Exploring the cultural influence on HRM in a private sector organisation in Saudi Arabia
Table of Contents. 2
Introduction. 3
Problem Statement 3
Research Aim and Objectives. 4
Justification of the Study. 4
Literature Review.. 4
Research Methods. 6
Summary. 7
Limitations. 8
References. 9
Introduction
The purpose of this study is to explore the cultural influence on HRM in private sector organisations in Saudi Arabia. Culture has been established to influence to a great extent human resource management (Rollinson and Broadfield, 2002). There are several aspects of human resources management, which is universal but the manner in which they are practiced is quite different and vary from one geographical location or culture to another. Some human resource policies that are successful in one place may not necessarily be successful in another place, thereby displaying the disparity, which is attributed to mainly culture.
K’Obonyo (2007, p. 5), when explaining the significance of understanding the implication of culture on private organizations states, “The core or culture is composed of explicit and tacit assumptions or understandings commonly held by a group of people, which are learnt and passed to new members of the group through social interaction”. In this respect, Saudi Arabia has human resource from diverse culture background, which implies a diversity in the tacit and explicit assumptions held by the people of Saudi Arabia. According to Schwartz (2006), managers in global business community encounter differences in culture, which when not properly and time addressed can interfere with management practices in the organization.
Problem Statement
Human resource plays a very important role in organizations with respect to performance of the organization concerning productivity. Human management of such resource is key to realizing the benefits of dedication and exclusive performance of personnel. Culture proves to be a challenge to manager of organization especially in private sector. Most private organizations tend to derive employees from different cultural background, which influence greatly human resource management (Rollinson and Broadfield, 2002). This makes it necessary adopt management practices that could deal with cultural differences in organization.
This study intends to explore the cultural influence on HRM in a private sector organisation in Saudi Arabia. The choice of Saudi Arabia draws on the fact that the country has employees with multicultural backgrounds, which makes it necessary to try to explore the cultural influence on HRM in a private sector organisation in Saudi Arabia in a bid to establish the impact of culture on human resource management.
Research Aim and Objectives
The main aim of this study is to investigate the impact of culture on human resource management in private sector in Saudi Arabia. In order to achieve the purpose of the study of exploring the cultural influence on HRM in a private sector organisation in Saudi Arabia, the following specific objectives were designed in accordance with the research problem.
- To establish the impact of culture on human resource management in private sector in Saudi Arabia
- To determine the effect of cultural diversity on productivity within private organizations in Saudi Arabia
- To determine ways through which organizations can exploit cultural diversity to ensure effective human resource management
Justification of the Study
The study aims to find out the influence of culture on human resource management in private sector in Saudi Arabia. The study aims to investigate in detail the impact of cultural difference in human resource management practices with the aim of coming up with a solution to influence of culture in human resource management. Since Saudi Arabia for a very long time has recruited employees from different countries in the private sector, the sector has diversity of cultural backgrounds, which management have to deal with according. This justifies the need to conduct this study of exploring the cultural influence on HRM in a private sector organisation in Saudi Arabia.
Literature Review
Culture has been ascertain to have different attributes, which include the fact that culture is learned, shared, culture is transgenerational, culture is symbolic, culture is patterned and that culture is adaptive. Culture in any given organization can be acquired through experience or learning. In addition, culture can be shared among people in an organization; hence, organization culture cannot be specific to individual employees in an organization. Culture is also passed down from one generation to another besides being used to symbolize other things. In addition, culture is integrated in the sense that a change in one aspect will bring change in another. Human resource management is very important in any given entity because of the role it plays in enhancing productivity. Cultural differences have been established to influence human resource management (Schwartz, 2008).
Schwartz (2006) argues that culture is stratified into different layers, which some being quite easily observable while others are very difficult to grasp. The easily observable layers of culture entail observable practices, artefacts and conventions, behavioural conventions and values. The inner layers of culture, which are not easily observable and are difficult to grasp include values and assumption. For instance, Tayeb (2005, p.31) states, “ … of international joint venture as internationally diverse teams may appear, at face value, to possess cultural consonance, yet more rigorous interaction may become dysfunctional as a result of deeply held perception of key factors”. This implies that there is more to culture in organizations and in order to effectively manage human resource that have cultural differences, it is imperative that the management understand properly the cultural diversity of the people both at face level and the inner layers. According to Stone and Stone-Romero (2008), this way the management would be able to adopt the most appropriate management practices that would ensure successful management of the human resource.
Powell (2008), in his interview with Geert Hofstede, noted that there are five dimensions of culture, which include, power/distance, individualism, masculinity and long term orientation. As Triandis and Arzu Wasti (2008) explain, cultures have very significant impact on approaches used to manage people, hence the need to employ different management practices to deal with different cultures. Many scholars across the globe such as Stone, Isenhour and Lukaszewski (2008), have ascertained that human resource management is one of the most management practices that are most vulnerable to cultural differences in organizations. This makes it imperative to design management practices that would be most effective in dealing with cultural difference among personnel from different cultural background. Cultural difference in organization has direct impact in performance of organization in one way or another. For instance, cultural difference among multicultural workforce leads to difference in individual perceptions as well as preference, which are very vital in shaping organizational behaviour (Zupan and Kase, 2005). Organizations rely on organization behaviour to achieve common goal and objectives of the entities (Spence and Petrick, 2000). This implies that cultural differences have an impact in the success of entities.
Organizational behaviour like management style, decision-making, performance appraisal and rewarding, definition of gaols, work-orientation, conflicts, communication and work motivation are shaped by preferences and perception which are, in turn, influenced by cultural differences. There are also theories that have been stipulated to explain how culture shapes behaviours of both individuals and institutions. One of the theories that that recognize the influence of culture in shaping individual and institutional behaviour is economic theory (Triandis and Arzu Wasti, 2008). Saudi Arabia is culturally diverse due to infiltration of the labour market by multinational employees from different cultural background. Cultural diversity in Saudi Arabia was necessitated by the internationalization of the of the economy and the inability of the Saudi nationals to provided the skilful labour that the economy needed at some point it time (Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner, 2004). The study aims to explore the cultural influence on HRM in a private sector organisation in Saudi Arabia using primary research approach.
Research Methods
In order to explore effectively the cultural influence on human resource management in a private sector organisation in Saudi Arabia, it is important to come up with suitable methods, tools and techniques that will be effective in addressing the research problem. The section on methodology presents a detailed account on how best the research will be carried out. In order to address the research problem as well as to provide answers to research questions both primary and secondary data will be sued in this study. Secondary data is very significant in the sense that it provides the basis upon which base the study. The sources of secondary data include book, journal, periodical and internet among others. Secondary data gathering entails comprehensive and intensive review of existing literature. On the other hand, primary data will be derived from the field of the study, where the researcher will seek opinions and feeling of respondents about the subject of the study. The respondents will be drawn from the managers of organizations in the private sector of Saudi Arabia. The study aims to administer questionnaire to about 100 potential respondents from about 30 private sector organizations in Saudi Arabia.
The research design that would be most suitable to address the research problem as well as to provide answers to research questions is both qualitative and quantitative research designs. In quantitative research design, numerical data would be collected from respondents. It follows that the method and instrument that will be used in the primary data collection process is closed ended questionnaire using quantitative research approach. Questionnaires will be designed in accordance with the research problem and research objectives. Purposive sampling technique will be sued to identify respondents. The reason for the choice of the sampling purposive sampling technique is because the technique is suitable to collect opinions of respondents that will represents the whole population. Data collected from respondents will be subjected to statistical data analysis, whereby the raw data will be coded in SPSS software before carrying out chi-square test and descriptive statistical analysis.
On the other hand, qualitative research design will be used in this research to collect qualitative data from managers such are human resource managers working in the private sector through direct interview with managers from various selected firms. The resultant interview transcripts will then be analyzed and inferences made accordingly. Purposive non-probability sampling technique will be applied in the process of identifying potential respondents. Research reliability and validity will also be considered during the research. In order to ensure research reliability, research methods, techniques and tools will cautiously be selected and applied in a bid to collect accurate data as well as to conduct data analysis appropriately. Research ethics will be upheld in order to ensure that the rights of all stakeholders are not violated. Permission will be sought from the relevant authorities of the firms where data will be collected before explaining to respondent the significance of the research. This will be followed by seeking the consent of respondents to participate in the research under a promise that their personal information will not be revealed to third parties.
Summary
The purpose of this study is to explore the cultural influence on HRM in a private sector organisation in Saudi Arabia. In a bid to achieve the purpose of the research, three objectives will be investigated. The objectives to be achieved include establishing the impact of culture on human resource management in private sector in Saudi Arabia, to find out whether Saudization plays a role solving cultural differences in organizations in private sector in Saudi Arabia and to establish solution to cultural difference in human resource management in private sector in Saudi Arabia. Combined research design of qualitative research design and quantitative research design will be used where closed ended questionnaires and interviews will be sued to collect primary data from managers and employees working in organization in the private sector in Saudi Arabia.
Limitations
The limitations in this research include time, money and research questions. The study is expected to be conducted with a given time frame. This cannot allow extensive investigation of the research problem. Since time is a limiting factor, it is necessary to design the study in such a manner that the time available can be sufficient to complete the whole study successfully. In addition, there study is also limited by the research question. The research questions define the scope of the study; hence, the study is to be conducted in accordance with the research question. There is also limited financial resource, which cannot support a wide scope of the research.
References
K’obonyo, P., 2007. Influence of culture on strategic human resource management (SHRM) practices in multinational companies (MNC) in Kenya: A critical literature Review. Available at: http://www.strathmore.edu/rso/research/strategic-human-resource-mgt.pdf [Accessed 8 June 2012].
Powell, S., 2006. Geert Hofstede: challenges of cultural diversity. Human Resource Management International Digest, 14(3), pp.12 – 15.
Rollinson, D. and Broadfield, A., 2002. Organisational Behaviour and Analysis. USA: Prentice Hall.
Schwartz, S. H., 2006. A Theory of Cultural Value Orientations: Explication and Applications. Comparative Sociology, 5, pp. 136-182.
Schwartz, S. H., 2008. Cultural Value Orientations: Nature & Implications of National Differences. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Spence, L. J. and Petrick, J., 2000. Multinational interview decisions: Integrity capacity and competing values. Human Resource Management Journal, 10, pp. 49-67.
Stone, D. and Stone-Romero, E., 2008., The Influence of Culture on Human Resource Management Processes and Practices. Psychology Press & Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Stone, D., Isenhour, L. and Lukaszewski, K., 2008. A Model of the Influence of Cultural Values on Job Application Intentions and Behaviors. Psychology Press & Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, pp: 25-51.
Tayeb, M., 2005. International Human Resource Management: A Multinational Company Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Triandis, H.C. and Arzu Wasti, S., 2008. Culture in: Dianna L. Stone and Eugene F. Stone- Romero (eds), The Influence of Culture on Human Resource Management Processes and Practices, Psychology Press & Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, pp. 1-24.
Trompenaars, F. and Hampden-Turner, C., 2004. Managing people across culture. USA: Capstone Publishing.
Zupan, N. and Kase, R., 2005. Strategic human resource management in European transition economies: building a conceptual model on the case of Slovenia. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 16(6), pp. 882 -906
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