Cultural Differences in the Workplace

This research will examine differences between the Arab and French cultures in relation to how these differences might affect behavior in the workplace. An overview of cultural differences germane to workplace dynamics will be discussed as well as the effect of such differences on organizational behavior and on the behavior of individual actors within an organization, chiefly in European work situations.

The importance of cultural difference to workplace dynamics looms large when it is understood that as of the third-millennial period "the conduct of business is increasingly global." Major multinational corporations (MNCs), such as IBM, that are based in one country do not necessarily receive the bulk of income and earnings from their home country but from overseas. Meanwhile, the workforce itself has become internationally mobile, a fact that has been connected to a perception of destabilized working environments.

In Europe workers are less likely than American counterparts to relocate in anticipation of job opportunities, not least because welfare-state structures, including any of a variety of employment sinecures, increase "the opportunity cost of migration." This may reflect the fact that corporate culture dynamics in Europe have a less forceful effect than national cultures. This is consistent with the view that issues of cultural encounter between and among employees of widely diverse social and national backgrounds in any given corporate culture may b

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is counted among the stable industrial democracies of the West and seems likely to remain so, in spite of evidence of a vast and growing cultural and economic gap between French native and selected immigrant and non-French demographic groups. Contemporary Arab culture cuts across discrete nation-states with different historical traditions, providing a locus of cultural unity across national boundaries. However, Arab culture cannot be said to be unitary, and Arab nation-states themselves display evidence of cultural, economic, and political instability. Religion appears to be a paramount reason. In a review of Judith Miller's book about Islamic fundamentalism, Pryce-Jones summarizes a number of cultural attributes of the Arab world, tying them to the predominant position of Islam in Arab culture: Over half the Arab population in the Middle East is under the age of twenty; illiteracy and unemployment are rising; the proportion of food grown domestically by Arab and Muslim countries is rapidly dwindling, and these countries are already short of water; almost all export earnings derive from a single commodity oil. As if this were not enough of a formula for ominous instability, many of these countries are also in the grip of Islami

Category: Business - C