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Hofstede provided a model of six dimensions to measure culture, this are: power distance,
individualism vs collectivism, masculinity vs femininity, uncertainty avoidance, long vs short

term orientation, and indulgence vs restraint.
Power distance refers to the extent in which members of a country accept that power is
distributed unequally. For example, in countries such as Germany and USA power distance
is lower, since they expect power relations to be more democratic and equally distributed,
which doesn’t occur in China or Russia, where power distance is higher because there are
more differences between authorities and citizens.
When talking about individualism vs collectivism we refer to the degree in which people in a
certain country prefer to live integrated into groups or prefer to act more individually, making
decisions and being on their own. And when we focus on masculinity vs femininity we refer
to the extent in which masculine values, such as ambition, competition and assertiveness,
go over more feminine values, like modesty and caring, quality of life and relationships.
Focusing on uncertainty avoidance, this dimension means the society’s tolerance to
uncertainty and ambiguity, if they are more flexible or structured in their ways of acting and
behaving.
Long vs Short term orientation refers to the values and thoughts of the society towards the
future. For example, if they are more long term oriented they value persistence, saving,
developing life-long bonds and networks, they live looking at the future, like is the case of
China. But if a society is more short term oriented, they will value the preservation of
tradition, steadiness, they stress over profits in the short term, so we can say they live
looking at the past and the present, like happens with the USA.
And finally, the dimension of indulgence vs restraint refers to the extent in which people in a
certain country value leisure, and enjoying life, or if they restrain themselves by lowering
gratification and being more strict.
Downsizing refers to reducing the size of an organization, by their workforce. And there are
different approaches and ways to carry on this downsizing:
It can be by attrition, which refers to those individuals that die, quit or retire because of their
age from a job, and their position is not filled again. This method can be a bit more easy to
do that others since they don’t have to hire people, and make someone be left without a job,
Another approach are early retirement buyouts, which refers to encouraging those workers
to retire earlier than established by the law, and by doing this the organization offers to pay
them an additional so that they still have money to live with until they achieve the retiring age
and start getting paid their retirement pension.
And the last approach is layoffs, which refers to employees retiring temporarily. And if the
company improves their situation, if there is an economic problem that leads them to
downsizing, for example, they can be rehired. And while doing this, some companies decide
to provide some financial help to them.
Reverse discrimination means that people who are from non protected classes are denied
opportunities because the organization gives preferential trait to those who are from
protected classes, even when they might be less qualified than them.
Some risks of doing this is that the company may not accept someone who is highly qualified
for a certain job because of their condition of being, for example a white male. And also
because they want to be seen as non-discriminatory of protected class people, and they
don't realize they are discriminating against other people as well.
So, we can say that a risk of this action is that managers may be blinded by wanting to be
well seen, as non discriminatory, while they don't know that anyone who isn't from a minority
group can be discriminated against as well.
In order to train someone to operate a fax machine I would use the training approach of on
the job training. Since it is not a difficult task to learn to do, the person can learn how to do it
from their own experience. Another employee, or a manager can show him and teach him
what to do in order to make the machine do their job, while the employee sees and then
does it himself when performing the job.
The administrative role of HR is more oriented on keeping records and processing

information. Some of the activities that these people have to do are administering benefits
for employees, maintaining and keeping record of employee files and databases, answering
questions about absenteeism for sickness, or tuition, and getting together and submitting
government reports. Moreover, people in HR who perform this role must prepare and
conduct orientations for new employees entering the company, and interpreting HR policies.
And they also have to prepare reports of equal employment. The usual timing for the
administrative role is more short term, done in less than a year.
Skinner stated that “learning is not doing; it is changing what we do”, and behavioral
modification, one of the learning approaches that guide training, follows this theory, focusing
on the concept of reinforcement. Following this statement, this way of learning has four
strategies that show ways in which reinforcement can be implemented, since the
consequences of the action you are doing determine how it is going to be repeated. The first
strategy is positive reinforcement, that refers to the person doing a certain thing receiving a
desired reward. For example, if an employee achieves the estimated goal of production over
a whole week, he may receive extra payment for doing that, which is a desired reward for
him or her.
Another one is negative reinforcement, which means that a person will work or do something
to avoid a consequence that they don’t desire. Such is the case of an employee who
achieves the estimated goal of production every day during a week to avoid his supervisor
criticizing him. So, in this case avoiding criticism is what motivates the person to do their task
in the best way possible.
Punishment is another strategy, which means, not increasing a response, but doing
something to repulse a person in taking an undesirable action. For example, a supervisor
can punish an employee for not finishing their estimated goal of production by making him or
her work extra hours. That way, the employee will start doing his or her task correctly so as
to avoid this punishment.
And last, extinction is another strategy that refers to not responding the way it is expected in
a situation, hoping that the behavior will stop. Since the expected response stops, the
employee might stop doing that behavior
Firstly, temporary employment refers to hiring employees for a limited period of time, these
may be employees from another company that specializes in selecting them and getting
them together with another company that needs them. Companies may prefer to hire
temporary workers because they don’t have to give them the same benefits a regular worker
has, so it helps them reduce costs. And sometimes these temporary employed workers may
become regular workers after some time, if needed.
Outsourcing refers to hiring external agencies or providers to perform certain tasks, that
maybe the company can’t do, more efficiently and at lower costs, sometimes. Sometimes
outsourcing is useful when the company doesn’t want to buy a certain machine or doesn’t
have experience in doing certain processes, for example. So, they pay an external entity to
do these specific tasks.
The 360º performance appraisal, also named multisource appraisal, refers to different
colleagues and other subordinates giving feedback about a person to the manager, and then
him or her shaping an overall feedback from the different sources. With this approach the
manager isn't the only person giving feedback about an employee, there are several more
sources to do so.
So, the sources that give feedback in this approach are subordinates, coworkers from that
employee, the manager, a self-evaluation can also be done, and customers give feedback
as well.

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Hofstede provided a model of six dimensions to measure culture, this are: power distance,

individualism vs collectivism, masculinity vs femininity, uncertainty avoidance, long vs short

The administrative role of HR is more oriented on keeping records and processing

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