How to enhance expatriate motivation and effectiveness within a cross-cultural organization - Term Paper Example

Even though, firms face related HRM problems, the duty for culturally diverse organisations is far more intricate than that of their single- culture equals. In order cross- cultural companies to develop a motivate work force it is important for organisations to have a developed understanding of motivation factors (Becker, 2000:35). It is of great importance for companies to find out how employees from different cultural settings react to similar motivating factors, as culture has been found to have a an intense  impact on human behaviour (Matić, 2008:94). Recent studies have revealed that people want more than money from work. There are five important issues including the link between work and life, relationship between pay and performance, satisfactory staffing levels, performance and employment of work (Becker, 2000:35). In summary, employee motivation varies across different cultures according to a case analysis of Nokia in China.

1.2 Objectives

The sole purpose of this study is to work out the important motivating factors and scrutinize how cultural differences determine the approach taken by the HR department in motivating their employees. Additionally, the study seeks to answer the following questions.

1. i) What are the basic motivating factors?
2. ii) What are the different motivating factors across the ‘East’ and the ‘West’?

In this study, the East refers to Japan, Malaysia and China while the West refers to the US, European Union countries and the United Kingdom.

1.3 Limitations

This study concentrates on Nokia in China which means that it is not adequately representative. Furthermore, the study does not analyse each country independently, instead it roughly divides them in ‘East’ and ‘West’ which are two broad terms. Finally, data collected mainly focused on the east.

1.4 Structure

This paper first gives a background to the topic being studied followed by a literature review of motivation theories in relation to cultural diversity. Then, the findings from the case analysis are discussed and conclusions are made concerning the topic.