Cross Culture Management BACKGROUND: DUBAI Dubai is a member state of the United Arabs Emirates Economic performance of the UAE ranked highly Arabs in Dubai are dominantly Muslims Large numbers of investors are expatriates Interactions between the two groups guided by cultural values

CROSS CULTURE MANAGEMENT BACKGROUND: BUSINESS IN DUBAI Islamic laws are incorporated in business culture in Dubai Religion and general culture are inseparable Culture therefore influences teamwork, decision making, strategy, and HR functions Hierarchy and organization features particularly represent the Arab culture - experienced anywhere else in the world (worldbusinessculture.com)

CROSS CULTURE MANAGEMENT TEAMWORKING  Teamwork and group dynamics in Arabic world is dependent on a vertical organization  A leader must always guide the team towards certain organization  Hierarchies play a major role in guiding team working- as will be observed later  Teamwork depends on bond created among team members  Family bond is the strongest team structure in Arabic culture  Team working is difficult when team members don’t know each other (Noack 2007, p40)

CROSS CULTURE MANAGEMENT TEAMWORKING  Generally, the Arabic culture holds cooperation and collaboration with high emphasis (Bouchentouf 2009, p190)  Hierarchical setting however needs leadership in business environment to bring out teamwork  Due to cultural setting, teamwork depends on the management’s input- eliminating differences

CROSS CULTURE MANAGEMENT DECISION MAKING  Cultural setting for business in Dubai borrows from a strict instruction and paternalistic perspective (worldbusinessculture.com)  The manager assumes the cultural position of a father while junior staff member can be said to be the child  Decision making follows defined hierarchy with those on top being final decision makers as fathers do in a family  Authority given to the manager is enough to make undoubted decisions  Juniors don’t have questioning powers and lack initiative capacity  Managers ought to be clear in instructions

CROSS CULTURE MANAGEMENT STRATEGY Business strategy must follow cultural values A thin line separates culture and religion, which has clear guidelines for business practices Adopted strategy must for instance observe Islamic teachings Ignoring Islamic or cultural values in Dubai is taken as an insult Formulating a strategy is followed up by aligning it with the expected cultural values

CROSS CULTURE MANAGEMENT IHRM Recruiting:  Staffing becomes tricky in an environment with such close ties to cultural values as Dubai has  Facilitating local employment for a multinational faces challenges of balancing the workforce  Strong family setting may dictate how teams are handled in the common vertical organization  Teamwork may necessitate recruiting employees who are familiar with each other (worldbusinessculture.com)  Recruiting a manager can be guided by leadership qualities that a paternalistic culture requires for efficiency

CROSS CULTURE MANAGEMENT IHRM Developing Staff:  Handling staff issues is not a big problem due to the management style commonly used in Arab countries  Modern human resource management and IHRM practices that highlight employee’s welfare are easy to adopt  Changing staff attitude towards work to improve commitment has greatly improved performance  Staff motivation in the traditional backdrop of paternalistic and strict hierarchical organization is key to efficiency enhancement  Dubai has made strides in staff development (Boermeester 2006, p120)

CROSS CULTURE MANAGEMENT HIERARCHY  Culture in Dubai emphasizes on hierarchical organization (vertical management)  A manager or a leader is therefore influential in business success  Dubai employees depend on the directions of the manager in order to deliver (worldbusinessculture.com)  Cultural values place leaders in definite decision making positions that are respected and recognized by juniors

CROSS CULTURE MANAGEMENT HIERARCHY  Business strategy in recruitment for a Dubai subsidiary must consider locals for managerial posts  Staffing must follow cultural expectations for the local culture, especially selecting acceptable managers  Maintaining a vertical organizational structure might be a good strategy to establish corporate culture  IHRM practices must consider the local cultural setting in dealing with promotions (Noack 2007,p9)

CROSS CULTURE MANAGEMENT REFERENCES “Doing Business in Dubai,” [online] Available from: [accessed 27 June 2011] Boermeester, S. (2006) Best of Dubai Vol. 1. London, UK: Global Village Productions Ltd Bouchentouf, A. (2009) Arabic phrases for dummies. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Publishing, Inc., Noack, S. (2007) Doing business in Dubai and the United Arab Emirates. Norderstedt, Germany: GRIN Verlag