To what extent do you agree with the view that HRM is probably the Essay

To what extent do you agree with the view that HRM is probably the most culturally sensitive of all managerial functional areas - Essay Example Furthermore, an organization’s socio-cultural environment affects the adaptation of Human Resource Management Strategies and different cultural contexts pose different challenges. For firms doing business in multicultural environments or generally across cultures parochial views to management of human resources can proof disastrous. This paper looks into the strong interrelationship that exists between Human Resource Management (HRM) and people’s culture. Theories that have been developed to explain the phenomenon are also to be explored. Today’s business environment has taken a turn to be one that is highly globalised meaning that a firm operating in a certain area or country, it does not necessarily expect to have people of that area only or even that country alone (Lawson & Shen 1998). This therefore stipulates that such kind of an organization should expect to have a workforce that is multiethnic or exhibiting variations in cultural backgrounds. This hereby calls for the HR Manager or the management to embrace this fact so as to ensure survival in the increasingly competitive and volatile global business environment. Just but to give an example is the tendency where firms from the developed countries set camp in developing countries and move ahead to adopt standard HRM approaches to their new workforce. This kind of approach tends to undermine the cultural reality of the people and these strategies before long crumble to the management’s amazement. This not withstanding, knowledge of the target mark et’s culture is essential in ensuring a firm’s survival. Culture in this regard is the collective social occurrence that goes on to affect the HRM practices in an organization operating in a particular cultural context. A culture of a people is a phenomenon that cannot be changed due to the fact that it has been with them for a long time and that they identify themselves with it. Culture in this respect gives one their