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International HRM

Since I am an international student who likes to travel the writing choice was easy, and I chose to write about the country where I would like to go to work outside the U.S.

I have a lot of international experiences under my belt, however, I have never visited Israel. Therefore, the country I would go to work in would be Israel. I have a good friend from there and I always wanted to learn more about that country. Israel has a culture that is similar to Serbia (where I am from originally), the people are friendly, hospitality is important for them, the language is Hebrew, the currency they use is called Shekel (which is weaker than the dollar so I would prefer to keep my salary to be in dollars if possible) and there are many religious rules that are followed strictly.

Based on Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, Israel is a blend between individualism and collectivism, they are a blend between masculinity and femininity as well (in religious parts of the country it tends to be more masculine culture), the country is consider to have small power distance, they have strong uncertainty avoidance as they prefer rules over anarchy, and Israel has long-term orientation when it comes to the understanding of immediate vs future benefits. Therefore, Israel is different than the U.S. based on their uncertainty avoidance as the U.S. people would handle the uncertainty better than people in Israel and by the fact that the U.S. is short term oriented culture.

The factors that I would consider when taking on this opportunity would be the language barrier (hard to learn Hebrew), the fact that Israel is high context culture in contrast to the U.S. (I really like that), the fact that I would prefer the long term orientation over the short term, and the other differences such as food (that is great in Israel based on my friend’s experience) and religion (that is very strict in certain regions).

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Personal and Organizational Stress Management

After I completed the calculation for the “Life Stress Inventory,” I figured that I am not in the best spot because my score was pretty high. I think that this is normal given my current life circumstances. I had a tough few months so I was not surprised by this score.

When I finished the “Coping and Stress Management Skills Test” I figured that I was using problem-focused coping mechanisms, and when I completed the “Type A Personality Test” I came out to be a pretty impatient and irritable person which is completely opposite of who I am on regular basis.

From the tests mentioned above, I learned that I am a pretty stressed out person at the moment, that I get irritated quick, and that my coping strategy is problem-focused coping which means that I am looking for solutions and that is the only way that I can make a peace with myself (if I tried to find a solution). This is hard because some things might be out of my control but in my nature is to try everything to control the environment. Therefore, if that happens I might need to consult someone with better coping mechanisms. I am usually a very calm person but at this moment I had too many events/stressors, so to fix this I should learn new coping strategies and talk to people around me that know how to deal with stress in order to help me.

When it comes to organizations, they try to help employees to manage their stress by “encouraging workplace wellbeing, improving work environment (e.g. Amazon with its botanic offices in Seattle), allowing flexible hours and remote work (this happened a lot during COVID-19), encouraging social activity (creating activities outside of work to improve teamwork and to bring people together), creating quite a time, providing counseling, and by recognizing employees” (Ryba, 2019). All of these strategies are important for the productivity of the company or the organization.

Reference:

Ryba, K. (n.d.). 7 simple ways to reduce stress in the workplace. Employee Engagement Software. https://www.quantumworkplace.com/future-of-work/7-ways-employees-can-reduce-stress-in-the-workplace.