If I were a manager tasked to transfer several managers from my manufacturing company in the US to manage the opening up of a new facility in Nigeria, I would have to do an extensive amount of research on that country before making such a decision. The wireless phone industry is a very big and competitive industry. It has become a serious part of technology that everyone uses as a form of communication and is almost necessary worldwide. The Company that I would use in this scenario is a wireless phone company, which of course would provide services such as regular land line phone services as well as internet services. There would be a lot that I would need to plan and organize before sending out managers from the US to Nigeria.
In order to make this transition of our company to Nigeria successful, I would have to look at the communication differences between the U.S. and Nigeria as well as the differences of the types of products that they have and that we offer. I would also need to analyze the expected communication issues and be prepared to recommend corrective actions. Apart from those things, it would be very important for me to breakdown the cultural and workforce differences between the U.S. and Nigeria and how these differences could possibly create HRM issues for my U.S. management team such as jobs, motivation and other HRM issues.
It is very crucial that a country has more than one way to communicate not only to its citizens but to the world. The bigger the country is the more forms of communication it will need. In the U.S, we have more than enough ways to communicate. We have communication forms such as, television, newspapers, press releases, telephone services, the internet, telecom, magazines, word of mouth and much more. In Nigeria they are pretty much moving with the times and have most of the same forms of communication as do we, but the difference lies in the quantity and the quality of these forms of communication. Sure they have the internet and phones services, even newspapers and put out press releases, but these things are not as mastered in quality as they are in the U.S. and they are not put out as frequently and as quickly as they are in the U.S. Being that these outlet of communication are not used often for whatever reason, we would have to find out why and how we can increase the level of usage with these forms of communication. While trying to get the Nigerian citizens and emploees familiar with our company and our products, we may run into several issues. People may not be as responsive because they do not receive the message, they are not used to the forms of communication that we use to try to reach out to them with or they cannot afford it.
In order to correct these actions, I will prepare my management mentally for these possibilities and draw up other solutions to correct this issue. Some of the things that I would do to correct these issues are to make sure there is proper training that is done amongst all employees, so that they understand what is going on with our company and what we are trying to do in Nigeria with our products. I would also hold meetings and workshops where representatives and employees from both countries share ideas and information about effective ways to communicate with the people. It would be very helpful to get ideas and information from the employees in Nigeria being that they know their country best. Although things may not be as effective the first time, I would ensure my employees and management of this and make sure they are aware that it may take more than one shot to get these people’s attention. I would try to introduce and reintroduce new forms of communication as many times as it may take them to get familiar with and accustomed to.

According to buyusa.gov (2008), Nigeria is the fastest growing export market in the whole of sub Saharan Africa. There are obviously some people who are familiar with the buisness market who could be helpful to the contribution of our company’s investment into the country. It would be necessary to search for means that could help us identify all of our recourses and options, capitalize on other business opportunities, find local partners, promote our products and services and provide useful market reports and insights that would benefit our company in the future.
There are many cultural and workforce differences between Nigeria and the U.S. that requires serious research and solution techniques in order to make this operation smooth and beneficial for both countries. The U.S. is a free country that promotes many freedom acts such as freedom of speech, the right to assembly and many more. Nigeria on the other hand has a more strict government that prohibits such acts and unfortunately affects the culture of their society as well as things throughout the workforce in Nigeria. According to the ICFTU (2006), restrictions exist in Nigeria with regard to freedom of association, collective bargaining and the right to strike, including export processing zones and anti-union policies are applied by their government. It is important that these laws, rules and restrictions are looked at when it comes to opening up a new facility in another country, because you must respect their territory. Although it is your facility and your products, it is still their land and you must adjust your rules and regulations accordingly. They must be careful how and to whom they sell your products to. Other differences are that the U.S. is more experienced and educated on the phone industry being that we have been working with these products for some time now and use this form of communication more frequently. More of our citizens have and use these services, than the citizens of Nigeria. This means that proper and full training must take effect in Nigeria amongst the new employees that will be working in our facility, so that they truly understand every aspect of the company and our products.
If these differences are not taken into consideration, they could cause issues. They could cause issues between employees and management, their government and our company, how their country does business with the U.S. in the future and most importantly overall HRM issues. If the differences between both countries both culturally and in the workforce are not looked at and properly assessed, people will not know what they are doing because they are not exactly sure how to do it, because of the differences that have. If people are not familiar with the way things work, there will be no motivation to work, because they will not understand how and why they are pushing the product and also their purpose in the whole operation. This can be detrimental to the company and could lead to the failure of your company in that country. When this happens the management will have to invest more money into workshops and other effective ways to pick up the employee motivation. This also takes up time money and loss of opportunities when time is spent on these issues. So it is important to look at these differences and plan accordingly in order to accommodate them first off.
Being that this is a new facility in a new country that has cultural and workforce differences, management might run into issues where employees will need more supervision because they are unfamiliar with the product. There will need to be a more specific plan of job descriptions and even more jobs that are designed to make sure the development of things are going smoothly. Because of these issues, more time and money may need to be spent on developing these new jobs. There may need to be more developmental and motivational teams as well as more supervisors initially. These job descriptions will need to be fully mapped out with very specific task descriptions, and designed effectively so that future problems that will require time and money will not be necessary.
Either way you look at it, staring a new business or opening a new branch/facility in another country is not easy. Proper time and thought must be assessed to the whole process before making such a big jump. Differences between your country and the country where you want to open your company up in must be looked at carefully and planned for accordingly. Extensive research of the market must also be done as well in order to see what your working with, what problems you may face so that you can be prepared for them, and what you will need to change so that it abides by the country policies. If all of these things are done correctly, then your operation should almost always run smoothly.
References
(2008) Web site: http:// www.profilesinternational.com
(2008) Web site: http:// www.buyusa.gov
(2006) Web site: http://www.icftu.org/www/pdf/clsnigeriareport.pdf