Human Resources Management in the Middle East is a familiar topic. Between the years 2014 and 2017, my family and I moved to the United Arab Emirates while my father pursued a fantastic air traffic controlling position at the Dubai International Airport. My mother was also able to land a senior HR management position with a UAE-based IT outsourcing company. Now back in the U.S., my mother recalls the difficulties of her role while working the Middle Eastern country. I contacted her in hopes she would delve into the details of those complications;
“Why was that HR role such a headache for you? I can recall how stressed you were. But you’ve been in the field for 15 plus years, senior management for 6 years, you’ve accomplished great things and have been recognized. Even the aspect of working with a new culture was not new to you. What made this job so different?” I asked her.
“Well, it was my first time working with people from an Arabic background. My previous experience was with Indians and the Hindu religion. This was something completely different. My bosses were great people. Let me say that before I go any further. They were intelligent people, great leaders, and had a vision that was unstoppable. But there were cultural differences that I had to adjust to almost immediately or I was going to fail miserably.
“The company was ultimately run by two brothers, but their wives and their mother were significantly involved in business decisions. The brothers – Ahmed and Mohammed – were the face of the company; they went to all the meetings, they did all the numbers, they are who made all the formal decisions. However, their mother, who did not have a title within the company but had an office in the building, could change the route of operations with the snap of her fingers. I learned quickly that my relationship with her was far more important than my relationship with the brothers. Additionally, a lot of decisions went through Ahmed’s and Mohammed’s wives. For example, I attempted to organize a company 5k and all event details had to be approved by one or both of the wives before moving forward. It was a different experience for me and almost felt entirely too informal. As far as the actual HR role itself goes, that was challenging as well. The employees were almost all expatriates and that forced me to research best practice for not only one group of people, but ten to fifteen different cultures. I remember doing an investigation for an employee from Russia. I had to start from scratch and forget all my assumptions because I was dealing with an employee who came from a completely different background than I was familiar with. It was a sensitive role and it challenged me every single day.” She explained to me.
My mother’s experience is a textbook example of the challenges faced by managers entering into a middle eastern context. Moran, Abramson, & Moran (2014) suggest that women are more highly regarded in Islamic culture than previously understood; “The Arab patriarchal culture places the male in the dominant role, while protecting and respecting the female… The mother is often the authority, ‘behind the scenes,’ on family matters” (p. 319). This appears to be exactly what was going on inside the organization my mother was working for. This is only one example of the many cultural differences one must adjust to when working and living in a middle eastern country. Pirju (2015) states that one of the most important differences to become familiar with is the extent of power distance that exists in the Middle East. He states, “managers of the Middle East expect a total obedience from employees, while the latter are quite reluctant to express disagreement with their managers” (Pirju, 2015). This is quite different from western culture where there is low power distance and managers accept support of subordinates.
The expatriate workforce is also a pressing challenge for managers in the Middle East. Budhwar et al. (2018) states that HRM needs development in the Middle East due to the predominantly expatriate workforce that present multiple variables and unknowns. They believe there is a demanding need for the development and practice of an interpersonal communication and diversity climate framework in order to facilitate workforce localization in countries which have expatriate majority workforce such as UAE (Budhwar et al., 2018). It is evident that managers must be prepared to adjust to not only Arabic culture, but the other cultures that may be present in the workplace.
In conclusion, the Middle East is a growing region. With the tensions from wars subsiding and the emergence of cities rich with resources, talent, and opportunity, organizations are branching out into an area that is unfamiliar. This has forced managers to research and develop practices that are sensitive to the culture differences while also maximizing profit and maintaining employee job satisfaction. It is true, there are challenges no matter where you go. However, the Middle East is a new region for western enterprises and therefore there is little training to be offered to those who take the leap and move to the area. My mother learned the hard way and wound up unhappy and returned to the U.S. My hopes are to see better procedures in place to not only assist expatriates in the transition, but to also assist HR managers who have to oversee employee patriation and manage their own adjustments.
Budhwar, P., Pereira, V., Mellahi, K., & Singh, S. (2018). The state of HRM in the Middle East: challenges and future research agenda. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 1-29, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10490-018-9587-7
Moran, R. T., Abramson, N. R., & Moran, S. V. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences (9th ed.). Oxford: Routledge.
Pirju, I. (2015). Cross-cultural particularities in the Middle East. Acta Universitatis Danubius. Relationes Internationales, 8(1).
Yanin Cancio says
Reading about a woman’s experience working in Dubai is refreshing. The men largely outnumber women in the workforce and more so in other Arab countries. After researching more information on women working in Dubai, I learned that married women who want to work in Dubai must have a signed letter from their husbands called a No-Objection Letter or NOC ( Dubai Expats Guide, n.d.). I would be interested in hearing how was her experience when working with the other employees and how often they hired local women, if at all.
Reference:
Dubai Expats Guide. (n.d.). What Is It Like For Women Working In Dubai? – Dubai Expats Guide. [online] Available at: https://www.livingindubai.org/women-working-in-dubai/.
Madeline Blandford says
Hello,
I’m glad you enjoyed my mom’s story! Yes, she has a lot of advice for someone considering expatriate work. I often talk to her about the idea because working overseas has always been something I have considered. She suggests doing all the research you possibly can because you can never be too prepared when moving to a new country. She says her biggest mistake was hearing “The UAE is really westernized” and thinking it was going to be just like the U.S. She wishes she would have read a little bit more about the native culture, but more importantly, the hundreds of different cultures she encountered while living there. She was not prepared to meet so many Filipinos, Russians, Indians, South Africans, etc. when she moved arrived. She recalls “walking on eggshells” because she was not sure what was appropriate around some people and what was not. She also suggests reaching out to whatever connection you may have in the new location. After finding out about her job offer in the UAE, she posted to Facebook for advice and found out she had a mutual friend who lived in Dubai. This person was a great resource for her and gave her a lot of insight before arriving.
If you are considering expatriation, I wish you the best of luck! I hope a great opportunity finds you!
smn5378 says
Very good fist-hand account from your mother, I enjoyed reading it. Is it common for women to obtain these positions in primarily Islamic middle eastern countries?
sjs496 says
Hi Madeline,
Thank you for sharing your mom’s story about her experience working in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)! I find stories like your mom’s insightful because they give a personal account of what it is really like to work and live in another country. As you mentioned, the UAE is going through many cultural changes, and your mom experienced some of them firsthand. What I found the most interesting about your mom’s story is, even though the sons were the face of the company, the mother and the wives were the ones running the operation. In 2014, there were 12,000 businesswomen in Abu Dhabi’s private sector that ran projects worth about $5,000,000,000 in U.S. Dollars (Hunt, 2015). This shows the incredible impact businesswomen are making in the UAE, and your mom witnessed women making incredible strides in the UAE through making shrewd business deals and securing senior roles (Hunt, 2015).
Your mom’s story also coincides directly with how the UAE is attracting workers (both men and women) from all over the world, including Africa, Europe, America, South Asia and other Arab countries (Gonzalez, Karoly, Constant, Salem & Goldman, 2008; Redvers, 2015). I cannot imagine the challenges your mom experienced with learning how to work across multiple cultures simultaneously. I am sure she has some amazing stories! When you were interviewing your mom, did she have any suggestions for someone who may be thinking about becoming an expatriate and would be working with people from multiple cultures and backgrounds?
References
Gonzalez, G., Karoly, L. A., Constant, L., Salem, H. & Goldman, C. A. (2008). Facing human capital challenges of the 21st century. Retrieved October 17, 2019 from https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/10.7249/mg786-1rc.9.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3Ac7743864b544bd3107603b674837f72e
Hunt, J. (2015, March 31). What is it like for women working in Abu Dhabi? Linkedin. Retrieved October 17, 2019 from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-like-women-working-abu-dhabi-jenny-hunt
Redvers, L. (2015, April 22). Is Dubai the best place for women in the Middle East? BBC. Retrieved October 17, 2019 from https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20150422-which-women-get-ahead-in-dubai