Role of Cultural Factors in Shaping Human Resource Management

Role of Cultural Factors in Shaping Human Resource Management Practices in the Multinational Corporations (MNCs) Operating in the Emerging Markets of South Asia

ABM Abdullah*, Stephen Boyle** and Carmen Joham***

A number of studies have been conducted for addressing the issues related to cultural diversity of employees working for Multinational Corporations (MNCs) operating in South Asian countries. However, only a few of the studies have looked into the issues related to how culture plays a role in shaping key Human Resource(HR) practices such as: compensation policy, job security, training and development, selection and recruitment, decentralization and teamwork, and information sharing in the South Asian context. In this paper, Hosftede’s (1980) culture dimensions are used as a lens to explore the relationship between critical HR practices and Bangladeshi employees. Identification of these critical practices should help the MNCs’ top management when managing their workforce in Bangladesh or other South Asian countries with a similar cultural orientation. Various propositions are made in this paper and it is suggested that they would be useful as a framework for future studies in similar settings.

Keywords: Cultural diversity, culture dimensions, workforce management

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* ABM Abdullah, School of Management, City West Campus (EM -434), University of South Australia, PO Box – 2471, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia Email: [e-mail]

** Stephen Boyle, School of Management, City West Campus (EM -235), University of South Australia, PO Box – 2471, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia Email: [e-mail]

*** Carmen Joham, School of Management, City West Campus (EM -427A), University of South Australia, PO Box – 2471, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia Email: [e-mail] Introduction

For the last two decades, tremendous developments

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