Cultural Differences And Organizational Performance: A Case Study Of Shell Iraq

Statement of the problem

Discuss About The Cultural Differences On Their Performance.

The employees in the organization usually have various cultures depending on their nationality, ethnicity etc. It is usually difficult to separate them from their culture hence organizations has to come up with strategies to ensure the employees remain productive to enhance organizational growth and development with the cultural differences among them in the work place. The organization that appreciates employee diversity in all the aspects is usually the best because it attracts most of the skilled personnel from the external environment. There are various aspects of diversity at the place work such as age, sex orientations, gender, ethnic and cultural but this study shall mainly focus on employees’ cultural differences and its influence on organizational performance .Culture refers to the shared values and norms of a social system which groups the society and it’s a very important aspect in relation to the performance of employees in the organization where the organization should appreciate the cultural aspects of employees through events such as cultural weeks where individuals are given a chance to share their culture with others through traditional dances, meals and many others that create a sense of belonging among them within the organization.

 According to Anita, (2014) the organizational culture should be in harmony with employees’ culture to enhance job satisfaction among the employees which in turn results to good organizational performance. A lot of studies on cultural diversity have been done but so far they have yielded in consistent results on employee cultural differences which have both positive and negative influence their general performance within the organization. Studies have established that cultural differences among the employees makes the sharing of activities and synergy formation among the business units in efficient. Corporate employee performance is a dependable variable to the organizational behavior which method of dealing with cultural diversity among the employees is one of them. The way the organization deals with cultural differences among its employees is directly proportional to their performance (Mironenko and Sorokin, 2018). Most research that have been previously done by various scholars have majorly been focusing major on the influence  of  cultural diversity on employee  performance  with less attention devoted by researchers on the influence of cultural differences among the employees on their  performance in  oil and gas manufacturing company with a diversified workforce. More specifically no studies have been done on the impact of employee cultural differences on their performance in Shell Iraq. This research therefore intends to fill the gap in knowledge by carrying out a thorough investigation on how cultural differences among the employees at Shell Iraq affects the performance of the company and the study shall relate the organizational culture with its employees cultural background to enhance optimal organizational performance with a diversified workforce

Significance of the research

This is a very significant aspect to be studied because the extend of influence of employee cultural differences on the performance of shell in Iraqi shall either encourage the trend if it results to positive results or discourage the diversity trend if it turns out with the negative results for the company.

For researchers and academicians

The research findings shall contribute to knowledge and skills that will facilitate better performance of the organization despite the cultural diversity among its employees. The research findings shall enable other scholars to identify the research gaps that need to be addressed by the future research in the same area.

The management shall benefit through gaining of the knowledge on how the cultural differences among the employees have an impact on the performance of the organization resulting formulation of strategies within the organization that shall enable organizations deal with a culturally diversified workforce to enhance the general organizational performance.

How does the value system of employees (honesty, integrity, loyalty and commitment) affect their performance at shell Iraq?

How does the employees’ language affect their performance at shell Iraq?

This study’s major objective is to establish the impact of employees’ cultural differences on their performance in shell Fuel Company in Iraq.

• To establish the effectiveness of cultural diversity in the organization .
• To fill the gaps in knowledge on the influence of employee cultural differences on their performance in the organization.
• To enhance organizational growth through effective employees’ performance.

This chapter outlines the literature that is significant to the research questions for this study. It starts by outlining how employee religion affects the performance of the organization. It secondly outlines how the employee value system affect the organizational performance. Lastly, the literature review outlines how the employee language has an influence on the performance of the organization.

Research on culture, behavior and personality by Levine (2018) has shown that cultural aspect manifests itself through the behavior of individuals in a given societal setting. The culture of the organization in relation to the individual’s culture usually determine the employees’ goals and expectations within the organization. Values refer to the moral guidelines that determine the difference between the acceptable and punishable behavior among the individuals in the society (Finch, Deep house and Varella, 2015). These values direct how individuals treat others and conduct themselves in a given environmental setting. Individuals without these ethical values may participate in a negative behavior that may be harmful to their colleagues and the entire organization. It is the task of the organization to influence the behavior of their employees at the work place. Research by Ferster (2017) on his study on human behavior from aversive control have established that reinforcement to promote a given type of behavior among the individuals in the organization is essential. Reinforcement for a good value system displayed by a person can be through rewarding the individual while punishments can be applied where individuals tend to display an un acceptable form of behavior in the organization. The positive values depicted by the employees enhance the organizational harmony hence conducive work environment which in turn enhances a better performance of the organization in the road to achieving the set of goals and objectives.

Research proposal questions

Individuals’ self-identity is usually revealed through their spoken language (Yamao and Sekiguchi, 2015). A language is an important aspect in any environmental setting because it facilitates the communication process which is vital for flow of activities. Language is defined as a system of conceptual symbols that facilities the communication process from one person to another in a given environmental setting. Through the language, individuals can express emotions, share feelings, tell stories and make clarifications on various aspects. The performance of the employees in the organization is determined by how effective the communication process is in the organization. Language barrier among the employees can have a negative impact on their performance since a good performance is only achieved through an efficient communication procedure in the organization which might not be effective when the communication process within the organization is interfered with the language barrier (Tenzer, Pudelko and Harzing, 2014). Effective communication between people who speak different languages is very difficult which has a negative influence on their performance within the organization. According to Bordia and Bordia (2015) organizations should come up with a common language for its employees which should be a necessity during recruitment which would always force employees to have a thorough knowledge of the required language hence easy flow of communication within the organization which in return shall enhance the organizational performance. Various studies have established that effective communication strengthens the connections between the organization and all its stake holders who might be the potential customers, the government and the general shareholders.

Research by Woo and Giles (2017) on language attitudes and intergroup dynamics in multilingual organizations has established that employees of the same cultural background or who speak the same primary language tend to bond together and as a result individuals may have little social interaction with those outside their language hence their performance in the organization may be hindered due to in sufficient sharing of ideas among the employees.

Various theories have been formulated by different scholars to emphasize on cultural differences among the individuals. The research that I have done shall relate the cultural aspects of these theories to organizational performance.

This theory states that individuals who originate from a diversified cultural back ground behave differently in a new environment (Stephan and Stephan, 2017).  Employees of the same or who speak the same primary language tend to bond together and as a result individuals may have little social interaction with those outside their language hence the performance of the organization may be hindered due to in sufficient sharing of ideas among the employees.

General objective

This theory states that an already adopted culture is usually exhibited by an individual despite of changing the environment over a given period of time (Robertson, 2018). Individuals with specific religion cannot easily adopt a new religion that might be common in the work environment hence they will always seek for an opportunity from the management to exercise their religion. The research done has shown that in many organizations today, employees can be very productive when they are given an opportunity to incorporate their religious perspectives into their work and allowed to express their religious and spiritual beliefs at work by been given a chance for worship which enhances their job satisfaction hence better organizational performance(Martin,  2014). The employees who are allowed to exercise their religion performed very well since they felt a sense of belonging and recognition from the organization (Al-Jenaibi, 2017).

This is the assumption that poor performance of an individual in the organization is attributed to his or her socio economic status and his or her place of origin. Individuals who come from humble backgrounds will tend to work to their best so as to earn promotions and recognition and in the process contribute towards organizational development (Ferrareand Apple, 2015).Individuals from well of families tend to do whatever they want, they come to work late, they abuse alcohol and violate the organization’s rules with less fear of dismissal hence they affect the organizational performance.

 Most researchers have established their findings on the relationship between the employees’ values  and job performance, job satisfaction and self-esteem which is organizationally based but have failed to research on the influence of employee value system and language aspect  on their commitment to their work as well as their performance in shell Iraq , hence this research has identified a gap in the impact of cultural differences on the performance of employees in the organization with employees cultural differences been the dependable variable and their performance in the organization been the dependent variable. The value system and language used in the organization also have a direct impact on the employee performance as well the organizational performance.

In the organization various cultural aspects such as employees’ language and value system have an impact on their performance just as discussed in the literature review section of this research protocol. Cultural diversity in our context of study encompasses the spoken language by the employees within the organization and their value system which has a direct impact on their performance within the organization.

Specific objectives

This chapter deals with the methodology adopted by the researcher for the study. It includes the research approach and design, the geographical area where the study was undertaken, description of the respondents of the study selected by the researcher, tools and methods of data collection, variables studied and the statistical techniques used for the data analysis and interpretation. Quantitative research approach is going to be adopted for this study. Empirical study is going to enhance the analysis of the data that shall be collected through various methods.

H01: A significant relationship does not exist between employees’ value system and their performance in the organization.

H11: A significant relationship exists between employees’ values system and their performance in the organization

H02: A significant relationship does not exist between the employees’ language and their performance in the organization.

H22: A significant relationship exists between the employees’ language and their performance in the organization

According to Cash (2015) the questionnaire shall be designed to capture all the aspects for the three research questions .The questionnaire shall enable a consistent feedback which shall enable the researcher to make his conclusion regarding the research problem.

A pre-test refers to a trial administration of an instrument to identify flaws. To test the suitability of the questionnaire and the scale for determining the feasibility of study, the researcher is going to do a pilot study that shall be used to identify ambiguous items in the questionnaire which facilitate an immediate action hence an improvement in the final questionnaire

I am going to apply a structured interview approach so as to obtain detailed information regarding various cultural aspects cherished by the employees in the company which have a direct influence to the performance of the company in terms of objectives achievement (Gazit et al., 2018).

I am going to conduct a survey on various groups of employees in the organization with different religious beliefs so as to establish how their religious aspect affect the performance of the company (Guest et al., 2017).

Descriptive statistics shall be used to analyze the relationship between various variables under study. The impact of various variables shall be analyzed as per the outcomes of the analysis.

Descriptive research design is going to be appropriate for this study which shall enhance the study of the characteristics of the population under study to come up with conclusions regarding the impact of cultural differences on employees’ performance in Shell Company. I will also conduct a survey so as to be in a good position to describe the characteristics of the population in relation to the variables under study. I have chosen this method because it is cost effective when obtaining information from a large number of people within a short time. This shall also allow an analysis of a variety of variables from the study population to come up with the most effective conclusion regarding the impact of cultural differences on employee performance in the organization. Survey method will be effective because a variety of questions shall also be asked to the study population which might be limited when other methods are adopted for the same. I shall also incorporate questionnaires where employees shall be in a position to answer various questions drafted by the researcher which shall also facilitate the research findings.

Literature View

The population that was used for the study comprised of the employees at Shell Iraq. The researcher applied various methods of data collection and was able to obtain the relevant information from the employees which facilitated the research findings.

The researcher did not obtain the information from the entire population hence he had to choose a specific number of employees who represented the entire population who were able to fill the questionnaires and respond to the interview. This enabled him to obtain the relevant information at a small cost within the shortest time possible (Palinkas et al., 2015). The researcher applied probability sampling technique to obtain the desired sample population.

The appropriate sample size should be between 10-30% of the entire population within the organization. The researcher decided to select 30% sample size for his study. The sample size was picked in appropriate proportions from each department at Shell Iraq which was considered appropriate and representative of the entire population. From the study population of 800 employees the researcher used a sample population of 240 employees.

The questionnaires regarding the impact of employees’ cultural differences on the employees’ performance within the organization shall be used in the collection of the relevant data by the researcher. The researcher shall avail the questionnaires to the various departments within the organization which shall be administered to the sample population as shown in the table below.

Table 1.5. Sample size

Function	Sampling Frame	Sample size	The sample
Security	400	30%	120
Administrators	60	30%	18
Mechanics	80	30%	24
Pipe attendants	150	30%	45
Car wash attendants	50	30%	15
Supervisors	30	30%	9
Managers	30	30%	9
Total	800	30%	240

According to Harris and Atkinson (2015) the researcher adhered to the following during his research

• He ensured that his participants were not subjected to any danger after dissemination of the relevant information that he needed for his research by maintaining a high degree of data confidentiality.
• He respected their dignity as his vital sources of information
• He ensured that he never intruded their privacy during the interview session by requesting them to provide the information they wished.
• He ensured the confidentiality of data obtained from the organization by maintaining a high level of information  secrecy
• He acknowledged the work of other scholars in the whole research protocol.

Time plan

Activities to be carried out by the researcher.	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4	Week 5	Week 6	Week 7
Choice of the topic
Using both primary and secondary methods to collect data
Literature review
Methodology for research
Strategy formulation
Data collection
Complete research protocol

From the table above, it is evident that collection of primary and secondary data by the researcher shall take longer duration.

Conclusion

From the study, the employees’ cultural aspects has to be appreciated by the organization for reciprocity. A clear language should be used for communication purposes throughout the organization which facilitate giving and reception of instructions between various parties in the organization. The organization core values should be adhered to by all the employees for effective organizational performance. The questionnaires and interviews gave the most  efficient feedback for this research as it enabled the employees to display what affected their performance at the work place.

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