1. Title
Multinational Culture: The implications for selection, development and introducing new employees in a multinational organisation, Toyota Europe Brussels Head office, Toyota Motor Europe Manufacturing (TMEM) Section only.
2. Research questions and objectives
Research Questions:
What are the demands when selecting employees for Human Resource professional?
What expectations after selection, do new members have to ‘live up to’?
What methods of development are in place for employees?
What are the causes of failure for employees?
What is done to prepare new recruits into the organisation?
Research Objectives:
1. To establish what criteria is used for the recruitment process (skills, knowledge or ‘fit’).
2. To identify any development tools for employees.
3. To investigate the causes of employee failure in Brussels head office.
4. To consider the effectiveness of Toyota’s introduction of new employees into the head office.
3. Rationale
Over the last 20 years, multi-national culture has been a topic of significant interest in studies and there continues to be recent items, which support my case for this paper. Kranias, 2000 states culture is always an important aspect within an organisation. Its importance is further emphasised in the case of the Japanese multinational companies and how their culture affects the relationship between the Japanese parent companies and their subsidiaries overseas. From 3rd February 2003, I will commence employment with Toyota Head office, which is a Japanese subsidiary in Brussels.
The reason behind my proposal is based on the experience I had during the recruitment process, what my experience has been during the acceptance of my contract and the process for me when joining a multinational company – my first day and onwards. The other factor, which has been of interest to me when completing additional literature review, is the impact that Japanese cultural requirements may have on the employees at Head office, Brussels, including myself.
I will commence with the recruitment process, which took 6 months and involved three interviews and an assessment day. Toyota’s recruitment process objectives appeared to be aimed at selecting the right people for the roles available and this could be said that all organisational objectives should be to recruit the right people that match the skills and knowledge required for the vacant position.
My experience during the interview process posed some difficult hurdles due to the questions posed and I felt this was due to language and cultural differences. During all interviews, there was a panel of three interviewers who were Japanese, German and Dutch. Various questions had to be repeated or expressed in a different manner for all individuals to completely understand the context, even between the interviewing panel. The main focus around questioning during my interviews was based on my values rather than technical competence. This questioning technique came predominately from the Japanese interviewer. Due to this experience it led me to question if some people may be unsuccessful to join Toyota predominately due to potential cultural differences that may be deemed not to fit with the corporate philosophy.
During the assessment process whereby there were six delegates, the assessors informed us that they were looking for strengths that match the ‘Toyota Way’ but no one to date has informed me what that is and once again is this more a cultural fit rather than on technical ability?
Currently at Toyota head office there are approximately 250 employees and have over 10 nationalities working within the company. Predominately the mix is British, Dutch, French, German, Japanese, Italian, Turkish, Polish and Spanish therefore there is a large mixture of different cultures within the head office and potential major differences in cultural backgrounds. I anticipate experiencing some of the difficulties posed by cultural diversity, which based on the literature research may include communication, values and social culture. Based on this information I feel these three area’s will be of significances to me as the team I will join consists of 11 human resource employees and I will be the only English person within this team and I do not speak another language.
However, the complexity of cultural differences eludes easy understanding and remains obscure in the complexity of daily life and as this is my first international assignment and based on the significant research already completed regarding multinational culture, this leads me to know there is further research into how culture plays a part in recruitment and development and how individuals fit within the organisation.
Kranias, 2000 states ‘The use of cultural control has great implications for the selection and training and selecting employees is critical’, and this research will aim to establish the basis of selecting employees, what development takes place and what form of assistance does Toyota provide when you join the company.
4. Theoretical Underpinning
There are many different definitions of multinational business and Frayerweather, 1978 says that multinational business has ‘only one central distinguishing characteristic – it is business, involving two or more nations’. Dresser and Carns, 1969 states ‘Culture is the way of life of the group of people’. Does this mean the group of people are from the same nationality?
Handy, 1999 makes a statement that different nationalities prefer different organisational cultures and that this should not be a surprise but it is only recently that organisational studies have been able to spell out the difference in any detail. For example, cultural theorists like Hofstede believe that cultural influences play an enormous part in the way employees behave in organisations.
Therefore prior to being offered a contract with Toyota that is owned by Japanese, I worked for an American company. Will I be able to support this with evidence obtained during my research when I review the selection, development and the introduction of the new employee into the workplace?
Recent research carried out by Miroshnik, 2001 regarding culture of multinational business states certainly the economic and physical environments are important issues but the cultural environment - communications, religions, values and ideologies, education and social structure has special importance in multinational business.
Analysis of problems and failures of multinational business abroad has shown that the first dominant factor is culture. The old Japanese parable about monkey’s and fish’s management style dramatises the consequences of ignorance of the cultural factor in business and it is an appropriate metaphor for the kinds of problems that can arise when people of diverse cultures come into contact without preparation.
Employers should understand this, as culture is an integrated phenomenon and by recognising and accommodating taboos, rituals and many other components they may pave the way toward greater harmony. Sherman, et al., 1995 states ‘Managing relations between multicultural organisations is a matter of accurate perception and appropriate adaptation.
A large part of the literature review was concerned with the failure of assigning and devising methods to prevent failures. Much of this is focused on the difficulties in terms of culture clash, Torbiorn, 1982. Failure of assignments does also impact the company regarding costs, image of the organisation and will potentially affect the individual concerned.
Based on the research it is evident that considerable attention should be given to recruitment, selection and training, and introduction into the organisation for employees to reduce the risk of failures and costs.
During the module Human Resource International, we reviewed a report held in Teesside University library, 658.311 GLY 02, issued by Roffey Park Management Institute. The title was ‘Towards Global Leadership, Recruiting and Developing International Managers’, Glynn and Holbeche. Their literature research showed the issues that surround international assignments from selection, training, development and repatriation to the impact of the family and the importance of career management. They also state the criteria on which successful international employees are selected is still an issue which has not been resolved. They also found that most multinational companies agree that their managers need international expertise; but their survey revealed that more than half of the large European corporations participating in the study lacked a strategy. It does not provide which organisation participated.
Based on the findings during the literature review and my own current experience there remains gap in multinational organisations regarding preparing for cultural difficulties during selection, when developing and especially for the preparation and introduction into the organisation. This report will explore the gaps and provide recommendations to Toyota Head Office, TMEM section.
5. Methodology
Due to the change in my employment, I have based the methodology on the following. I commenced employment with Toyota on 3rd February 2003, and due to the lack of in depth knowledge, I will commence my research from induction – building theory due to requiring building knowledge at this stage about the organisation and the culture. I will commence collecting primary data by meeting people and interviewing a sample of the employees who have had the experience of joining this company and I will commence with the expatriate population of approximately 40 employees (the number concerned had been obtained from the Human Resource department). My basis for this decision is to establish and gain a feel of issues (understand what is going on), so as to understand better the nature of the difficulties regarding culture people face during the selection process and when joining a new company. I will then commence to make sense of the interview data by analysing the information and the result from this will be the basis of my theory.
The interview will be based on semi-structured interviews with employees who have joined as expatriates and are from TMEM, which is the division I have joined. The interviews will last approximately one hour and will be semi-structured. I will use an a list of themes and questions based on my own experience and issues obtained during the Roffey Park research but during the interview process I will use follow-up questions when relevant if further exploration is required.
To aid my research I will establish from the Human Resource department if they conduct any form of analysis in order to record the different nationalities that have joined the company and if they conduct any exit forms when assignments have failed to establish reasons. This would assist with researching different cultures and problems that have been encountered. I know they do not have at this stage a Human Resource database but I will establish if they record using excel or access package.
To establish how recruitment is conducted, I will conduct a semi - structured interview with the head of the recruitment and selection team to verify the criteria they use and to confirm if they are looking for the ‘fit’ rather than based on a criteria of establishing a persons skills, experience and technical ability. Again the interview guide will be based on my own experience with follow-up questions when necessary.
The interviews which I will undertake of the expatriate populations will be aimed at establishing a variety of aspects of their experience during the recruitment process and when joining the company by giving personal experiences. Thus the interviews will consist to some extent of story telling; personal accounts of an experience. Bruner, 1986 and Polkinghorne, 1988 state ‘story telling is a generic human approach aimed at structuring and ordering reality and individual experience and is a deliberate research method increasingly used in organisation studies. Gabriel, 2000 has used story telling when researching organisational communication and culture. I will use this information to formulate the image of the culture and the ideas and beliefs and group the views, for example, managers will be in one group.
A problem that may arise when carrying out interviews is if the interviewer is inexperienced with the possibility of interviewer bias. I intend to carry out the interviews myself, I am a trained and experienced interviewer, (for recruitment and industrial relations), and would therefore hope that these problems could be minimised.
The other factor, which I felt was evident during my interview process, is an individual’s perception of the question posed. I must continue to establish the question asked in English means the same to the individual during interview.
The current methods of managing selection, development and preparing new employees will be identified and reviewed prior to structuring the interview process and I will also use my own experience for this process.
There is also an intention to carry out qualitative interviews with other parties including the HR Manager and HR Director and will be conducted face to face as I have been informed the department structure is open plan and regular open communication meetings take place therefore I do not envisage a problem organising time to hold these interviews.
It is my intention to use Excel to analyse my data. Excel will be used to produce graphs and tables. The data gathered via the qualitative interviews will be used in a descriptive way to enhance the quantitative data gathered by evaluating the information obtained from the semi-structured interviews, and recording which of the experiences were referred to by the expatriate employees. This will show the frequencies clearly experienced by the sample group.
6. Timetable
February analysis of current procedure for selection, development and introducing new employees into the organisation.
March identify gaps, prepare script for interviews and classify them.
April Complete interviews collate and analyse results and record results.
June first draft, proof reading and rewriting
August final proof reading, final copy printed and bound
7. Resources
Access to tutor, which will be by telephone and e-mail due to geographical reasons.
Time (of researcher and those to be interviewed)
Computer facilities, (will use own laptop)
8. Ethical Considerations
Due to people providing their own experiences and the fact that the interviews will seek their own personal experiences, reassurance must be given to all participants that confidentiality is of the utmost importance. They may be concerned if they are critical of the process, that this may affect their future with the business and relationships with their manager.
It will be made clear that the purpose of this research is purely a study for the purpose of this dissertation and that recommendations will be made. They will be notified that findings will lead to recommendations to help with future selection, development and introducing individuals to the organisation to achieve a better process.
It must also be made clear that invited participants have a right to refuse to participate, or to answer any particular question during the interview.
9. References
Dresser, D & Carns, D., 1969, Sociology the Study of Human Interactions, Intercultural Press
Glynn, C & Holbeche, L., Towards Global Leadership: Recruiting and Developing International Managers, Roffey Park Management Institute, 658.311 GLY 02
Frayerweather, J., 1978, International Business Strategy, Ballinger, Cambridge, MA
Handy, C., 1999, Organisational Changes,
Harvey, F., 1997, National cultural differences using Hofstede’s national culture, Information Technology & People Journal Vol.10 No.2, pp132 –146
Helms, M., Exploring the factors that influence employees’ perceptions of their organisation’s culture, Journal of Management in Medicine, Vol.15 No. 6, 2001, pp. 415-429
Hofstede, G., 1980, Culture’s Consequences. International Differences in Work Related Values, Sage Publications
Holden, R., Managing people’s values and perceptions in multi-cultural organisations, Employee Relations Vol.23 No.6, 2001, pp.614-626
Miroshnik, 2001
Sherman et al., 1995
Torbiorn, 1982
Roffey Park Article, GLY 02
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