From Cultures by Accident to Cultures by Design

When it comes to marketing, companies are prompt to adopt the rule of “thinking globally and acting locally”; but, in talent management, they tend to promote values and working styles of the company’s home country.

Nevertheless, despite ongoing efforts to encourage uniform productivity, process standards, management style, performance expectations, etc., a significant degree of misalignment occurs between organizational cultures in China and global agendas. Consequently, hybrid cultures emerge from cultures carried over by expatriates, cultural dynamics of local Chinese, and the divergent third-cultures of returnees and overseas Chinese. These cultures are very much “by accident” and not “by design”.

Specifically, reasons for the development of cultures by accident include:
• People management practices can remain defunct because other methods exist for management to increase shareholder value.
• A “come and go attitude” of expatriates. Expatriates’ job embeddedness is relatively low since their connections to the community and the local organization are weak.
• High attrition rates among senior managers and employees. As the majority of employees seem to be quite new to the organization, there is no one to pass along company values and socialize new hires into the established culture. Consequently, every individual applies their own set of values when working with internal and external stakeholders.
• An inability of HR to engage in the organization from a strategy perspective and design a system to develop a desired culture. The role of strategic partner is overshadowed by the role of administrative expert.
• Scarcity of talent precludes recruiters from assessing candidates’ values and whether a cultural fit exists.

Cultures in China will become by design and play an increasing role when the following changes occur:
• Companies will run out of options for bottom-line improvements. Cost effectiveness and quality standards become uniform and will no longer differentiate the company substantially from their competitors.
• The selection of expatriate candidates becomes more rigorous. The candidates will have the “right” skills, cultural attitudes, and a long-term intention to live there.
• Companies develop strategy to effectively retain leaders and ensure their high commitment levels.
• HR professionals learn tools to uncover organizational self-perception and develop skills in culture management and change management.
• With the growing number of qualified candidates, knowledge and skill sets quickly become redundant.