific, analysis of the literature has indicated that the services industry in London is highly influenced by the cross-cultural differences as they provide ‘experiences’ through their employees. The increasing cultural diversity and the cross-cultural differences in the workforce require the businesses to be able to operate across cultures in order to be successful. This is even more important when it comes to the services industry. For the companies to operate in an international environment, it is very important that they adopt a cross cultural approach for performance management of the employees (Perkins & Shortland, pp 60-66, 2006). Especially in a diverse city like London, international business models should be followed. With the growth of cultural diversity amongst the employees of the beauty services providers in London, the leadership and management strategies are also required to be modified. The beauty industry in the London that emerged in the nineteenth century has now grown from small local enterprises to global brands. There are salon chains, spa chains, beauty clinics and arrays of parlours operating across the world now. At many places, the cross cultural diversity can be seen in this industry as well. With the globalization of beauty industry in an effort to relate to the international environment, the employers are generally coming from different cultural backgrounds. The companies, therefore, need to use different strategies to manage the employers, due to difference in their attitudes towards motivation and performance awards, across cultures (Jones, pp 5-8, 2006). In the beauty services industry of London, the skills and attitudes of the employee are very important as the services involve many “moments of truth” (Carlzon, 1987) and are highly personalised ones. For example at a parlour, the attitude and behaviour of an attendant plays a key role in developing loyal customers. The repeat customer that comes to the parlour searches for his or her favourite attendant and prefers to be attended by them. This reflects the extent of personalisation involved in this industry. In such a case, the turnover of a single employee means losing many loyal customers that came to the parlour just for that particular employee (Nargundkar, pp 192-194, 2006). Retention of employees needs them to be motivated. The employees play a key role in growth of beauty services industry and, therefore, the organization must motivate them to improve their performance and make their function more effective. In the UK, employers have reported the success of combining different motivating factors. These are about ten prompt considerations. An example is the combination of quantitative as well as qualitative performance measures as people have different attitudes towards performance awards in a diverse workplace (Perkins & Shortland, pp 60-66, 2006). Therefore, to motivate the employees, the managers need to know what adds to their job satisfaction. “Across cultures we find different needs and different rewards that drive people” (Thissen, 2005). The managers need to have knowledge of what is the perception (attitude) of the employee towards job satisfaction; what motivates them and which performance awards matter to them. The attitudes and patterns of behaviours are different across cultures. People have different values and this affects their attitudes. The change in cultural values and norms affects the perception and attitudes towards motivation and leadership at workplace (Nelson and Quick, pp 183-185, 2007). According to Bob Nelson, “One size doesnt fit all when it comes to employee motivation—rewards that motivate best are those that are most valued by the person you are trying to thank” (Odell, 2005). When China emerged as a global economy, businesses and companies, you avail the growth opportunities entered the business market in China. These companies faced several problems in management of the business to barriers caused by cross cultural differences in attitudes (Zigang, 2004). The services industry was affected more because they offer experiences, people deal with people and hence, there are several barriers caused by cultural differences in motivating the employee and making them effective in achieving the goals of the organisation. In the services industry, growing cultural differences means more need for communication skills to know the attitudes towards motivation of employees (Environmental Scan, pp 8-9 2009). Communication skills are required to motivate the employees from different backgrounds, especially in high contact services like the beauty services industry (Environmental Scan, pp 8-9 2009). Researches in the area have revealed that if the communication gap is there at workplace and the employee feels left alone or isolated, this directly affects their motivation, job satisfaction and hence, performance (Kuratko. Pp 31-32. 2009). On the other hand, ability and knowledge of a person when multiplied with motivation results in better performance. Attitudes make a lot of difference here as they are directly related to emotions and feelings of a person. The attitudes of employees are derived “from relationships between outcomes and individual values and needs” (Whetten, pp 347-348. 2006). Managers motivate their subordinates to satisfy their needs, desires and drives and induce them to perform in keeping with the desires and requirements of the setup for which they are working. Managers use performance rewards for motivation, as means of reinforcement. Behaviours that have a positive effect on performance are often reinforced through rewards; more specifically the performance rewards (Whetten, pp 347-348. 2006). Attitudes shape the effect that motivation and performance awards have on people, whether it is positive or negative. Attitude determines the worth of achieving a goal (performance standard) for a person and hence they are motivated only if they believe in the worth of the goal. If the attitude towards performance award or motivating factor is positive, then the performance of the person increases. When the attitude is negative, the performance declines (Goel, pp 94-100, 2008). There are different types of performance rewards related to motivation, used by the companies. Performance awards can be extrinsic (material in nature) or intrinsic (non material and leading to personal satisfaction) (E. Mitchell, Ortiz and K. Mitchell, pp 186-188, 1987). The difference in cross cultural values can be seen in attitudes as people have different level of satisfaction leading to different performance rewards. For example, if the people are from the UK background, they prefer “oral recognition” performance rewards, and it motivates them. They like to be praised publicly and be appreciated for their work in order to be motivated. On the other hand, the Germans and Finnish people get motivated through written recognition; Japanese are motivated when privately recognised. The attitudes towards motivation and performance rewards are directly related to culture and background of a person and this is highly applicable in service industries like beauty services industry (Silverthorne, pp-117-120, 2005). UK culture values competition, and therefore, the British people derive motivation from competition and challenges while the Japanese culture values teamwork and cooperation and that is what motivates them. Therefore, the success of motivating factors and performance awards is directly affected by cultures. One of the experts said, “If we accept that values and attitudes derive motivation, then these will also vary across cultures” (Silverthorne, pp-117-120, 2005). An example of cultural differences in attitudes is parlour and salons in black communities. Industry researches show that nearly one third of the salons and spas in black communities are given to employees on contract basis. The employees run the salons as independent contractors and give a weekly fee to the owner or employer. They keep a commission or salary for themselves. In this scenario, responsibility is given to the employee that leads to their personal development and also a performance related reward in the form of commission (Black Enterprise, pp 3, 1995). With change in backgrounds and nationalities, cross cultural differences arise in what motivates the employees. Researchers in United States have revealed that motivation, job satisfaction and performance are interrelated. Cultures affect the way individuals prioritize, and therefore, the responses are different towards performance awards in different cultures too (Silverthorne, pp-200, 2005). Managing across different cultures is another company “L’Oreal Paris” that acknowledges the change in attitudes across cultures towards motivation and performance rewards. The management at the company stresses open talk and motivates its employees by knowing their attitudes. They have been rated as one of the best places to work in because of their approach towards cultural diversity and cross cultural differences (L’Oreal, 2002). Beauty services providers in the west value recognition, achievement and praise more while in the east the attitudes are different due to cultural difference. Further analysis of the literature has identified Geert Hofstede’s (2001, pp. 29-44) cultural dimension concept that can be very helpful in critical understanding of attitudes towards motivation and performance rewards in organizations. For instance, Eastern countries have a collectivistic culture that puts emphasis on interdependence, group goals and cooperation. For the individuals from an eastern background the performance awards and motivation plans that support group harmony are more effective. For Asians, sense of belonging and devotion to the workplace is important. For them equality principle should be used for motivation and performance management. On the other hand, the Americans (individualistic culture) emphasize individual achievement. For them, plans that recognise individual contributions is the source of motivation (Ballow, 2004). While the Western enterprises prefer to be more overt in acknowledging the performance of their employees, the eastern culture makes it more tacit and subtle. Here the managers do compliment the employees through more discreet commendation. This builds a durable relation within the organisational hierarchy, as the employees understand that their managers were keenly observing their performance and as such would eventually acknowledge whatever they do. According to Hofstede, some are High PD and some are Low PD (Hofstede, pp. 56-61, 2001) countries/organizations. In specific, High PD organizations carry out their functions in a structured hierarchy, whereas, in Low PD areas, teamwork plays the greater role where organizations put efforts collectively. In this regard, it is very imperative to identify and analyze business culture of a country that plays a crucial role in success or failure of motivation and performance rewards, especially in beauty services industry that has now become an international industry. References Ballow, Dennis G. (2004). Globalization and Cross-Cultural Issues in Project Management. Project Management Knowledge Transfer, Inc. Retrieved on 10th April, 2010: http://www.asapm.org/asapmag/articles/GlobalizPM.pdf Black Enterprise. (1995). BLACK ENTERPRISE Apr 1995. Vol. 25, Issue No. 9. Carlzon, Jan. (1987). Moments of truth. Ballinger Pub. Co. Environmental Scan (2009). Hairdressing and Beauty. Retrieved on March 19, 2010: http://www.serviceskills.com.au/dmdocuments/projects/scan2009/2.hairscan_09.pdf Goel. (2008). Performance Appraisal and Compensation Management: A Modern Approach. PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd. Hofstede, Geert. (2001). Culture’s Consequences. Sage Publications. Jones, Geoffrey. (2006). Globalizing the Beauty Business before 1980. Harvard Business School. Kuratko, Donald F. (2009). New Venture Management: The Entrepreneurs Roadmap. Pearson Education India. L’Oreal. (2002). “Company Overview Awards & Recognitions.” Retrieved on March 19, 2010: http://www.loreal.com/_en/_ww/html/careers/L-Oreal-at-a glance/Ethics.aspx?&profile=&profileExcl Mitchell, Douglas E., Ortiz, Flora Ida, and Mitchell, Tedi K. (1987). Work Orientation and Job Performance: The Cultural Basis of Teaching Rewards and Incentives. SUNY Press. Nargundkar, Rajendra. (2006). Services Marketing 2E. Tata McGraw-Hill. Nelson, Debra L. And Quick, James Campbell. (2007). Understanding Organizational Behavior. Cengage Learning EMEA. Odell, Patricia. (2005). “Motivating Employees on a Global Scale: Author Bob Nelson”. Retrieved on 10th April, 2010: http://promomagazine.com/incentives/motivating_empolyees_110905/ Perkins, Stephen, Shortland, Sue. (2006) Strategic International Human Resource Management: Choices and Consequences in Multinational People Management. Kogan Page Ltd. Silverthorne, Colin Patric. (2005). Organizational Psychology in Cross-Cultural Perspective. NYU Press. Srivastava, S K. (2005). Organizational Behaviour and Management. Sarup & Sons. Thissen, Joost. (2005). “Cultural Column - (De) Motivation across Cultures”. Creating Cross-cultural Effectiveness. Retrieved on 10th April, 2010: http://www.cultureresourcecentre.com.au/documents/demotivationacrosscultures.pdf Whetten, A. (2006). Developing Management Skills. Pearson Education India. Zhang, Zigang. (2004). “Cross-cultural challenges when doing business in China.” Singapore Management Review. Issue of January 01, 2004. Read More