Introduction
The current situation says about the new issues derived from relocating a manager from an Australian MNC to its branch in the United Kingdom. This defines the cross-cultural management situation. The next paragraphs will be discussed in the cross-cultural factors and their impacts on the organizational environment. Being relocated from Australian environment to the environment of United Kingdom, the human resource management would be quite hard to manage. Still, with the help of different theories, it can be easily settled at the new working environment.
Before illustrating the situation, in brief, it is needed to get a clear understanding of cross-cultural management. It is a situation when the cultural environment of an organization changes from one location or region to another. The topic defines about how the change influences the working environment in an organization and the effect derived from it on managers and management activities of an organization. A new manager needs to understand and become familiar with the social values of the new environment. The cognitive values of the individuals of a new social environment may or may not differ from the previous one, but to manage the organizational behavior, a manager needs to get a clear idea about all factors influencing the new working environment. A good understanding of psychology, sociology, and anthropology could be helpful in arranging a flexible managerial capability to regulate the individuals efficiently within a short spam of time. (Cross Culture, n.d.)
“How will Brexit impact on business and the economy and therefore on HR matters in the United Kingdom?
BREXIT is also known as Britain-Exit from the European Union(EU). The proposed withdrawal from the EU on 2016 is supposed to be settled permanently and completely by 2019. After the decision made by the country, many hazardous circumstances are being faced by Britain and will face more. (Foster, 2017) As Britain is regarded as a developed and important economy in Europe, so its exit decision will impact the over all environment of Britain as well as the other European countries. With a motive to enlarge its capacity as a single country, the people of the economy decided the plan, but the probable outcomes derived from it may weaken the economic conditions badly. Already the impact has been affecting the cultural, economic, political and demographic environment of UK; there are much more outcomes are ahead to see in recent days. (Grant, 2016)
The impact of Brexit on the business in the UK, is quite disappointing. The decision will hit the trade activities of the UK with the other European countries as well as the other ones of the globe. Both the export and import possibilities will be decreased at a high rate. Being a non-member of EU, UK will lose the benefits it was deriving as a member of EU from years. As already the business in the UK are less competitive than the other economic situations, so the trade barriers would lessen the profit at a large volume. Being the founder of European Free Trade Association, UK’s decision of withdrawal may distract the members and influence them to change the policies which will affect UK’s internal as well as external business activities unexpectedly. Because of Brexit many companies including Vodafone, Virgin group, John Lewis, Nissan, Deloitte, Hiscox, Visa, HSBC and much more are in a complex situation to take their business decisions. It forced them to block their investment and growth activities in the UK, Which is directly a negative prospect for the economy. (Impact of Brexit, 2017)
As the verdict affected the business decisions of various giant organizations, the workforce and employment situations too affected due to it. Many companies disinvested their businesses in the UK, which means the associated employees are fired from their jobs without an unexpected reason. Being an overseas manager, it is quite a difficult task to manage the employees in this hazard situation. It needs to find scopes and alternatives to settle the employees if any circumstances occur. (Eversheds website, 2016)
What is it like to work in the United Kingdom?
Being an imperative country of international economic significance, UK or United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Irelands has a developed working culture. Many multinational companies are developing their businesses and choosing to be a part of the country’s trade affairs directly or indirectly. The manpower associated with the organizations settled in the UK always find the social and cultural environment quite different and comfortable. The country is totally developed in all aspects of human living, and business culture is quite advance with a huge investment in different industry market segments. The transportation, infrastructure, communication, technology and standard of living are all well ahead to live a comfort life in comparison to other parts of the world. (British business culture, n.d.)
The direct and indirect impacts of Brexit on the workplace is so complex to handle. Many organizations are failing to stabilize their operation due to the influential factors derived from the exit choice or UK from EU. Unexpectedly many organizations are winding up the business activities or stepping back their operations to stay away from the future recession situations. Working experience in this situation is totally different than the pre-Brexit era. Mostly the small and middle organizations are feeling uncomfortable to grow their business with the circumstances. Multinational companies are facing trade barriers due to the situation, which in other hand making the employees sore and uneasy in the UK. This made the man force working in the UK to choose other alternative and safe option for their future corporate career. (Wallcroft, 2016)
In general, the cultural factors of UK is the very comfort to work in the environment. The cultural diversity has improved a lot with the time by proving its international importance. The people of UK are called as ‘British.’ The total population consists of two categories of people; the British people of Great Britain and Irish people of Northern Ireland. Among the two, the Irish people are developing their life standards to that of British people. Staying among the group of people is very luminous. Many people around the world are coming through to feel the living experience in the UK. As a developed country, the managers, leaders, business mans and government employees are enabling their life in the environment of UK to far advance. In a developed continent of Europe, UK has its importance and unofficially regarded as the best option to say the capital of Europe. The UK has witnessed many successful leaders in the past, which grows its social importance too. (The United Kingdom, n.d.)
You must discuss the human resource management and employment relations issues that will impact on the working life of this manager in the United Kingdom.
The cultural diversity of Australia the UK is totally different from each other. In one hand Australia has its large market size and job opportunities, the UK is standing as a quite small and developed country. Being the unofficial capital of UK, it will help the manager to work with skilled and knowledge people. With various opportunities emerging in UK market, it will help the manager to increase his personal, corporate skill by strengthening the teamwork. The simple language factor will be helpful for the manager to stabilize a good communication relationship with the internal human resources as well as the external stakeholders. By the time the Human Resource Management techniques are developing with the adoption of different HRM theories and concepts. The manager can take the benefit of this chance by putting the same into action. Being attached to the Australian employment relations, it would take some time to become familiar with the employment relations elements of UK. Being a modern country, UK employment relation gave importance on a fair and comfortable working environment and focused to minimize the hindrances like group conflicts, collective bargaining, industrial disputes, and other disturbing aspects. In another way, it strategized the law to support the employee relation arising in different organizations around the country. The payment structure, as well as the working environment conditions, are always being analyzed by the human resource development departments as well as the organization management to provide an encouraging hand. To popularize the employment system in world corporate market, the employment relation departments are guiding the organizations to enhance the quality, skill, knowledge and ability of organizational people from a lower level to top stage. These all supporting possibilities would make the familiarity of the new manager with the new working culture of UK quickly within a short period After understanding and get familiarity with the socio-cultural factors of UK; the new manager would show his leading directions to the subordinates more effectively. (Euro Found, n.d.)
What employment laws and work practices and arrangements are important in the United Kingdom”?
The employment laws and work practices and arrangements are a bit neutral in the UK. Some are improving to give the best support to the working people the UK and in another hand, the cognitive factors are forcing law and order to change it accordingly which are making the work people quite uncomfortable with the new rules. Among the list of several law and order aspects, some dominate an important role in shaping the employment environment of UK consistently. The basic rights at a working environment, safety environment rules, Pay structure rules, grievances solution, employee-employers relation, collective bargaining, well-defined exit policy, job security and insurance structures for working people are some of the important elements of the employment laws and work practices in the UK. The government strategies are proposing different beneficial proposals and suggestions at the parliament to consider the existing laws and order of employee relation to change if any are needed with the passage of time. (Employment Laws, n.d.)
The employment rights of the working people over the working organizations are detailed in a structured manner to sustain the employee right effectively. With the passage of time, the employees are getting more aware about their rights to make their working life more confident. The pay structures in the overall industry are constant as per the rules and regulations proposed by the government. Making cartel situations in fixing favor activities against the faith of the employees are regarding as the most offense with the changing law orders. Starting from the joining to retirement or exit options, the employment laws are well concerned with the favor of the employees. To make it successful the government also trying to follow the successful steps of other established and advanced countries in tackling in favor situations arising due to employee dissatisfaction. (UK employment rights, n.d.)
References
Countries and their Cultures website. (n.d.). The United Kingdom. Retrieved from http://www.everyculture.com/To-Z/United-Kingdom.html.
Employment laws website. (n.d.). Employment laws in the UK. Retrieved from http://www.employmentlaws.co.uk/.
Euro Found website. (n.d.). United Kingdom: Working life country profile. Retrieved from https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/observatories/eurwork/comparative-information/national-contributions/united-kingdom/united-kingdom-working-life-country-profile.
Eversheds Sutherland website. (2016, June 24). Brexit – How this will impact on UK employment law. Retrieved from http://www.eversheds-sutherland.com/global/en/what/articles/index.page?ArticleID=en/Competition_EU_and_Regulatory/Brexit-impact-UK-employment-law240616
Foster, A. (2017, March 30). What is Brexit and what is going to happen now that Britain has voted to LEAVE the EU? Retrieved from http://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/645667/Brexit-EU-European-Union-Referendum-David-Cameron-Economic-Impact-UK-EU-exit-leave.
Grant, C. (2016, June 24). The impact of Brexit on EU. Retrieved from https://www.cer.org.uk/insights/impact-brexit-eu.
Investopedia website, (n.d.). Cross culture. Retrieved from http://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/cross-culture.asp.
Market Inspector website. (2017, March 8). The impact of Brexit on businesses in the UK. Retrieved from http://www.market-inspector.co.uk/blog/2016/10/impact-of-brexit-on-businesses-in-the-uk.
Passport to Trade website. (n.d.). British business culture. Retrieved from http://businessculture.org/northern-Europe/uk-business-culture/.
TUC, (n.d.). UK employment rights and the EU. Retrieved from https://www.tuc.org.uk/sites/default/files/UK%20employment%20rights%20and%20the%20EU.pdf.
Wallcroft, B. (2016, June 24). Dawn of a new day: What does Brexit mean for hr?. Retrieved from https://www.corehr.com/blog/what-does-brexit-mean-for-hr/.