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Business expansion is what founders dream of. If a company has multiple offices across the world, it usually means it is thriving.
The reasons for choosing to expand in certain locations are varied, including having a large consumer or client base, manufacturing facilities, or requiring talent, in a specific region of the world.
But when a company expands, it must also take on the differing cultures, traditions, and ways of working from the countries it's setting itself up in. This can have some consequences for a workplace’s culture, as national diversity brings with it a distinctive set of different perspectives and attitudes. Nevertheless, much research points at the benefits of diversity and these differing outlooks, to bring about innovation and business growth.
Despite this, HR practitioners, along with the management and executive team, must be aware of some important factors when their company goes global.
Culture of country vs culture of company
When multiple national cultures exist within the umbrella of an organisation, it’s HR and management’s responsibility to ensure these various cultures and identities exist in harmony under the dominating culture of the company.
This process can be described as cultural acculturation, which is the social and cultural change that occurs from the balancing of multiple cultures while adapting to a prevailing culture. In the business world, this prevailing culture would be the company’s workplace culture.
With a workforce from multiple corners of the world, the etiquette around simple things like how to greet each other can become complicated and uncomfortable if management don’t take it upon themselves to ensure cohesion across their overseas workforce. Therefore, managers and HR need to carefully manage cultural conflicts, bias and discrimination.
Management theories
Management theories that populate UK management L&D training are rife with culture-specific assumptions. Because of the differing work patterns, attitudes and cultures, these theories that dominate the way we teach management aren’t going to be universally accepted.
This can sometimes be an issue for HR when your firm is expanding, as when practices translate across countries without adjustment, this can lead to detrimental loss for a company.
Social concepts and etiquette
An important aspect of cultural integration in a global firm is understanding and embracing the differing ways of life, social concepts and ways of doing business in the respective countries.
In a Forbes article on the ‘glocalisation’ of business, Gilda D’Incerti highlights that globally, some cultures are ‘individualistic’ whereby they stress independence, and other cultures are ‘collectivist’ where they emphasise cohesion. D’Incerti says that in a global company, management must adapt and cater procedures to cater for the needs of each place.
For example, in Japanese culture there is a phenomenon called ‘inemuri’ which translates to ‘sleeping while present’. Inemuri is the practice where workers appear to be dozing off or falling asleep during work meetings. Although this might be seen as rude or disrespectful by Western standards, in Japan, this demonstrates dedication and hard work. If management don’t allow space for education around these cultural differences, this could lead to fragmentation and conflict in an organisation.
What can HR do?
As an HR practitioner, there are a few things you can do to ensure global cohesion in your workforce. Suggesting cultural sensitivity and awareness training across all locations could be beneficial in minimising misunderstandings and promoting a deeper appreciation for diverse perspectives and practices.
Emphasising the company's core values and mission across all offices is also an important feature in keeping cohesion. This way, even with such differing cultures, employees recognise that the culture of the company remains most important.
Encouraging cross-collaboration between global teams can also be a way of ensuring a sense of cohesion and unity. Diverse project teams not only encourage an exchange of diverse ideas, but it also builds trust and relationships amongst team members.
