Saudi Arabia is experiencing a transformative period in its economic history, as its market has been opened up for foreign investment. The last 5 years have seen a dramatic increase in the amount of foreign investment into Saudi Arabia particularly through International Joint Ventures. The managers in these IJVs come from various cultures that can be categorised as collectivist or individualist societies. This study to investigate the relationship between national culture and employee commitment within Western-Saudi IJV environments in contrast to the commitment forms found within domestic (monoculture) organisations. In this study, Western and Saudi managers were compared as to their levels of organisational commitment and professional commitment, while a second survey focused on individualism/collectivism among respondents. This study found that Western managers working in Saudi IJVs had significantly higher levels of professional commitment than did their Saudi counterparts. Similarly, Saudi managers working in Saudi IJVs had significantly higher levels of organisational commitment than did their Western counterparts. This study also found that Saudi managers working in Saudi IJVs experienced higher levels of professional commitment than did their Saudi counterparts working in purely Saudi firms, and that Western managers who had previously worked in collectivist cultures had higher levels of organisational commitment than did Western managers who had not previously worked in collectivist cultures. In addition, significant differences were found between respondent groups with regard to individualism/collectivism. The results support a correlation between individualism and professional commitment, as well as between collectivism and organisational commitment. The results found that an employee’s cultural orientation can be modified through exposure to employees from other cultures. The knowledge contributed from the study findings will enrich the existing scholarly theories of employee commitment and individualism/collectivism values within IJVs setting in Saudi Arabia. Also, this knowledge will contribute to facilitate foreign investors and HRM practitioners in developing strategies to maximise the benefits from different forms of employee commitment.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:560409 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Al-Rasheedi, Sultan |
| Publisher | University of Warwick |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/50810/ |
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