The Impact of Globalization on IBM, South Africa

It is no longer feasible that a corporation can successfully move through the global marketplace without learning to recognize the cultural norms of each country. It falls to the executives and managers to implement these changes and to ensure that their companies are working to move towards a more inclusive, and ultimately, more profitable way of doing business that appreciates and respects all cultures and work

Many different contexts group together to make up the term “globalization” such as: technology, trade, offshoring, outsourcing integration, migration, transportation, and environmental pollution. In plain terms, globalization can be described as a process that embraces economic and cultural transmissions between countries. This process is intended to improve the function of economic activities worldwide. The movement also supports the idea of internationalism. Influencing a nation to adopt new political views and educational values can be a potentially positive way to help a struggling nation develop. However, economic improvement in this situation is not always the case. Research provides an irregular pattern concerning economic development. Focusing in on the impact of globalization in South Africa, both positives and negatives have played a part in this country’s struggle to compete with the rest of the world.

Every country differs in culture which has been there for centuries. The international market is growing rapidly, with more and more multinational organisations entering new markets each day. In this assignment I will evaluate how the difference in cultures affects the performance of international businesses.

The HRM policy of a firm is looked as a most important strength which needs to be taken care of all the time to have a competitive advantage within the industry they operating in. Multinational corporations (MNCs) seek to transfer their home-country human resource management (HRM) practices to their overseas subsidiary as to them it is just another approach towards globalisation. It can be an element of success for MNCs if they manage to transfer these HRM practices across their subsidiaries in an effective manner. An effective transition of these policies depends on the organisational, cultural, social and relational factors (Bartlett & Ghoshal 1998; Evans, Pucik & Barsoux 2002; Poedenphant 2002). The transition of these policies

As per the 14th Annual Global CEO Survey by Price Waterhouse Cooper for the year 2011, the need had been identified to bridge the gap of global skills as one of the biggest concerns, specifically for companies considering attraction, recruitment, development and retention of talents across the globe (Moran, 2014). Costly mistakes, frustration, and confusion are the main consequences of absence of global skills mainly because of ignorance regarding the effect of culture across the work place. This is because ignorance of culture differences result in unproductivity across the organization (Latimer, 2012).

They need to build integration among HR practices and strategies of its auxiliary firms in distinctive region with a specific end goal to accomplish general organizational targets. Then again, these associations additionally guarantee a critical level of adaptability in their IHRM procedure on the grounds that representatives from distinctive nations are sponsored by diverse cultures and social qualities. Adaptability impacts the workers' execution. Due to the strengths of globalization and the associations' interest to create and implement a worldwide methodology, International Human Resource Management (IHRM) is turning into an essential to accomplishment of the organizational. The essential distinction between domestic and global human resource administration is the knowledge and obligations

While there are many various global issues that affect the International Human Resource Management to run efficiently, there are two key concepts that play a major role in understanding how to approach them with cohesive and a well coherent strategy; they are the International Human Recourse Management Strategy and Understanding the Cultural Environment. In the International Resource Management strategy, many companies will do their research in finding companies that offer the

Human resource management functions in multinational companies are incredibly complicated by the need to adapt policies and procedures related to personnel, to differences between the countries, which is one of the branches. In particular, the countries cultural differences, differences in economic development and legal systems may require an international company adaptation programs of hiring, firing, training and remuneration for

According to Koster (2012), “For consistent policies, standardization is imperative” (para 14). Nevertheless, the HR restructuring taking place at IBM is moving in a different direction from that of the Coca-Cola Company. For an organization with as large a global footprint as that of IBM’s, a traditional HR approach, like that at the Coca-Cola Company, was no longer tenable and a structural change was necessary.

The escalation of globalization in recent times has brought a phenomenal change in the market and business. The argument that arises is how and where the firm should enter the comprehensive arcade. The research into international business has become an active area of study over the last four decades and is likely to become even more so, as the procedure of economic globalization accelerates into the future. The most fascinating and current are the issues relating to national culture and its outcomes on business process (Venaik and Brewer, 2008).

In doing business so many times an organization must think globally. This might be done to increase sales and/or profits or to lower labor costs. In either case problems can occur due to ethical and cultural barriers in global expansion. In this paper I will attempt to show some of what a global organization and a cultural issue that affects their interactions outside the United States by identifying and comparing some of these cultural differences.

INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT: CULTURE, STRATEGY, AND BEHAVIOR, EIGHTH EDITION Published by McGraw-Hill, a business unit of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020. Copyright © 2012 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Previous editions © 2009, 2006, and 2003. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written consent of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., including, but not limited

According to the works of Chaney & Martin (2011) and Harris & Moran (2000), they agree that international management skills are in need for the increasing scope of international trades and investments. A large number of multinational companies have expanded their businesses through both developed and developing countries. Some of the business invest directly and others are partnership arrangements and strategic alliances with domestic operations. Their studies show that independent entrepreneurs and small businesses have started investing and competing in the world marketplace. Thus, to acquire corporations’ objectives, there is exceedingly a necessity for the development of strategic framework for cross-cultural management and communication in the current competitive global market. Chaney & Martin (2011) also noted that, cultural awareness and cultural differences are strongly important to the multinational corporations’ success. A good understanding of the culture where business is implemented can make international managers productive and effective.

That is why intercultural management cannot be ignored when it comes to the organization performance, and the ‘universal best practice’ approach to HRM have to be critically considered because what is appropriate to a specific environment will not systematically be for another.

The most challenging decision that a company may face in internationalization is the degree of standardization or adaptation in its operations. The question of standardization or adaptation affects all avenues of a business’ operations, such as R&D, finance, production, organizational structure, procurement, and the marketing mix. Whether a company chooses to standardize or adapt its operations depends on its attitudes toward different cultures. These attitudes are defined by three orientations toward foreign culture: ethnocentric, polycentric, and geocentric.