Cultural Diversity In Saudi Arabia

Most multinational construction companies working in developing countries, particularly in the Middle East have been facing problems in the management and execution of the work. A major challenge to undertake projects in these countries is to effectively adapt to their culture. Cultural differences greatly affect project performance. Therefore, for an international project to succeed a single strategy should be adopted to resolve issues related to cultural diversity. This report basically describes a strategy to be adopted for; identify the impact of cultural diversity on individuals working in a different cultural environment; individual selection criteria to operate in different cultural environments.

International companies in many industries

After understanding the cultural differences the company then needs to identify the potential impact of cultural diversity on the members of the company's project team working in Saudi Arabia. Cultural diversity and its impact are discussed in Section 2 of the report

Cultural diversity has a great influence on the performance of the project. Therefore the management of effective cultural diversity would have a positive impact on the performance of the project. Here are some of the cultural differences between the US and Saudi Arabia that may have a potential impact on the members of the project team;

Most people in Saudi Arabia are polychrome people. They are more flexible in times and give greater priority to maintaining the relationship and socialization. They generally see WAY more holistic time to say many events can occur at a time. On the other hand individual in the United States are Monochronic say they usually prefer to complete one task at a time. They do not give much priority to maintain the relationship and

Negotiations are extended communication created in dialogue with both sides (Mead, 2005). Most Saudi organizations appreciate the high context communication style in which the information is in the physical context. Arabs generally prefer indirect communication style accordingly, the members of the project team may find it hard while negotiating with them as they generally prefer a more direct communication style.

Members of the project team may find it hard to design the building because of cultural differences. Building design requires an understanding of Saudi culture. The factors to be considered when designing a building in Saudi's religious practice, the position of women in society and the organic symbolism (Hall, M. 1996). Therefore, in order to design a building member of the project team first need to understand these factors and then implement their design.

Because of cultural differences, the members of the project team need to understand the legal issues and contract system and above all, they should be able to resolve the legal issues by adopting the Saudi