Costbuck

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- Universalism: “universalistic cultures attach the highest importance to laws and enforce them to virtually every situation and individual through independent empowered institutions. The main goal of universalism is therefore to follow principles. Conflicts are won when one party is right”.

- Particularism: “Particularistic cultures make it dependent from the situation and their relationship to the involved parties whether or not to apply rules or morals. The main goal is to keep the relationship in tact rather than upholding a universal principle. In case the government has good relationship with a business, special agreements can be made which move outside the regulatory parameters”[2].

In his study, Trompenaars has found out that China (and Eastern Asian Countries) are really particularistic whereas European countries tend to be universalistic.

Because of its past history, China’s culture is influenced by the old influence of Confucianism and Confucianism, there was no judiciary state before 1979. When China has started to become a market economy with the apparition of private businesses and foreign investment, a legal system had to be implemented. However, even if it is existing, companies prefer to use a negotiation if there are any conflict instead of using the legal framework.

According to Trompenaars’, we can assume the China is a collectivist country with a neutral aspect of feelings and relationships. The work relationship in China are diffuse and Chinese people’s attitude toward the environment is outer direct which means that they are seeking stability and harmonious relationships in work, they are flexible and compromising because they think that whatever happens in life, it can’t be controlled.

Another tool to identify a culture is by using the GLOBE project that includes nine dimensions of culture, which are based on Hofstede and Trompenaars’ work and bring an extension to it. The dimensions in the GLOBE project are:

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Human Resources Management

When establishing a business in a foreign country, it is important to be aware that a specific HRM policy has to be implement regarding the culture of the country which may differ, and the labour relations

Having an effective HRM including different cultures is full of challenges because of the different cultures and their views. The first difficulty is to find a company objective which would motivate everyone working in the company who have different cultures and goals. However, it is important to keep in mind that different non-cultural factor also influence an HRM policy, such as:

- State economic policies

- Employment legislation

- Demographic factors

- Market conditions

- Industrial relations systems

- Technology and industry

- Size of organisation

From our previous study, we can have an idea of the kind of HRM policy which has to be implemented, but I think that those elements have to be taken with a certain care because China has been evolving a lot, and what was true yesterday may not be true anymore, especially because of the rapid growth and the new political reforms during the last decades. Because of this, I think it is important to establish a flexible Human Resources Management model.

Regarding our study of the Chinese’ culture, we see that Chinese workers are mainly collectivistic and particularistic, which means that they are highly motivated and concerned by the global performance of the company. However, during the last decades, we have seen that worker are looking for a long time engagement in the company and look for more recognition from the company than before.

Regarding all those elements, I think that the HRM approach should offer the employee some long term contract with trainings after a few years to allow them to evolve in the company organisation. Moreover, as they are not driven by individualistic criteria, a collective performance appraisal to avoid internal conflict should be implemented. Even if differences in reward are considered as “normal” in their culture, I think it is important to have a group performance based reward or bonuses to motivate the all staff and show them that their implication is perceived by the company.

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Orientation of the organisation

When a company is internationalizing its activities, it has to think about the orientation of the organisation. Then, the organisation has the choice between three choices (or four):

- Ethnocentric: The same HRM strategies and practices are employed in all countries. This leads to a high degree of authority and decision making at head office

- Polycentric: HRM is decentralised on a country by country basis. Authority and decision making devolved to take account of local environments

- Geocentric: HRM is managed on a global basis. Harmonises the overall management of HR while at the same time responding to local conditions and environmental factors

This decision is very important for a company because throw it, the image of the company perceived by the different stakeholders will be affected. Assuming that there is one single orientation which could fit the company would be a mistake because each strategy has its pros and cons. When choosing the orientation, we try to Link efficiency to well-being of the stakeholders.

Here is a picture analysing different aspect of each strategy:

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To have the most effective HRM, we need to know the global strategy (Global, Multidomestic or Transnational) of the company to be able to find the most suitable HRM strategy. Looking at our case study, we can conclude that the company does not use a multidomestic strategy which tell us that the company should not use a polycentric HRM because it emphasize especially the needs of local market, which is not the main