BHP Billiton Limited Mining Industry: Cross-Cultural And HRM Issues

BHP Billiton Limited Mining Industry Overview

The paper will provide information about the BHP Billiton Limited mining industry that has their business in Australia and also in China. Along with this the micro and macro environment that makes issues to the business are also discussed in the context. Furthermore, the paper also gives information about the cross-cultural and HRM issues related to the business.

The cross-cultural management refers managing a team with respect to their different culture, performances and customer needs in an international and global business. The company BHP Billiton Limited is an international company whose home company in Australia and it also runs an international business in China. The BHP Billiton Limited is a mining company which was founded in 1851 in Australia and its headquarters is in Melbourne (Andrews, 2016). Later on 13 August 1885, this company has started his business of mining in Australia. Formerly the company name has BHP limited and later in 2001 its name changes to BHP Billiton Limited. The main mining project was started in 2001 between the Broken Hill Proprietary (BHP) and the Anglo-Dutch Billiton and therefore the name becomes BHP Billiton Limited. In China, the BHP Billiton Company is named as Bi He Bi Tuo from October 2001. Being a team member my role is mainly to know the exploration pattern of the company. The company mainly explores petroleum, copper, iron ore, coal, gold and uranium. This company not only involves in mining process but also involves smelting and refining of nickel along with some marketing, trading, administrative services too. 

Starting any business operation in the international market is a very complex process. It creates many difficulties for a company to start a business. The macro and the micro environmental factor that affected the business of BHP Billiton limited in selecting China as one of its branches are as follows:

1. Economic environment: The economic environment includes the factors the affects the customer purchasing plans and that makes the growth of the business in the international market (Barnes, 2016). So the direct investment in the foreign country to build a mining industry was really a big issue. Apart from this the population growth also makes an issue for selecting BHP Billiton limited company to business in the country.
2. Political environment: Political factor includes both governmental and legal procedure. So for an international company to manage with that uncertain political situation become a critical factor. Since BHP Billiton Limited is an Australian company so maintaining the rules, regulation, and attitudes of another country makes them difficult for building the mining operations (Bice, 2014). Apart from this Chinese government are very strong and they control more than one-third of the economy from the business. Hence the government factors also make issues of making mining industry in China.
3. Salary rate of the worker: For selecting an international country for pursuing their business the company has to give a proper incentive to the worker (Bleischwitz et al., 2017). Since China is one of the most populated countries in the world so the cost of per day work of a labor was also high and hence it creates an issue for the company holders.  
4. Labour skills: Since BHP Billiton Limited is a mining industry so high skill labor is required for the mining operations. Hence a huge amount of money had invested by the company as skilled labor are not so much present in the country so they have to teach them about the operation and after that working had started (Blowfield, et al., 2017). Thus it takes a plenty of time for the company to make a mining industry in China.
5. Tax rates:  Every country has different tax rates nowadays. But after 2008, Chinas Government has decided to pay the tax for every small and medium business but before that, no such taxation system was present in China (Calvo, et al., 2016). So for building the mining industry in 2001 the Australian company BHP Billiton Limited does not pay any tax to the Chinese Government. Since it does not creates an issue for business in China.  
6. Transport and Infrastructure: A huge investment is required for transportation cost and also for maintaining the infrastructure of the company (Campisi & Caprioni, 2017). Since Australia is located on the southern part and China on the northern part so transportation costs of bringing the materials also take a huge investment and hence it also created some sorts of problems for the company to owned their business in China. 

Cross-culture is defined as the company motive for selling the product outside the country for gaining profit at a huge rate. This mainly refers to the participation of the company in the international market in respect of the religion, culture and different views that increase the business procedure (FERRARIS, et al., 2016). There are several cross-cultural issues arises in between Australia and China for developing the mining business internationally. They are:-

1. Power distribution: Power distribution is the factor on which the whole culture of a business depends. A high responsibility for power distribution makes a situation where the less powered employees have to accept the order of the major ones (Gilberthorpe and Hilson, 2016). China is considered as one of the most centralized countries in respect to government and society than the western countries. So the decision making power of China’s government is more than any other government and hence it creates a major issue for the Australian company BHP Billiton Limited for making their mining industry in this country. But nowadays the decision making the power of the Chinese government is started to reduce.  
2. Inadequate trust:  Trust is the main factor of a foundation of any successful business, and when the employees thought that they feel unsafe about their leader than no company will get profit in their business (Hubbard, and Moore, 2017). Lack of trust in between the employees in this Australian Company BHP Billiton Limited creates a major issue of pursuing their business in China. As the mentality of the people of China are quite different from that of the Australian society so the problem of expanding the business globally make them a huge problem. Apart from this, the language is also a big issue for the people as the manager speaks in their own language while the Chinese people speak in their own language so for not understanding the point a trust issue arises between them.
3. Perception: The perspective view of the workers of Australia makes them the superior one while they thought that the people of China are more inferior to them. So a contrasting issue has been created between the employees of both the country (Liang, et al., 2017). Apart from this, the Australian workers have a high level of tolerance for uncertainty than that of the Chinese workers. The Chinese workers have the tendency of taking risks but it causes a huge amount to be invested by the Australian managers and hence a conflict arises between the employees and the manager in the organization.
4. Individualism: Individualism in a business causes a huge problem in the business. The managers and the business leader of the Australian company become more prone to individualism. Their suggestion will be considered as the best for the better growth of the firm. This creates a huge issue for the Chinese workers for listening to the order of those international managers (Lodhia, and Martin, 2014). Nowadays the Australian worker changes their strategy as they believe that individualism is not a key factor in the success of their business.
5. False communication: An important issue by which the business gets affected is the lack of proper communication. Communication is the main factor that provides the key success of the company (Piper, 2015). If the communicating system is poor between the employees and the leader then the company cannot achieve their goals before the deadlines. Apart from this language issue is also the main factor of this false communication process.
6. Work patterns: As the BHP Billiton Limited is an international company so the work patterns will be different for both the nation. Being a less knowledge about any mining procedure the Chinese people cannot perform more than one task at a while and thus it creates a major problem of completing the work on a certain period of time (Scott, and Durey, 2014).  
7. Time orientations:  Since Australia is present in the southern part so their time management orientation will be quite different from that of the northern part (Vivoda, and Graetz, 2017). Hence an issue arises between their time management factors. Time management issue does not only waste the time but it also wastes money also. The lack of focus on the people and the priority of completing the work make a huge effect on the business (Zhang, et al., 2017). The Chinese people take a huge span of time for completing their research work while the Australian people takes a short span of time of finding any resources. Another huge problem occurs due to this time management orientation was not the completion of the project in the certain period of time. Thus many projects have been slipped from the hand of the BHP Billiton Limited Company and hence it decreases the profit in the business.   

Apart from this above issue, the Australian Company make their international business in China due to the presence of huge amount of resources in China that makes a huge profit in their business and now the company as owed as one of highest producer of iron-ore in China.

Cross-Cultural Management Issues

After discussing with all sorts of problems that arise in between the business procedure of Australia and China some recommendations has been given for the better growth of the firm. Those are:-

• Giving a chance to the Chinese workers for put forwarding their ideas and opinions can make a better growth of the organization
• Again the manager should listen to the workers so that the trust issues may be diminished a lot. For this, the manager should maintain a friendly relationship with the employees so that they build faith in him and the work run smoothly without any problem
• Apart from this, it should be suggested that by maintaining a good teamwork can help them to complete the project within the certain period of time
• High level of stress can causes miscommunication in an organization, so it should be recommended that diminishing the stress level to a certain point can help the employee to work better in the organization. 

Conclusion 

The international company BHP Billiton Limited makes a huge business in the global market. Here in this report, we are discussing the mining company BHP Billiton Limited that spread their business internationally and a branch in China was established in 2001. This company becomes named as Bi He Bi Tuo and it is considered as one of the leading company as the iron-ore producer in China.  Along with this the macro and the microenvironment that affect the business of BHP Billiton Limited in the international market are also discussed in this report. Furthermore, the cross-cultural issues that affected badly in the mining business are discussed briefly and some recommendations regarding this issue are also given that can help the better growth of the firm 

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