Document Type

Closed Project

Publication Date

Summer 2002

Instructor

Dragan Milosevic

Course Title

Engineering Management Synthesis

Course Number

EMGT 590

Subjects

Globablization, Intercultural communication, International business enterprises, Cross-cultural orientation, Demographic surveys

Abstract

Globalization of the world economy has progressed significantly since the 1960s and has entered into a qualitatively new phase. Liberalization of trade and investment environment has led to opportunities in the developing countries that now await the multinational companies (MNCs). These changes resulted to formation of joint ventures and alliances of multinational companies with local companies around the world. From this context, the success of these ventures and alliances is important for the multinational companies. Hence, they are sending their best employees to train and transfer knowledge with their host’s local employees. As a result, these expatriates are subjected to a new environment where their own culture was far more different to what their host was. According to some literatures about international assignments, the performance and success of an individual lies to the degree of knowhow he/she has about the foreign land. From this perspective, we would like to explore the effect of crosscultural training on the performance of foreign personnel working in Saudi Aramco, the biggest oil company in Saudi Arabia. Our research was confined on the subject matter involving crosscultural training received by its foreign employees prior to arrival in Saudi Arabia and its impact towards their individual performances in their workplaces. The methodology that we used was the large sample theory where we determined a set of sample from Saudi Aramco’s headquaters in Saudi Arabia. We developed a survey questionnaire with close-ended questions, open-ended and demographic questions in it and then send it to our contact person within the company using the electronic mail. He then distributed a copy of the questionnaire for each participant who agreed to help us accumulate data to support our hypotheses regarding the impact of crosscultural training to performance. From the 40 survey forms that had been sent, we were able to received 22 observations (55% response rate), which was significant enough to be considered representative. A multiple regression analysis technique was then employed to calculate the relevance of each independent variable (values, norms, and language) to the single dependent variable (performance) that we had hypothesized. The research paper was then concluded with discussion and comparison of results with literatures of the same topic.

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Comments

This project is only available to students, staff, and faculty of Portland State University

Persistent Identifier

http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/23925

Additional Files
2002-U-589-03-2.pdf (116 kB)
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