How Can American Businessperson Understand Saudi Arabian Culture - Essay Example

?Running Head: Business Studies Business Studies [Institute’s Business Studies Introduction Over the past few decades, the business and corporate world have changed very quickly. Globalization, revolution in information technology, internet, lifting of trade barriers and others has affected the business world to transform it completely. One of the most important of these transformations includes the increasing diversity of the business world and workplace and the approach to deal with the same (Morrison & Conaway, pp. 69-74, 2006). A few decades back, managers and employers expected the minority members to “fit in” with the majority groups and give up their own identify to assimilate in the groups. Diversity was not encouraged neither welcome. However, organizations view diversity at workplace as a positive sign and they even try to position themselves as the champions of diversity. Minority groups are no longer forced to fit-in, in fact, organizations make an effort to understand their culture and background to deal with them in harmony (Ham, Shams & Madden, pp. 60-64, 2004). This paper is an attempt to look at how an American businessperson can reach the same wavelength as his Saudi Arabian counterpart while dealing with him regarding business issues. This paper will take use of the classic research of Hofstede and Trompenaars in order to explore lesson for the American businessperson as in to understand the Saudi Arabian culture. Discussion Despite the fact that the entire world is quickly moving away from traditional concepts in all occupations, Saudi Arabia is still one of those countries, which have remained as theoretic Islamic monarchy. This means that the concept of religious freedom does not exist even in its theoretical form. The constitution of Saudi Arabia assumes that all the citizens are Muslims, however, it does not prohibit from being a non-Muslim. However, important here to note is that any expression of any religion, other than Islam, in public is taken as misappropriate behavior in public (Shoult, pp. 89-96, 2006). Furthermore, even if someone is found to be following any other religion even in their private lives inside their homes, police has all the right to break in, arrest, and punish those individuals. In fact, there is an entire committee of officers with the name of Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, which takes the responsibility of application of Shariah Laws on every individual (Morrison & Conaway, pp. 69-74, 2006). Therefore, this means many different things. Nothing can take place, which is not in line with Islam. There are many examples. For example, no liquor would be tolerated even for celebration of a business deal or successful completion of a project. Women cannot wear revealing or tight dresses, in fact, it necessary for women to cover their bodies. Furthermore, a considerable distance is important to keep between men and women during their work and conservations. While meetings, it is advisable not to make any comment on the women, which are more than 12 years of age, of the family of the Saudi counterpart. Conversations should start with Islamic greeting line, which is “As-salam alaikum”, and the reply shall be “Waf alaikum as-salam” (Ham, Shams & Madden, pp. 60-64, 2004). One of the biggest problems that western businesspersons face while dealing with Saudi people is regarding the conception of time. There is a huge difference between the value, perception, importance, and concept of time in both of these cultures. In western cultures, time is equivalent to money, a very crucial resource, important to use it fully and do not waste any of it. Business meetings have fixed timings and participants try their level best to ensure that meetings must start at the specific time. Anyone who is late is considered as lazy, lethargic, rude, arrogant, careless, irresponsible and offensive (Shoult, pp. 89-96, 2006). People do not prefer to wait for each since waiting for someone has the meaning, which any other form of insult has. On the other hand, it is completely the opposite in Saudi Arabia. People see deadlines and schedules as their insult. They believe that humans have great potential and they are a superior species, therefore, it is unjust to restrict them with time. If you are waiting for someone then it is because the other person wants to ensure that he or she could give you good quality time when nothing else is on his or her head. Furthermore, the person who is waiting would also prefer to wait since this would show the respect and importance of the other person. This explains why people do not have any specific deadlines or schedules in Saudi Arabia (Morrison & Conaway, pp. 69-74, 2006). The concept of time mainly exists in terms of the part of the day, morning, afternoon, late afternoon, dusk, evening and others. For Saudi Arabian people, the American and Western practice of pushing everything with deadlines and minutes and seconds is not only offensive but also rude as well, one of the reasons why Saudi Arabian people dislike the Westerners (Ham, Shams & Madden, pp. 60-64, 2004). While the western business techniques are increasing tilting towards the principles of participative management, employee empowerment, corporate democracy, centralized organisations, flat organizational structures and a more active role of managers in employee development, most of the Arab culture believes the other way around (Shoult, pp. 89-96, 2006). Saudi Arabia ranks extremely high on the dimension of power distance, which refers to the practice where employees feel comfortable with the high income and power inequality between the top most and bottom most people in organizations and social institutions. Employees rely heavily on their bosses, their orders, instructions, and policies. They prefer being controlled and strongly believe that their managers should assume the roles of their authoritarian fathers (Morrison & Conaway, pp. 69-74, 2006). The word authoritarian father is the right description because of two reasons. First, fathers are not supposed to consult their children while making important decisions of their lives. The job of sons, in a traditional society is to follow the instructions of their father and do not question it after a certain limit. Secondly, children also know that fathers have all the experience and have seen more than they have of the world, therefore, whatever they say, despite it may appear insensible at the first sight, but towards the end of the day, it will have some hidden and precious meaning or message (Thomas, pp. 358-359, 2008). While western businesspersons prefer to keep a distance between each other during meetings, Saudi Arabian executives might try to sit very close and bend towards each other side as a symbol of trust, respect, and attention. Furthermore, non-verbal communication, such as eye contact, gestures, tone of voice, silence, and others make a significant portion of the total communication (Long, pp. 125-129, 2005). In addition, age and titles are also very important in the Arab society. People prefer if their title is used before their name such as “Shiekh”, “Doctor”, “Professor”, and others. Furthermore, when the sole criteria of climbing up the corporate ladder may be merit and achievement, age is one of the most important factors in this regard in the Arab society. Senior members of the group deserve respect, consideration, and admiration at every step. Saudi Arabia also ranks very high on collectivism that means that as opposed to the American and British societies, Saudi people lay great emphasis on group work. They prefer working in teams, together, in harmony with each other. When the western people lay great emphasis on individual identifies, performance recognition and rewards, Arab people put the needs of their groups, societies and families, above their own needs and preferences (Long, pp. 125-129, 2005). Arab people believe that they do not possess a unique identity of their own and the only way they could do something meaningful could be by contributing towards the achievement of group objectives. The concept of social loafing does not exist in the Arab countries (Thomas, pp. 358-359, 2008). As mentioned earlier that since the Saudi society strongly adheres to principles of Islam, people tend to externalize the blame, achievements and even wrong doings largely. In western cultures, whenever people get to know about their mistakes, they would go on to accept them and try to fix them so that the same does not happen again. However, a Saudi employee may blame supernatural factors such as fate, luck, destiny, God, angels, demons and others in this regard. The Allah Almighty is controlling the entire world and thus, people are mere puppets executing the will of God (Shoult, pp. 89-96, 2006). References Ham, Anthony, Shams, Martha Brekhus., & Madden, Andrew. 2004. Saudi Arabia. Lonely Planet. Long, David E. 2005. Culture and customs of Saudi Arabia. Greenwood Publishing Group. Morrison, Terri, & Conaway, Wayne A. 2006. Kiss, bow, or shake hands: the bestselling guide to doing business in more than 60 countries. Adams Media. Shoult, Anthony. 2006. Doing business with Saudi Arabia. GMB Publishing Ltd. Thomas, David Clinton. 2008. Cross-cultural management: essential concepts. Sage Publications. Read More