Case Study 1
Localization in the Private Sector
Description: The experience of a local female college graduate who accepts a position in the HR department of a big hotel chain.
Issues to watch for: Localization; minority status of Gulf locals in the private sector workforce; pitfalls of workforce localization implementation; diversity climate; alienation of local workers by expatriate employees; lack of information sharing among expatriate and local employees; employee disengagement.
Sara Al Falasi has recently graduated from a local university with a degree in business with an HR major. She was keen to find a job in the private sector as she felt it would be more exciting than a public sector position. Many of her family members and her friends work in the public sector, and she was aware of the benefits they enjoy such as shorter working hours, days off for all public holidays, many opportunities for further training, and solid promotion prospects. However, being an outgoing and ambitious type, she was drawn to the dynamic culture of the private sector and hoped to develop her career within an MNC or big local company.
Sara applied for and was offered a job in a hotel but decided not to accept the offer, as her parents were not keen on the late hours involved in working in the hospitality sector. She then applied for a position with the same company but working in the HR office in the company’s headquarters. She was delighted when she was appointed, and her family was happy since her work schedule involved normal office hours with no late-night shifts.
Sara began her job with great enthusiasm and was thrilled by the number of people from very different countries she got to meet in the company headquarters. She was excited to learn more about her job and was determined to focus all her energies on developing her skills and gaining experience. She dreamed of being a role model for other local women and an inspiration for them to take on demanding roles in the private sector.
In the first week she settled into her new office and attended several meetings. Everyone was very polite and friendly to her. As her job title was that of HR administrator, she expected to be exposed to decision-making activities even if she was just observing, given her lack of experience. She was a little surprised to see the duties assigned to her involved handling employment requests for leave. This was a very straightforward task as she just had to confirm that the employee had adequate leave available and check with the employee’s line manager that the dates of the requested leave did not coincide with a very busy period. Another basic task was to check the credentials presented by job applicants to ensure that all of them were correct.
Sara became more baffled when she learned that Annunziata Bruni, her colleague in the department, was invited to attend a meeting on the number and nature of hires for the next six months, but she herself was not. She took the courage to approach her boss, Jonathan Beckett, and ask him why she had not also been invited to attend. Jonathan began his response by saying how very happy he was to have her on his team and commenting on how well she was doing. He told her that he had invited Annunziata as she had been with the company for nine months and had more experience identifying the company’s needs. Sara responded politely but she felt confused since being present at a meeting like this would have allowed her to gain a greater understanding of the company’s hiring needs.
In the third week of her job she had a visit from another local employee, Khalid Al Suwaidi. She was very happy to meet him since she had not met any other locals in the company so far. She asked him if he had been on leave since she assumed that this was why they had not met before. He told her he hadn’t and had been at work every day. He invited her to have coffee in the staff room, and she was happy to join him so that she could learn more about the company. Over coffee she asked him about his work and if he was busy. She was a little surprised by his reply: “I don’t do a lot of work.” She asked him to explain and he told her that he had joined the company with a keen interest in making a career within the private sector and that he hoped to develop his potential and handle increasingly difficult tasks. He found, however, that he was assigned little work and the work that he was given was simple and, he felt, beneath his abilities as a bilingual university graduate.
Khalid continued the conversation by explaining that he had been a friend of Majid, another local man, who had left the company recently to take a position in the public sector. Majid had decided that he couldn’t stay in the job; while his colleagues were very polite to him, they often failed to tell him about important meetings or share information with him related to his job. If he asked them for advice on how to do something, they would often do the entire thing for him but never explained how it was to be done. Also he was saddened by the fact that his colleagues often had lunch together and even met for dinner on weekends but never invited him to join them. He came to the conclusion that he could never improve his skills in this environment and he resented that. Despite being willing to work and friendly to his colleagues and bosses, he had not developed his professional skills or made friendships within the company.
Khalid went on to talk about other friends he had attended university with who had been recruited to airline companies as part of the workforce localization policies. He said they had felt very welcome within their companies and had been happy with the on-the-job orientation and training they had been given. He also described the impressive career progression of his cousin, Amal, who was very successful in a big MNC operating in the region that she had joined just after graduating.
Sara was a little shocked at the picture that Khalid gave her of the experience that he and Majid had had within the company. She began to see herself as being penalized for being a local amid a large number of expatriate workers. She wondered if she should give in to her frustration with the situation and seek a position elsewhere, or if she should hold on to her dream of being successful in a sector that she now felt seemed to be operating against her. She knew that many locals were very happy in private sector positions, but she began to wonder if these were the exceptions.
Questions for reflection:
What can management do to help the locals they recruit integrate into their expatriate-dominated workforce?
What communication strategies can be put in place to ensure adequate information exchange between locals and expatriates?
How can managers synchronize the behaviors of locals and expatriates in order to build a level playing field for all employees?
How can managers develop a positive diversity climate that embraces all employees?
Case Study 2
Business Etiquette in the Gulf
Description: Key intercultural communication issues regarding business etiquette experienced by an expat manager from Canada who had been transferred to Oman.
Issues to watch for: Low versus high time orientation; low versus high context; power distance; saving face; informality versus formality; indirect versus direct communication style.
John Smith, an operations manager at a big multinational oil company, was transferred from the head offices in Calgary to Muscat, the capital of Oman, where the intention was that he would stay for several years in order to manage a regional project. John had 10 years’ experience in managing similar projects both in Canada and the United States, but this was his first time living outside of North America. His stay was planned as part of a joint venture in which the Canadian and Omani companies had collaborated for the past two years.
When John arrived at Muscat International airport, he was supposed to meet with the company representatives at the arrivals lounge. Although the time of his flight had been communicated by email long before, he received a phone call to confirm that he was there before the driver appeared at the airport. He was driven to his hotel, where the first meeting with the local project managers was to take place. John was at the hotel lounge ready for the meeting five minutes before the set time. Abdulla and Ahmed, the Omani representatives, arrived half an hour later. The three colleagues spent two hours talking in general about the progress of the joint venture thus far and the projects that were to be completed in the MENA (Middle-East and North Africa) region in the next five years. At several points John asked concrete questions about the way in which projects were usually carried out in Oman and in the wider Gulf Region. Abdulla and Ahmed kindly told him to wait until the formal meeting, which was to be held the next day with all the main company representatives of the other departments.
Although John was fairly tired from his flight and the discussions on the first day, he was informed that a welcome dinner had been organized for him. John thought that this dinner would also involve work, so he took his laptop and some of the main figures and details to share. To his surprise, the dinner was in the desert, at a tourist venue with local entertainment including driving in the sand dunes, riding camels, and smoking shisha. Abdulla and Ahmed arrived a little later in traditional Omani dress, although in the morning they had been wearing suits. While they were eating, John felt ill at ease because of the unexpected informality of the setting. He tried to handle this awkwardness by asking the two men about their families. Both of them said they were married. They didn’t mention anything about their wives, but they did talk about their children with a lot of enthusiasm. After a while, Abdulla changed the subject and asked some general things about the customs in North America, typical foods, and traditions. They also explained to John about the Omani traditional dance they were watching.
The meeting the next day started in the late morning. Six other people were present, all project managers from different departments. The local operations manager, Saeed Albannai, arrived late but they all waited for him before beginning the meeting. Saeed introduced John to the other people and he expressed his pleasure and gratitude at having him there. After they had all introduced themselves and talked a little about their various projects, a buffet lunch with typical Arabic food was served in the meeting room. During lunch, Saeed excused himself as he had to leave because of a family issue. John was taken to see his new office, and he also spent some time completing some administrative procedures with the Omani HR department.
During the first two weeks, John found that he was feeling confused about the way in which the Omani company went about its business. He was unsure about how the project groups operated, and he wanted to know what problems his subordinates were facing and what decision-making strategies they used. To make matters worse, he also frequently felt tired; he often had to participate in online meetings with his colleagues at the Calgary headquarters late at night in Oman because of the time difference with North America, or on Fridays—his day off, which meant that he rarely had time to relax.
John decided that he wanted to meet with all of the employees in his department on a more regular basis to gain a better understanding of their work and the main concerns that they were facing. He asked his administrative assistant to call his department together for a meeting using an email invitation. In this email he said that the meeting would be about the distribution of tasks and some possible changes to the company’s operations procedures in the region. He thought that it would be a good idea to invite everyone in the department so that they could all voice their opinions. To his surprise, only Ahmed and Abdulla appeared at the scheduled time for the meeting, which turned into a general friendly discussion about the objectives for the year, without any concrete decisions being made.
After about a month, John felt that he had started to figure out how things worked in the Omani company. However, he still had difficulties in meeting with his subordinates as they preferred to communicate through their local managers. John was worried that he would never be able to manage the operations of the company effectively. In addition, in a private communication, Saeed told John that many employees had complained that he was overly direct and interfering. He mentioned, for instance, that John’s frequent emails outlining procedures to follow were viewed as overbearing as the employees were not used to this type of communication. They were accustomed to informal lunch meetings during which their direct managers communicated what was to be done and how. Emails were only sent to follow up on these meetings, or in urgent situations to outline concrete tasks that needed to be completed.
After this insightful discussion with Saeed, John understood better how to adapt to the local communication needs and attitudes. With continuous advice from Ahmed and Abdulla, who were always willing to help, John began to talk and write in ways that were more acceptable to his subordinates. He opted for several informal meetings instead of writing long emails, and he also took the initiative to visit people’s offices to say hello or to have tea with them. This was very much appreciated; people started trusting John more and they showed a greater willingness to collaborate in implementing the changes he proposed.
Questions for reflection:
What are the main business communication style differences between John and the Omanis?
What do you think was the major concern of the Omanis when John took on his new role? What did they do to help John adapt?
Why did John feel frustrated at the beginning of his stay in Oman?
What would you recommend to other managers coming to the Gulf from low context countries such as Canada, the United States, or the United Kingdom? What should they do to adapt their style of communicating and conducting business to be more effective in the Gulf context?
Case Study 3
The Use of Business English in the Gulf
Description: The challenges faced by an English-speaking manager who is sent to Kuwait City to manage one of the engineering departments for an international corporation providing support services for the oil industry.
Issues to watch for: Accommodation; the variety of languages spoken in the Gulf; the need to take into account different communication styles in English; horizontal communication; the effects of corporate language policy.
Pete Stevens is a senior manager from the United Kingdom who has recently been transferred from his company’s Houston office in the United States to manage a group of around 200 engineers based in the regional office in Kuwait City. Although this group consists of many of the company’s best engineers and has the reputation for dealing effectively with complex, and often difficult projects, it has also experienced high levels of attrition in the 12 months prior to Pete’s transfer. Indeed, several of the top engineers have recently left to join a competitor. Pete has worked for the company for 15 years, starting in London, as a junior engineer, and working his way up through the ranks until his last five-year position in the United States. Although he has visited the Gulf region on numerous occasions earlier in his career to work on different engineering projects, this is his first time managing in a country where English is not the dominate language.
On the morning of his first day at work, his department gathered in the main auditorium for him to meet everyone. Pete was interested to see that his staff included a group of what looked to him like local women, in a combination of national and Western dress, and a larger group of Omani men, wearing their distinctive turbans or colorfully embroidered caps. Apart from this, there were a large number of Indian men, and a much smaller number of men and women who could have been from Eastern or Western Europe, or perhaps from Lebanon. Within the group of people wearing Western style business dress, there was also a number of people from the United States who Pete already knew were engineers who were often sent over from Houston to Kuwait City for a short period of time to increase their understanding of the company. All of his employees appeared to be sitting with either their own or a closely related national group.
As Pete entered the room he noticed that many languages other than English were being spoken and he recognized the sound of Arabic, Hindi, Russian, and Italian. Pete introduced himself to his department and talked a little about his plans for the future and then opened the floor for questions and discussion. Many of the Indian engineers asked questions, as did almost all the employees from Europe and several other people who he recognized from the Houston office. None of the Omani men or Kuwaiti women participated, although Pete noted that they were paying close attention to what was being said. Once the session was over, Pete wondered why the Gulf nationals in the room had been much more reluctant to contribute than the other nationalities. He asked Paolo Rizzato, one of his direct reports from Italy, why he thought this had happened and Paolo laughed and said they were always like that.
In the weeks that followed, Pete had many opportunities to meet with smaller groups of his employees, sometimes in formal meetings and sometimes in informal discussions. He found that the Indian, Italian, and Lebanese employees often spoke so quickly that he was unable to catch what they were saying, and they constantly interrupted each other and other people. The Gulf employees, on the other hand, rarely took a turn unless it was offered to them explicitly by the chair in a meeting, and they took much more time in formulating what they had to say. The Gulf women in particular had difficulty in entering a discussion and were very likely to allow other speakers to take the floor from them if they were interrupted or challenged. Despite this apparent reluctance to engage, Pete noted that they invariably made excellent and technically sound suggestions. Pete realized that he needed to take action to make sure all of his employees’ voices were heard and that everyone felt comfortable enough to participate in meetings and discussions.
Pete put a taskforce together of employees representing all the different nationalities within his department, and he asked them to talk to everyone and find out how they thought the communication across the department could be improved. He asked them to identify who they usually talked to and why, and what they thought were the challenges that stopped them from talking to other people. When they reported back to him the following week, his staff had a number of interesting things to say.
First of all, just about everyone agreed that their English language skills were good enough to cope with the demands of the job, both in speaking and in writing. Almost everyone had completed their university education in English, and many had attended an English-medium high school in their home country. A few people mentioned that they would like to improve their writing skills in English, but that they were comfortable speaking English. Several people mentioned the fact that they had problems getting used to all the different accents in the department, especially given the speed at which both the Indian and British employees spoke. Many of the Omani and Kuwaiti employees commented on the fact that they were much more familiar with American English, and that they sometimes found it difficult to understand the words that their Indian colleagues used. Many people mentioned that they struggled in general with the native English speakers in the department, particularly when they were talking about something together; they talked too fast and used lots of expressions that no one else could understand. Many of the employees commented that they were annoyed when other nationalities used languages other than English to discuss things amongst themselves, although other people said that it often helped them to be able to clarify a difficult point in their own first language and then switch back into English. Given this they often gravitated toward their own nationality and tried to work with them.
Second, people talked about the different styles of communicating that other people used that they often found difficult to deal with. As Pete had already observed, many employees complained about the fact that the Indians and Italians interrupted everyone all the time, held several conversations at once, and spoke very fast. The Gulf Arabs and North Americans in particular found this offensive, and they couldn’t understand why they needed to speak so quickly and to use many words to say what they wanted to say. On the other hand, the Indians especially found that the Gulf Arabs were too introverted and indirect, and often very slow to respond, and they expressed frustration that the Kuwaiti women in particular hardly ever participated in large group discussions, although they knew that they had something valuable to contribute.
When he heard what his employees had to say, Peter knew that some of his employees needed training to improve their communication skills. He also knew that, if he was going to keep the levels of attrition in his department from increasing further, he needed to put a new communication plan in place.
Questions for reflection:
What can management do to accommodate the different communication styles that exist in the workforce?
What can management do to make sure that everyone contributes to discussions in the workplace?
What kind of communication training should managers provide for new employees when they enter the workforce in the Gulf region?
What should native speakers of English in particular pay attention to when they are working in a multicultural situation?
Case Study 4
Negotiation Styles in the Gulf
Description: In view of the recent introduction of the Wage Protection System (WPS) in Qatar (www.ey.com/GL/en/Services/Tax/Human-Capital/HC-Alert--Qatar-Government-introduces-new-wage-protection-system-requiring-salaries-to-be-paid-into-Qatar-based-accounts), the HR department of a big construction company in Doha needs to decide which cash flow management system to implement.
Issues to watch for: Different negotiation styles; motivation for argumentation; conflict management.
The HR management team of a large, locally-owned construction company in Qatar consists of four members: the HR Director Hamad AlHammadi, a Qatari, and three HR Executives, Keith Bernard, a Canadian, Sarah Badran, a Lebanese, and Kavya Chaudhri, an Indian. After a recent change in the law in Qatar that mandates every organization to implement a unified payroll system controlled by the Central Bank, the HR team needs to make an urgent decision on which product to buy in order to comply with the new cash flow processes since the existing system does not meet the new legal requirements.
The company, based in Doha, has been in operation for 25 years and employs around 15,000 workers from all over the world, the majority being semiskilled Indian and Bangladeshi construction workers. The recently introduced WPS is a government initiative aimed at protecting all employees in Qatar by guaranteeing that their salaries are paid regularly and correctly. The HR team has identified two innovative cash flow management electronic tools that could address the new requirements. The first tool was designed by a local bank and has been shown to meet all the legal requirements. The second is an internationally known HR platform that has been used with great success in the MENA region for the last five years. The company already employs this platform for several other HR-related tasks. The team needs to arrange a meeting to make an immediate decision as to which system to purchase.
All four members of the HR management team have considerable experience in decision making. Keith is the most experienced in various HR management positions. Kavya has recently been nominated as the best employee of the month in the HR department due to her superb communication skills and the excellent reviews she received from many of the employees. Hammed and Sarah are the only Arabic speakers in the team. Hammed was appointed as director three years ago, and upper management seems to be very satisfied with his performance. Sarah moved with her family from Lebanon to Qatar almost 20 years ago and worked for 10 years in various other companies before joining the firm.
During the meeting, the team learns that they fall into two opposing sides. Hamad and Kavya favor the tool designed by the local bank. Keith and Sarah have a strong preference for the second tool due to its international success and the company’s existing familiarity with it. Hamad opens the meeting explaining the pros and cons of each of the tools. He then elaborates on the excellent performance of the first and its reliability, stressing the fact that it originated in a local bank. Kavya expresses her strong agreement with Hamad, also pointing out that, as the central wage payment will be controlled by the Central Bank, it is obvious that having a cash flow management system designed by another local bank is a guarantee of absolute compatibility.
Keith does not express his disagreement directly. Instead, he focuses on the disadvantages of both platforms, most especially from the technical point of view. After his overview in which he gives several concrete examples, he concludes that it would be wiser to opt for the international system since it would present fewer technical risks than the locally designed system. Sarah agrees with Keith and adds that whatever they decide they should be careful about the consequences of implementing something that might only remain up-to-date for the short term. She says that although the first tool was launched as a perfect match for the new wage policy, the additional functions provided by the second tool mean that it also complies with the company’s legal requirements for handling visas and expatriate benefits. She feels that they should go for an expanded version of the second tool, with the proviso that they can always change at some point in the future if it fails to meet their needs. Keith adds that just because the first tool was locally designed, that doesn’t mean that it will meet their needs best.
Hamad says that he thinks that they are all right and that he wouldn’t mind opting for the second tool, apart from the fact that he is being put under pressure from his superiors to choose the first one. He explains that the founder of the bank that had introduced the first tool is an eminent person in the Doha community, and it would be viewed very positively if their company established some form of collaboration with the bank. He also said that he doesn’t trust the second tool as it was developed by a company with no knowledge of Qatari standards on salary payments, and they did not collaborate with any other Qatari company in relation to compliance with the new law. Moreover, the international provider’s experience in the MENA region is too short to understand how local companies operate. Sarah replies to Hamad saying that as a company, they need to look forward and not simply repeat what other local companies are doing. Having the combination of a local operation with international quality standards would be more innovative than opting for a local partnership. Hamad replies that she is probably right but that it is not their job to provide innovation; their task is to decide on a reliable and efficient HR cash flow management system. Kavya agrees with Hamad.
After a short silence, Keith says they have to move forward with the decision. If they voted it is clear that the result would be split. Therefore, he suggests that each person give his or her strongest argument in favor of and against each tool. They could then make a more considered decision. Hamad, however, kindly asks them to postpone taking a decision. He says that the situation is more complicated than it appears, and important long-term negotiations could potentially be at risk. He suggests that they arrange another meeting the following week. Before that, he plans to get concrete advice and guidelines from his superiors as to what should be done. He thanks his colleagues for their valuable contributions and asks Kavya who was taking notes to circulate the minutes of the meeting.
Questions for reflection:
Do you think that the team members’ negotiation behavior was due to cultural differences? If yes, what were the major differences among them?
Why do you think Hamad suggested postponing the decision? How did he manage this with his colleagues?
How would you characterize the conflict management behavior of each one of the team participants?
What type of argumentation style did each of the participants use?
Case Study 5
Diversity Climate in the Gulf Region
Description: The challenges faced by a manager from the United States who takes on a position in Abu Dhabi in the UAE as the senior vice president for marketing for one of the national oil companies in the Emirate.
Issues to watch for: Diversity; the understanding of diversity and diversity climate in the Gulf; the need to facilitate communication between different groups; horizontal communication; the effects of local Gulf culture.
Pat Jones is a marketing manager from the United States who has been working for more than 25 years in different corporations and in different parts of the States. He has just arrived in Abu Dhabi to take up a position as Vice President for Marketing for one of the national oil corporations operating in the Emirate. Pat is used to managing large groups of people—his last department at a U.S. oil corporation in New Orleans had more than 200 employees—and he has always actively encouraged his staff to take advantage of any of training opportunities that the corporation offered to them. He has frequently coordinated with the HR department in corporations he has worked for to arrange for his employees to follow internal training courses, including the extensive courses in diversity training that many major U.S. corporations offer.
Pat has also taken numerous diversity-training courses himself and done his best to keep himself up-to-date on the current developments in the field. He therefore feels that he has a reasonably good understanding of how to create a positive diversity climate for all the people working for him. He has visited the Gulf only once before to be interviewed for his new job, and apart from a short stint in Calgary, Canada, he has not worked outside of the continental United States.
When Pat arrives in Abu Dhabi, he spends the first few weeks getting to know his employees. As Vice President for Marketing, he is responsible for a department of around 150 employees, all of who are working at the corporation’s head office just off the Corniche in the center of the city. About 40 of his employees are Emirati nationals, in positions at several different levels in his department, and the rest of the staff are mostly from India, with a very small number of Syrians and Filipinos. Almost all his employees, both males and females, are young, most of them under 35.
Incoming projects are typically assigned to teams in consultation with him, with one team leader in charge of four or five employees. Depending on the nature of the project, these teams are usually made up of different ranks and different nationalities. Pat notices early on that his employees are friendly toward each other, and English is used almost all of the time. However, the different nationality groups usually opt to share offices and always sit together at lunch. He notices in particular that while the women appear happy to work together with their male colleagues on projects within the department, they generally do not socialize with them or sit with them at lunch, and they never attend events outside of working hours. Pat is concerned that the women are being marginalized within his department and that his employees are not really capitalizing on the many advantages that multicultural, diverse, teams can bring to an organization.
Pat remembers a course he attended while working for an oil corporation in New Orleans that was specifically designed to encourage teamwork between all of the diverse groups that made up the workforce at the corporation. It included workshops with numerous awareness-raising exercises on a number of different themes such as gender, race, sexuality, ethnic groups, and religion. Pat had found this both challenging and useful, and he knew that it had promoted a lot of discussion at the corporation in Louisiana and had also led to an improvement in both teamwork and productivity. He felt that something like this would benefit his employees in Abu Dhabi. He went to see the head of HR, Kate Nesbitt, who is originally from the United Kingdom, to find out whether the company offered similar courses.
Kate explained that many of the things that are routinely discussed in diversity training courses in the United States are not appropriate for the Gulf context for different reasons. Different religions are tolerated in the UAE for instance, and people are free to practice as they wish, but everyone accepts that the State religion is Islam. In addition, people don’t talk openly about social issues such as same sex marriage, as they might do on a diversity-training course in Western contexts, because same sex relationships (and relationships outside of marriage) are not allowed under Sharia law and are therefore not open to debate. Other issues such as race, gender, and ethnicity would also have a very different meaning for people from the Gulf, as well as for many of the people from outside the Gulf who work there. Some non-Western societies may be much more conservative in terms of women’s empowerment, for instance, and they may define a person on a very different set of parameters than would normally be the case in the West, including whether or not a person is a member of a prominent family, or of a particular tribal group or community.
After his conversation with Kate, Pat understands that if he is to encourage his employees to collaborate more with each other, he will not be able to rely on Western models of how to develop a positive diversity climate. Pat puts a taskforce together, made up of Fatma Al Qasimi and Mohammad Alhammadi from the UAE, Srinivasan Rao and Sameena Khan from India, Rosita Baxel from the Philippines, and Ahmed Kamel from Syria. He tells them that they need to talk to their colleagues to find ways of creating a positive and inclusive atmosphere within the department so that everyone feels willing to participate and share their ideas.
After a week or two they come back to him with the following ideas for discussion. Fatma and Mohammad talk about the fact that all of the Emirati employees have told them that they are very happy to work along-side their expatriate colleagues and that they feel they have a great deal to learn from them. They both say that their colleagues have told them that they would like more formal ways of interacting with the different people in the department, and not just when they are assigned to the same project together. Srinivasan and Sameena talk about the huge diversity within the Indian employees in the group and the fact that the (predominantly Western) management at the company does not really take this into consideration. As Muslim women, both Fatma and Sameena explain that they do not feel comfortable in mixed company at after-work social occasions and that they therefore prefer not to attend even though they know that these would be useful opportunities to network. Finally, Rosita and Ahmed both complain that they, and their other Filipino and Syrian colleagues, often feel overwhelmed by the large numbers of Emirati and Indian employees, and that they feel their opinions are not always properly taken into account.
Pat listens to the discussion. It’s clear that all of his employees are committed to the department’s future, and they want to find ways together of making sure it is successful. He knows that he needs to create more formal networking opportunities that will include everyone and take the needs of the different cultural groups into account. He has observed that there are a number of different informal networks within his department that could also be a part of that process. He also realizes that the local employees are an important group that can help him in this task because their willingness to engage with and learn from others could help to create a specific type of organizational culture based on the shared creation of new ideas.
While this process is very different from the way in which he was trained to create a positive diversity climate in the other organizational contexts in which he worked, he can see that this may be successful in the Gulf. Finally, he understands from the discussions with his taskforce that some of his minority employees feel that their opinions are not taken sufficiently into account, and he resolves to find ways of allowing their voices to be heard more often and in a formal way. He concludes from what he has heard that the most important thing for many of the nationality groups working for him is that their colleagues trust them and have confidence in their professional abilities. He sits down with his taskforce and starts to draft a new communication plan for the future.
Questions for reflection:
How do the concepts of diversity and diversity climate differ in Western contexts when compared to the Gulf region?
What can management do to create a positive diversity climate in a multicultural workplace setting in the Gulf?
How can management ensure that everyone’s opinion is heard?
What role could the local workforce play in the creation of a positive diversity climate?
Case Study 6
Culturally Dissonant Management Styles
Description: Local workers, local styles: The experience of a local bank employee.
Issues to watch for: Culturally diverse teams; participative leadership; autocratic management; micro-management; employee welfare; communication patterns; duty of care.
Mohamed Al Sudairi, a Gulf national, has been working in a privately owned bank for two years, having graduated from a UK university with a degree in Finance. Until three months ago his immediate supervisor was Xavier Alexander, a man from the United Kingdom with a degree in banking. Xavier was then promoted to the position of branch manager. A new recruit, Ganesh Bose, an Indian with a postgraduate business degree from the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, was appointed as Mohamed’s immediate supervisor.
While Xavier was his supervisor, Mohamed was used to taking a lot of initiative and only consulted Xavier when unusual or very sensitive issues arose. Xavier practiced a participative approach and always welcomed Mohamed’s suggestions regarding work and customer-related banking practices. Mohamed felt he had a lot of freedom which he accepted with a strong sense of responsibility to the bank and its customers. When Xavier was absent from the bank due to outside meetings or leave, he informally deputized Mohamed to take decisions on all urgent matters. Mohamed had Xavier’s mobile phone number in case he needed to consult with Xavier before taking any decisions. However, in almost two years of working Xavier’s supervision and being left in charge, Mohamed had never needed to call him. He was careful to follow bank protocol and was skillful in deferring important decisions until Xavier’s return.
Mohamed’s work pattern changed dramatically after Ganesh became his supervisor. On his first day, Ganesh called Mohamed into his office and told him that strict punctuality was insisted on by the bank. He stressed that bank protocol should be followed without deviation. Anything that could not be covered by this protocol was to be referred to him immediately. He also talked at length about issues such as eating and drinking at one’s work desk and visiting the washroom or the prayer room. This “meeting” lasted more than 20 minutes during which time Mohamed had no opportunity to say anything. Ganesh closed the interaction by saying Mohamed should return to his duties.
Mohamed left Ganesh’s office feeling confused and somewhat offended. Ganesh’s insistence on punctuality was completely unnecessary since Mohamed always arrived at the office 10 or 15 minutes before his official work time began. He did go to the prayer room regularly but spent no more than five minutes there on each occasion. He often ate lunch at his desk but this was mainly because he didn’t want to spend too much time away from his work. However, he felt confident that his excellent record with the bank was enough for him to have no concern about the new regime being introduced in his department.
After one month Mohamed received an internal phone call from Salwa Al Mutairi, a student who worked with the bank on Saturdays. She was in her second year at university and was married with a one-year-old daughter. Salwa was very upset and said that Ganesh had called her into his office to warn her about her late arrival on three of the previous four Saturdays. On the first two days she had arrived only five minutes late. This slight lateness had never been commented on before since she was a good worker and was efficient in her duties. On the third Saturday she had arrived half an hour late, as she had first needed to drive to the pharmacy for some medicine as her baby had a slight fever. She had phoned her colleague, Sugita, to ask her to explain her situation to Ganesh and Sugita had done this. The following week Salwa came to the bank to tender her resignation. She told Sugita and Mohamed that, while she had always looked forward to her Saturday work in the bank, it had now become stressful and unpleasant for her. Sugita tried to convince her to stay. She argued that Ganesh was a little strict because he was anxious to make sure that things ran smoothly in the bank. Salwa replied that everyone in the bank was keen to make sure that they did all their work well and that it was unnecessary to pester people about things they were already doing and to scold them for the slightest deviation. She added that every employee was a person with a family and life outside the bank so it was to be expected if a personal issue caused an employee to be late or absent once in a while.
One Thursday afternoon, Ganesh called Mohamed to his office to ask why he had not provided the full documentation for a customer loan. Mohamed explained that the customer’s passport was being renewed, so he had provided a copy of his expired passport. Ganesh said that no loan application could be considered in the absence of any required document. Mohamed said that he knew this but that the customer in question had been with their branch for eight years, held substantial investments with the bank, and needed a short-term loan to buy a used car with cash. Ganesh argued that this was a deviation from required practice and that the customer’s application could not be considered until he had a new passport. Mohamed went to look for Xavier to ask his opinion. Xavier agreed that since the customer was long-standing and reliable, the application could be processed since the bank could expect to receive the updated passport copy within a week or two. He phoned Ganesh to tell him to process the application, and Ganesh handled the matter without saying anything.
The following week it became clear to Mohamed that Ganesh was very unhappy about what had happened. He began to check Mohamed’s behavior and query him when he left his desk to go anywhere. He often followed him into the staff coffee room and waited while Mohamed prepared a coffee to take back to his desk. Although Mohamed viewed this as silly and trivial, he was not disturbed by it.
Two months later Xavier invited Mohamed to his office. He told him that he had put Mohamed’s name forward for promotion to section supervisor as Ganesh was leaving their bank; headquarters had endorsed this promotion. Mohamed was delighted and took up his position with great enthusiasm deciding to practice the kind of supervision that he had experienced with Xavier.
In his new role Mohamed consulted with staff members, considered their feedback carefully, held brief, regular meetings in the attempt to gather input on how customer relations could be enhanced. He was given permission to run a pilot project on flexible working hours so that employees could alter their arrival and departure times by up to one hour. His subordinates were delighted with this as it meant they would have more control over how they managed their personal responsibilities during the working day. He was charged by Xavier to develop a detailed report on the impact of this flexi-time project on banking operations since the bank would consider implementing this nationwide if the results were positive in their branch. Mohamed was happy to invest much time and thought into this project as he looked forward to developing a practice that would enhance employee welfare and productivity within the bank.
Questions for reflection:
What cultural patterns underlie the different approaches adopted by Xavier and Ganesh in the same role?
Why did the local employees react negatively to Ganesh’s style of management?
What did Xavier do in his supervisory role that enhanced working relations and hence morale and productivity?
How can we account for the style of communication adopted by Ganesh?
What cultural patterns would encourage Xavier to give his employees a certain amount of control in conducting their duties?
Suggest some ways in which a manager of a multicultural team can respond to the diverse ideas about management style held by employees with different nationalities?