Cultural Differences

 

Introduction

            Cultural differences are mainly the different ways in which people of different culture believe in terms of customs and beliefs. Different societies have different cultural aspects although there are some of those cultures that are similar. In most cases, the differences sin cultural aspects affects many situation of life as it has been discussed in the paper below. There are some political systems that tend to protect human being though in real sense there is no difference noted. For instance the amendments of the Indian constitution had been restricting discrimination whereas women still complain that they are still being discriminated. Other constitutions offer rights to government to discriminate like the Australian political system. There have been different countries who claim to be an exemption of racism whereas in real sense there are several forms of the same. There are poor relationships at work places between the employers and the employees. However, in some countries like Australia, there is usually freedom. These cultural differences usually affect managerial practices. Focus on cognitive structure; free association and participation of workers at places of work are some of the strategies that would protect one from being affected by the cultural differences. The managerial activities are usually affected by cultural differences, a situation that can be controlled by establishment of various strategic practices.

Cultural Differences Concerning Constitution Amendments

            The political systems of India are usually very different from those of Australia. The colonial rule of the British had played a very crucial role in shaping the political system of India and since then, it has been undergoing great changes. The changes had been on practice since the gaining of independence. Contrast to this is that the constitution of Australia has not been undergoing changes since the year 1901 (Saunders & Stone, 2018).  Many of the changes that the Indian constitution has been undergoing were mainly triggered by disputes between the Supreme Court and the parliament. The constitution of India outlines that every citizen have got the freedom of expression, speech, association, occupation, migration, belief and right to vote. The rights have been outlined to protect the citizens of India from any form of discrimination with the grounds of race, creed, religion or sex. However many women feel that they still face discrimination in fields of workforce and education. The Australian constitution usually does not entail any right concerning expression, association or speech. In addition to criminalizing racial discrimination, the Australian constitution offers the federal government the authority to perform discrimination in areas where it feels that there is the need to discriminate (Saunders & Stone, 2018). The Australian constitution had been made during a period when unions intended to avoid foreign labor. This had been directed mostly to Pacific and China. The main aim had been to offer the federal government to help the whites who in sometimes might be facing troubles in dealing with the competition with the labor of the non-whites.

             Above 26 per cent of women who had been working in India had reported to be facing a rate of sexual harassment. The supreme court of India had recently brought out a declaration that every individual had the right to equity basing gender and that everyone ought to have protection policy of sexual harassment (DeCenzo, Robbins & Verhulst, 2015). The declaration however does not work effectively for a culture where people perceive it with less seriousness. There have been some parts where women still face the immoral issue of sexual harassment due to ignorance of the constitutional laws of the land. Therefore, there remains a barrier because of discrimination based on caste to equal employment opportunities regardless of the constitutional and legal protection, bearing the fact that there is usually a slow rate in the changing process of ancient culture. This therefore shows that discrimination is a major effect of human resource management in India.

            The laws in Australia apply to affirmative and discrimination on females. However, the issue equality in matters of gender still lags behind. There is usually a high proportion in the field of economical activities of where there is lack of union (DeCenzo, Robbins & Verhulst, 2015). This significant higher percentage has lead to reduction of line managers’ control over the issues of labor at work place. In the year 1997, there had been overhauling of the relations laws of industrial labor in Australia with a goal of facilitating reduction of union power and increasing productivity. The bill of Workplace Relations has been giving flexibility of the employers’ thereby enabling direct negotiations with the employees on matters concerning payment, benefits and working hours. This also brings simplicity in regulation of matters concerning relations of labor-management. This therefore portrays the ways in which the constitution of Australia affects human resource management, leadership, negotiations and communication.  

Cultural Differences in Racism

             The ways in which Australia and India approach the issue of racism is totally different. The approach of the Indians tries as much as possible to show that there had not been existence of racism in the country. On the other hand, the approach of the Australians tries to bring more exaggeration on racism to that their country had been that of burning crosses, Nazi salutes and pointy hats. Some aspects that portray racism had been seen in the year 2009 (Rowe, 2013). In this particular year, a player in India referred to an Australian as a monkey. This had been the second time as the Indian had previously referred to Andrew as monkey when he was subjects to chants of the monkeys by a particular crowd in India. Andrew complained of the action and the referee found the Indian guilty of abusing the fellow player on grounds of race. This particular issue had made the Indians to make threats of withdrawing from the tour. They had said that this must happen unless a subsequent appeal overturned the decision. The Indian believed that racism had not been acceptable in any given situation.

            The Indian media had been putting much effort to deny that they were not racists but it was a major issue among the Australians. Later, in a some months, the media portrayed racism among the police from Australia whereby majority of the students from India had been disproportionately regarded to be victims in the statics of criminality (Mason, et. al, 2017) . The major cause for the high numbers of the Indian students to be considered as criminals had been mainly caused by the attempts of the culture of the Indian population to show that they had been wealthier than any other group. The leaders of the Indians agreed and they burnt effigies of the prime minister of Australia as a way of protesting. They had also made some references to the penal heritage of Australia.

Cultural Differences Concerning Work Culture-Relationships with Boss

            In India, there is usually the need to observe social hierarchy in interactions at places of work. People who are considered as superior are usually respected by the rest. There a great distance of power in leadership. There is also the issue of formality as far as interactions are concerned. The people had been expected to address their leaders in formal language and much respect. The leaders also had been approaching their subordinates in very formal ways and this had been creating distances between the two parties. This gap would have restricted the subordinates from expressing their needs and making any decision. The superiors also carry out their judgment via prism of gender or caste. Contrast to this is that there is usually disguising of corporate hierarchies in Australian places of work using the aspect of social egalitarianism. There is usually no aspect of power distance (Nelson & Quick, 2013). Employees had been usually free to make reference to their bosses using their first names. The subordinates and the superiors did not exclude themselves from social activities in the society. They participated in social occasions and have no barriers of superiority from the rest of the people. They had been acting so friendly with other people. This had been making it easier for the subordinates to make free decisions without any form of fears. This shows that the relationship between the bosses and the employees usually affects communication, motivation towards decision-making, leadership and negotiation at the places of work.

Strategic Measures to Overcome the Effects of Cultural Differences

Freedom of Association Strategy

            Freedom of association at work places means that the workers are free to defend their interests in their occupations. It also tries to explain the presence of respect for the rights of workers and employers. The Indians had decided to expand the bargaining level from national to regional as well as international. They ought to be embracement of initiatives under codes of conduct in companies, agreements of international framework and bilateral as well as multilateral initiatives which would have advocated for compliance of the standards of international labor (Haas, 2008). It had been essential to being together exclusion of enjoyment of the rights and also for the trade unions to reconstruct its recruitment powers in the emerging sectors and new industries and among workers in India who belong to other countries. It provides the freedom for the workers and employers to voluntarily initiate groups for defense and promotion of their interests at the work places. This strategy enables the workers to come up with their own decisions without interference of the employers. The strategy also protects the workers from being discriminated by the employers regarding their choices at the work place. Freedom of association also enables the workers to carry out bargains freely, negotiate on the issues they have discussed with respect the conditions of the occupation.

Participation of Workers Strategy

            There have been several schemes developed by the Indian government with an aim of achieving industrial democracy. For example, councils of joint management, works committees, worker directors and joint and shop councils (Barry & Wilkinson, 2011).  The first two schemes had taken a legal approach form while joint and shop councils had been promoted like a voluntary scheme. More schemes had been introduced in the years; 1977 and 1983. There had also been establishment of more schemes in the year 1985. The best thing with the established schemes was that they had been focusing on the interests of the workers. The works would be in the position to participate in the important activities at the work place like decision-making. This strategy had been focused to establishing democracy in the industries whereby everyone would work freely as per the policies of the institution.

Focus of Cognitive Structures Strategy

The cultural scholars have recently been focusing on the cognitive structures which tend to be very specific behavior-guiding processes. The next thing that the scholars have been focusing to do is creating links of the cognitions with contextual features and social-historical traits that are of exemption to a cultural group (Kitayama & Cohen, 2007). This strategy has been enabling the development of more richer and precise models of work-ways of the culture. This mainly involves understanding clearly the context role and figuring out some conditions. These conditions are the ones where someone expects cultural similarities as well as differences. 

Conclusion

            The different cultural aspects in different societies usually affect people in various ways as seen in the paper above. There are some political systems that tend to protect human being though in real sense there is no difference noted. For instance, the amendment of the Indian constitution restricts discrimination whereas women still complain of discrimination. Other constitutions offer rights to government to discriminate like the Australian political system. There have been different countries who claim to be an exception of racism but they do as seen above. Some societies have issue of distance in power at the work place while others do not have the gap. These cultural differences usually affect managerial practices. Focus on cognitive structure; free association and participation of workers at places of work are some of the strategies that would protect one from being affected by the cultural differences. The managerial activities are usually affected by cultural differences, a situation that can be controlled by establishment of various strategic practices.

 

 

 

 

 

Reference

Saunders, C., & Stone, A. (Eds.). (2018). The Oxford Handbook of the Australian Constitution.   

          Oxford University Press.

Pillai, K. M. (2016). Amendability of Fundamental Rights under the Constitution of India.

DeCenzo, D., Robbins, S., & Verhulst, S. L. (2015). Fundamentals of human resource      management.

Rowe, D. (2013). Global media sport: Flows, forms and futures.  New York : Bloomsbury           Academic

Mason, G., Maher, J., McCulloch, J., Pickering, S., Wickes, R., & McKay, C. (2017). Policing    Hate Crime: Understanding Communities and Prejudice. Routledge.

Nelson, D. L., & Quick, J. C. (2013). Organizational behavior: Science, the real world, and you.             Australia : South-Western Cengage Learning.

Barry, M., & Wilkinson, A. (Eds.). (2011). Research handbook of comparative employment         relations. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Haas, E. B. (2008). Beyond the nation state: Functionalism and international organization.          ECPR Press

Kitayama, S., & Cohen, D. (2007). Handbook of cultural psychology. New York: Guilford Press.