7928Iba Cross-Cultural Management: Saudi Arabia Assessment Answers

It is important for the leaders of the work groups that his or her position gathers high reverence the subordinates who are generally liable to display maximum level of deference. The work culture of the offices in Saudi Arabia subtly implies that dereference is not only supposed to be shown towards the leader’s organisational position, but also to the family status he pertains to, as well as his class connections and age (Abaker, Al-Titi and Al-Nasr 2018). Also in connection of the above discussion, it should be additively mentioned that the Sharia (Islamic Workplace regulations) laws have fundamental role to play in guiding the members of work groups. Religion along with the traditional inherent culture of the nomadic tribals highly influences the values, business morals, behaviour as well as the practices of the managers in the workplace. Some basic postulates of the team management culture at the offices at Saudi Arabia are:

1. i) Clear demarcation of position between the managers and the subordinates
2. ii) The managerial disposition is more non-egalitarian that as observed in US.
3. iii) The chain of command is highly rigid in Saudi Arabia

The culture of team management in Taiwan is quite analogous to Saudi Arabian management style. However, the managers expects consultation from the other team members in the phase prior to any decision being taken. Any decision taken by the committee in absence of the senior manager can be nullified at any moment (Nahm, Abraham 2015). Position and age demands equal respect in the Taiwanese workplace. Hence it becomes difficult for the older Taiwanese employees to accept serving under the younger managers.

Value Systems 

The three major prospects of vale system of Saudi Arabian companies are requirement of business visitors to adhere to laws of Islam building of relationships and presenting as a good guest. Most important values preserved are that of punctuality in prayer times, maintenance of dietary and dress codes and in some business environments, the compliance to gender segregation is a must (Almalki, Al-fleit and Zafar 2017). The Saudi business exponents take great interest to explain these customs to the foreign visitors so that they respect and comply by these set of values. Prior to quantifying the business, the HR managers in Saudi Companies like Saudi Aramco, Shell Saudi and so on focus on strengthening the internal relationship among work forces (Fuller 2015). The Saudi culture treats their clients with utmost level of hospitality. Guests in business are always offered some drinks before initiating business deal. It is essential to accept these gestures and utilise these as big business opportunities to develop relationship as well as trust. There are certain subtle aspects of value chain in the business culture of Taiwan which matches as well as differs from that of the Saudi culture. One typical culture in Taiwanese companies is being introduced by another third person rather than self-introduction (Chen, Ping-Chuan, and Shiu-Wan Hung 2014). Again, the meeting schedules are not stringent in Taiwan. Small factors like exchange of business cards and mild acceptance of the same, generates value and reflects good business relationship between the two parties. Their value of respect is very subtle (Chen and Wang 2016). They humbly present their business ideas and wait with patience to listen to the responses of all the onlookers. More than the time bounding, factors like arising to satisfactory standard in meetings makes more sense and generates more value towards the stakeholders.

Conclusion

Analysing the team management ethics in Saudi Arabia, it can be concluded that greeting and sophistication of approach have great value in their culture. Their inherent culture of respecting tradition is of great significance. They expects their clients and foreign stakeholders to abide by their culture of “waasta” very much. On the contrary, age and position are the ultimate and exponential criteria of paying and gaining respect in the workplace according to the Taiwanese culture. Similarly, the value chain of Saudi Arabia also acculturates the value of internal relationship among the employees of a company. They also have the values like offering their clients or guests with drinks before going in to business deals. The Taiwanese on the contrary attach much value to the exchange of business cards and maintaining subtlety in business conferences and also greatly values the individual opinion of the stakeholders and/or onlookers in a meeting.

References

Abaker, M.O.S.M., Al-Titi, O.A.K. and Al-Nasr, N.S., 2018. Organizational policies and diversity management in Saudi Arabia. Employee Relations.

Almalki, M., Al-fleit, S. and Zafar, A., 2017. Challenges in Implementation of Information System Strategies in Saudi Business Environ-ment: A Case Study of aBank. International Journal of Computer Trends and Technology, 43, pp.2231-28.

Chen, C.F. and Wang, J.P., 2016. Customer participation, value co-creation and customer loyalty–A case of airline online check-in system. Computers in Human Behavior, 62, pp.346-352.

Chen, Ping-Chuan, and Shiu-Wan Hung., 2014. Collaborative green innovation in emerging countries: a social capital perspective. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 34(3) pp. 347-363.

Fuller, D.B., 2015. Moving along the electronics value chain: Taiwan in the global economy. In Global Taiwan: Building competitive strengths in a new international economy (pp. 159-187). Routledge.

Nahm, Abraham Y., 2015. Encouraging migrant foreign workers in Saudi Arabia to participate in problem solving: the role of leadership, trust, and security. Middle East Journal of Management 2(4), pp. 352-365.