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Dimensions and Dynamics of National Culture
Introduction to IHRM Corporate Social Responsibility and Ethical Conduct
It has been debated that the concept of CSR ( Corporate Social Responsibility) and ethic- based conduct is achieving a high level of significance in the context of the culture of international business. This is because of the various attempts made by a business to make place for its CSR schedule as well as principles (Thomas et al., 2014). The main purpose of this essay is to determine the role played by an IHRM ( International Human Resource Manager) in terms of meeting the issues that the CSR is presenting to their organization as well as in terms of developing a permanent ethics-based operation to be conducted by a business.
In the first part of this essay, the meaning of CSR and ethics in terms of the IHRM would be explained and the responsibilities of the HR manager in terms of the CSR and ethics would also be discussed. In the second part of the essay due consideration would be given towards determining the issues experienced by the HR managers in the concerned context. Relevant theories and models would be used to explain CSR and ethics in the context of IHRM. The thesis statement here is to, “ determine the role of IHRM in CSR and ethical conduct of an organization”.
Ethics & CSR- IHRM
Corporate Social Responsibility in the context of the IHRM primarily consists of the accountabilities of an organization in terms of its employees. Moreover, the accountability of an organization in terms of its employees can be segmented in terms of the law-driven, ethical responsibilities as well as the society-based accountabilities of a particular organization (Voegtlin et al., 2016). As per the law-based principles, it is the duty of an organization to make sure that the wages they pay to their employees is not lower than the minimum wage standard, that is it should be on the basis of the labor agreement and also offer social safety to their employees. Furthermore, any ethical conduct of an organization is not meant to be harmful to the health of any employee of the organization as well as they should also not accumulate funds for the sickness of any particular employee of their organization. In this context, it has been determined that the social accountability of an organization is more than any legal accountability of the organization as well as in terms of the ethical accountabilities of that particular organization. Hence as per the IHRM, it is significant for the employees to contribute towards the achievement of the objectives of an organization, however, they should contribute even more to the social accountability of that particular organization.
In the context of the IHRM, the foreign employees don’t have any concern about the norms and principles of the organization in which they are working. Moreover, there is a major gap in terms of the competencies of the domestic members of the workforce and the international members of the workforce of that particular organization (Voegtlin et al., 2016). Furthermore, the foreign employees get a unique level of attention on the part of the organization, hence they feel that they are more powerful than the domestic employees of the organization, due to which they don’t pay any respect or even value the local employees of that particular organization. Additionally, it has also been determined that the international employees of an organization frequently engage in violating the norms and principles of the organization in which they are working.
The IHRM plays a significant role in assuring that particular organization is embracing Corporate Social Responsibility in its working system. Moreover, it is the HR department only that manages the execution of the CSR strategy for a particular organization and regulate its entire process of executive in a proactive manner (Rosolen et al., 2016). In this context, the role of the HRM is also to keep an account of the entire process and celebrate its victory in the whole journey of the concerned organization. Furthermore, the technologies embraced by the HRM also assists with the CSR module of the concerned organization and also contribute to a great extent towards minimizing the carbon-dioxide emission in the context of that particular organization.
In the context of the CSR, the role of the Human Resource Manager of an international company is to execute as well as to promote environment-friendly practices in their organization. In this context, an organization can take an initiative to minimize the carbon dioxide emission on the part of every member of their workforce, like they can encourage all the employees to make use of paper cups or even glasses both off or on the premises of the concerned organization. For example, the Wesfarmers Group in Australia has taken an initiative to embrace the climatic-change plan of action as well as regulatory system, wherein the concerned organization assists in the process of achieving the international objectives of minimizing the footprint of the green-house gases like that of the carbon-dioxide in the course of the company executing its functions (Rosolen et al., 2016).
Another important function of a HR manager of an international company would be to promote a culture of social accountability in the organization. For example, the Indian Oil Corporation Ltd has proactively been involved in a number of social-wellbeing activities over different countries around the world other than their main business of providing significant oil, petrol and fuel among many others to various parts of the world (Ersoy et al., 2015). The concerned organization was determined to be involved in CSR activities like that of hygienic water to drink and protection of water related components, good health, toiletry, job, education as well as in terms of giving significant powers to those women are not at socially and financially secured. Hence, the concerned organization is mostly engaged in improving the standard of living of different underprivileged sections of the society. In this context, it is important for the HR department of the organization to recruit young people in their organization who are very much enthusiastic towards the protection of the environment. Considering, another example from the telecom industry of Nepal, it has been determined that the Nepal Telecom has taken several CSR initiatives by making a contribution towards the health, education, sports, agricultural and ICT sector in Nepal and also towards the protection of the environment of the concerned country (Carroll et al., 2018). The concerned organization also has been determined to offer significant facilities to the people at the time of earthquake which had recently taken place in the country. The celebration of the victory of an organization in terms of achieving its CSR objectives is another important responsibility of the HRM of a particular organization, which is important to maintain the enthusiasm of the company in terms of achieving its CSR objectives (Ersoy et al., 2015). In this context, the HRM takes an initiative to engage the leaders of the organization to rejoice the accomplishment of the organization in terms of its sustainable goals and appreciate the same to offer significance to sustainable goals of that particular organization (Ozkazanc, 2019).
Considering from the points of view of ethics, the role of the HR managers of the international companies would be to nurture an ethics-based culture in their organization. Moreover, the HRM of a particular organization should also take an initiative to embrace good ethics in terms of recruiting employees to the organization. In this context, the concerned HRM should be able to establish an ethical strength on the part of the organization and should also be able to retain the beliefs as well as the ethical environment of the concerned organization (Sumaja et al., 2018). Moreover, the role of the HRM should also be to make use of ethics in terms of resolving conflicts that is taking place within an organization. In case of global companies’ conflicts can be due to the difference in the culture of the different employees of the organization. Furthermore, it is also the role of HR manager to deal with the impact of the conflict that has taken place in the organization. In this context, the Coles company in Australia is dedicated towards maintaining a diverse culture as well as uniform opportunities to the employees of the organization, hence this should be the most important concern of the HRM of the concerned organization. The role of the HRM is to treat every employee of the organization in a respectful, dignified as well as in a polite manner. The organization also follows the practice of providing an impartial access to the products services to all the employees of the organization (Wang et al., 2016). This is applicable from duties ranging from hiring to training and induction and further to compensation as well as promotion on the part of the employees of the organization.
Furthermore, the HRM faces numerous problems in the context of the international companies, wherein a major problem is caused due to the difference in the culture of the people of the organization that leads to the development of misinterpretation in the professional front of the employees working in that particular organization. In the context of the Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions model (Beugelsdijk et al., 2018), Geert Hofstede developed a structure that can be used to gain an understanding about the gap in the culture of people belonging to different countries and also to figure out the technique in which a commercial activity is conducted in different countries. Hence, the main purpose of this model is to find out the difference in the culture of different nationalities, the various aspects of its culture and also in terms of determining its influence on the business environment of that particular country (Grosser et al., 2019). So, as per this theory it is important for the HRM of an organization to determine the culture of the country to which their employees belong and also determine the affect of the culture on the business of the country.
Moreover, it is also difficult for the IHRM to establish a global connection with the employees of the organization. In this context even Hofstede theory can be applied to make an attempt to understand the culture and the aspects of the culture of the country to which the concerned employees of the organizations belong, which in turn will assist the IHRM to create global connection with them (Wang et al., 2016). Further, the IHRM also experiences issues if they work towards creating a HR structures in terms of different countries to which the employees of their organization belongs, so by understanding the cultures and aspect of cultures of different countries , the IHRM can take an initiative to develop an integrated HR system, which will optimize their operations in the international context. Additionally, issues are also faced by the IHRM if all the HR related accountability is vested on a single person, then that organization is most likely to suffer.
Thus, it is highly recommended for the global companies to make an investment in offering cultural training to their employees as well as to the HR team with a business goal in their mind (Beugelsdijk et al., 2017). In this context, training should be given in terms of decision-making process of different countries and also the way in which a country gives more preference to personal relationship over their business goals.
Conclusion on IHRM Corporate Social Responsibility and Ethical Conduct
Through this essay it has been concluded that the role of the IHRM is to encourage the employees of the organization to make contribution towards the goal of the organization, however, more attention is given towards the achievement of the social accountability on the part of the organization. In this context, the Wesfarmers Group, Nepal Telecom and Indian Oil Corporation has contributed to a great extent by taking various community and environment initiatives like that of the reduction of carbon dioxide emission or in terms of providing clean water to different communities. Furthermore, it has been clearly determined that the HRM of the Coles company has promoted ethical conduct in their organization and treat all their employees with great respect, dignity as well s with due amount of courtesy. Additionally, the Hofstede’s cultural theory can be used as means for the IHRM to resolve the various kinds of challenges they are facing, in terms of understanding the cultures of their employees belonging to different countries. Thus, it can be restated that, “ the IHRM plays a significant role in both the CSR as well as the ethical conduct of an organization”, which has been demonstrated throughout the course of the essay by using examples of organizations from different countries.
References for IHRM Corporate Social Responsibility and Ethical Conduct
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