Cross-Cultural Behavior in the Work Place: Etihad Airways - Research Proposal Example

Cross-cultural Study Report on Etihad Airways Cross Cultural Behavior in the Work Place Background Etihad Airways relates to a countrywide airline of the Unites Arab Emirates (UAE). The head office for the company is located in Khalifa City A, near Abu Dhabi City. Royal decree helped established the company in June 2003 and began its operations in November. According to Etihad airways annual report (2012, p. 10), the company ranks as the fourth largest airline in the Middle Eastand the second largest airline in the UAE. The airline operates a fleet of 105 Airbus and Boeing aircraft. It handles more than 1000 flights per week to about 96 destinations in America, Europe, Africa, Australia, Asia and Middle East. The primary role of the airline is to provide transportation of passengers and cargo. In addition, the airline also operates Etihad holiday packages. The annual report (2012, p. 9), states that James Hogan led Etihad airline as the C.E.O of the company under governance by board of directors chaired by HH Sheikh Hamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The governing board operates in accordance to the founding legislation and article of association of the company. Etihad airline comprises of employees from different parts of the world. The employees have to coexist despite their different cultural backgrounds. However, as they carry on with their duties within the organization, many issues arise because of the cross-cultural factors. These challenges experiences in the day-to-day running of the company. Etihad airline is a multi-cultural company according to the report (2012, p. 10) and this made it the best choice to carry out a cross-cultural study. Methodology The research conducted cross-cultural study with an objective of finding out the issues that arise in the work areas because of cultural differences. Etihad Airways Company found use as the study subject because the employees in the company are from various parts of the world hence different cultural practices. Data from the employees in this company aimed to help in creating a rich understanding of the cultural behavior in the work environment. The study conducted within the revenue management department of Etihad airline also personally interviewed three British senior managers in the organization. One team member was an employee to this company and tasked to interview the managers. The study interviewed two managers in charge of Commercial Route Management and a manager in charge of Regional Pricing in the company. During the interview, researcher asked the managers questions about cross cultural issues they had encountered while dealing with their Indian colleagues.The data collected was critically analyzed in to give an in depth understanding of the challenges that exist in the work areas because of cultural diversity. Moreover, this information helped the study to establish solutions and recommendations to these challenges. Findings In this global age of modern technology, the world has become a global village. People from different parts of the world have remained closer contributing to multi-cultural state of most companies. Etihad airline is an example of a multicultural company with people from different occupations brought together to work under the same roof all with a common goal. This can be both exciting and challenging to the employees. From the semi-structured interviews of the managers in the Etihad airline, the study arrived at a number of findings. Edgar and Meredith (2012, p. 36) states that people of different cultural backgrounds working together can positively influence the development of a company by encouraging cultural diversity. However, it can also be detrimental if the cultures contradict thus resulting in hostile working environments. The issues that the British managers encountered while dealing with the Indian colleagues included the following. Hofstede’s Cross Cultural Theory According to Dr. Geert Hofstede’s five dimensions of cultural differences (2010, p. 125), the managers mentioned several of his dimensions during the interviews. Masculinity among the employees was dominant. Masculinity refers to the taboos of a culture about the roles of both males and females in working environment. Some cultures may expect that the roles of males and females be distinct. High masculinity scores in a working environment characterize distinctive roles of males and female (Hofstede, 2010, p. 126). The society expects male to be masculine, tough whereas the females to be feminine. However, low masculinity scores in a working environment indicate that a woman can accomplish anything that a man can do. The males and females receive similar opportunities in the work areas. Society admires powerful and successive women besides respecting them. The Etihad airline had a foundation to have high masculinity scores since the males and female roles were distinct. There were jobs that could only male workers could perform whereas the females only did others. This was a major challenge for the British employees and thus made their working relations with the Indian colleagues strained. They had first to learn of what roles males had to accomplish and those of females before stating to work. There was a challenge in the work environment due to power and distance, another dimension of Hofstede’s. This refers to the inequality levels that exist because of matters related to power. Centralized companies, with strong hierarchies, according to Galit (2009, p. 572), characterize a high PD score. The company treated employees unequally depending on the distribution of power. There exist large gaps in compensation, authority and respect in the work area. The company expects the workers to know their place within this hierarchy. However, a low PD score means that the power remains shared and well dispersed among the employees in the organization (Galit, 2009, p. 573). The organization considers supervisors and employees almost as equals. From the cross-cultural study, Etihad airline essentially had high PD scores. The British employees had to know their place and who were their superiors and juniors in the work environment. This was a major challenge to them and affected their integration into the UAE society. They most often kept to themselves since they had no idea on what hierarchical rank to place their Indian colleagues. In addition, the individualism dimension was a challenge. Warner and Joynt (2010, p. 145) define individualism as ties and relations that the people have with others within the community. A high individualism score shows loose connections or interpersonal connections. There is little sharing of responsibility beyond family or perhaps a small circle of close friends. In a working environment, the workers are highly valued depending on their time and need for freedom. Privacy is highly respected, overcome challenges together and there is an expectation of rewards for hard work (Warner and Joynt, 2010, p. 148). On the contrary, a low individualism score shows the there is close working relations and strong group connections between the employees. People take more responsibility for each other’swell being and show loyalty and respect for other members in the work area (Warner and Joynt, 2010, p. 148). It emphasizes on building skills among the workers with regular intrinsic rewards. The study showed that the Etihad airline company has high individualism scores. The British employees could not freely mingle with other people of other cultures. They remained not fully accepted into the Indian social circles. This made their working relationships strained since they would always keep to their own circles. Long-term orientation refers to how much a society values long standing traditions and values as compared to those that are short term (Rodgers and Everet, 2012, p. 23). High long-term orientation characterizes traditional beliefs such as family being the basis of a society or parents and men having more authority than young people and women in the society. High value finds value on education and strong work ethic. In contrast, low term orientation characterizes promotion of members on basis of equality, high creativity and individualism (Rodgers and Everet, 2012, p. 24). Self-actualization remains sought and the philosophy of treating others, as you would wish treatment governs the environment. The British airline employees experienced challenges while working with people from other cultures since they had no clue on the traditions and beliefs for each particular culture. This made their ability of integration to UAE society even harder. Hofstede’s uncertainty or avoidance index dimension was also a main problem in the integration of British workers into the UAE society. According to Hofstede (2010, p. 125), the dimension relates to the degree of anxiety that the humanity experience when in doubtful or unfamiliar situations. High uncertainty or avoidance scores characterize formal business conduct with a lot of rules and policies. The businesses try to avoid ambiguous situation whenever possible since a sense of nervousness spurns high levels of emotion and expression. There is a need and expect structure and differences are avoided at any cost. Low uncertainty or avoidance index characterizes informal business attitude (Hofstede 127). The business is concerned with the long-term strategy than what happens on a daily basis. The employees accept any changes and risks positively. From the cross-cultural study, the Etihad airline remained under the category of having high avoidance and uncertainty scores. The British employees interviewed confirmed this. The board of governors under strict regulations to avoid ambiguous situations in the origination governs the company. This adversely affects how employees from different cultural background interact with each other. Trompenaars and Hamden Cross Cultural Theory Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hamden Turner also established cross-cultural theory based on seven dimensions of culture (Galit, 2009, p. 571). They found out that people from different cultures do not just differ randomly in their cultures but instead, the cultures differ in very specific and even predictable ways since each culture has its unique way of thinking , its own beliefs and values, and various partialities placed on a variety of dissimilar factors. After carrying out a cross-cultural study on Etihad airline, the study found out that the company experienced challenges on all the dimensions. This was evident from the interviews conducted on the British managers about their relations with workers of different cultural background. These dimensions include versus outer direction versus internal direction, communitarianism versus individualism, and neutral versus emotional. Other dimensions include achievement versus ascription, diffuse versus specific, sequential time versus synchronous time, and particularism versus universalism (Galit, 2009, p.573). In all the seven dimensions, only one was preferred in the working environment and the preference is what was causing cross-cultural issues in the company. Each preference has been critically analyzed below and it effect on the relations of employees from different cultural backgrounds. Universalism in a company encourages the employees to deal fairly with other workers. Universalism places high importance on laws, obligations and values in order to ensure the workers perform their duties in harmony. However, in particularism, the employees believe that each circumstance or relationship determines the rules that the employees will live by. Therefore, expectations are that the responses to each particular situation in the company may change depending on what is happening at that particular moment and who is involved. Employees should have the potential to group their company as either individualistic or communitarian and adapt to their requirements. In a specific work environment, employees keep work and their personal lives separate. They therefore believe that people can work together despite not having good work relationships since relationships to them have no major impact in the operation of the company. However, a in a diffuse working environment personal and work issues overlap. The employees believe that good relationships are vital for the success of the business. They therefore spend time with their colleagues and clients to interact outside the office hours. The accomplishments of an organization rely on how the employees relate. Through diffuse measures, the company avoids possible issues due to cultural differences and promotes cultural diversity since they tend to mix up and share the cultural experiences. Reasoning characterizes a neutral working environment. Emotions remain not allowed in controlling the decisions made in the company. The employees do not reveal what they are thinking or feeling. The company expects employees to watch their body language especially when making points for example in a meeting and when interacting with people of different cultures. On the other hand, an emotional working environment allows the employees to express their emotions concerning various activities or decisions made in the company. An emotional working environment is encouraged among companies. It encourages employees of different cultural backgrounds to share ideologies and learn more about each other’s cultures for peaceful coexistence. Achievement dimension of culture encourages employees to believe in what they are and base the worth of other workers accordingly. The dimension values performance despite the culture of origin for the employee. Ascription instils a belief in the workers that they should value people based on who they are. In these cultures, title, position and power do matter a lot and they define how employees should interact with each other. The employees need to understand where their company lies and comply with its preference (Rodgers and Everet, 2012, p. 24). Edgar and Meredith (2012, p.35) explains that a sequential time culture place high value on punctuality, planning and staying on schedule. Events are conducted in order and the people believe that time is money. However, in synchronous time culture allows people to see the past, present and future as interwoven periods. The employees view plans and commitments as flexible and can thus work on several projects concurrently. It is advisable that employees in a company know what their company prefers and strive to work in accordance to the rules to interact positively despite the different cultural backgrounds. Internal direction or locus control culture in a company enables the employees to believe that they can control nature and their surrounding environment and manipulate them to attain their desired objectives (Edgar and Meredith, 2012, p.35). The culture is evident in hoe the employees work with teams and within the organization. In external locus of control culture, people believe nature or environment controls them and thus must work in association with the environment to achieve their desired goals. The employees focus on their actions towards other people to avoid possible conflicts. They continuously receive reassurance of doing impressive job. This type of working environment allows people of different culture to peacefully interact and learn from each other. Halls Cross Cultural Theory Edward Hall’s theory has a basis of three dimensions, context, time and space, according to Shuter (2008, p. 39). In addition, the three factors identifies as issues that may arise when employees of a company are of different cultures. Under context, the factors include overtones of messages, locus of control and attribution for failure, use of nonverbal communication and expression of reaction. Additional factors include cohesion and separation of groups, people bonds, level of commitment to relationships, and flexibility of time. In high context, cultures remains despised and therefore the employees should find help in understanding the various contextual elements. Low contextual cultures on the other hand, are outspoken and straightforward. In personal space dimension, low territoriality culture allows people to have less ownership of space and boundaries whereas high territoriality cultures show more concern on ownership of personal space. In time dimension, factors that can arise include attention to time, priority, focus, actions, timeliness and respect for property (Shuter, 2008, p. 40). Monochronous cultures allow people to do one thing at a time whereas in polychronous cultures, the employees have opportunity of interacting. Human interaction has value over time and associated material things. In addition, the cross-cultural study also found that there exist other issues arising when people of different cultures work together. These issues include communication barriers, religious practices and beliefs, social values, nonverbal behavior, customs and dressing codes. Solutions and Recommendations The cross-cultural study also established a number of solutions and recommendations to the issues that arise in the working environment because of cultural differences. From the findings identified in the study, the solution and recommendation to each challenge remains discussed critically below. To establish good working relations between inter cultural employees; the recommendations have to be exercised. Having employees from different cultures is inevitable now that technology has made the world a global village. Through inter cultural employments, cultural diversity remains encouraged and people have opportunity to live with one another learning culture practiced by other cultures and marveling at them. From Hofstede’s cross-cultural theory (2010, p.127), a company should have high scores in power or distance, individualism, masculinity, long-term orientation and uncertainty or avoidance index dimension. In PD dimension, teamwork is encouraged and many employees should remain consulted before the company makes any major decisions. About individualism, the employees should respect traditions of other cultures, suppress feelings and emotions while working in order to coexist with other people from different cultures and also show respect for age and wisdom. Recommendations made about masculinity is that employees should ensure men and females are treated equally. The business management should also ensure that job design and practices are not discriminatory to both gender and the “old boys” mentality is eliminated among the workers. The uncertainty or avoidance index challenge a can be eliminated from the organization by minimizing emotional response by being calm and contemplating situation before speaking. The employees should be encouraged to express their curiosity whenever they discover differences in the organization (Hofstede, 2010, p. 129). Rules and structure should not remain imposed on the employees by the management but instead the company should consult workers before airing their views and wishes. To eliminate long-term orientation challenge, employees should be respectful to others. The management of the company should also introduce necessary changes having in mind that they have similar expectations of living by the same standards and rules they create in the operation of the company (Hofstede, 2010, p. 130). By implementing these recommendations from Hofstede, the employees will live peacefully and interact positively in the work environment thus increasing the output of the company. From Trompenaars and Hampden dimensions, the study came up with the following recommendations. People working in a universalism culture should try to keep promises and be consistent, have an understanding of their work in association to values and beliefs. They should use objective process when making decisions and give a detailed explanation to other members involved in the business. Those working in particularistic environments should respect others’ needs during decision-making, be flexible in their decisions and take time to build relationships besides knowing people from different cultures (Shuter, 2008, p. 43). In an individualistic environment, the company should reward individual employees’ performance, link people’s individual needs with those of the group and assist employees in learning from their mistakes. Those working in communitarianism culture should reward group performance, allow people to involve others in decision making and avoid favorism or nepotism. Employees under specific culture should learn to be direct and to the point and keep their work and home lives separate. However, in diffuse environment, the employees should focus on creating good working relationships before focusing on business objectives. Those in neutral environment should control their emotions effectively whereas employees in emotional environment have recommendations to open up and build trust and rapport amongst their fellow workers. In an achievement culture, recommendations are that good performance should remain recognized and rewarded and use of titles is relevant. However, in an ascription environment the employees should always use titles and show respect to people in authority especially when challenging their decisions (Shuter, 2008, p. 39). In sequential time environment, the employees should keep to deadlines, be punctual, and focus on one project at a time. Moreover, they should set clear deadlines whereas those working in synchronous environment should be flexible on how they approach their work (Shutter, 2008, p. 40). For an internal direction environment, the employees should be open about conflict and disagreement and allow people to engage in constructive conflict. Whereas, those working in outer direction have the recommendation of giving their fellow workers regular feedbacks to familiarize them on how their actions are affecting their environment. Conclusion Etihad airline is a company that works with people from different cultural backgrounds. Many other companies have also adopted the multi-cultural working relationships since technology has made travelling all over the world easier. For companies that deal with employees of different cultural backgrounds, they should strive to come up with strategic measures that will enable the employees work harmoniously to achieve the company’s objectives. From the cross-cultural theories, they should help the employees understand each other’s cultures and accept them as they are. Therefore, culture diversity and cohesion is achievable and with possibility of maintenance. Works sited Edgar, H., Meredith, B. (2012) Cross Cultural Management Textbook: Lessons from the World Leading Experts. New York, pp. 35-40. Etihad Airways. 2013. Building the future: Annual Report. Web. March 6, 2015. Retrieved from http://resources.etihadairways.com/etihadairways/images/E_Book/HTML/Annual_Report_2013_English/assets/common/downloads/Annual%20Report%202013%20English.pdf Galit A. (2009) A Reply To Geert Hofstede. The Academy Of Management Review, Vol 3, 571-573. Hofstede, G. H., Hofstede, G. J., & Minkov, M. (2010). Cultures and organizations: software of the mind: intercultural cooperation and its importance for survival. New York, McGraw-Hill. Joint, P., Warner, M. (2010). The Mirror Image World: Doing Business In Asia. London. Thomson Learning. Rodgers M., Everet M. (2012). Edward T Hall and the History of Intellectual Communication. Keio Communication Review, Vol 24, 3-26. Shuter R. (2008). The Tentrality of Culture. The Global Intercultural Communication Reader. New York. Routledge Appendices The semi structured interview consisted of a number of questions. The interview started by asking demographic questions such as: How long they have been out of their country How long they have existed in the UAE culture Whether they worked in other countries Their work experience How long they have existed in their present company Whether they are there as a family or on their own Their age range Their qualifications Other questions asked included: Whether the working environment was favorable to them What was it like working in a multi-cultural environment? What challenges they experienced while working with their Indian colleagues? Whether they had come up with any solutions or recommendations about cross cultural issues in their working environment? What counsel they would bestow to other people from their home country who would also wish to work in UAE? Read More