Human Resources Across Cultures
Human Resources Consulting: Incorporating Cultures
Human resource consulting firms cover such subjects as recruitment, compensation, and rewards. Cross-cultural aspects of human resource management are becoming as important. As businesses expand across international markets and globalize, company managers, human resource managers, and the C-Suite need to better understand and incorporate cultural differences in communication, human resources (HR), and “productivity.” Understanding and appreciating HR practices is no longer optional— it is imperative and can affect a company’s “bottom line.” While many human resource principles are universal, the way your company may applies them differs depending on cultural values, legal (especially employment) doctrines, and workplace expectations.
Two regions that pose different HR management systems are the Arab region and the United States. Strategy Surgery encourages organizations in the Arab region to see how they can modify any clauses or even the very relationship between managers and employees to bolster productivity, if not also brand perception. Human resources imperatives and employment law in the United States are more mature so can address many of the issues and “gaps” in the Arab human resources and business relations, such as Jordan and Saudi Arabia. For multinational organizations, recognizing and capitalizing on these differences can lead to higher employee engagement, better compliance, possibly higher company performance, and more effective leadership.
1. Individual vs. Collective Focus
Human resources consulting and operations traditionally focus on hiring, compensation, and interviewing. A major difference lies in how managers and company relationships take place and how individuals / employees can work and “define” success.
In the United States, organizations tend to emphasize individual performance, opinions, and other indicators of individuality. Companies and HR managers encourage employees to show initiative, suggest new ideas or approaches, assume “ownership” of projects, and distinguish themselves through quantifiable achievements. Promotions and rewards are frequently tied to personal results.
The other side of the spectrum is Asian, including many Arab countries: Workplace and company relationships place greater value on collaboration, trust, respect for the status quo, consensus (rather than disagreement), and long-term amicability. Team harmony, loyalty, and mutual respect can “trump” individualism, thus assume important roles in organizational culture, goals, and success. In that context, building strong relationships with colleagues and leaders, based on agreement and consensus, has a major role in professional relations.
Strategy Surgery and Consulting advises companies, especially human resource divisions, to be categorically flexible and adopt a global view of HR management. This can entail training programs, cultural awareness programs, interpersonal coaching programs, and any others that may help. Another step is to devise recognition packages that cater to personality profiles. This step can be especially helpful or effective in Arab companies since Arab organizations value relationships and harmony, and companies may simply not have the resources or plan for innovation. Thus, team-based recognition and relationship-focused leadership may resonate more strongly in many Arab organizations.
2. Organizational Hierarchy
American organizations often promote “flat” or “decentralized” organizations, where management encourages, if not empowers, employees to share ideas and any feedback almost regardless of their seniority. Managers perceive this as “innovation.” Innovation entails that employees find managers approachable, and open dialogue as a “driver” of innovation. The relationship between managers and employees is a symbiotic one.
On the other hand, many organizations across the Arab region operate in a hierarchy so employees perceive managers and treat them as “absolute” and accord them high respect. A factor that reinforces this is that many companies are family-owned, not corporations, so are local; they might perceive employee feedback as a conflict of interest or encroachment on their authority or status. The national culture affects their decisions and HR practices more than feedback, and decision-making is more centralized. Managers perceive employees as “labor” so expect compliance, respect, and conformity; in turn. employees commonly do not challenge decisions, especially not publicly.
Strategy Surgery and Consulting encourages companies to build companies based on their needs, communication, any AI integration, and other variables. Many variables can affect organizational structures productivity, team communication, management-employee relationships, and other variables: They are avenues of enhancing performance, so a company can capitalize on them.
3. Recruitment and Hiring Practices
Recruitment practices also differ. In the U.S., hiring decisions focus on experience, qualifications, competencies, and cultural fit, with some companies understandably focusing on fit. Their interviews, especially behavioral questions, reveal intricate indicators about cultural fit, team leadership, and client interface.
Across the Arab region, experience remains highly important, but sex, age, and cultural values also have weight. The “tribal” culture affects business culture and relations by inducing and swaying managers to hire friends or family out of loyalty and respect, not to mention women for marketing and human resource roles. This latter point in and by itself emanates from the belief that males are for “hard sciences” and women are for “administrative” roles, such as human resources and marketing. Another aspect of the tribal culture vs. American culture is the importance of religious values: Many companies and organizations in the Arab region base their hiring decisions on religious (that is, Muslim) values in certain job functions (commonly marketing or public relations), rather than hire males with women or in certain divisions.
Therefore, culture is both a boon and bane to hiring practices. Strategy Surgery & Consulting so companies need to incorporate it into their hiring and candidate matrices.
4. Science – Technology- Engineering – Medicine (STEM)
Arab societies highly value the science–technology–engineering–medicine fields, so this directly affects the maturity, efficiency, and specializations in business. Until very recently, the Arab labor market (such as Jordan and Saudi Arabia) had a plethora of engineers and medical Doctors, and women occupied administrative and human resource roles. The Jordan Guild of Engineers reported in 2019 that up to 1/5 of Jordanians were engineers and Roya Television, a leading, private television station in Jordan, reports that 1000s of medical Doctors are and will continue to be unemployed. Other news sources report identical phenomena.
Thus, this is a great opportunity for many Arab companies to try to see how candidates from “new” majors can fit a job and contribute to a company’s success. Opportunity knocks when a company manager or HR manager may not see it or expect it.
5. Probation Period
HR consulting and systems can adjust the deliverables or expectations of the probation period. American companies and organizations initiate a new employee and train them for several months; the probation period encompasses the training and the initial expectations. The other side of the spectrum is many countries in Asia, including the Arab region, where the “clock starts ticking” when the new employee starts. For many reasons, companies and organizations in the Arab region
6. Communication Styles
Communication and relationships in American companies are direct, impersonal, and often explicit. Managers encourage employees to provide honest feedback, ask questions, possibly challenge the status quo, and express disagreement professionally. HR managers frequently view this as a sign of a proactive, resourceful, “innovative” employee. On the other side of the spectrum, Arab societies place a premium on “agreement” and “conformity” out of respect for and deference to tradition and authority. Thus, communication and business relations in many Arab companies are much more relationship-focused and indirect, particularly when addressing sensitive or controversial topics or providing any negative feedback. Preserving respect and maintaining positive working relationships “trump” organizational imperatives.
Strategy Surgery and Consulting can help your company devise or expand communication styles that can lead to openness, transparency, and employee comfort.
7. Performance Assessment
Performance reviews in the U.S. are mostly data-driven and objective, relying on measurable goals, key performance indicators (KPIs), and continuous feedback between management and employees. Many organizations and companies in the Arab region are increasingly adopting, or may soon adopt, similar systems, although interpersonal managerial judgment and relationship-based meetings continue to have a significant role in performance assessment.
Strategy Surgery advises companies in the Arab region to allow an “initiation” phase before they expect full productivity. This phase should encompass or combine both quantitative and qualitative metrics to realistically and fairly assess performance. Sometimes, merely clarity in communication and instructions can bolster an employee’s productivity.
8. Work-Life Expectations
American workplaces can prioritize productivity, flexibility, and results. Remote work, flexible scheduling, and employee comfort have become increasingly common. In the Arab region, a company would selectively confer flexible hours and recognize family obligations, cultural traditions, or religious observances. For example, organizations would adjust working hours during Ramadan or provide leave policies that accommodate important religious or family events.
Whether or not a company would benefit from such flexibility with its employees would depend on the case, the particular employee’s productivity and history, and the brand perception a company would seek to cultivate or reinforce. Strategy Surgery & Consulting encourages companies and organizations to indeed be flexible and experiment with this HR policy.
8. Employee Benefits
Regional norms also affect benefits. In the United States, benefits frequently include health insurance, retirement savings plans, paid time off, health programs, and performance bonuses. Across many Arab countries, compensation packages can encompass housing and / or transportation allowances, education benefits for dependents, annual airfare, and end-of-service gratuity.
9. Compliance
An integral component of HR is ensuring a company operates safely, ethically, and legally, and that employees and people can share any concerns or report them, even if anonymously. In the United States, such HR functions are almost inevitable or standard, so HR managers and teams can implement or launch them in companies in the Arab region. This definitely would be a great avenue for “innovation.” Many companies can engage in any legal, financial, or administrative misconduct
Building a Global HR Strategy
As globalization continues to (re)shape workforces and workplaces, unique HR managers need to recognize that cultural intelligence is as valuable as technical expertise. Culture is a “non-quantitative” variable and pillar in business and human resource “health.” Strategy Surgery & Consulting underscores culture as a significant, “invisible” factor in a company’s human resources.
While many companies can perceive cultural differences as cultural or organizational needs to which they must adapt hiring, these differences are “hurdles” to equal, fair, and transparent hiring and human resources practices. If you are a company operating in the Arab region, you can benefit from the following:
- Understanding how hiring males for many roles can be as productive as females
- Ignoring age since “old” candidates can contribute to a company with their advanced expertise
- Investing in cross-cultural training for managers.
- Cultivating inclusive workplaces that respect, if not encourage, “diversity”; this entails disagreement, decentralization, and attempts at innovation.
A major step for HR teams is to see the bidirectional nature of the company – employee relationship. Global organizations are those that see employees as an investment, not as expenses, so view their employees as pivotal to their brand perception and productivity.
In the big picture, human resources is all about people and understanding their “profiles;” accordingly, human resource managers can incorporate culture, social norms, and globalization in their candidate matrix. Many hiring managers can literally “miss out” on a candidate who appeared “overwhelming” when they simply meant to be curious and cooperative. So, Arab region companies emphasize relationships, respect for hierarchy, agreement / conformity, and community, while the United States emphasizes individual achievement, autonomy, and direct communication. This is a major reason behind how only few companies have become “innovative.”
Strategy Surgery encourages cross-cultural awareness and learning in human resource management. For international businesses, success lies not in applying any one HR model but in incorporating culture or cultural elements and seeing the process as integrated and mutually reinforcing. A company can see dividends by capitalizing on cultural differences rather than seeing them as obstacles; a company can also build stronger teams, enhance employee experiences, and build workplaces where people from different backgrounds can thrive together. Culture and a fluid human resource system can only boost company and team productivity.