Executive Summary

Many of the transnational building companies working in the development states and peculiarly in Middle East have been confronting jobs in pull offing and put to deathing the work. A major challenge for set abouting the undertakings in these states is to accommodate efficaciously to their civilization. Cultural differences greatly influence the public presentation of the undertaking. Therefore for an international undertaking to be successful a alone scheme should be adopted in order to work out the issues related to cultural diverseness. This study chiefly outlines a scheme that needs to be adopted for ; placing the impact of cultural diverseness on persons runing in different cultural environment and ; standards for choosing persons to run in differing cultural environments.

The study is divided into following subdivisions. The first subdivision is the debut consisting of the background of an American company ( Whitehouse Construction Inc ) and the cardinal challenges faced by the company while set abouting undertaking in Saudi Arabia. In the 2nd subdivision the cultural diverseness between USA and Saudi Arabia is discussed. After comparing the diverseness of the states, the likely impact of cultural diverseness on the persons has been identified in this subdivision. The 3rd subdivision negotiations about the scheme and standards for choosing appropriate staff for set abouting this undertaking. The 4th and concluding subdivision negotiations about the effectual ways for fixing the undertaking squad members for cultural daze.

1. Introduction

International companies in many industries all over the universe have started recognizing that for their concern to be successful at that place needs to be a good apprehension of the cultural issues. However this realisation appears to be missing in the international building industry. Harmonizing to the Construction Industry Institute ( CII ) of America study ( Cobra, 1996 ) , which involved persons from different facet of US building industry, the major concern in international building was deficiency of apprehension of foreign civilizations, moralss and linguistic communications. The US abroad building industry has seen a diminution in their portion of the planetary building market over a decennary due to hapless apprehension and grasp of, and version to different civilization ( Cobra, 1996 ) . Therefore in order to get the better of this issue a alone scheme should be adopted and must be implemented by the international companies.

An American building company ‘Whitehouse Construction Inc ‘ is a transnational company with a scope of abroad activity which is preponderantly for American clients in Western Europe. The company has late been awarded the contract to construct a 75 storey hotel and conference Centre in Jeddah, for a Saudi Arabian client. The company for the first clip will be making the undertaking in Middle East. The company has decided to choose the undertaking squad from the company ‘s US subjects working at place and in Europe. The company is really good cognizant of the cultural issues that would impact the public presentation of the undertaking as the company has suffered before due to miss of grasp of European civilization by the undertaking squad members. Now the key challenges that the company faces are: –

Choosing appropriate staff for set abouting undertaking in Saudi Arabia.

To guarantee that the undertaking squad members operate successfully in the new concern environment ( i.e. fixing undertaking squad members for cultural daze ) .

Now in order to get the better of these challenges the company foremost necessitate to understand the civilization differences between USA and Saudi Arabia. After understanding the cultural differences the company so necessitate to place the possible impact of cultural diverseness on the undertaking squad members set abouting work in Saudi Arabia. The cultural diverseness and its impact are discussed in subdivision 2 of the study.

2. Cultural diverseness between USA and Saudi Arabia

Cultural diverseness has a great influence on the public presentation of the undertaking. Therefore pull offing cultural diverseness efficaciously would hold a positive impact on the public presentation of the undertaking. The followers are some of the cultural differences between USA and Saudi Arabia which can hold a possible impact on the undertaking squad members ;

Most of the people in Saudi Arabia are polychronic persons. They are more flexible in clip agendas and give more precedence for keeping relationship and socialising. They normally see clip in more holistic mode i.e. many events may go on at a clip. On the other manus person in US are monochronic i.e. they normally prefer to finish one undertaking at a clip. They do non give much precedence for keeping relationship and socialization.

Persons in US follow a really formal process for work outing work related jobs. On the other manus in Saudi many of the work related jobs are solved informally, in societal meetings based on interpersonal relationship.

Persons in Saudi normally focus on short term skylines such as short scope ends of net income and efficiency. On the other manus Americans normally concentrate on long term skylines. They are normally interested in long scope ends such as market portion and technologic development.

Companies in US normally believe equality in work i.e. work forces and adult females are given equal chances to work. On the other manus most of the companies in Saudi prefer work forces employee over adult females. Womans in Saudi play a negligible function in the concern universe.

United statess have an individualistic society where people have a inclination to look after themselves merely. In this type of society persons are hired and promoted mostly based on the single public presentation and accomplishments. On the other manus Saudi Arabia has a collectivized society where people normally have a inclination to work in a group and to take attention of each other. In this type of society publicities are given on the senior status base.

In Arabic organisations determination devising is highly centralized. All the of import determinations are made by the top directors of the organisation. In American organisations determinations are diffused throughout the organisations, of import determinations are made by lower degree director of the organisation.

Impact of cultural diverseness on the undertaking squad members:

The followers are some of the possible impacts of cultural diverseness on the undertaking squad members and on the activities performed by the undertaking squad members ;

Most of the Arabic persons are polychromatic. They are really flexible in clip agendas. This difference in clip orientation has a great impact on the undertaking squad members. The undertaking members can normally acquire defeated due to trouble of acquiring through a meeting docket. In Saudi Arabia meetings normally begin with an drawn-out socialization clip in which clip is spent set uping societal resonance.

Most of the undertaking squad members may see a civilization daze when assignments are non met, workers stop work twice a twenty-four hours for supplications, unusual method of working and inter tribal struggle on work site. The undertaking squad members get demoralized due to cultural daze.

Womans in the undertaking squad may happen it really hard to accommodate to the Saudi civilization. Any adult females sing on concern in Saudi demands to be really conservative. Most of the Saudi clients experience loath to pass on with the adult females.

The followers are some possible impacts of cultural diverseness on the activities of undertaking squad members ;

It is really hard for the undertaking squad members to negociate with the clients. Negotiations are extended communicating created in duologue by two sides ( Mead. R, 2005 ) . Most of the Saudi organisations value high context communicating manner wherein information is in physical context. The Arabs normally prefer indirect manner of communicating therefore the undertaking squad members may happen it hard while negociating with them as they normally prefer a more direct communicating manner.

The undertaking squad members may happen it hard to plan the edifice due to cultural differences. The design of the edifice requires the apprehension of Saudi civilization. The factors that need to be considered while planing a edifice in Saudi is the spiritual observation, place of adult females in the society and Koranic symbolism ( Cobra, 1996 ) . Therefore in order to plan a edifice the undertaking squad member foremost necessitate to understand these factors and so implement on their design.

Due to cultural differences the undertaking squad members need to understand the legal issues and contract and most significantly they should be capable of work outing the legal issues by following the Saudi patterns.

3. Scheme and standards for choosing appropriate staff for the undertaking

The company ‘Whitehouse Construction Inc ‘ has decided to choose the undertaking squad from the company ‘s US subjects working at place and in Europe. Now since the undertaking squad members are US subjects they are likely to confront issues related to cultural diverseness. Therefore in order to get the better of these issues the company should follow a alone scheme and standards for choosing undertaking squad members. The scheme of the company should be to fix the undertaking squad members for cultural daze so that the undertaking squad members can run successfully in the new concern environment.

Jordan and Cartwright ( 1998 ) identified three stable personality factors and four nucleus behavioural competences criteria required for choosing undertaking squad members set abouting work in new concern environment ;

Personality Attributes: –

Openness to see: The undertaking squad members should be wide minded and should appreciate the cultural differences. An openness to alter is required by the undertaking squad members to digest inevitable adversity and defeats.

Extraversion: The undertaking squad members should be extraversive. The undertaking squad members should be participative in cultural facets.

Low anxiety/ neurosis: The undertaking squad members are required to be emotionally stable and should be capable of defying and retrieving from cultural daze.

Competences: –

Relational abilities: The undertaking members should posses ‘ abilities to interact with the host state subjects and keep good concern dealingss with the host subjects.

Cultural sensitiveness: The undertaking squad members should be flexible and should be able to exchange efficaciously into host civilization. The squad members should be able to understand the planetary nature of the concern and recognise cross boundary line chance.

Linguistic ability: The undertaking squad members should be able to understand the host civilization linguistic communication and should be able to react to host civilization influences.

Ability to manage emphasis: The undertaking squad members should be able to manage emphasis efficaciously in the altering cultural environment. They should be prepared mentally for managing work related cultural issues.

The company must choose merely those undertaking squad members who have the above qualities. Apart from choosing appropriate undertaking squad members the company should besides actuate the selected undertaking members by giving ; ( Mead. R, 2005 )

Fair compensation ;

Adequate preparation ;

Support at station and on return ;

Enhanced publicity chances.

4. Fixing undertaking squad members for cultural daze

As discussed in the above subdivisions, the undertaking squad members are likely to see a cultural daze. Culture daze occurs when an person ‘s cultural outlooks come into struggle with the life manners and outlooks of new civilization. The most appropriate manner of fixing the undertaking squad member for civilization dazes is to give them transverse civilization preparation before directing them to new concern environment.

Cross cultural preparation: –

The cross cultural preparation in general can be defined as “ Any intercession aimed at increasing an person ‘s capableness to get by with and work in foreign environment ”