An Exploratory Investigation into Management Styles within a Diverse Workforce at a Chinese multinational companies
Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Company Profile
Telecoms firm Huawei as a successful business in global market and were introduced into UK by UK Trade & Investment which helps overseas companies bring high-quality investment to the UK’s vibrant economy. After entering UK Huawei has led the way in the UK, having established a European HQ in Basingstoke and an R&D centre in Ipswich, which employ 500 people in all.
1.1.1 Background for research study
In order to create and sustain competitive advantage, a company should not only develop technologies to create products and satisfy customer needs, but also create a corporate culture that commits to continuous development (Pun et al, 2000).
As today's organizations are becoming complex, they are forced by external forces to make necessary changes such as the diversity of workforce, continual improvement and self-managing teams (Harris and Ogbonna 1998).
The team managing diversity is nowadays becoming more important to organizations in the multinational companies, not only because they are interested in diverse groups or they are up to date with the equal opportunities legislation and policies, but because they are facing important challenges related to the management and development within a diverse workforce in order to survive in today’s global marketplace (Edwards, 1991; Henderson 1994). Ten years ago, the majority of organizations did not even think about diversity in the workplace and benefit from it. (Liberman, 2003).
According to Mor Barak (2005), managing diversity is basically the bringing together of employees from different backgrounds. However, this definition does not take into account the influence that it might have on management behaviours. According to Harvey and Allard (2005), diversity can affect people’s interactions in the workplace since it requires changes not only in the way people interact within each other, but also changes in the functionality of the organization, hence in the business’s performance. Preferably, Taylor Cox (1994) defined managing diversity as "planning and implementing organizational systems and practices to manage people so that the potential advantages of diversity are maximized while its potential disadvantages are minimized". Diversity management is a key component of effective human resource management. It focuses on improving the performance of the organisation and building a culture of respect and inclusion. Respect for diversity also includes the range of individual skills, educational qualifications, work experience and background, languages and so on. (http://www.education.vic.gov.au/hrweb/divequity/divman.htm)
1.1.2 Company’s profile
Huawei entered Europe in 2000. Its presence in the region has been constantly growing and it now has branch offices in 26 European countries, Multiculturalism is a key element in the management of a global company like Huawei. In cross-cultural environments, it must treat the local employees in a way acceptable to the place where you are. (http://www.huawei.com/europe/en/catalog.do?id=-4)
After years of hard effort, Huawei is becoming more and more internationalized. Huawei’s products and solutions are used in over 100 countries and serve over one billion users worldwide. And Huawei has set up more than 100 branch offices in order to provide quick services to the customers. Also, it has established 12 R
