A corporation seeking to establish operations in a foreign country will be most successful hiring employees with specific cultural attributes. Employees should demonstrate high power distance, meaning they accept inequality in the workplace and hierarchies. They should also have low uncertainty avoidance, making them comfortable with ambiguity and willing to take risks. Additionally, employees should be highly individualistic and masculine, prioritizing individual goals and performance over group needs. These four cultural attributes - high power distance, low uncertainty avoidance, high individualism, and high masculinity - will allow the company to be most profitable when establishing operations in a country like Mexico or the Middle East.

1. Essay #2
Report on Employee Attributes and Globalization
March 4, 2010
Prepared by
Carolina Meza
BUSN 3304
CRN 21873 T/R

2. 1
A corporation seeking to establish operations in a given country will un-doubtfully be
successful with certain kinds of employees based on 4 characteristics. It is better to have
employees with high power distance, low uncertainty avoidance, high individualism, high
masculinity.
Power Distance Attributes
I believe that inequality in the workplace already exists and should not be ignored.
According to Hofstead, “Power distance is focused on how a society deals with the fact
that people are unequal in physical and intellectual capabilities” (Geert Hofstede)
therefore, I believe that a company will be successful if high power distance is applied. If
white collar jobs are valued more that blue collar jobs, most employees will try to do
their best in an effort to be promoted and receive the economic contribution that these
jobs will offer at the same time that they are receiving the incentive of gaining respect
and recognition from others but most importantly the job enhancement to their careers.
Most employees will become competitive and consequently become more productive and
disciplined to the company. By having high power distance being used by a leader in a
legitimate way you also avoid chaos when it comes to conflict within the company. In a
given worst scenario of a downhill situation, you have the one individual who is most
likely able to handle the problem, actually handling it.
Uncertainty Avoidance Attributes
Another good attribute that a company needs to consider is low uncertainty avoidance.

3. 2
Uncertainty Avoidance measures how ambiguous situations are tolerated . With low
uncertainty avoidance you have managers more involved in the strategy for that idea that
will boost profit for the business. Low uncertainty avoidance will also have managers
more willing to make individual and risky decisions that often times are necessary when a
company is looking for creativity and innovation and expansion to the business and in
this manner you want to have fewer written rules that will prevent creativity amongst the
company’s high level employees. Once again by promoting low uncertainty avoidance in
connection with high power distance you have more ambitious employees working on
that side of the already set goal for the business.
Individualism
Individualism is “focused on the relationship between the individual and his or her
fellows” (Geert Hofstede). A successful company should encourage high individualism
because you want your managers to be up to date and endorse modern management ideas.
One example is promotion from inside and outside the company and promotion on
market value. You want to make sure again that you are encouraging employees into
striving their best, perhaps this could be the beginning of an employee’s encouragement
into achieving a higher education or attaining more specialized training and attaining the
skills necessary to advance into a better job within the company. Policies and practice
should therefore allow for individual initiative rather than create an employee’s fear of
loosing a job you are creating a motivational tool.

4. 3
Gender Characteristics
Finally in Mexico, where often times the male is the only one that has been able to gather
the skills and education necessary to obtain those high end jobs then it is the only
resource to have a high level of masculinity present in the workplace. It is the only
reasonable choice available. If males are the ones that have obtained the education
necessary to get the job done then a company should not feel that they are by far most
taking a wrong decision by hiring males to do the job because performance is what
counts. A company should look for the intellect in those individuals that in fact will help
obtain the company’s goals and profit boost. By having high individualism combined
with high masculinity the company is not expected to look after employees from the
cradle to the grave because the idea is that this is already happening in their lives. We
should understand for example that men in these countries are already acting as head of
households to their families and sex roles in these families are clearly differentiated.
The reality is that a company needs to look at what is going to help the company obtain
the desirable profit goal and look for those people that are going to help obtain those
profit margins. If the company wants to be successful then aggressiveness and intellect
must be desired to be applied in the workplace. Thus, high power distance, high
individualism, low uncertainty avoidance and masculinity are the employee
characteristics needed to make a company profitable in a country such as Mexico or the
Middle Eastern countries.

5. 4
Cites:
Geert Hofstede™ Cultural Dimensions,http://www.geerthofstede.nl/page1.aspx, March 1,
2010