Culture influences the work-related behaviors of the workers and therefore determines. This essay aims to demonstrate how the national culture impacts behaviors, specifically in Hong Kong workplaces (Schein & Schein, 2019). It further evaluates the general dynamic culture model while challenging its assumptions. Lastly, it describes the culture of Hong Kong people and its implication in organizational and managerial practices.
Efficient management of human resources links to the national culture in Hong Kong in which cultural architecture motivates behavior in the workplace. Workplace behavior thus consumes much of the social capital in Hong Kong, besides influencing the relationships between subordinates and the management. Notably, Hong Kong has adopted the traditional British values and ethics that emphasize personal freedom, free speech, and honesty. Thus, Hong Kong people have freed themselves from the East Asia culture, which believes in hierarchical government control (Fong, 2017). Hong Kong culture is of personal independence, freedoms, and appreciation for hard work. Hong Kong has laws that guide the employees’ behavior and give them various privileges (Walsh & Kwan 2019).
In the light of the general dynamic culture model, culture is always a process of change and formation. The model hypothesizes assumptions to be the essence of the culture (Schein & Schein, 2019). The model helps analyze an organization’s culture by observing aspects such as dress code, office layout, audible or visible behaviors, and employees’ orientation. However, it is hard to interpret or qualify the logic behind the observation (Schein & Schein, 2019). Thus, it makes it difficult to determine the culture of an organization by such assumptions conclusively.
The Hong Kong people have a culture derived from Han Cantonese of Southeast China and British. However, mainland Chinese culture is significantly influencing the people of Hong Kong (Gavin, 2021). The management exercises bureaucratic control over the subordinate. The managers have centralized the decision-making with little emphasis on empowering the workers. Family networks and ties inform staffing and promotion. Confucian values emphasize respect, obedience and loyalty to the authority, thus the subordinates are to follow the directions of the management (Brochet et al., 2019). The bureaucratic nature of the Chinese culture and the actuality of high power distance determine the planning in the firms in Hong Kong placing the workers on the receiving end. It is possible to tell the extent to which culture influences managers by observing their behavior as they lead, control, organize and plan (Gupta & Gupta, 2019). For instance, if the manager is from Hong Kong, they will exercise bureaucracy even when dealing with staff of cross-cultural backgrounds who may not appreciate it. The weakness in applying the managerial implication is its direct negative impact on job satisfaction and the level of workers’ motivation and commitment as they feel excluded in the decision-making process.
References
Brochet, F., Miller, G. S., Naranjo, P., & Yu, G. (2019). Managers’ cultural background and disclosure attributes. The Accounting Review, 94(3), 57-86
Fong, B. C. (2017). One country, two nationalisms: center-periphery relations between Mainland China and Hong Kong, 1997–2016. Modern China, 43(5), 523-556.
Gavin (2021). Hong Kong culture: An interesting guide to Hong Kongers. Web.
Gupta, M., & Gupta, S. (2019). Influence of national cultures on operations management and supply chain management practices—a research agenda. Production and Operations Management, 28(11), 2681-2698.
Schein, E. H., & Schein, P. A. (2019). The corporate culture survival guide. John Wiley & Sons.
Walsh P., & Kwan J. (2019). Insight: Hong Kong protests and workplace issues facing employers. Bloomberg Law. Web.