Do Culture Really Matter?The Case Study of Human Resourse Management Strategies in Malawi

摘要

Human Resources Management are people working there who individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the business people in organizations, HRM means employing people, developing their capacities, utilizing, maintaining and compensating their services in tune with the job and organizational requirement.The purpose of this research study is to explore the relationship between cultures and Human Resource Management Strategies in Malawian Multinational Corporations. In order to achieve this purpose, a multiple-methods research design is adopted. The study consists of two steps. The first step is a pilot study which aims to give a general picture and the direction for the further case study. A case study is the second step; here, three companies are studied by conducting interviews: Malawi Art Center, Eagle Insurance Company and Company A, with the intention of highlighting the important issues of cultures and HRM strategies. The results indicate that the connection between HRM strategies and cultures is complex. The degree of cultural impacts on the outcomes of HRM strategies are decided by the number of strategy makers and support materials in the process of forming HRM strategies. The most interesting finding of this study, which differs from other studies, is that it furnishes a deeper understanding about the outcomes and processes of HRM strategies. It offers more fundamental knowledge to the topic of HRM strategies. This study has also presented new insights about the role of cultures in the formation of HRM strategies. A recommendation for future research will be to investigate how to ensure the cultural impacts can be benefit for the HRM strategies.In addition, this study provides some suggestions to the management. HRM practices are culture-sensitive, it is not enough that managers in MNCs are aware of culture differences, more importantly, in order to form successful HRM strategies we must recognize the business context and the importance of cultures. In order to ensure the outcomes of HRM strategies, there are two implications. Number one is to put the managers with high cultural awareness into the process of HRM strategy formation in order to increase the cultural impacts on the outcomes of HRM strategies. The second way is to provide managers the instruction including cultural issues when making HRM strategies, in order to enhance the advantage of cultural impacts.