Week 6 Discussion 1 Response Guided Response: Respond to at least two of your fellow students’ or instructor posts in a substantive manner and provide information or concepts that they may not have considered. Each response should have a minimum of 100 words. Support your position by using information from the week’s readings. You are encouraged to post your required replies earlier in the week to promote more meaningful and interactive discourse in this discussion forum. Two Discussions are below Lisa James For my Global Marketing Plan, I elected to open a Walmart in New Zealand. The immediate appeal of New Zealand for me was the similarities between the country and the United States. Walmart has attempted to open locations in countries such as South Korea, Germany, and India in the past and has been met with hardship due to political and cultural differences. New Zealand seems like a wiser choice based on the similarities, as well as the need in the country for goods due to its remote location. Geert Hofstede created a model based on his identification of five dimensions of cultural variation in values in 50 countries and three regions (Cascio & Aguinis, 2019). The dimensions are based on basic issues that countries deal with but handle in various ways. The five dimensions include power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism, masculinity, and long-term versus short-term orientation (Cascio & Aguinis, 2019). New Zealand has many similarities to the US, so it is natural that they identify similarly in the five dimensions of cultural variation. The dimension that New Zealand falls best under as a low tolerance is power distances. Holmes (2018) states that "New Zealanders do not comfortably tolerate explicit demonstrations of power, and people typically seek ways of reducing status differences and of emphasising equality with their colleagues" (pg. 36). New Zealand does have native cultures, such as the Maori, however much of the country is a melting pot. This has led to the nation to be very focused on equality and not viewing others above different groups. Understanding this dimension of cultural value, as well as where New Zealand stands on the others is important from a talent management perspective because it is important to hire employees based on job-fit. If an employee needs a structure where there are very clearly defined lines and relationships for leadership, they may not be a good fit into an organization in New Zealand where everyone is treated the same. Additionally, it is important for an outside country to understand the cultural demands of the nation they are entering in order to attract and retain top talent. Employees want to know that the company they are employed by shares the same values as them and the patrons they serve. David Geusen My Walmart Case Study was focused on Walmart expanding to Philippines. The Hofstede model encompasses five dimensions of cultural variations in values: power distance, ...

1. Week 6 Discussion 1 Response
Guided Response: Respond to at least two of your fellow
students’ or instructor posts in a substantive manner and
provide information or concepts that they may not have
considered. Each response should have a minimum of 100
words. Support your position by using information from the
week’s readings. You are encouraged to post your required
replies earlier in the week to promote more meaningful and
interactive discourse in this discussion forum.
Two Discussions are below
Lisa James
For my Global Marketing Plan, I elected to open a Walmart in
New Zealand. The immediate appeal of New Zealand for me was
the similarities between the country and the United States.
Walmart has attempted to open locations in countries such as
South Korea, Germany, and India in the past and has been met
with hardship due to political and cultural differences. New
Zealand seems like a wiser choice based on the similarities, as
well as the need in the country for goods due to its remote
location.
Geert Hofstede created a model based on his identification of
five dimensions of cultural variation in values in 50 countries
and three regions (Cascio & Aguinis, 2019). The dimensions are
based on basic issues that countries deal with but handle in
various ways. The five dimensions include power distance,
uncertainty avoidance, individualism, masculinity, and long-
term versus short-term orientation (Cascio & Aguinis, 2019).
New Zealand has many similarities to the US, so it is natural
that they identify similarly in the five dimensions of cultural
variation. The dimension that New Zealand falls best under as a

2. low tolerance is power distances. Holmes (2018) states that
"New Zealanders do not comfortably tolerate explicit
demonstrations of power, and people typically seek ways of
reducing status differences and of emphasising equality with
their colleagues" (pg. 36). New Zealand does have native
cultures, such as the Maori, however much of the country is a
melting pot. This has led to the nation to be very focused on
equality and not viewing others above different groups.
Understanding this dimension of cultural value, as well as
where New Zealand stands on the others is important from a
talent management perspective because it is important to hire
employees based on job-fit. If an employee needs a structure
where there are very clearly defined lines and relationships for
leadership, they may not be a good fit into an organization in
New Zealand where everyone is treated the same. Additionally,
it is important for an outside country to understand the cultural
demands of the nation they are entering in order to attract and
retain top talent. Employees want to know that the company
they are employed by shares the same values as them and the
patrons they serve.
David Geusen
My Walmart Case Study was focused on Walmart expanding to
Philippines. The Hofstede model encompasses five dimensions
of cultural variations in values: power distance, masculinity,
individualism, long-term vs short-term orientation, and
uncertainty avoidance (Cascio & Aguinis, 2019). Based on my
review of the Hofstede model, the Philippines falls under power
distance. The Philippines is a hierarchical society and
subordinates in the Philippines expect to be told what to do

3. (Hofstede Insights, 2019). This means that the average
employee should respond well to direct orders and the employee
will respect that order. I feel that we could take this one step
further and say that engagement is expected from employees.
Human capital talent management could vary from country to
country based on our understanding of the culture. If talent
management is unaware of a country's culture variation in
values, then they could potentially create a program that is
ineffective. In the Philippines, if an implemented talent
management practice is focused on team building and equal
engagement, then it may not be as effective as a practice that is
structured and led by one person. By understanding the
variations in values in a culture, the organization could have a
better understanding of motivation, leadership, and
organizational behavior (Cascio & Aguinis, 2019).
Week 6 Discussion 2
Guided Response: Respond to at least two of your fellow
students’ or instructor posts in a substantive manner and
provide information or concepts that they may not have
considered. Each response should have a minimum of 100
words. Support your position by using information from the
week’s readings. You are encouraged to post your required
replies earlier in the week to promote more meaningful and
interactive discourse in this discussion forum.
2 of Discussion 2 is below
Kyle Jablonski
Alex Edmans discusses why do companies exist and possess the
options between, for profit or for purpose? He makes an
argument first for the conventional way. That business needs to

4. have good products and good employees to have profit. So
profits are the main focus everything else will follow. He then
speaks about corporate social responsibility which states that if
you focus on the purpose, profits will certainly follow. He then
gives evidence with a study that took 4 years which analyzes
100 of the best companies to work for in America published by
Fortune magazine which looks at quantitative and qualitative
data. He then sets up control groups to isolate the companies
and not external factors. His findings were that between 1984-
2009, the stock returns were two to three percent higher per
year (TEDx Talks, 2015). He was analyzing the causation that
by treating employees with better will equate to higher profits.
The example of a company implementing social responsibility is
the company I currently work for, National which offers a wide
variety of benefits such a life insurance policy, matching 401k,
over a month of paid time off, and countless other benefits
including programs to get an undergrad or master degree paid
for. Things such as offering fitness classes and a sizable gym is
also something to improve their employees' style. In the
community programs such as honoring teachers with the Life
Changer of the year program and offering its employees
volunteer hours to get paid to service the community.
Lisa James
In his TEDx Talk entitled The Social Responsibility of Business
Alex Edna poses the question: do businesses exist, to earn a
profit or to serve a purpose to society (customer, employee, and
environment) (TEDx Talks, 2015). Through his talk, he
discusses that in order to stay in business, they must generate a
profit. However, he states that profits are not guaranteed and
that the way to help generate profit is to create happy
employees who are committed to the organizational goal. Pareek
(2019) seconds this when he states that "Businesses tend to
stay afloat in a turbulent competitive environment by raising the

5. customer satisfaction through
increasing employee satisfaction" (pg. 45). After discussing the
importance of organizational social responsibility and ensuring
that you invest in your employees, he loops back around to the
question - do businesses exist to generate profit or serve a
purpose to society? He states that the answer to the question is
simply, yes. The answer is not multiple choice because the
ability of a company to generate profit relies on the happiness
and job satisfaction of its employees.
Cascio and Aguinis (2019) state that organizational social
responsibility is a necessity for businesses of all sizes in order
to stay relevant in today's hypercritical and global economy.
Human resources management should be this near the top of
their list when looking at hiring a new employee. How can they
build not only a compensation and benefits package in order to
attract top talent and retain them, but also what can they do in
order to keep the employee happy and motivated to work toward
the organizational goals? It is expensive to hire and train
employees, so if HR management can invest initially in creating
programs or incentives to set themself apart from other
companies, it could help save money in the long run.
The company I work for offers an incentive for its employees in
February each year that is a percentage of their salary. There
are requirements in order to receive the incentive, such as be in
good standing with the company and meeting your goals, but the
investment they make in the employee is huge. A majority of
the employees of the company, which has about 30,000
employees, received an incentive of 14.5% of their salary.
Additionally, job search company, Indeed, offers unlimited
PTO, a fully stocked kitchen, catered lunch and breakfast one
time a week, and a bi-weekly in-office happy hour in order to
keep their employees happy (Headley, 2020).