Culture: The Forgotten Factor in Human Resource Management

Abstract

This paper emphasizes the need to understand the precise way in which culture influences the effectiveness of the organisation's human resource management (HRM) practices. For this purpose, it first describes the findings of a series of conceptual and empirical studies that explain why a set of HRM practices might be effective in one societal culture and not in another. The paper explores the practical implications of these findings for the design of performance management - a most critical activity in managing human resources. It proposes practical strategies to tailor this activity to fit the societal and work cultures of most of the countries with emerging markets - referred to in this paper as emerging countries.