systematic case study research: an australian …

ELK ASIA PACIFIC JOURNAL OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT AND ORGANISATIONAL

BEHAVIOUR

ISSN 2349-0409; DOI: 10.16962/EAPJHRMOB/issn. 2349-0409; Volume 4 Issue 2 (2018)

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SYSTEMATIC CASE STUDY RESEARCH: AN AUSTRALIAN

COMPANY WISHES TO EXPAND ITS OPERATIONS TO USA AND

CHINA. Nirmal Acharya

University of Newcastle, Melbourne,

Australia

[email protected]

Abhishek Sharma

Swinburne University of Technology,

Melbourne, Australia

[email protected]

ABSTRACT

Abstract: Cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) have turned into the prevailing method of development for firms looking for upper hand in an undeniably intricate and worldwide business economy. This paper derives a clear relationship between cross-border alliance and HRM. A case study of an Australian company identified some serious Cultural as well as HRM issues. This study relates literature and established theories to analyse the issues and also proposes a 4-Stage Model for successful cross-border mergers and acquisitions. To conclude, the paper proposes certain necessary recommendations that can enable the future formation of a successful Cross-Border Alliances (CBAs) of an Australian Company. Keywords: Cross Border Alliances M&As, HRM, 4-Stage Model, Australia, USA, China

1. INTRODUCTION

The term “cross-border” means across

borders and across different countries. For a

transaction to take place the minimum

requirement is the constitution of two parties

pursuing mutual interests through sharing

their resources and capabilities (Doz et al.

1998). This may take various forms such as it

can be on making a contract basis within

parties, it can be jointly owned and even a

complete take over. However, the only

Difference that can be stated regarding

national and international mergers or

acquisitions lies in the fact if it crosses the

borders of a country. Each country as a whole

is a mixture of different cultures, different

legal systems and different capital markets.

In this paper, we are studying the case

of a small medium scale Australian enterprise

established in 1954. The company has

planned of getting listed in the Australian

stock exchange by 2015 (Crawley, Swailes,

& Walsh, 2013). The company is a mixture of


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Different cultures and ethics within itself

since it’s a family business backed up by the

Australian culture. However, the company

wishes to expand its operations to USA and

China. The purpose of this paper is to present

a view point and learning through the

different issues of International Human

Resource Management regarding CROSS

BORDER ALLIANCES AND SME’s.

1.1. RESEARCH QUESTION AND

METHODOLOGY

The main research question is: What model

an Australian company should follow to

improve its chance of having a successful

cross-border alliance when expanding to

USA and China?

Yin (2003) defines the case study

research method as an empirical inquiry that

investigates a contemporary phenomenon

within its real-life context. We believe a case

study methodology, based on theoretical

framework developed from literature, would

help us to propose a model for successful

cross-border mergers and acquisitions.

2. BACKGROUND

The passage of time has been showing us

the emergence of cross border alliances and

mergers, the companies are focusing on

expanding to other countries to take over

markets and one of the main objectives of

these companies are to avail the benefit of

rapid entry and keeping minimum cost of

entry in the market (IsoraIte, 2009).

Companies in order to expand to other

countries tend to join hands with another

company of those countries. Sometimes they

acquire 51% of the market shares and take

over the companies and sometimes they work

as partners in alliances (Crawley, Swailes, &

Walsh, 2013). In this paper, the main focus

would be on the alliances happening across

borders and on the small medium based

companies. The human resource department

is highly effected by the cross-border cultures

in various fields. Few issues in that regard

have been mentioned in the following section

of this paper. Joint ventures happen when two

companies jointly operate a business and

satisfy the market. Various issues have been

identified in that regard. The countries

focused are Australia, USA and China. The

cross-cultural values and ethics of workplace

of USA and Australia are same because of

their same practice of work type and ways.

Whereas when compared with China,

Australia has differences in both national

culture and corporate culture. The theories of

Hofstede (1983) and Trompenaars (1996)


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have been used in places to distinguish

between the cultures of these countries. After

discussion of the issues certain necessary

recommendations have been given which

would help the Australian company to have a

successful expansion and a fruitful relation.

3. THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES

FOR HRM-IJV RELATIONSHIPS

To derive a clear relationship between cross-

border alliance and HRM, we focus on

theories like co-operation perspective,

organizational learning and transaction costs.

3.1. CO-OPERATION THEORY

As suggested by Narula and Duysters (2004)

the economy is globalized nowadays, it

suggests many firm to form cooperative

alliances and partners. Cooperation with

other is an important factor when it a firm

focuses on survival and competing in the

global environment, mainly in the industries

which are capital and knowledge intensive.

According to cooperation theory the partners

for cross border alliance should follow

cooperative approach rather than competitive

in order to have a successful venture

relationships (Narula & Hagedoorn, 1999).

3.2. ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING

THEORY

The perspective of the organizational

learning theory depicts that the learning and

application of new and related knowledge is

facilitated by prior learning (Cohen &

Levinthal, 1990). As per the research done by

Shipton, Dawson, West and Patterson (2002),

they found that organizational learning is

associated with two of five variables i.e.,

quality orientation and the other one is human

resource management. A study done in

Europe demonstrated that the absence of

learning culture, motivation, involvement,

enthusiasm can have negative consequences

on the organizational learning (Sambrook &

Stewart, 2000). On the other hand,

significance difference can be observed in the

organizational culture having developed

learning culture, job redesign, and

organizational re-structure, enthusiasm,

involvement, motivation and involvement in

human resources.

3.3. TRANSCTIONAL COST THEORY

Transaction cost theory expect that business

ventures pick influence structures that cuts

the transaction expenses connected with the

evaluating, monitoring, establishing and

implementing agreed upon exchanges. From

this theory, we can easily understand how

using HR activities by archiving the

governance structure explicit and myriad


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implicit contracts is managed between

employers and employees in cross border

alliance (Schuler & Tarique, 2006). Partners

in cross border alliance should attempt to

create contractual relationship between each

other to diminish their transaction cost yet

they find that country culture influences the

implicit versus explicit contracts.

From the above theories relating to the

International Human Resource Management

the following sub points can be derived:

1. In No matter if the form of cross border

alliance is simple or complex HR

involvement and its implication can be

categorized in similar way for both.

2. If the form of cross border alliance

changes from simple to complex the

influence and significance of HRM

increases.

3. With the increase in number of

countries/ partners in a cross-border

alliance, the involvement of culture will

also increase which in result will

increase the rate of complexity,

differentiation and the strength of

conflict in the system.

In this regard, the significance of HRM can

be seen getting influenced by the cultural

mind set of the different areas across borders

commonly known as cross culture.

4. ISSUES

4.1. CULTURAL ISSUES

One of the major trends of twenty first

century’s business environment is to increase

their business globally (Pinho & Martins,

2010). That enterprise can be small or

medium in size and when companies are

going for alliances with other global

company, that time they faced a very

common cultural issue. According to some

research the management decision and

expectations are highly shaped by their

national culture, which might create some

problem in future for alliances. If a company

is trying to gain their business goals and

services, wherever they are doing businesses,

the management should understand the mean

of different culture.

Cross border alliances create a special

issue that is dominating partner tries to

enforce their personal policies onto other

partners. According to Makino & Beamish

(1998), the US firms always tend to get the

dominating position in alliances. So, when

the Australian company will go for an

alliance with the USA Company, it will face

that problem. These problems are faced

because of cultural differentiation between

the countries and this creates the issues in


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alliance. These issues can rise in between

employees or in between management.

1. National Culture Issue

According to the G. Hofstede (1983) theory,

low power distance countries, people tend to

communicate with their higher authorities in

the decision-making process. Whereas in

high power distance countries, peoples tend

to have a huge gap in communication with the

employees and only higher authorities are

involved in decision making process

(Hofstede G. , 1983). Here in this case, if the

Australian SME company approaches USA

Company for alliance, there would be no

issues regarding compatibility because both

the countries have almost the similar cultures

and both belong to the low power distance

culture. On the other side, they might face

cultural problems in China, because China is

a high-power distance country. So, in China

the Australian management can face cross-

cultural problems. Human thinking and

behavioral effects are highly dependent due

to the cultural differences of different places.

Managing a company is a key point to be

noted down in a society of employees which

is highly influenced by the local historical

and cultural factors of different regions

(DiMaggio & Powell, 1983). The

entrepreneurs are more likely to fall within

the society and hence their attitudes towards

various systems of work are highly

influenced by the values of the society

(Weaver, 2000).

According to G. Hofstede (1983),

high individualistic culture society’s people

tend to look after themselves and their near

relatives. They seem to be less caring when it

comes to other peoples in the society.

Countries like Australia and USA, both are

very highly individualistic in culture,

whereas China is collectivist society. Chinese

people are likely to work in groups rather than

being individualistic. Collectivist culture

seems to play a dominant role in china. In the

real business scenario, employees should be

self-dependent and they should do their own

work. Hiring and promotion decisions should

be always based on the merit and the work

experience, what that employee done in the

previous years (Hofstede G. , 2001).

According to F. Trompenaars (1996),

peoples in some societies try to make their

private and personal lives separate. Their

culture has a very small area of privacy.

These peoples belong to the specific culture

of society. In USA and Australia, there exists

a totally different culture among different

countries (Trompenaars & Hampden-Turner,


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2002) whereas Chinese culture is totally

different. These peoples tend to give more

importance to long term relationship. For

them, there is no difference between personal

and private life. They are very good at

maintaining relationships. These massive

differences in culture may cause the problem

between Australian and Chinese management

after alliance. In terms of risk taking, China is

a country where managers do not want to take

chances on anything being afraid it might go

wrong. Their decision-making process is

slow compared to that of Australia and USA

because in those countries they like to take

challenges and chances though being not sure

about the situational circumstances. Chinese

people don’t dare to make immediate

decisions regarding the company dealings

whereas Australians react fast to any matters.

In Chinese firms, final decisions are taken by

the higher officials without consulting the

subordinated because they are always after

avoiding uncertainty (Graf, Hemmasi, Lust,

& Liang, 1990).

2. Corporate Culture Issue

When a well-known organization

expand their business in a different nation

with a new organization, it attempts to

dominate their own corporate culture, in

which they are familiar. But it is very

important work for a management to create a

new and a single corporate culture in a cross-

border alliance project. According to the

Atlantic times, in Germany, Walmart

management was unable to introduce a new

corporate culture, which was one of the

reasons of their failure in Germany (Schultz,

2006). Corporate culture is formed not by the

technology or market scenario, it is totally

depending on the culture of the employees

and the management. Corporate culture is

also indirectly dependent on Artifacts means

how that company greeted to their visitors,

how employees are rewarded and how

employees are behaving with each other

(O’Donnell & Boyle, 2008). These small

things can affect indirectly to the

organization’s profit maximization and it also

can minimize the brand value of the

company. In the corporate world, comparing

USA and Australia would not be much of a

debate since their work culture is somewhat

similar. Australia belongs to a society where

work life and personal life is highly

distinguished whereas in China the people

mix their personal life with their private life.

Chinese people focus highly on maintaining

relations with the people in order to get the

work done which is termed as GUANXI


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which implies maintaining impersonal

relations with work people, whereas in USA

higher officials allow the members of the

group to learn from each other but does not

support the impersonal relations around the

workplace (Sosik & Dong, 2002). The

Chinese have their own way of addressing

clients, for example, they would ask the

visitor to smoke with them which would be

considered rude if he refuses to. Whereas in

Australia actions like this are not followed at

all. This can also be regarded as a problem in

adjustments

4.2. HUMAN RESOURCE ISSUES

Many HR issues can be raised due to the

formation and implication of a cross border

alliance and that also can have implication for

how the partners will manage their human

resources. Human resource management

practices that support and reinforces the role

behaviors like openness, systematic thinking,

creativity, self- confidence, and empathy can

result in the benefit of the parent and the host

itself (McGill, Slocum Jr., & Lei, 1992). If

the organization i.e., cross border alliance’s

parents and host itself can ensure that their

workers exhibits and possess role behavior

like this, it can support transferring, sharing,

knowledge flow and learning. As a result, it

can help in grounding the implications

(Parkhe, 1991). A clash regarding the

payment of wages and salary might arise due

to difference of opinions of China and

Australia since Australians belong to a

society where workers are used to working

alone and they get paid individually whereas

in China the Chinese workers are more likely

to work in groups and hence when a project

is completed they cannot demand for the

reward alone, they like to share their worth

amongst the group.

5. 4- Stage Model

The issue aroused due to organization and

human resource in cross border alliances

reflects the quality and characteristics of the

organization which are closely associated

with human resources. So, these issues are

very widely affective (Child & Faulkner,

1998). We include those extensive

organizational issues within our discussion of

four stages of cross border alliance. Making

cross-border alliance has four stage model

which includes:

1. Formation

Organizations should need to

understand the several aspects of cross border

alliance so that it can manage the cross-

border alliances successfully. Without proper


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planning, it is very difficult to get benefited

by the formation of cross border alliances, in

other words the change of ripping the gain

will be diminished (Cyr, 1995). To

understand the managerial and cultural style

of parent and Host Company, early planning

is very important and it should be considered

(Loess & Yavas, 2003). HR audit plan

includes analyzing or auditing such qualities

like difference in partner’s culture,

organization and country (Schuler, Jackson,

& Luo, 2004).

Cross border alliance performance,

formation, and its overall performance can be

affected by the quality of cross border

alliance contract negotiations during the

formation of cross border alliance.

2. Development

After the completion of the Formation

stage now several important activities need to

be addressed in the development processed.

Locating the cross-border alliance and

dealing with the local community is one of

the important decision. They may come

across various options for location of the

cross-border alliance and decide whether to

locate it in its partner’s country or any

different country i.e., third country. If they

choose the option of locating the cross-border

alliance in one of its partner’s country then it

may provide them local knowledge and

control advantage. In contrast, if they choose

third country as the preferred location this

may diminish the home field advantage for

either of the companies. However, as there

will be several number of local stakeholders

for example regulators, trade unions, political

officials so it may also increase the

complexity and complications as well as the

need of more information gathering and

broader expertise (Narula & Hagedoorn,

1999).

3. Implementation

Four set of activities are involved in

the implementation stage. To encourage,

support, and reward sharing of knowledge

and learning should be the mission, vision,

value, structure and strategy of the cross-

border alliance (Slocum & Lei, 1993). For the

cross-border alliance, all new set of HR

policy and practices need to be made. The

calculates that these approaches and practices

need to reflect incorporate the cross border

alliance’s: (a) dream, mission, qualities,

society, strategy, structure; (b) requirement

for worldwide integration with parent(s) for

example, for learning exchange; (c) labor

market; and (d) contrasts between the nation

societies of the parent and the host company

(Schuler & Tarique, 2006).On the basics of


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cultural dimension of the countries

participating in cross border alliance the

acceptable form of human resource policy

may vary (Hofstede G. , 1993). Therefore, it

is expected that the more number of countries

included in the cross-border alliance

framework the more variation of HR policies

and practices are expected. Furthermore, the

more noteworthy is that the more contrasts in

the nation’s culture, the implication for HRM

policies and practices are likely to be more

critical (Robson, Leonidou, & Katslkeas,

2002).

Many HR issues can be exposed, once

the cross-border alliance is completely set up.

These issues include: time spending pattern

of the manager, work assigned to the

managers, evaluation of the top management,

managing career and benefit planning, and

loyalty issue (Zeira & Shenkar, 1990).

4. Advancement

The advancement stage of the cross-

border alliance includes transferring the

knowledge to other location as well as to

partners and learning from the partners. As

per the research done by Luo (2000), the key

to premature dissolution avoidance and

longevity of cross border alliance is learning

and adjustment by the partners. In general,

mechanism for learning and data exchange

that might be utilized includes top

administration help, staff training and

development, staff rotation, site visits,

recognition and rewards, repatriation

management (Cyr, 1995).Once more, the

more national culture involved as well as the

more parents there are the more difficult this

is likely to be for the implication of the HR

policies and practices.

6. RECOMMENDATIONS

6.1. RESEARCH ON SUBSIDIARY

COUNTRY’S CULTURE

For the company to run their subsidiary in the

USA and China, the necessary thing is to

understand the American and Chinese culture

dimension. According to the Suutari &

Brewster (1998), if the management starts

thinking like the ways locals are, then it will

be very easy to rectify the issues and failure.

The Australian management of the company

has to learn and adapt the global culture, so

that they can deal with the other culture’s

people.

Cross culture research is a scientific

research, which helps the organization to

compare the cultures between the different

nations. Now to do the research on culture of

the USA and China, that Australia Company


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can appoint a professional research team.

Through this they can get the basic

knowledge of the USA and China’s local

business policy and employee’s culture. It

establishes the essential framework for the

company to create the rules for the

recruitment of the American and Chinese

representative, and also a reason to make a

relationship with the local organization

(Bhattacharyya, 2010). Likewise appoint

some more professional from the USA and

China for that research, will add an extra

advantage to know their culture and policy.

This will also be an effective and easy method

to understand the other nation’s culture. From

the research, it can be seen that USA and

Australia follow the same guidelines

regarding their recruitment and employment,

which is no one gets to join based on good

relations. A person has to prove his worth in

order to get employed. And since the

Australian Company refuses to even take

members from the family it would be a

recommended to give away the guidelines to

the Chinese workers who are more relation

oriented to set up their mind and prepare

themselves to prove themselves. Since

Australian and the American workers would

not be having much of a difference in views

hence no such recommendations are needed

for the running of the business in USA.

However, in China for Australia to fructify

their business they have to send their own

managers to take over the group of people

from China and aware them of the cultural

ways to handle business the Australian way.

Since the Chinese managers would be trained

beforehand during their education it would be

a bit easier for them to understand their ways

of working. Whereas the less educated

workers from the factories should be given

the basic knowledge of what to do and what

no to do to retain their employment since

Australians take competency levels to be the

most prioritized thing.

6.2. CROSS CULTURAL TRANING

When the company start recruiting people

from the USA and China, after that they

have to give some cultural training to them.

So that they can work together with

Australian. The cultural training and

interactive session can help them to

understand the culture of two different

nations and it will also create a positive

work culture in the workshop.

Cross cultural training on host

country’s language for management and

higher authorities are also important things,

which create a good relationship between the

management and employees. According to


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the Ashamalla (1998), cross cultural training

should be accompanied by the foreign

language training, because knowledge of the

host country’s language will help employees

and management to stay and work in host

country (Haniggan, 1990). Knowledge of

local language helps to reduce the

misunderstanding between the coworkers and

the management people. According to some

author fluency in language can improve

effectiveness and negotiating ability

(Dowling, 2005) (Haniggan, 1990).

Training plays a fundamental part in

encouraging attitude of employees and

management. For example, it is very

important for some time to work together as

a group, which increases the productivity of

the workshop. So, change the culture of the

USA employees or vice versa of Chinese

employees training is the only process which

can change the attitude of employees. At the

same time, Chinese management also should

improve their ability to share the information

with their subordinate (Hofstede G. , 1983).

Along with the training of the language and

the other related to communication, proper

knowledge about the time difference of the

places should be there. Sometime due to

different time zone problems are created.

Special trainers from both the parties should

be sent to the opposite parties to give them the

introduction of the work place as well as their

rule and guidelines of the country so that

when any representative sent to the related

countries does not face any issues (Murphy,

2005).

6.3. INTEGRATED STRATEGIES INTO

THE USA AND CHINA

The head quarter country should always

follow the system or strategy for the host

country which controlled by the host

country’s management (Trompenaars F. ,

1996).Respecting to the company’s

management model, the administrative

system should be formulated based on the

host country’s culture. The strategy to get the

benefit from the host country’s culture by

treating it as an enhancement rather than a

risk (Bhattacharyya, 2010). The Australian

company’s management should follow a

proper strategy to gain competitive advantage

from both the host country, the USA and

China.

Another point that can be put to light

is that Chinese employees are rewarded for

their group work, not like Australia or the

USA where individual work is praised by the

management. Therefore, Australian

company’s management should set a

different type of reward system for Chinese


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employees (Trompenaars & Hampden-

Turner, 1997). The motivation system should

be adapted with different cultures because the

office environment differs in different

countries. To keep the Chinese workers

motivated, groups treat or a vocational treat

should be given to get them relaxed after a big

job. In USA, however a raise in the salary

would satisfy the workers because of their

universalism.

6.4. ESTABLISHING A SINGLE

CORPORATE CULTURE

Maintaining a single corporate culture

is very important for any newly Alliance

Company, because in some culture people

give more value to family and in some

society, they give value to their hard work or

merit. So, this can create a conflict between

employees and management as well.

According to the employees thinking,

learning and how employees can motivate

and resolve clashes based on that researcher

divided the corporate culture in four parts

(Trompenaars & Hampden-Turner, 1997).

Those are 1) The family, 2) The Eiffel tower,

3) The guided missile and 4) The incubator.

So, based on the country’s environment,

organization should implement the corporate

culture. Company like Walmart in USA is

very successful in employee relationship

because of their single corporate culture.

Their employees and management both are

very strict to maintain the corporate culture of

their company (Kampf, 2007).

According to the Trompenaars &

Hampden-Turner (1997), there are three

aspects of corporate structure which regulate

the corporate culture:

1. The relationship between the

company and their employees,

2. The hierarchical system of authority,

which describe the bosses and juniors.

3. The view of employees about the

company’s goal and purpose and their

role in it.

6.5. ESTABLISHING EFFECTIVE HR

POLICY AND PRACTICES

Characteristics which include personality,

loyalty, cultural similarity and skills can have

impact on the success of the cross-border

alliance. It can be a very important

contribution of human resource management

that can insure section based on those

characteristics and in addition to that they

should be supported and rewarded. In

establishing an appropriate structure as both

parents are interested in the success of the

cross border alliance, as the part of

negotiation both of the team need to involve

in key decision making (Arino & Reuer,


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2004).To make the HR policies and practices

effective for local adaption in the

implementation stage more development

should be left with the host company but on

the other hand it may not be effective for

global integration, parents and learning

transfer (Child & Faulkner, 1998). Therefore,

high quality managers need to develop HR

policy and practices considering the

sensitivity of the parents. Possibly some

policies like environmental standard, ethics

and safety should meet the parent standard

whereas other policies such as benefits,

compensation and working hours can be

adaptable locally. For Australians, the

working environment is set as for the hours of

work they should do in a day so if such a

representative is sent to China where the

employees focus more on completing the

work and not the usual working hours, the

person might face problems regarding that.

Hence suitable working hours should be set

for both the parties so that there could be a

harmony amongst then to work together.

CONCLUSIONS

Thermal fatigue behavior of plasma sprayed

YSZ from the above assessment, it can be

concluded that Alliances happen when a

company goes into a contract of joining with

another country and when this happen across

different borders of the countries it is called

Cross Border Alliances. We talked about

Small and Medium Scale entities and their

relative problems surrounding the human

resource department. The company here is an

Australian SME company planning to expand

their operations in USA and China. In that

regard, we discussed about the probable

problems that might take place in cross

border alliances because there is a varied

influence of cultures in the national

environment as well as the corporate working

environment. The basic problems that have

been mentioned here are the problems

regarding the national culture, which say that

if Australia wants to alliance with USA they

would not be facing much problems because

they both follow the same culture. Whereas if

Australia goes to China for this alliance their

view would clash since China follows a

different culture all together. The Second

Issue is of the corporate working culture

which can also be of clash between China and

Australia because the working culture of

Chinese employees is totally different than

that to Australians which are Chinese people

like to work in groups and Australian like

working alone. Both these issues have been

backed up by the Hofstede and Trompenaars


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theories of Culture. The Third Issue is the

Human Resource Issue which again states the

difference of working between China and

Australia in respect to the acceptance of

rewards for completion of work. In Australia,

due to the individualistic attitude they tend to

work alone and would only accept the reward

individual. Whereas in China due to the

collectivist type of working environment the

employees work in groups and they would

only accept rewards if given to the whole

group. The Chinese also practice etiquettes

like smoking and drinking with the clients

during meetings and if a person refuses to

then that is considered as rudeness, whereas

in Australia no such practice is done so this is

another point where a clash can take place. In

the regard of these issues, some

recommendations are given which if put to

light would help the company to have a

successful alliance with both the countries.

LIMITATIONS

Some limitations of this study are the

following:

1. This paper is built on only one case

study of an Australian Company.

Furthermore, the authors feel that for

Australia, these factors hold good

anywhere in the nation for alliances of

SMEs.

2. We dealt the firm in its own

individual setting. The effects of any

clusters and associated social network

relationships on the alliance was not

considered.

3. Further confirmatory studies could

be done based on survey.

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