Management Practice in Saudi Airlines, Saudi Arabian vs Western Management - Literature review Example

The paper “Management Practice in Saudi Airlines, Saudi Arabian vs Western Management” is a provoking example of the literature review on management. The origin of the Saudi Arabian Airlines – the country’s national commercial airline – is being traced to the American President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s handing over of Douglas DC-3 Dakota to King Abdul Aziz Bin Abdul Rahman Al Saud, the founder of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, on February 14, 1945, during their historic meeting at the Suez Canal (Shoult 2006, p. 609). Having realized the need for a fast, comfortable, and effective means of transport to link the distant places of the Kingdom, King Abdul Aziz ordered that the Kingdom’s first Douglas DC-3 be made as to the heart of a national carrier. Hence, three months after, the said plane started to ferry passengers and cargoes to and fro Riyadh, Jeddah, and Dhahran. Today, the Saudi Arabian Airlines boasts of one hundred and thirty-nine (139) aircraft, which include the latest and the most advanced jets such as B747-400s, B747-300s, B747-100s, B777-200s, Airbus A300-600s, MD-11s and MD90s (Historical Highlights 2011).

This paper is specifically about the management practice of Saudi Arabian Airlines and its comparison and contrast with the management practice of the Western countries. It intends to review the practice of management by a Saudi Arabian organization – specifically, Saudi Arabian Airlines – through the prism of Organizational Management or Organizational Behavior.

THE MANAGEMENT PRACTICE IN SAUDI AIRLINES
It helps to provide a general picture that tells how management is being practiced in the entire Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. For Ali (2009, p. 58), there are four main management practices by Saudi Arabians. Firstly, they manage by “Gool Tem”. This management practice is by the members of the ruling families, their immediate subordinates, and those who are adjoined to tribal networks and traditions. In effect, this practice provides that a manager approaches his superior to act on a request or to grant permission without the latter knowing its essence and extent in advance. This is how the government servants and technocrats do their tasks. They approach the crown prince or the other members of the ruling family and ask them, without any explanation, to say “good time” to get things done.