Recommendations for Global HRM

Recommendations – Leadership

To improve this, German HR leaders can create workshops and training sessions in order to make leaders aware of the cultural differences and how they can improve their leadership style. The role of the HR leader in these sessions would be to make German leaders aware of how certain behaviours differ depending on countries. For example, in meetings German leaders would sit at the head of the table, whereas in Japan, the guest of honour would sit at the head of the table (Peterson et al, 2020). Whilst it is important to educate on a cultural perspective, HR leaders should also do this in line with characteristics of an effective leader. This would help German leaders understand how to influence others, the importance of transparency with their employees, how to act with integrity and be accountable, how to act decisively and demonstrate resilience (Landry, 2018). Having an effective leadership style on a global and local scale, can increase employee retention as employees would feel valued and improve productivity as employees feel motivated (Landry, 2018). This is in line with the ideal outcomes of a German organisation as they are performance orientated (Berger, 2019).

Recommendations – Teams

To operate successfully in a multi-cultural team, the German HR team would be required to build trust within the teams by encouraging employees to talk to one another, and ensure transparency across the whole organisation (Ryan, 2018; Gilli et al, 2022). HRMs should also motivate teams by prioritising employee well-being by allowing time to reflect on the week and offering flexible working schedules that allow them to adjust based on the needs of their personal lives, for example for health and fitness or family (McGregor and Doshi, 2020). Using these methods can increase the satisfaction level of the teams, resulting in higher productivity within the organisation.

Recommendations – Communication

In order to prevent lack of communication being an issue, German global HRMs should do research on how each of the countries they work with prefer to communicate within their teams and how German employees can adapt to this. This starts with involving the senior leaders building rapport and relationships with their employees, as well as coming across as accessible and approachable (CIPD, 2022). This encourages a two-way and multi-directional dialogue in which employees would be engaged (CIPD, 2022).

To develop cultural understanding on how others communicate, German HRMs can offer training sessions on how different countries approach communication. Furthermore, if they are operating in more than one country, they can offer a swap programme for employees to move to another country to understand their culture and communication style, and then relay it back to the rest of the team. This allows employees to get hands on experience which they may find more interactive than listening to a training session.

Recommendations – Gender

To improve gender inequality within their organisations, global HRMs can introduce mentoring which has proven to be effective (Goehlich et al, 2020). Some of the benefits that have been outlined with mentoring from the mentor’s perspective is that it strengthens their consulting competence and gives them insights in new departments. From the mentee’s perspective, it allows them to plan their professional development and improve their social skills (Goehlich et al, 2020). This method may encourage diversity within German top management teams and potentially reduce their masculinity score. In doing so, this would result in a positive image on German culture as according to McKinsey’s (2022) women in the workplace report, there were only 48% of women in entry level roles, in comparison to a small percentage of 21% women in c-suite positions. As well as this, global HRMs can use inclusive language in their job descriptions to attract more female applicants (Barber, 2021). This would consist of changing the wordings used in job descriptions, so that the role is not perceived as masculine.

Global HRMs should communicate what is expected from the organisation in relation to gender equality and ensure that the senior leaders are setting the right example, which links to the points made about having good leadership as the foundation of the organisation (CIPD, 2022).

References

Barber, R (2021). 3 Key Recruiting Strategies to Improve Gender Diversity at the Workplace. Available at: https://www.pageexecutive.com/advice/topics/diversity-inclusion/3-key-recruiting-strategies-improve-gender-diversity-workplace (Accessed: 12th April 2023).

Berger, M (2019). Cross-Cultural Leadership: A comparison between the Finnish and German working culture and its leadership practices. Available at: https://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/171626/Berger_Mike.pdf?sequence=2 (Accessed: 1st April 2023).

CIPD (2022). Employee communication. Available at: https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/fundamentals/relations/communication/factsheet#gref (Accessed: 21st April 2023).

Gilli, K., Veglio, V. Gunkel, M and Taras, V (2022). In search of the Holy Grail in global virtual teams: The mediating role of satisfaction on performance outcomes in Journal of Business Research 146. Pp. 325-337. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.03.056

Goehlich, V., Gilbertson, B and Bremser, K (2020). Implementation of Female Mentoring Programs in German Companies: Still Some Way To Go. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83867-249-220191008 (Accessed: 6th April 2023).

Landry, L. (2018) 6 characteristics of an effective leader. Available at: https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/characteristics-of-an-effective-leader (Accessed: 5th April 2023).

McGregor, L and Doshi, N (2020). How to Keep Your Team Motivated, Remotely. Available at: https://hbr.org/2020/04/how-to-keep-your-team-motivated-remotely (Accessed: 1st May 2023).

McKinsey (2022). Women in the Workplace 2022. Available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/diversity-and-inclusion/women-in-the-workplace (Accessed: 20th April 2023).

Peterson, S.J., Abramson, R and Stutman, R.K (2020) How to develop your leadership style. Available at: https://hbr.org/2020/11/how-to-develop-your-leadership-style (Accessed: 5th April 2023).

Ryan, L (2017). Ten Ways To Build Trust On Your Team. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/lizryan/2018/03/17/ten-ways-to-build-trust-on-your-team/?sh=7df945be2445 (Accessed: 19th April 2023).