Dealing With Cross-Cultural Differences at Workplace in the UAE
OR
Impact of Cross-Cultural Differences On Adjustment of Expatriate Employees in the Work Environment of the UAE
INTRODUCTION / LITERATURE REVIEW
The working environment in the UAE has seen huge changes in the last 25 years or so. The change has been introduced primarily by the opening up of multinational firms in the UAE. This has created job opportunities for expatriates, therefore bringing about a large diversity in the workplace with multitude of attitudes, cultures, etc. Managers who employed top positions 25 years ago would see a completely different work environment today. The way managers lead and treat employees has changed. In general, United Arab Emirates
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For example, it is still uncommon for local man and woman to shake hands. With respect to paid work and role of women in the society, there has been a great revolution. UAE government is providing incentives for sound education of women by opening up women only universities and offering women opportunities to stands in competition with their male counterparts. They are increasingly becoming part of the labor force eyeing successful careers at workplaces (Ashencaen, 2007).
RESEARCH PROBLEM
Global competition and reduction in trade barriers have increased the demand for individuals who can work effectively in a foreign environment. In the United Arab Emirates, the expectation is for the number of expatriates has always been on increase and interestingly, there has been even a further increase, following the global recession, in the interest of foreign nationals to come and work in the UAE. However, the fact cannot be denied that at the same time, the number of expatriate workers failing to adjust in the UAE is on increase as well. The underlying research hence, aims at studying various factors which aid or hurdle the social and cross-cultural adjustment of expatriate employees in the cosmopolitan work environment of the UAE. The research also aims to explore the significance of organizational support to employees, in their adjustment.
RESEARCH DESIGN
Competing in global markets entail many factors and centralization of its human resource practices is certainly vital to improve global competitiveness and empower employees for global assignments. To achieve success in global marketplace, the challenge of all businesses regardless of their size is to understand global corporate cultural differences and invest in human resources which includes selecting and retaining talented employee, training and development whilst encouraging employees to be innovative and creative. Employees selected to work in foreign locations should be prepared beforehand with adequate cross-cultural training. For an organization to be successful in the international marketplace, it must be concerned with this fit from both an internal and
Throughout the times women have proven to themselves as well as people around them that they can take on roles just as important as men. This paper will begin by detailing the work experience and cultural barriers of Hatshepsut, the queen that reigned in Egypt during 1479- 1458 B.C. Followed by the impact she had on gender roles and issues. Next the cultural challenges and obstacles faced by women in Saudi Arabia will be addressed. These women have had many years of restrictive traditions placed upon them and now they have the chance to get a higher-level education and become professionals in their society. Lastly, the paper will discuss the impact the women who worked in factories during World War II had on gender roles. As well as what their culture thought was meant to be all they accomplished during their lifetime.
Productivity in the new culture is experienced to an extremely positive extent. Business dealings and negotiations become secondary nature to the expatriate, and the expatriate’s journey becomes a great success in the perspective of their employing company.
Mary Wright is a human resources consultant for a telecommunications’ company in Miami, Florida, whose company has recently decided to expand its operations in the Arab Emirates, in Dubai. Mary’s extensive professional background along with her dedication to the company has acknowledged her as a highly qualified candidate to support their expansion efforts in Dubai and has selected her to fill the role of VP of Human Resources and Employee Relations. The United Arab Emirates is a
Performance criteria and goals are best established by combining the values and norms of each local environment with the home-office’s performance standards. An individual country profile should be developed and should take into account the foreign subsidiary’s environment. This profile should be used to review any factors that may have an effect on the expatriate employee’s performance. Such factors include language, culture, politics, labor relations, economy, government, control, and communication.
This academic journal is relevant because Lindsay Markle discusses the challenges women in the Middle East confront daily due to gender norms that are embedded in culture, religion, and family structure. These gender norms influence the way women are able to participate in their economy and in the public sphere.
In the UAE, gender equality is on the rise like no other Arab state. As far back as twenty years ago female university graduates outnumbered men two to one. But per usual, in the Arab world women’s work roles remain fundamentally separated from men’s with only 35 percent of UAE women part of the “national” workforce, and 80 percent classified as “household workers.” But what’s crucial here is how quickly this movement is spreading; the UAE government’s emphasis on gender empowerment largely explains this 99 percent figure of perceived respect, in a country where women, who still generally abide traditional gender roles, are encouraged to decide their own work roles. The UAE is evidence, perhaps, that ‘traditional’ gender roles need not necessarily be at odds with respect for women although this might be anathema in the Western world. Of course, this can be analyzed many ways. Traditional expectations still weigh in, and perhaps, like in most of the Arab world, many women aren’t expected to voice the dissatisfaction they feel. However, there’s reason to believe these stigmas are on their way out in the UAE with 66 percent of women working in government, and a record number in high administrative
Managers in human relations needs a variety of skills and knowledge to help their firms succeed in the global marketplace. They need to cope with the initial shock that often accompanies working and living in a different culture. Also, they can become more effective through learning the language of the host country and interpreting accurately the work values of their foreign counterparts. The following traits may be associated with candidate’s who are likely to succeed in international contexts, such as, flexibility, sensitivity to culture differences, business knowledge, culture adventurous and a desire for their views. Before doing business with people from different cultures, managers can familiarize themselves with research that describes important cultural differences in work values. There is four dimensions on which different cultures can be compared, which includes of power distance, individualism, uncertainty avoidance and masculinity/femininity.
If I was a manager in a multinational corporation that needed to send a team of representative to Saudi Arabia to gain a client, there would be a couple of approaches I could take in order to prepare my team. The first and most effective course of action that I could take is outsourcing a consulting company to provide cross cultural training. There are plenty of consulting companies that provide this kind of training for corporations. One firm explains, “Cultural differences are a well-documented source of conflict for business people operating in foreign markets. Failure to understand these differences and find ways to bridge the cultural divide can lead to conflict within your team, difficult relationships with clients and suppliers. (Riley, 2012)”
Women have experienced a historic situation of inequality in the social as well as professional aspects. Women were normally the ones that would take care of children, do the chores in the house, and in rural areas; they would work in the field with the rest of the family. However, today’s women have become more self-sufficient and independent from the predominant male figure within every historical family. Gender inequality in the workplace is becoming less common; yet, gender is a factor that affects men and women. Especially women have been subjected to a historical discrimination that has influenced society to decide which job is more suitable for women than men. However women have confronted and tried to break down the barriers that
In summary, the home culture of an expatriate predisposes them to certain behaviors and situations. It allows them to operate efficiently in that environment. However, moving to the host-culture changes that operating environment and makes their 'mental software ' less efficient and effective. Culture is clearly a relevant variable when expatriating employees and their families for international business assignments. Training can be applied to ameliorate these effects. Also, training provides insight into the procedural, substantive and informational aspects of their work and personal life in the host location.
In this era of Globalisation, cross cultural management is the biggest challenge that is faced by the organisations. Within the business context, cross culture refers to interaction between different cultures. Cross cultural management refers to managing the employees from different cultural background in one environment (Adler, 2008). Cross culture management is a significant issue within the organisations as the success of an organisation depends upon the smooth interaction of the employees. This paper is aimed at providing insight on the cross cultural management and the main issues and challenges relating to cross cultural management. For the purpose of this paper, two articles, “Cross-cultural Differences in Management”, by Amman & Jordan
Face to those options and wide resource, the managers in global enterprises have particular concern about the employees’ ability to disseminate knowledge and innovation throughout their global operations . The use of expatriates has seemed to be a logical choice for staffing, while the use of parent-country nations seems to be most appropriate in some specific situation . Some other global enterprises also prefer integrate the expatriates and local human resource. Nevertheless, each procedure has both advantage and disadvantage.
This paper is a report on cross-cultural management, with the issues related to cross-cultural management being discussed in the paper. Additionally, the report has produced the future way of cross-cultural management, including how it can be improved in offices relying much on this strategic approach.
UAE is located at the southeast end of the Arabian Peninsula on the Arabian Gulf sometimes referred to as Persian Gulf, bordering Oman , and Saudi Arabia to the south, sharing sea borders with Qatar and Iran (CIA World Factbook). The population is estimated to be 9.446 million and consists of 1.4 million Emirati citizens and 7.8 million expatriates, majority of whom came from India, Pakistan, Philippines and other Arab countries. It was established in 1971 as a federation of seven emirates (states). Each emirate is governed by a monarch; together, along with some elected representatives, they form the Federal Supreme Council – legislative organ. One of the monarchs is selected as the President of the United Arab Emirates.