5 DEVELOPING AN UNDERSTANDING OF HRM IN
EMERGING COUNTRIES: CROSSVERGENCE AND
HYBRIDIZATION
The consequences of introducing Western-style HRM practices in emerging
countries appear to be a narrow focus on participatory management that
concentrates on the tactical implementation of strategy decided by top (and
sometimes foreign) management. It is therefore not inclusive of a wider stake-
holder base, including community, government and trade unions and other
employee representation. It also does not give better access to decision
processes within the organization to those who have been discriminated
against: e.g. non-dominant ethnic or gender groups. There is an individual
basis for performance management systems, rewarding the individual’s initia-
tive and underemphasizing the importance of the group, that may not be
appropriate. It provides a contractual basis for employing people, which makes
a distinction between the world of work and home/community life; and alien-
ates home culture from work culture. By ignoring the cross-cultural aspects of
operating in an emerging country, Western-style approaches tend to ignore the
cultural content of Western principles and practices, and the frequently inap-
propriate application in a different cultural context.
As mentioned above, the characteristics of humanistic people management
systems in emerging countries remain by and large an ideal, and generally do
not deal with relations of power and hegemony of other management systems,
tending to assume that the clock can somehow be turned back to pre-colonial
times. In order to make sense of the different influences (actual and potential)
on people management systems within the complex multicultural context, the
process of hybridization, and its implications, must be understood.
A view of African indigenous value systems
in the context of people managementCharacteristics of African values and social systems that may influence the
development of humanistic people management principles are provided by
Binet (1970) on African economic psychology. Dia (1996) provides a brief
account of this work. This can be supplemented and supported by popular
African management texts (Boon, 1996; Mbigi and Maree, 1995; Mbigi,
1997), as well as academic anthropological work (e.g. Gelfand, 1973, on
Shona systems in Zimbabwe) to suggest the following cultural characteristics
of African organizational life.- Sharing. A need for security in the face of hardship has provided a com-
mitment to help one another. However, it is likely that this value is not
234 International Human Resource Management