ABSTRACT
Organizations wishing to effectively attract, retain, motivate and satisfy a high-quality diverse workforce must recognize cultural differences, respect them and reconcile them. Malcolm Gladwell describes the potential impact of cultural influences when reporting on research into the causes of numerous airplane crashes by Korean Air. Cultural differences within the workforce raise critical issues for human resource management practitioners. Concepts such as formal appraisals and rewards based on individual performance have proven devilishly difficult to implement and to make work effectively in some parts of the world. In order for performance appraisal to be effective in a task-focused, individualistic, universalistic culture a number of prerequisites must be in place. The highly individualistic cultures fitting the Western/Northern profile favor doing individual appraisals that involve direct and specific feedback. The increased use of global teams, consisting of members from different occupations or functions, different countries and different organizational levels, raises a number of issues relating to rewards strategy.
