7.1. POLITICAL, SOCIAL, AND ECONOMIC VARIABLES

The following section will explore six specific variables that influence a corporation's approach to interviewing, hiring, training, development, compensation, and staff mobility in international and global companies.

7.1.1. 1. Economic Development

Managers and human resource professionals should understand the influences that the national economic context has on employees, their self-perception, and how other nationals perceive them. Different values, assumptions, and workplace expectations underlie the capitalistic system of the United States and Hong Kong, the social democratic system of Germany, the post-communist system of Russia and the Czech Republic, the transitioning systems of the People's Republic of China, and the evolving communist heritages of North Korea, Vietnam, and Cuba. Each of these systems influences what a human resource professional, a manager, and a prospective employee bring to questions related to interviewing, hiring, training, and development, as well as corporate compensation and benefits. What is fair in one economic context may not be understood or seen as fair in another. Years ago national economies were labeled as first-, second-, and third-world countries. Currently, this has transitioned to "have and have not" nations or, as described by author Thomas Friedman,^[] the people "who drive Lexus's and those who fight to protect their olive trees." Other economic distinctions are also relevant. Senior and junior managers in global companies participating in the affluent worlds of Hong Kong, London, Bombay, Sydney, and São Paulo have seemingly similar hopes and aspirations as well as expectations about compensation ... the economic nationals of the commercially gifted. People who work in the mills, run the lathes, and assemble products in Shenzen, Madras, Gioannia, and Selma also have a common perspective ... the nationals of the goods production. The issue is not that there are different coexisting systems, but that those systems affect employee expectations and behaviors. This dilemma frequently surfaces in hiring interviews. Is the candidate a representative of the mainstream economy of his or her country? If so, how does that affect a prospective hire working in a different economic context? Does the candidate have the flexibility to work in a less-compatible environment? Can the candidate transition from high performance in a less-developed economy to a more developed economy and vice versa? Does a manager schooled solely in a developed nation have the capacity to manage the educational, economic, and business heritage of a junior manager from a less-developed nation? Does that national economic heritage present a value to the organization, or does it present an irreconcilable disadvantage—and in whose eyes? Managing these economic dilemmas is necessary for a global company that wants to gain needed resources and not exclude valuable candidates due to limited knowledge and economic bias of hiring managers and staff. Interviewers must be trained to understand the workplace implications of diverse economic backgrounds.

7.1.2. 2. Minority, Immigrant, Transmigrant, and Foreign Knowledge Workers

The demographic shift in the developed nations during the late 1990s and the exuberance of the market required an infusion of workers into homelands that were traditionally mono-cultural. Workforces became multicultural not because of a commitment to global inclusiveness but rather due to the commercial necessity for lower paid workers who had the knowledge to do the job—be it with a design computer, a lathe, or a vacuum cleaner. Indian IT experts in the opening years of the 2000s maintained Germany's national growth; Palestinian workers supported the manufacturing sectors of Israel; and Guatemalan, Mexican, and Pakistani workers maintained homes and infrastructure services for the national workforces of Wall Street and the City of London. This reality alone created a new level of global diversity in companies as internationals knowingly and unknowingly infused their cultural patterns, behaviors, values, and beliefs into their new workforces and communities. For some companies these workers created new solutions; for other companies they created new occasions of discrimination, polarization, and protectionism.

New members of the workforce challenge long-held diversity concepts. In the United States immigrants and transnational workers who might once have been labeled as "black" identify themselves as citizens of Ghana, Jamaica, Senegal, Nigeria, and varied West Indian nations.^[] Their presence, as well as their cultural norms and behaviors, challenged the U.S. African Americans' descriptions of "blackness" and "whiteness" and its frequently articulated "oppression/victimization" model. West Indian members of the American workforce now represent 48 percent of Miami's black population, while 33 percent of New York City's black population was born in nations other than the United States. Similar patterns are occurring in Europe, especially in the United Kingdom. Blacks, along with other persons of color, will represent one in four workers within London's workforce in 2008. These European workers' personal identities also bear less relevance to "class," "race," or "color" and more to nationality. Immigrant and foreign knowledge workers provide corporations with opportunities for a broader ethnic and national diversity and workplace dialogue.

A new type of worker, the transmigrated worker,^[] will also have an impact on global diversity. A transmigrated worker is an employee who primarily works over a sustained number of years in a nation-state other than his or her home. These workers maintain a strong political and social connection with their country of origin by travel, sending of funds, maintenance of language, and children's education. Working in another country no longer requires nationals to become socially or culturally assimilated into the dominant host country's culture. Organizations in Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Portugal, and Japan recruit and repatriate these potential emigrants, since they become effective cross-national employees. Organizations value the transmigrated workers' ability to move across international borders and utilize cross-nationals' commercial, intellectual, and emotional intelligence.

Employees are hired not only to do a specific job but also to join a diverse workforce where they can exercise their national and economic heritage. This provides a key corporate asset. In global companies, many employees have different backgrounds related to nationality and national economic status that are not known. If known, they cannot be easily accessed due to privacy limitations or the limits of technology. Use the following exercise, "Using Social and Professional National Competencies," to explore the national heritage of your current workforce, based on each employee's national diversity profile.

Using Social and Professional National Competencies Directions: Record the names of current employees and consider the national and ethnic assets they bring your organizations due to being immigrants, second-generation nationals, transmigrant workers, and naturalized citizens or workers. Record all specific contributions that each member has or may bring to the corporation. Some examples are given. Review your responses with the following questions: Based on national identity, what are the diversity strengths that each employee brings to the organization? Your function? Your unit? How will or do these assets support current operations? Does the company have any future plans when this individual will support the company's strategy or enhance its operations? Who in the company may need to know of this current or potential asset? How can these candidates support the training, educational, and globalization processes of the company? What type of training and development might be required to support their potential career or future opportunity?

Many companies have discovered valuable employee assets after the fact, but with forethought, these assets can be more readily identified and strategically employed. Review your staff on a periodic basis and track the profiles of employees who are immigrants, transmigrants, and foreign knowledge workers. U.S. law would prohibit direct questioning about these factors. The information, however, is vital. A work environment that encourages personal disclosure would facilitate the sharing of this type of information.

7.1.3. 3. Employer/Employee Social Contract

The social contracts between managers and workers reflect the values of their national business culture, their surrounding civilizations, and ultimately the vision and mission of companies. Founders of companies that are today global, such as Ford in the United States, India's Tatas, and Hong Kong's Wus, forged their initial cultures and their employer/employee contracts on the business values and organizational styles of their home nations. Global companies cross national boundaries and comply with the legal requirements of sending and receiving locations. Whether they comply with national preferred styles and organizational values, customs, and structures of those locations is debatable. Globally diverse employees may not always respond favorably to the cultural and social contracts required in the hiring culture of global corporations. Frequently, advocates of "the corporate culture," with their scripted interpretations of how employer and employee should interact, are the greatest abusers of the spirit of global diversity. Intentionally or unintentionally, they impose a universal corporate standard. Global diversity requires that national contexts be recognized and reconciled with those of the organization. The residual effects of Europe's feudal system continue to influence today's hierarchical system of French management. The strong hierarchical focus of the Confucian culture in China, Korea, and Japan infuses the structure of Asian family-held businesses and local public companies with a sense of reciprocity, mutual respect, and collective reliance between manager and subordinate. A global company cannot sweep such differences away, but needs to understand, access, and focus on this level of diversity. Companies, especially when undertaking a cross-border merger, acquisition, or alliance, should conduct corporate culture compatibility studies that include the compatibility of employer/employee social work contracts. Many companies that created joint ventures in China misjudged the importance of this aspect.

7.1.4. 4. Role and Level of Women

There is probably no more visible diversity issue than the role of women in the global workplace. Gender parity has been driven by U.S. diversity initiatives, clear United Nations mandates, European Union commitments, and many multinational companies whose programs, policies, and practices support the advancement of women. The developed, democratic, and individualistic economic systems of the United States and Western and Northern Europe are staunch advocates of women's rights. In contrast, many developing nations define gender roles in a more hierarchical fashion, such as the Confucian-influenced nations of North, East, and South Asia. While Hong Kong, Singapore, and other Asian commercial centers have legislated for women's advancement, these same societies maintain well-established social patterns that seem at variance with legislative intent.

Corporations need to monitor the inbuilt gender biases within national and civilizational social patterns that intrude and create gender exclusion in the workplace. Pay equity and succession opportunities are needed, especially given the contribution of women in the global manufacturing sectors of Central and Latin America, Southeast Asia, and South Asia. However, corporate success does not always mean social success. A female junior manager in Gwongzhou, China, commented that in the office she was empowered to independently use her talents, but at home, her husband, a manager for a state-run factory, perceived her family role from a more traditional, male-dominant Chinese perspective. Corporations cannot just conduct gender headcount, but must also monitor the impact corporate culture has on gender roles, both within the company and in the external lives of employees. It is important to identify both positive and negative influences. Corporate research on the role of women in the global workforce would add much to the discussion.

7.1.5. 5. Universal Standards and Qualifications

The globalization of education and e-learning technology has enabled the real-time exchange of professional and technical knowledge. The same MBA or engineering theories are simultaneously published in languages such as Japanese, English, Arabic, and German. Secondary and college curricula demonstrate a convergence in their syllabi by using compatible if not similar texts.

How does an employer select a global workforce if worldwide qualifications or training standards do not exist? Will the company choose international candidates who are educated in domestic schools in their headquartered country or should they choose educationally diverse candidates from foreign institutions? Is the claim that the person is "not educated" or "not professional" correct, or is that claim an example of professional narrow-mindedness that is used to discriminate against a potential or current employee—frequently presented at the service of "protecting" a fellow national's job. Should companies hire individuals who are educated at "proper" institutions only, or should they choose candidates who learned by standing by and doing what the "master engineer" did? Is there equal opportunity between persons—a person who has a certificate and a person who says he has the skills and aptitude to do the job and has a letter of recommendation to corroborate it? This dilemma is an individual concern at the managerial and interviewee level as well as a systemic issue affecting ethics, policy, and global structure.

International managers in post-Apartheid South Africa faced this challenge as they sought to evaluate talented black South African staff who had been deprived of formal education during Apartheid. White candidates and a very limited number of black South Africans had access to higher education and had earned degrees to "confirm" their claims of competency. Most black candidates in line to assume middle management positions did not have the same formal education as whites. However, they had the skills required for the positions, because they had spent years working with experts in apprentice systems. How does one compare qualifications in such a system? This dilemma is continuously debated in economically developing nations as corporate managers, whose hiring policies are based on Westernized educational standards, meet talented people who have been trained in local, less-recognized institutions. The tension between "formal" education and "on-the-job learning" has long been part of the workplaces of the United States and the United Kingdom. Global corporations must reconcile that tension. If they do not, effective succession planning will not occur. Interviewers should be aware that nations such as Germany, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom have a strong orientation toward curriculum-based education. Augmenting these educational systems are equally demanding professional systems such as the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development in the United Kingdom and the Society for Human Resource Management in the United States. Without credentialing from the CIPD, a corporate trainer cannot function professionally in the United Kingdom. Countries that rely on such academic programs and professional certificates conduct more structured interviews in order to verify candidates' academic accomplishments. Candidates from the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Spain, Norway, and Sweden can anticipate questions related to their specific credentials.

In distinction, high-context cultures, such as China, Indonesia, and Japan, begin interviews by exploring a candidate's networks and associations, including membership in alumni groups or affiliation with professional institutions that have proven to be reliable sources in the past. In these cultures, relationship is a prerequisite to employment, because the company's interpersonal orientation requires that the employee "fit in" with other employees and their client base. Interviews later move to discussions that are more detailed, with a focus on competency levels and education.

7.1.6. 6. Work/Life Balance

Work/life balance is influenced by the local culture. Norms and national social patterns fluctuate between "living to work" and "working to live" or, in cultural terms, "doing" societies versus "being" societies. The "living to work" perspective is favored in individualistic, highly competitive societies such as the United States, where work and nonwork/leisure time or family relationships—are separated. Nonwork activities generally take second place. "Work hard, play hard!" is the catch phrase, but little play is involved. There is a clear bias toward performance and accomplishment over such traits as reflection, introspection, and interpersonal development.

Other societies ascribe to the "working to live" perspective. Individual accomplishment is valued but exercised in relationship to goals that focus on personal affiliation within family and kinship networks. Motivating Mexican retail workers in Mexico City or Monterrey to work on Sunday is difficult because it means forgoing their traditional family meal. Often, they choose the meal. A human resource professional stated that staff turnover in one internationally owned Mexican retail chain was around 50 percent due to the inability of employees to balance family commitments and their work schedules. The extended lunch hours of the French signal an orientation that work is contained in the process of relationships, especially when developed over good food and wine.

The Western workplace is fueled by excessive self-induced or organizationally endorsed commitments to productivity. Pride is taken in working 24/7 and not taking one's vacation. Anyone with an international reporting function knows that there is no time free from the intrusion of an e-mail, fax, or telephone call. Within global operations, some office is always open; someone is always working and needing to be "in touch." Cell phones have made it impossible to walk the mountain trails of Montana or Mont Blanc without intrusion. It is a frightening extension of the former colonial expression that "the sun never sets on the British Empire." CEOs Bill Gates, Stan Shih, and Lars Ramqvist could probably say the same about the Microsoft, Acer Group, and Ericsson empires of today.

Cross-national differences in work/life balance should be reconciled during a hiring interview. If not, the candidate's professionalism and motivation may be improperly judged. A candidate formed by a "work to live" culture may be labeled unproductive and not motivated; a candidate from a "live to work" culture may be labeled as antisocial, overachieving, and egotistical. In global companies, employees should have the capability to embrace both approaches based on the needs and requirements of the job, their home environment, the predominant work culture, and the ability to switch to nationally appropriate styles. Interviewers cannot create inclusive workforces if they cannot differentiate this important difference.

These six variables influence how global corporations structure themselves. While corporations may have used one or two of them in their traditional domestic diversity audits, it is helpful to reevaluate company performance in light of these more comprehensive global diversity variables. As we continue in the chapter, we will present information related to some of the more important corporate systems that affect global inclusiveness: interviewing, training, development, global employee mobility, and compensation. The "Global Diversity Trend Assessment" will assist you in identifying areas of significant concern in your organization.

7.1.7. Suggestions for Using the "Global Diversity Trend Assessment"

Objectives

• To recognize global diversity trends that have the greatest impact on workforce inclusiveness

• To detect corporate examples that require individual and organizational attention

• To analyze current global diversity disconnects, identifying systems, policies, or local/regional standards

• To identify action steps to reconcile national and civilizational trends within a corporation's hiring, training, development, and compensation systems

Intended Audience

• Corporate supervisors, managers, trainers, human resource professionals, and executives exploring global diversity issues in interviewing, training, development, employee mobility, and compensation

• Any manager, facilitator, internal/external consultant, HR professional, or trainer charged with the task of creating an interviewing, training, development, and mobility initiative or adjusting compensation policies and practices

Time

• 60 minutes

Materials

• Overhead transparencies and handouts of the "Global Diversity Trend Assessment" and the SSI Model

• Easel, flip-chart paper, and markers

Directions

• Introduce the six variables and discuss how each can be used to evaluate a company's process, a specific corporate policy, or a local program.

• Review the SSI Model and make applications to the six variables.

• Ask participants to use each variable to analyze their company. In the first column have them provide two examples that reflect global diversity disconnects that negatively influence corporate or personal inclusiveness.

• In the next column, they should record the underlying dilemma contained in that disconnect.

• Last, ask them to create an action step that leads to greater inclusion.

• Have them form into six small groups and share responses, each group focusing on one of the six trends.

• Have a group member create a summary sheet and identify key learnings to be shared with the larger group.

Questions for Discussion/Consideration

• Which are the most common global diversity disconnects within corporate systems in your company? What are the financial or morale implications of these disconnects?

• Which global diversity trend surfaced the greatest number of disconnects or appears to have the greatest impact on the company?

• Why do you think that trend was so significant for your company?

• What are some possible action steps to reconcile the identified differences?

• What has been the loss to the company for not having addressed this global diversity disconnect? What would the company gain if one of the selected actions were carried out?

• What obstacles may hinder taking a suggested action?

Cultural Considerations

• In high-risk-averse and high-context cultures, participants may not be comfortable in raising corporate dilemmas if they may think they are criticizing the company. If this is the case, have participants generate issues that they "know about" from other industries or organizations.

Caveats, Considerations, and Variations

• Some employees may not have the global perspective to complete this exercise. Instead of conducting this as an individual exercise where each individual completes his or her form, use the exercise as a group activity. Encourage the participants to spend time understanding each variable before they begin their collective corporate analysis.

• Facilitators should do prework to identify the core issues that are present in the company. The worksheet could be redesigned by listing those findings in the first column and by then asking the participants to discuss the issues or dilemmas that need to be reconciled. Follow up by setting action steps.

• Individuals and teams can use this sheet to report corporate achievements. Begin by listing specific diversity success in the second column, the variables that were resolved in the third column, and the actions taken in the fourth column. This approach is effective in groups and cultures that find value in discussing positive dynamics first rather than deficits.

• Many participants lack knowledge of global diversity. Participants can use their national diversity experience, taking care to avoid drifting into domestic diversity debates and projecting them into the global arena. Facilitators need to do prework and prepare for this eventuality. Identify any local diversity issues that can be rightly transitioned into a global application. For example, if issues are raised concerning the glass ceiling for women in the United States, raise issues related to the limitations on woman in other cultures, such as the bamboo ceiling for many Asian women.

• If there is existing data from surveys, focus groups, or other sources, that data can be presented or printed onto the chart in the appropriate box, for example "45 percent of management staff are female in North America, while only 10 percent are female in Asia" in the second column related to the gender variable.