The Human Resources Challenge of Huawei —- Cultural clash

Introduction

Background
of Huawei

In 1987, Ren Zhengfei, then 44 years old, founded a telecom equipment-trading firm in Shenzhen, China, with startup capital of CNY 21,000. By the end of 2014, Huawei had 170,000 employees in more than 170 countries and regions, serving more than one-third of the world’s population, and leading the world in international patent applications. Over 30 years, it has grown to become the largest telecom company in the world. As well as that, it has operations and representative offices in more than 100 countries and serves over 1 billion users worldwide. Huawei’s success boils down to two fundamental elements: the changing technology environment and the creativity of its people, so we can realize that employees play a very important role in Huawei and the human resources management is very crucial to Huawei

Human
resources challenges of Huawei

According to Fang Lee Cooke (The
International Journal of Human Resource Management, 2012, p.1845), there are
several challenge to HRM in host countries and management responses of Huawei. First,
because salaries are based on performance levels, inexperienced local new hires
may have lower wages. Second, unlike local employment laws, as foreign
companies, they need to comply more strictly with these laws than China. Third,
how to strike a balance between employee development and cost-effective
employee disbursement is sometimes a dilemma because HCN employees need
training and development opportunities and then leave more famous Western
multinationals. Fourth, multiculturalism and diversity management is another
issue. Huawei may be one of the few Chinese companies that actively adopt the
concept of multiculturalism and diversity management. Fifth, the lack of
approval from local employees and their employers and the lack of acceptance of
the corporate culture of Chinese enterprises are a double challenge to the
issue of retention.

The
key challenge

Cultural clash is one of the key human resources
aspects that affected Huawei. Huawei as a multinational company, the objective
existence of the company’s internal cultural differences, is bound to cause
cultural conflicts in the enterprise. As the process of global integration
accelerates and the flow of human resources in multinational enterprises like
Huawei continues to accelerate, this cultural friction will increase day by day
and gradually begin to manifest itself in the internal management and external
operation of transnational corporations, resulting in the loss of market
opportunities for transnational corporations and the inefficiency of the
organizational structure and make the implementation of the global strategy in
trouble. Therefore, this essay will attempt to demonstrate how the Huawei can
solve this problem and develop better for its brighter future using human
resources management practices.

Main
discussions

Huawei’s
problem of human resources

While Huawei successfully achieved its
trans-national development, Huawei also encountered many challenges in its
human resources management. The transnational management practice of Huawei
shows that one of the important factors that affect transnational management is
that various cultural conflicts arise from the differences in value orientation
and behavior among people from different cultural backgrounds. How to realize
the absorption and integration of culture has become a problem that Huawei
constantly solves in transnational management.

How
to solve the cultural conflict of human resource management in Huawei

With the continuous expansion and
development of overseas affiliates of Huawei, Huawei conducts cross-cultural human
resources management mainly through the following tactics:

1. Localization strategy

Localization strategy which means the
concept of global adaptation is the business trying to integrate into the
target market, and strive to become a target market strategy adopted. The
essence of “localization” is the process of multinational
corporations integrating production, marketing, management and personnel into
the economy of the host country in an all-round way. Generally, they conduct a
series of surveys to understand the actual local economy, culture and customs. At
Huawei’s overseas offices, everyone strives to create an atmosphere in which
everyone, regardless of nationality and race, is a Huawei employee. Both
Chinese and foreign cultures constantly collide and merge with each other.
Under the influence of Huawei’s culture, Huawei is gradually presenting its
diversified and international characteristics. With the gradual implementation
of “localization” business strategy, the ratio of Chinese and foreign
employees in overseas institutions of Huawei continuously changes.

• Culturally compatible strategy

Culturally compatible strategy is also the
most important thing which need to understand the differences between different
cultural concepts. Therefore, Huawei needs to integrate cultural differences
into the overall marketing strategy to ensure that the realization of business
goals will always be a major issue. For instance, Huawei’s employees in
Uzbekistan’s offices regularly attend local weddings, travel to cities on
holidays, watch ballets and learn about local culture and customs. Whenever an
employee is on his birthday, everyone congratulates on sending a gift
collectively.

• Cross-cultural training strategy

Huawei implements cross-cultural training
strategy. As international enterprises become the most important intercultural
organizations in the world, the source of human resources is increasingly
showing an international trend among a considerable number of enterprises. More
and more people of different colors become colleagues. The employees from
different countries and nations have different cultural backgrounds. Employees’
values, needs, attitudes and behaviors are quite different. Such cultural
differences within the enterprise inevitably lead to cultural conflicts. At the
same time, due to cultural differences, the human resources management
concepts, human resources management systems and methods of different countries
vary. As a result, the human resources management concepts and management
methods among the managers in the enterprises also continuously impact and
collide. In the daily operation of enterprises and foreign exchanges, if
employees are lack of the knowledge and skills of intercultural communication,
the differences between cultures will create misunderstandings and unnecessary
friction, which will affect the work efficiency and reduce the competitiveness
of enterprises. Therefore, the cultural difference is also an obstacle that
must be overcome in the internationalization and transnational management of
human resources. Huawei employees will receive relevant training in the
training department before leaving the country, such as the local cultures and
related products. Daily training also includes seminars, language training,
books, websites, discussion and simulation exercises and more. These trainings
enhance the adaptability of employees with different cultural backgrounds and
promote communication and understanding among people of different cultural
backgrounds. Through continuous cross-cultural training, cross-cultural
awareness has gradually developed among employees and learned to regard
cultural differences as differences without distinction between good and bad,
helping employees to be good at standing with people of different cultural
backgrounds considering each other’s point of view, cross-cultural conflicts
are greatly reduced.

• Common values management.

A reason why a company can become a good
company, a very important reason is that it has successfully created a kind of
core values ​​and mission to enable all employees heartfelt identity, as the
core values ​​of the enterprise culture once being all staff sincerely agree or
share, it will affect people’s thinking and behavior patterns. HuangWeiwei
(dedication – the Huawei Philosophy of Human Resources Management) claims that Huawei
doesn’t like to make too much money. And the profits are not its motive – growth
is. This aspect of the enterprise culture is what drives its HRM policies and
approaches. In addition to regulating and managing overseas institutions under
Huawei’s business conditions, Huawei’s corporate culture restricts every
employee’s behavior in an invisible ideology. Even away from overseas, the
militarized management style from Huawei headquarters is still not diminished.
Huawei believes that only those who persist in fighting unjustly for the
collective can form a united community. Therefore, Huawei advocates
desire-driven, decent means, so that the formation of a group of vigorous, good
management style. Huawei believes that unity and cooperation, collective
struggle is the soul of Huawei. No one in Huawei has the privilege, and
everyone shares the common aspiration and hardship, equality for all. Any
individual interest must serve the collective interests and integrate
individual efforts into the enterprise. Huawei integrated this common value,
the entire enterprise burst out of the incredible combat effectiveness. So we
could realize that in human resources management, only understanding cultural
differences and respecting multi-culture can improve the ability of
cross-cultural management.

Suggestions
for Huawei Cross-cultural Human Resources Management

Under the multi-cultural background, the
core of human resource management lies in how to integrate the scattered and
isolated functions, responsibilities and activities in human resource
management. By coordinating the operation of human beings and creating the
competitive advantage of enterprises. In order to give play to this advantage
of enterprises, Huawei can consider the following aspects in implementing
cross-cultural human resources management:

Firstly, Huawei should strengthen cross-cultural
selection and training. Cross-cultural selection and training can enhance
people’s responsiveness and adaptability to different cultural traditions,
promote communication and understanding among people of different cultural
backgrounds, mitigate cultural conflicts and enhance teamwork and corporate
cohesion. The specific measure is that Huawei should try to select those who
have the skills and qualities of a global manager. They should love the new
culture, have the adventurous spirit, have strong interpersonal skills and work
hard with people from different cultures to understand their opinions and
attitudes. Such a global manager can adapt to the requirements of cultural
integration and they also have to attend a series of trainings about the language,
culture and personal occupation of so as to better adapt to the future work. Huawei
should also adopt some new cross-cultural training methods, such as setting up
intercultural communication programs, setting up “global service
projects” and setting up business institutes.

Secondly, based on the common understanding
of culture, Huawei should establish the strong corporate culture according to
the requirements of the external environment and the strategic development of
the company. It helps Huawei not only to reduce cultural conflicts, so that
each employee can put their thoughts and behavior with the company’s business
operations and objectives together, but also to make the subsidiary and the
parent company closer. At the same time, it can establish a good reputation in
the international market and enhance the transnational corporations’ ability of
cultural change.

Thirdly, Huawei should enhance cross-cultural
communication. In order to ensure the effective implementation of effective
communication in cross-cultural enterprises, Huawei must establish a culture of
mutual understanding and mutual respect between management, management and
employees as well as between the company and the outside. In addition, Huawei must
actively establish a variety of formal and informal, effective and invisible
cross-cultural communication organizations and channels, so that every employee
in the enterprise have more opportunities to express their opinions. Some
successful companies often organize seminars, classes and language training
within the enterprise and enhance the role of managers by effectively promoting
communication with people, teams and organizations through the use of media
such as books, bulletin boards, websites, videos and television. As a result
Huawei could improve business efficiency and maximize the effectiveness of
cross-cultural human resources management.

Fourthly, Huawei should enhance the
localization of employees. As local managers have a deep understanding of local
culture, they are easily accepted by employees and at the same time provide a
promotion channel for local employees. Therefore, they have strong incentives.
Local employees are familiar with the local customs, market dynamics and
government regulations, hiring local employees will undoubtedly facilitate
cross-cultural enterprises in the local market development and gain a firm
foothold. In the development of intercultural human resources, most large
multinational corporations have proposed the strategy of employees’
localization and continuously raised the proportion of senior and middle-level
managers in the country. The management concept of “local affairs managed
by local people” is being gradually realized. To some extent, the
implementation of this concept can make cross-cultural enterprises eliminate
cultural friction, develop their own adaptability to local culture, and its
unique foreign culture affect the host country’s cultural environment, showing
a company’s great tolerance to multiculturalism , So Huawei could attract more
outstanding employees and enhance their competitiveness. Through the above
measures, the effectiveness of cross-cultural human resources management at
Huawei will be greatly enhanced so that enterprises can implement effective and
strategic personnel planning in a multicultural environment.

Conclusions

With the continuous expansion and
development of Huawei’s overseas subsidiaries, Huawei, as the leading telecom
solution provider in the world, has faced the challenge which is cultural
conflicts in the implementation of human resources management. In order to
solve the conflicts caused by cultural differences, Huawei implement
cross-cultural human resources management, mainly through the implementation of
localization strategies, cultural compatibility strategies, cross-cultural
training and common values management strategies.

Huawei mainly implements localization
strategy when implementing cross-cultural human resources management, including
staff localization, localization management, R & D localization and
localization of partners. There are more than 100 countries around the world
applying their products. International markets have become the main source of
Huawei’s sales. In all countries and regions, Huawei has set up hundreds of
branches and dozens of research institutes. More than half of its employees are
local employees, and more and more local employees have become local technical
backbone. Huawei has established training centers around the world, which
greatly enhance Huawei’s ability to provide high-quality training in these
regions. While maintaining sound management, Huawei persists in its localized
operation globally and has made great contributions to its countries and
regions. As well as that, Huawei has established branches in more than 100
countries around the world, investing locally, setting up sales and service
offices, research and development centers, training centers, technical support
centers and factories, and hiring local staff. This not only deepens Huawei’s
understanding of the local market, but also raises the local employment rate,
enhances the technical level of local engineers and promotes the development of
the local economy. In addition, Huawei regards employee training as the most
basic level of cross-cultural management. Cross-cultural training for
employees, including training on basic knowledge of culture, training on
cultural conflicts, and training on cultural adaptability, has been conducted.
In terms of value management, Huawei’s corporate culture affects every employee
as an invisible ideology. Huawei creates the unique “wolf” corporate
culture and it requires employees to develop the habit of learning, to have a
good learning ability and a unique sense of innovation and awareness.

In summary, cross-cultural human resources management
has an important impact on the survival and development of Huawei and also
plays an important role in the productivity of Huawei. A successful human
resources management will bring a value-added effect of 1 + 1> 2 to the enterprise,
otherwise, it will have a negative impact and hinder the development of the
enterprise.

References

Fang Lee Cooke The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 2012, p.1845

Huang Weiwei Dedication — the Huawei Philosophy of Human Resources Management

Huawei The
startup that became the largest telecom company in the world