Discuss the below:
1. After carefully evaluating the current position of AGC, it is evident that some of the most glaring issues affecting AGC's performance and competitive edge in the marketplace is the lack of a unified organizational culture and the company's inability to align their global human capital goals with organizational goals. If AGC aspires to remain an industry leader, it is paramount for the organization to take a collaborative approach to generating a unified culture across all divisions of the firm. Also, if AGC relentlessly ignores the cultural differences of its global subsidiaries, it is likely to breed and compound human capital problems such as a decline in employee performance and morale that may subsequently affect the quality of goods, customer service, and potentially cause friction amongst co-workers. As DuPraw & Axner (1997) explain, culture is not only complex, but it is one of the most dominant forces to act upon an individual because it dictates how people will act and behave in a particular environment. Therefore, as AGC starts to address the cultural differences across all branches of the organization, it is vital for the leadershop group to gain a firm understanding of the different attitudes and communication and decision-making styles to help develop a strategic approach to aligning goals and building a comprehensive plan to change (DuPraw & Axner, 1997, Markowitz , 2011).
When creating an organizational culture, having a firm understanding of the different attitudes, communication and decision-making styles, is essential. It is important that the leaders know how to effectively communicate employee expectations, while understanding that not all employees have the same attitude towards change or the experience needed to make rational decisions. Equally, it is vital that the leaders implement the appropriate leadership style to meet the needs of the company and foster a unified culture. In AGC's case, the best leadership style to adopt would be the participative (democratic) leadership style, because it encourages all employees to lend feedback, ideas, suggestions and to participate in the decision-making process. After all, it is the organization's culture that defines ‘how things get done' and therefore, as long as the leaders are able focus on the mission, vision, and goals of the organization and openly communicate with the employees, long-term success and sustainability are possible (Pirraglia, 2017).
As previously mentioned, the alignment of human capital and company goals is also vital to the success of creating a unified culture and overcoming cultural differences. As AGC looks to develop its human capital management goals, it is important to categorize them around the three major human capital systems; talent, performance management, and leadership. With the three cornerstone systems in mind, examples of human capital goals to consider would be to attract and retain a high-performing workforce with technical and professional skills by developing plans for the quantity and type of employees needed. Also, by implementing a flexible staffing process and reassigning or rotating employees through the different branches of the company and continuously develop workforce skills and competencies, allocate human resources across the organizational components to better respond to the evolving and changing environment are helpful in building a unified culture and breaking down barriers to change. As long as AGC leadership is willing and able to implement the aforementioned human capital management goals, the prospect of creating their desired culture and remaining competitive in the marketplace is plausible and realistic (Office of Personnel Management, 2005).
2. As AGC becomes a global company, they need to keep in mind that issues will arise if they do not recognize the cultural differences in their foreign subsidiaries. According to SHRM (2015), "culture has a tremendous impact on employee engagement and cross -employee interaction". Some cultural issues that come to mind are communication, business etiquette, worker norms and expectations and leadership styles.
Communication and business etiquette are probably one of the biggest barriers when it comes to cultural differences. Take the Chinese for example; business people in China tend to build relationships with their clients and connect with face to face interactions especially before they conduct transactions. Business people in the United States however tend to put the transaction first and tend not to place any kind of importance on the relationship with the client, as it is merely a business transaction (Thompson, n.d). A second issue is the worker norms and expectations. In some countries such as those in the Middle East, religion has a huge impact on the daily lives both personally and professionally. While in the United States religion rarely plays a role in the work place. A United States corporation may have to take special consideration in dress code and accommodations for religious practices with subsidiaries in the Middle East.
Leadership styles can also affect a globalization culture. In the case of AGC, the leadership styles that are present are transformational and transactional. As discussed in the previous discussions both of these styles have pros and cons but each are needed to run a successful company. According to Chamorro-Premuzic &Sanger (2016), core ingredients of leadership such as good judgment, integrity, and people skills are universal but successful leadership requires culture-specific ingredients. This means that when it comes to cultural leadership there is no one size fits all philosophy. Chamorro - Premuzic & Sanger go on to explain that decision making styles, communication and even dark-side tendencies are influenced by the geographical areas. A leadership style such as democratic that is widely accepted in the United States may not be as acceptable in a place in a country in the Middle East such as Dubai. There is absolutely nothing wrong with either type of leadership style but it would be beneficial for ACG to learn the culture and the customs of their foreign subsidiaries in order to have a successful global organization.
Diversity would be a great human capital management goal that Shawn should try to achieve for AGC. Johnson (n.d), states that the definition of global diversity should include an understanding of the differences between countries as well as the internal diversity between each country. This means that an organization must be knowledgeable of not only business culture and customs of employees and managers but also be versed in the customs and cultures of the customers. Diversity training for the managers and employees of AGC would be an ideal way to meet this goal so that the organization could stay at the top of the market chain.