Adopting foreign management practices

The innovativeness of Filipinos has been proven over time.

We would often hear people say “Ang galing talaga ng Pinoy!” (The Filipino is really good!) when foreign ideas are adopted and transformed into concepts or tools that better fit the Filipinos’ unique needs.

We ‘Filipinize’ entertainment, products, politics and all sundry services that globalization brings, remaking them in such a way that the word “Filipino” becomes not only a nationality but also a brand.

This very much applies to Human Resources Management (HRM).

The concepts and methods of HRM largely originated from Western viewpoints and are now being adapted to Filipino businesses.

The appropriateness of these methods and their effects on organizational outcomes were discussed in a study by Galang in 2004, where the driving question was whether HRM practices in one country are applicable to another.

The study

Filipino respondents from the top 1,000 corporations were asked to evaluate statements exploring applicability of HRM practices in the United States and Canada to Philippine organizations.

Of the 48 statements, the researcher identified the five most applicable and five least applicable practices to Filipino organizations.

Practicality governs the top five practices: Filipinos and Americans agree on the importance of prior related/similar work experience to the job being applied for; the propensity of the applicant to meet and improve through training for technical job requirements, which leads to the assurance of the potential to do a good job; and the invaluable merit of performance appraisals.

The least applicable practices reflect cultural and contextual nuances.

The following practices were found to be uncommon in Filipino organizations: basing the hiring criterion on the applicant’s connections and the opinions of his future co-workers; lack of top management support regarding health and safety programs for employees and work sites; and updating of the pay system to reflect future directions.

Comparisons

When the results of the survey were compared with the US and Canadian data, it was found that HRM in the Philippines is mostly based on American theories and practices.

Filipinos seem more than adept at applying and embracing foreign methods. However, deep-seated cultural beliefs remain hard to displace, as evidenced by the Filipino organization’s varying reactions and seeming dislike for competitiveness.

We are more inclined to work together than against each other, and we make use of certain methods not because they are the best but because they are most beneficial to all.

Given the above findings, we can say that the designs generated in the West come as valid bases for the HRM practices in the Philippines. Culture and context, may these be organizational or national in essence, affect these adaptations.

What should be considered, as the author noted, is not the similarity of the practices themselves, but the impact of these practices on employees and organizations.

Camille Tuason is a BA Psychology student at Miriam College. This article was based on “The transferability question: comparing HRM practices with the US and Canada” found in the International Journal of Human Resource Managament (2004) by Maria Carmen Galang. For feedback, e-mail [email protected].