International Analysis of Organization Design

Kuwait Culture Summary

The Kuwait culture is rich in values, strongly held traditions and cherished values.  The foundation of the country’s culture is the general Arab cultural traditions and practices that are generally observed across the Arabian Peninsula. The culture has transformed over time so that it is referred as Bedaw and Urbans at the same time (Advameg, Inc., 2018). There is also a great influence of Islam on the culture, values and traditions and in spite of the effect of Western Education especially in Urban areas , the average person still persistently observes the traditional values and customs. Hence, there is a great respect for family values, elders and for guests.  Greetings indicate Kuwaitis affection, but men and women who are not relatives are normally segregated, and thus, gestures such as kissing among them are not culturally acceptable. Religion plays an important role in the society, so that prayers and mosques define the daily practices of the Kuwaitis. The Islamic constitution makes the Kuwait culture to be more conservative with the labor market consisting mostly of men and few women (Advameg, Inc., 2018).

As a democratic country, there are is freedom of expression to some extent, where people may raise their opinions without fear of facing persecution. The Kuwait people can be considered to be social responsible people, and this can be attributed to the cultural and religious values instilled since childhood.  The Kuwaiti cuisine is an important aspect in the local culture, since food and beverages are crucial in defining the hospitality of the society.  The Diwaniyas are an important aspect of the country’s social life, and involves people gathering in the evening to conduct social discourses until late in the night (Advameg, Inc., 2018). 

The Kuwait’s culture can also be viewed from the power distance perspective. Power distance refers to the degree to which the less power members of organizations in a given country anticipate and accept the unequal distribution of power (Murray, Poole & Jones, 2006). In Kuwait people embrace a hierarchical order, whereby everyone occupies their place, the centralization aspect is common and people at lower ranks expect to be given instructions on what they should do. The country can also be viewed as a collective society, with much emphasis placed on member group whether family, extended families or extended relationships.  In such a culture, loyalty is vital and comes above other regulations or social rules.  A strong relationship is fostered with everybody taking responsibility for fellow others in the same group (Murray, Poole & Jones, 2006). In addition, the society is relatively feminine with dominant values in the society being quality of life and deep care for others. In a famine society, the quality of life is viewed as an indication for success while standing out from the rest is not highly regarded (Murray, Poole & Jones, 2006).  Kuwait culture leans more towards avoiding uncertainty.

The Uncertainty Avoidance dimension relates to the degree to which people in the society feel threatened by unknown circumstances and has established institutions and beliefs that attempt to avoid such scenarios (Murray, Poole & Jones, 2006). Kuwait culture consists of firm religious codes of belief that informs behavior and intolerance for unorthodox ideas or conducts. The society can be termed as normative with preference for maintain long- held norms and traditions while being suspicious of any change coming from outside. However, the culture is becoming more pragmatic, with increased efforts aimed at promoting modern education to prepare for country’s future.

Coca Cola in Kuwait

Organizational structure and management

Coca Cola is a multinational firm with its presence in many regional markets around the globe and thus, it has a complex organizational structure. The control of the firm is achieved through a structured vertical hierarchy, whereby decisions are made at the top level by the upper management (Puravankara, 2007). The routine or daily decisions necessary for its operations are made by the various line managers placed at the middle level. The organizational structures may be classified on the basis of power centralization or extend of standardization, the planning process and roles formation. The major elements or dimensions that can be used to analyze the impact of Kuwait’s culture on the organizational structure of Coca Cola Company include power distance and uncertainty avoidance.  Since the organizational structure of the firm is based on hierarchy in management and decision making, it largely aligns with Kuwait’s score on power distance dimension. The presence of Coca Cola in Kuwait means that its structure will align to the hierarchal distances observed in the society in terms of accepting decision making and power to be distributed unequally. In this regard, the people in the organization will accept the instituted hierarchical order so that each person occupies his or her place in the society (Conţiu, 2011).  In terms of uncertainty avoidance, the effect of the country’s culture on the organization can be seen in the extent of roles formation including standardization of rules and procedures and job description. The hierarchical control is normally based on the regulation and control unit and decisions are normally centralized by the management of the organization.

Moreover, working relations and procedures among individuals can be expected to be rigid in line with the codes of beliefs and expected conduct in the Kuwait culture. The organizational structure of Coca Cola’s operations in the country can be expected to align with the expectations of the society, while not introducing codes or beliefs that will be considered unorthodox. In culture with high uncertainty avoidance, people have an emotional need for rules that will establish their roles and responsibilities, while regarding security as an important aspect of their individual motivation (Conţiu, 2011). The Coca Cola organizational structure has to align with the codes and beliefs of the people in the society so that to avoid antagonizing workers in the country. It will be important for the leadership to ensure security as an important aspect in motivating labor force in the country.   Normally, structure in an organization is a reflection of the behaviors and interpretation of members and represents their cultural views (Conţiu, 2011). This means that in Kuwait, the organizational structure of Coca Cola branch will reflect the social construction of the managers and employees who will be ensure that operations of the firm are ongoing. Culture may be viewed as external by the individuals or groups in the organization (Erez, 2010). The workers and managers in the Coca Cola will see the organizational structure as a result of interactions between individuals or with the systems.

The individuals may be able to manipulate the structure of the firm so as to reflect the interaction among individuals in line with their culture and interaction with various systems that have been established in the organization. The culture of the individual managers and employees will also alter their approach in making important decisions in organization. People are able to alter strategies in problem solving when they engross themselves in single-loop conduct without a change in their underlying values (Conţiu, 2011).  The Kuwait culture is increasing being influenced by changes in workforce demographics, innovations and new leadership models that are making organizations to focus in an employee-centric experience and culture. This relates to the fact that the culture of the country is defined by a collective society, where people are expected to be responsible for other members of the group. In collective societies, employee relationships are seen from the moral perspective (Conţiu, 2011). The managers of Coca Cola company has to embrace this aspect , in that , they have focus more on employee engagement , improving leadership in the organization and creating a meaningful culture where employees will be comfortable to work. 

The organizational design has to pay attention to the organizational needs and the demands in the Kuwait market. While many multinational firms are moving towards decentralization of authority so that they become more customer-centric, the Coca Cola Company may be expected to achieve this through aligning organizational structure with the region’s business needs.  In order to be in line with changes in business landscape and achieve the desired results, the firm has to be keen on the changes in the culture as a result of innovation and technology, and design its organization structure and operations accordingly (Bahhouth, Ziemnowicz & Zgheib, 2012). The extent of such changes could be felt in the adoption of a leadership model that depicts the need to reengineer, and also, improve the entire management. In line with the collective culture of the country, the change in leadership model has to cater for the experience and needs.

Job design

The globalization process brings about opportunities for multinational firms to transfer managerial practices such as job design across different cultures.  The issue arising in this case is whether the model of job design that has been effective in the home country of the organization also succeeds in another country (Erez, 2010). The culture of a host country like Kuwait has the potential to moderate the relationship between some job designs and the related behavioral outcomes. Specifically, autonomy and feedback as characteristics of job design can help explain the above. Work autonomy is considered to be a major motivational factor in individualistic cultures, but at the individual level, it brings about experience of wellbeing and self-worth in a collectivistic culture or one with high power distance, in some countries (Erez, 2010). However, in a country like Kuwait that has a culture that upholds collectivistic values, empowering employees is not likely to increase their satisfaction that when they are instructed on what they should do. Therefore, Kuwait culture may moderate the impact of job autonomy on the self-motive of employees and the outcomes of job performance. Hence, when Coca Cola management is designing the jobs in Kuwait, the country’s national culture has to be considered.  

 Feedback is an essential job characteristic that improves an individual’s understanding of behavioral results and internal control over such behavior. In a culture that is hierarchical and collective, the need for individual’s self-control is less common since a person is not able to monitor their behavior independently. The members of a group are driven by the need to save face in a collective culture, and this can have negatively affect the sense of belonging of the individual in a given group (Erez, 2010).  Thus, positive feedback can have positive impact while negative feedback results in negative effect. The job design carried out by Coca Cola in Kuwait has to consider that collectivist people in such a culture may easily accept feedback on collective performance rather than individual performance.

Environmental scanning  

The culture of the country may also impact on Coca Cola’s environmental scanning, where the firm intends to learn more about strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in this given market.  The survival of a firm over the long-term depends largely on how it responds to the cultural environment of the society in which its operations are located. The values, expectations, customs and beliefs of the society will inform the approach to be used by Coca Cola management in scanning this environment. The management must consider the changing expectations and values of the society and the likely effect it will have on its operations (Lesca, 2013). This means the cultural values and expectation of Kuwait’s society will determine the internal condition of the firm in terms of marketing, fiancé and even management approaches adopted. In a society that is more collectivistic, but which is experiencing changes due to innovation and technology, Coca Cola has to come up with strategy that will align its operations with consumer expectations in Kuwait. The strategies have to also consider that the market is likely to become more competitive due to globalization, and thus, building core competencies based on the cultural values (Lesca, 2013). The firm also has to align its strategies to the consumption patterns of Kuwaitis, which are largely informed by religious values and practices including various celebrations held in the country. This implies that the national culture of the country will greatly impact the strategies adopted by Coca Cola for the purpose of environmental scanning to ensure sustainability of its business practices.

 

Human Resource Management systems

The effect of a country’s culture can also be felt in the various activities involved in this field including recruitment , candidates selection , employees’ training and development and even performance appraisal or related remuneration. If recruiters of an organization come from a society with collective values, it is likely that much attention will be placed on the relationship-oriented or personal sources of recruitment including employee referrals or networking (Đorđević, 2016). This case would apply as far as Coca Cola‘s presence in Kuwait is concerned, since the culture highly uphold collectivistic values. Moreover, applicants with collectivistic values are likely to apply for jobs where they can form a team and cooperate with their colleagues (Đorđević, 2016). Such is the case of applicants from Kuwait. In the selection process, the selection for Coca Cola employees in Kuwait would prefer individuals ready to work in a team. Also, more attention would be given to people belonging to a given social class.  In the training and development, the higher distance Kuwait culture would mean that human resource management system would focus more on formal communication with the trainees.

References

Bahhouth, V., Ziemnowicz, C., & Zgheib, Y. (2012). Effect of culture and traditions on consumer behavior in Kuwait. International Journal of Business, Marketing, and Decision Sciences, 5(2), 1-11.

 

Đorđević, B. (2016). Impact of National Culture on International Human Resource Management. Economic Themes, 54(2), 281-300.

 

Lesca, N. (2013). Environmental Scanning and Sustainable Development. London: Wiley. 51-59

Erez, M. (2010). Culture and job design. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 31(2‐3), 389-400.

 

Conţiu, L. C. (2011). THE INFLUENCE OF CULTURE ON ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES IN ROMANIA. Studia Universitatis Petru Maior-Philologia, 10.

 

Puravankara, D. (2007). Strategic analysis of the coca-cola company (Doctoral dissertation, Faculty of Business Administration-Simon Fraser University).

 

Murray, P., Murray, P., Poole, D., & Jones, G. (2006). Contemporary issues in management and organisational behaviour. South Melbourne, Vic: Thomson Learning.

Advameg, Inc.,(2018). State of Kuwait. Retrieved from: https://www.everyculture.com/Ja-Ma/Kuwait.html