Culture and International Human Resource Management

In 12 years of military service I have visited and lived in multiple locations.  I have lived in Japan for 3 years and England for 3 years, and visited Spain, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Italy, France, Scotland and Hungary.  For this assignment and course, I have chosen to talk and research Italy.  I have visited this country three times during my stay in England and absolutely love it and will return when I get the chance.  I have stayed in Rome all three times, and visited Florence and Pisa during my stay.  So I am a little familiar with this location as well.  Not as familiar as I would like to be so this assignment is going to be not only fun, but extremely educational.

When we look at Geert Hofstede’s values of cultural dimensions, we see some comparisons between Italy and USA with power distance, individualism, and masculinity.  However they are very different when it comes to avoidance, long term orientation, and indulgence values.  With the USA and Italy, they both prefer to view power equally and share responsibilities of power and decision making.  With the many different “regions” within the States and Italy, you will see differences in opinions on that.  For example in Southern Italy, you will see that the power distance is higher than in Northern Italy.  You can see this, as well in the States when you look at the East Coast versus the West Coast.  

Both Italy and the US have a strong individualistic perception with Italy rating at a 76 and the US at a 91.  Italy is somewhat more “me” centered where the US is more of equality amongst all rungs of the organization chain.  The US is more accustomed to working with outside (international) organizations that Italy but they have their own ideas and processes that they tend to impress on other people. 

Italy and the US, again, scored fairly high in the masculinity value, indicating they are both driven to be the best rather than put efforts towards others and quality of life amongst the society.  Both countries show success by obtaining materialistic stuff, such as cars, houses, high standard homes/neighborhoods, etc.  Competition is strong within businesses and among employees and co-workers to succeed and “show-off”.  

You start to see a difference in the two countries when you review the dimension “Uncertainty Avoidance”.  Italy, as a whole, does not deal with conflict; will avoid it and are extremely passionate individuals.  They deal with planning by taking detailed steps and not being very flexible with changes.  This does cause stress within the society because of the combination of their high masculinity values which they tend to release by enjoying long meals or lots of coffee breaks.  The US on the other hand is more acceptable with changes and new ideas.  They don’t need a lot of rules and tend to be less emotional as a cause of this.  This does make the US more vulnerable than other countries. 

Culturally, the two countries are so different.  The United States is the third largest country in the world, while Italy is rated at 23.  Italy has one primary ethic group (Italian with a spatter of German-, French-, Slovene-, Albanian-, and Greek-Italians), while the US is considered a melting pot of different ethnicities.   While being a melting pot of different ethnicities, the US is also a melting pot of different religions as everyone is treated equally and every religion is “supposed” to be respected allowed.  Italy is overwhelming Roman Catholic and Christian and there is very little else “accepted” in that country.  The US government is considered constitutional federal republic and Italy is parliamentary republic.  

The US is considered the “most technologically powerful economy in the world” and usually at or near the “forefront in technological advances”. (CIA FactBook).  The private companies tend to make most decisions while the federal and state governments buy goods and services within those sectors.   The US is very indulgent which causes long term problems in supporting the society as a whole, so there is a “stagnation” of wages for the lower income families, energy shortages, and budget deficits.  

Italy is more diversified in their economy, but is mostly driven by family owned enterprises which tend to push the country to being impeded by growth because of the ingrained hold of traditionalism. Italy is very vulnerable to scrutiny by financial markets because they are not growing at an “expected” rate, they have labor market inefficiencies, a weak judicial system and banking sector.  

While both countries have strong individualist characteristics, Italy is more set in their ways and beliefs of keeping their historic aspect within their businesses.  They are slow to grow where the US thrives on growth.  However, with Italy’s passion, strong beliefs, and set ways, they do have a positive aspect to business that I can see that would benefit any company that wants to establish a base there.  The company/business that wants to “do business” in Italy will need to adjust to the ways of the Italians where things are set and there is no flexibility with the rules or planning.  I believe this will also decrease any risk factors that you might be addressed with in the US.  It will be difficult to adjust to the “restrictions” that some businesses have, but in the long run, it will be beneficial for an American company to do business in Italy, despite the cultural differences.  

References:

International employees. (2014). Pearson Learning Solutions. New York, NY. Retrieved on 25 September 2017

Bheobhe. (2015, October 5). International human resource management . University of New South Wales, Australia. Retrieved on 25 September 2017 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1WzcxtEUps

Rao, P. (2010). Unit 6: International human resource management and development. In International business environment. Mumbai, India: Global Media. Retreived on 25 September 2017

Wengryzn, R. [AH Shaalan]. (2015, December 1). Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theory [Video file]. Education Portal. Retrieved on 25 September 2017 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eV04Msn-1GY&t=8s 

Carpenter, M., & Dunung, S. (2012). Chapter 3: Culture and Business.  In Challenges and opportunities in international business. Flatworld  Knowledge. Retrieved on 25 September 2017 at http://saylordotorg.github.io/text_international-business/s07-culture-and-business.html 

Hofstede, G. (2012). National culture dimensions. The Hofstede Centre. Retrieved from http://geert-hofstede.com/national-culture.html

http://geert-hofstede.com/countries.htmlThe World Factbook. (N.D). USA & Italy CIA FactBook. Retrieved on 26 September 2017 at https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/us.html and https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/it.html