Handbook for Strategic HR - Section 7

OD Network, John Vogelsang PhD, Maya Townsend, Matt Minahan, David Jamieson, Judy Vogel, Annie Viets, Cathy Royal, Lynne Valek

• Publisher: AMACOM
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9780814437025
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Human Resource Management
• Index: Business

Organizations are globalizing at a frenetic rate. The world is becoming more connected each year and each generation of technology speeds up this process. What once took weeks and then days to share now can be done in minutes. This section will help you understand the dynamics of culture and diverse values in a global environment; how to manage across both virtual and physical borders; and how to sustain the performance and engagement of multi-ethnic, multifaceted employees. Also included are important insights on working in a global office space; how to use technology; how to collaborate effectively in global organizations; and "lessons learned" about cross-cultural values and leadership.

SECTION SEVEN

Globalization, Cross-Cultural Interaction, and Virtual Working Arrangements

Introduction

Annie Viets and Cathy Royal

TOPICS COVERED IN THIS SECTION

1. How to work with the diverse employees in global organizations.

2. How to respect national cultures and norms yet abide by globally applicable values and ethics.

3. How to become culturally competent, manage across both virtual and physical borders, and sustain the performance and engagement of multi-ethnic, multifaceted employees.

4. How to be open to the contributions of local experts and understand the influences of race, gender, and age in business relationships particularly in developing nations.

5. How to effectively collaborate in global organizations and take advantage of virtual working arrangements.

GLOBAL ORGANIZATIONS IN TRANSITION

There is no question organizations today are globalizing at a frenetic rate. The purely domestic enterprise is rapidly becoming a curiosity of the past. To be successful, even so-called “local” businesses must look beyond their own geographic areas for customers, clients, employees, information, materials, and other resources. The emerging challenge for most is in understanding the changes this widening sphere of influence will have on their organizations and the way their activities are conducted.

Never has the need for Human Resource management and Organization Development collaboration and integration been more imperative. The importance of knowledge sharing and management; information technology and security; and cultural integration between nations will be part of this new collaboration.

A 2010 study by the Economist Intelligence Unit titled Global Firms in 2020: The Next Decade of Change for Organizations and Workers addressed some of the organizational and workforce issues that will face organizations over the next several years. Its findings indicated companies are, not surprisingly, predicted to become larger, more global, and spread over ever larger geographic areas but each will have its own unifying culture.

Within organizations, information flow and cross-border collaboration will improve in reaction to and anticipation of more complex management challenges. Decentralization of decision-making will enable local operations to quickly pursue opportunities while leaving centralized corporate offices the tasks of creating and maintaining a single brand experience, establishing global standards and processes, and defining culture and values. Companies will be flatter with project work and matrix structures, where employees will be called upon to form and reform into teams rather than occupy one well-defined role. It will become increasingly common for employees to be defined by skills rather than job titles.

The workforce, according to the study, will be far more diverse than it is today, coming from a wide range of backgrounds and countries. Expatriates will be sent for only short term overseas assignments as organizations will choose local hires for geographically dispersed operations to utilize their familiarity with local customs, customers, and employees. There will be a scramble to fill the ranks of retiring Boomers by promoting young, internationally savvy managers into strategic decision-making roles at a younger age and with less experience than the previous generation of managers. Contingent, contract-workers who are content experts will make up an increasingly larger percentage of the workforce. In time, their numbers may overtake those of permanent hires. Some roles will be automated or outsourced and more employees will work flexible hours or remotely.

The cultural divide between core and contingent employees will need to be bridged if organizations are to maintain morale and boost collaboration. To maintain a common brand experience for both customers and employees, employees worldwide will be required to operate within certain common frameworks. Corporate cultures will need to make explicit the globally applicable values and ethics with which organizations will function. To embed these common principles, organizations will need to orient and integrate new employees quickly while instilling a sense of community and unified purpose over wide geographic areas.

Greater diversity of employees will mean organizations are obliged to work harder to realize the inherent synergies in differences. Employees will be seeking support in acquiring a better appreciation and acceptance of their co-workers. Systems to enhance inclusiveness and participation will, of necessity, become commonplace. And, organizations will seek to acquire a more sophisticated understanding of what is important and motivating to this modern workforce.

A new breed of global managers will require careful career planning to maximize their worth to their organizations. They will need to quickly learn how to make judicious strategic decisions, manage across borders virtually and physically, and sustain the performance of multiethnic, multifaceted employees. They will need to learn to manage in a fluid and changing environment where project teams define employees’ roles rather than titles and hierarchies.

Flatter organizations will require more systemic means of managing collaboration and accountability, more intra and intergroup cooperation and new ways of communicating both laterally and horizontally. Heightened competition will also necessitate increased collaboration across borders and seamless communication to spur innovation and idea-sharing.

The profound effects of these trends on organizations over the next decade will be myriad and provide important and urgent work for professionals competent in the Human Resources and Organization Development disciplines and capable of being both tactical and strategic business partners with organizational management.

THE CHAPTERS IN THIS SECTION

In this section are a series of articles and cases written by international OD professionals that explore issues and questions faced by organizations seeking to operate successfully in the global environment. The articles highlight the challenges and complexities of organizational integration, collaboration, and communication in global enterprises. The five broad topic areas are:

• Creating Global Glue and Alignment

• Leadership

• Consultant Role

• Community and Sustainability

• Communication in Global Enterprises

Creating Global Glue and Alignment

Annie Viets (2011), in Global Glue and the Case of Fonterra, describes how a New Zealand based cooperative that grew quickly to become a major player in the global dairy products industry reinvented itself as a globally cohesive and relevant organization greater than each of its operating units.

Therese Yaeger and Peter Sorensen (2011), in Organization Development’s Role When Going Global, present an excellent example of the complexities of expanding a US based company to other countries. With the help of Narneen Razi, Dalitso Sulamoyo, and Katherine Shroeder, they provide insights into best practices for meeting the challenges of working in India, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia.

In another case study by Yaeger and Sorensen (2006), Implementing a Global Corporate Strategy: The Role of OD, two important issues involved in working globally are addressed: (1) partnering in the development and implementation of strategy, and (2) implementing global strategy. The authors and three experts weigh in on the involvement of OD in implementing a new CEO’s mandate for a common vision, culture, and way of working among offices in 20 different countries.

In Socio-Economic Approach to Management, John Conbrere and Alla Heorhiadi (2011) describe a tradition of organization development that has evolved in France called the Socio-Economic Approach to Management (SEAM). This movement shares many of the beliefs and practices of traditional OD but incorporates some distinct practices and a core belief that “organizations do not exist only to make money, they exist to serve society in general and all the employees in particular.”

Amanda Trosten-Bloom, David Cooperrider, Nadya Zhexembayeva, and Diana Whitney (2003), in Business as an Agent of World Benefit: A Worldwide Action Research Project Using AI, tell the story of a multi-company project’s vision, challenges, and areas of immediate learning and impact. Their message that doing good for the world builds good businesses heralds a future where OD is an integral and essential tool for world development.

Leadership

Maya Hu-Chan (2008), in Leadership Connectivity: Building Global Partnerships, focuses on the key elements of global leadership and highlights some of the trends in changing global organizations. She provides an interesting analysis of Asian managers and descriptions of cultural behavior often displayed by managers in Asian societies while stressing the importance of developing coaching skills.

Presenting the results of a global study of managers in 40 countries on what needs to change in the face of globalization, Patricia Shafer (2008), in Global Leadership: A Virgin Landscape for OD Practitioners in the Vanguard, concludes there is a strong emerging need for new management skills. These new skills characterize hybrid leaders who are multidimensional professionals equipped with transformational, transnational, and transcultural competencies.

Consultant Role

When Western practitioners are asked to work internationally it is important they understand the unconscious assumptions and attitudes that could impact performance in other cultures. Therese Yaeger (2002), in The Core Values of OD Revisited: A Compass for Global and International OD, presents the results of a study of the values that inform effective global OD consulting particularly in addressing resistance to change.

Using Hofstede’s (1980) four dimensions of national culture, Anne Litwin (2007), in OD: Dancing in the Global Context, compares how OD change interventions could be conducted in seven different countries. She shows how differences in these dimensions can predict which interventions will be effective and emphasizes that successful international consultants are sensitive to cultural context while always remembering to ground their work in values.

Community and Sustainability

How can HR professionals work with cultural dynamics that place a high emphasis on the work of the group and the community? John Schere and Kakuta Ole Ole Maimai Hamisis (2008), in Organization as Community: What We have to Learn from the Maasai about OD, showcase several principles of a Kenyan tribe’s group dynamics that organizations could find useful in creating high performing teams.

Mambo Mupepi, Ram Tenkasi, Peter Sorensen, and Sylvia Mupepi (2007), in Creating High Impact Organizations in the SADC: Adapting OD Methods and Practices, highlight some of the values shared by the countries that make up the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC). They review some of the literature pertaining to change management and current OD practice and make suggestions for how these core OD concepts might be used to unleash innovation and facilitate change in organizations in the SADC region.

Virtual Collaboration in Global Enterprises

Steve Gens and Deb Torchia (2011), in Addressing the Global Virtual Competency Gap, identify a core set of interdependent competencies that are important for successfully working together in a virtual global environment.

Finally, in OD 2.0: Shifting from Disruptive to Innovative Technology, Kathleen Iverson and George Vukotich (2009), present how to use web-based technologies for teambuilding, product development, knowledge sharing, and relationship building.

FOR ADDITIONAL LEARNING

For more information about globalization you may want to read the following articles.

• Coghlin, D. (2002). Inter-organizational OD through Action Learning. OD Practitioner, 34(1), 9–13.

Coghlin describes how interorganizational networks, in which members of distinct organizations form learning sets to explore change issues of common interest, are increasingly being utilized as a vehicle for organizational change and learning.

• Head, T. (2002). Organization development and the People’s Republic of China: An interesting partnership. OD Practitioner, 34(1), 45–48.

Head discusses how to adapt practices and assumptions to the Chinese culture so Organization Development can be useful in The People’s Republic of China.

• Lippert, K., Rivo, R., Banwell, E., & Stepakoff, S. (2007). Human relations training in post-war Sierra Leone. OD Practitioner, 39(2), 24–29.

The authors describe their experiences providing T-group focused human relations training to the Witnesses and Victims Section of the Special Court for Sierra Leone.

• Rodriguez, R. (2002). Organization development in Barbados: Overcoming an exploitation mindset. OD Practitioner, 34(1), 37–43.

Rodriguez tells the story of an OD intervention that took place in the Caribbean country of Barbados. The intervention involved a manufacturing facility set up in the country by a large, U.S. based printing company. He discusses the cross cultural issues that surfaced during the intervention and how a group of OD practitioners was able to help with the improvement turnaround of the Barbados facility.

• Sharkey, L., & Sorensen, P. (2002). Survey feedback: An alternative to a classic intervention experience in the U.S., Japan, and India. OD Practitioner, 34(1), 32–35.

Sharkey and Sorensen deal with one of the oldest and mainstream OD interventions—survey feedback. The first section of the article reviews the history and nature of survey feedback and activities at Benedictine University that sharply depart from traditional survey feedback. The secon...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Section 7 Globalization, Cross-Cultural Interaction, and Virtual Working Arrangements
• About the Contributors