Overcoming Cross-Cultural Differences in the UAE

Overcoming Cross-Cultural Differences in the UAE
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Overcoming Cross-Cultural Differences in the UAE
Introduction
As a result of the world’s cross-border mobility, countries all over the world continue to experience an influx of individuals from different cultural backgrounds. Qualified individuals easily secure jobs for themselves in overseas countries. This trend is likely to continue for a long time as governments all over the world seek to build stronger bonds and make it easier for their people to freely move and work wherever they want. However, problems that emanate from the cultural differences of employees often emerge. These problems can seem minute but in the end, these can greatly impact productivity and make it incredibly difficult for employees to perform well on their tasks. For managers, it can be problematic to deal with employees from different cultural backgrounds as well. As a manager, it is getting increasingly essential for one to seek to understand how people from different cultures operate, the values they uphold, and their attitude towards factors such as time, teamwork, and goal-setting. Understanding the above makes it easier for a manager to find common grounds whenever issues emerge between employees. The wider goal for any organization is to grow their profits and beat their competition as well. These require teamwork and as a manager, one has to make sure their employees are on the same page if the goals outlined above are to be achieved.
Purpose of this Report
The purpose of this report is, therefore, to help offer managers an insight into the importance of understanding cultural differences, how they can solve problems that develop as a result of employees’ cultural differences, and how they can prepare when taking positions in new countries.
Brief Background of the United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates is currently one of the major economic powerhouses in the Middle East. The country which is made up of seven states has grown tremendously in the past 70 years. Before oil was discovered in the UAE, the county’s economy “was dependent on fishing and a declining pearl industry” (BBC, 2018). Oil helped to transform the country and currently, the UAE boasts of having some of the most beautiful tourist destinations as well as a global trading hub. In the last 20 years or so, the UAE has seen a great influx of people from all corners of the world. As the country blossomed, opportunities were conceived at a high rate. These attracted a lot of people from around the world. One of the cities and emirate in the UAE, Dubai, currently boasts of a population of 3.137 million people. A significant percentage of this figure belongs to people who are were not originally born in Dubai. A 2014 article by Dubai Online indicates that “the resident population of Dubai at the end of 2014 was approximately 2,327,000 while the active daytime population was 3,408,000.” What this means is that Dubai’s daytime population could be in upwards of 4 or 5 million people today since the emirate continues to grow and expand at an alarming rate.
As more people continue to find their way to the UAE, cultural differences start to become evident and their effect on productivity as indicated before could be dire. UAE currently has one of the highest net migration rates in the world. Index Mundi (2018) indicates that the UAE’s net migration rate stands at 11% which is position six in the world. That is a high migration rate and people are still traveling to the UAE for various reasons. Al-Jenaibi (1: 2012) talks of UAE’s cross-border mobility being a great factor in helping make the country more diversified. Various advantages emanate from having people from different countries. These include increased innovation, improved communication especially between an organization and its clients, and an “increase in the pool of qualified personnel from different backgrounds” (Foma, 386: 2014). However, diversity can also have its problems and these mainly stem from cultural differences and how they ought to be managed. Al-Jenaibi (1: 2012) talks of how diversity can also lead to issues such as communication barriers, dysfunctional behaviors, etc. and these can be detrimental to the success of any organization. It is thus crucial for managers to undergo training if they are to handle issues that emanate from cultural differences.
Cross-Cultural Differences and Challenges
There are many cross-cultural differences and challenges in the world. Here, three models are applied and while Hofstede and GLOBE could be analyzed as one, Hall stands alone and will thus be analyzed as such.
Hall Model of Cultural Differences
Edward Hall is the person behind this model of cultural differences. Some of the challenges or differences he put across include:
* The context challenge or difference
With regards to this challenge, Hall came up with high and low contexts. Poisson (2015) notes that the high context cultures, a lot of explanations and information are ignored. A person who is communicating expects “the other party to decode implicit part of the message” (Poisson). Implicit parts of the message include the non-verbal cues as well. However, the low context cultures include those who ignore the non-verbal cues but focus on providing a lot of explanations and information.
* The time challenge or difference
When it comes to time, there is monochronic and polychronic. For monochronic cultures, people do “one task at one time” while for polychronic cultures, people do many things at the same time (Poisson, 2015). Monochronic cultures tend to focus less on relationships and more on results. On the other hand, polychronic cultures focus on relationships and less on results. A manager working in the UAE has to understand how their employees react to the time factor.
* The space challenge or difference
When it comes to space and how it defines or determines the relationships that people may have, Hall, came up with four relationships. These include intimate space, the personal space, the social space, and the public space. Intimate space is mainly reserved for the family and others are barred from entry. Personal space is reserved for friends and family as well. Social space, on the other hand, involves many people and may have acquaintances. Lastly, there is the public space which is mainly for everyone including strangers on the street and people one meets on a random stroll down the street. So, for managers in the UAE, it is crucial to know how people react to the attribute of space. This will help make it easier for one to know how best to come up with effective teams.
Hofstede and GLOBE models of Cultural Differences
These two models are similar in many ways. Some of the challenges or differences that emanate from cultural diversity as a result of these two models include:
* Power distance
Power distance mainly includes the degree to which people react to how power is distributed in society. For high power distance countries, people follow strict rules and expect leadership or power to be unequal (Anastasia, 2015). However, the opposite is true for low power distance countries and examples of countries with low power distance include the United States and Australia. The UAE is a high power distance country nationally. However, for organizations, diversity has brought people from all walks of life and managers have to consider this fact.
* Uncertainty avoidance
Uncertainty avoidance mainly involves the degree to which people are comfortable with unpredictability. High uncertainty avoidance countries mainly have strict procedures and emphasis is on predictability. Employees from high uncertainty avoidance will likely be from high power distance countries as well. However, as a manager, one has to know that other countries are low uncertainty avoidance. This means they entertain and encourage unpredictability. As indicated before, the UAE is home to different people of the world. Having such a mixture of cultures often means striking a balance. This is a major challenge because decision making could be derailed. For example, some employees could be willing to take certain risks while others may not be willing. Having prior knowledge of one’s employees backgrounds could help ensure that such hurdles are avoided.
* Assertiveness or Masculinity vs. Femininity
Here, the challenge is in whether employees are used to an aggressive approach or a cooperative approach. For the former approach, communication is normally direct and this can be a challenge for an employee from the latter approach. As a manager, one needs to have an understanding of the employees’ backgrounds. One has to adopt an approach that works with all employees to help enhance productivity and eventually increased profit margins.
Cross-cultural Training
Before the managers embark on their ass...