ELLEN MORELiving and Working in Bahrain

CASEBACKGROUND

Ellen was just completing her second year as an expatriate manager at the offices of a large American financial institution in Manama, Bahrain.

After graduating in MBA, she had joined her husband who working as an expatriate manager at an offshore bank in Bahrain.

She was looking forward to challenges of the Accounts control position.

She had become a corporate accounts officer and managed over twenty large accounts.

She achieved a Fellowship in the Institute of Bankers after completing demanding courses and exams.

She entered the MBA program, just after She had begun the two years MBA program, her husband was offered a position with an affiliate of his bank, posted in Bahrain beginning the next spring.

They discovered that women could work and assume positions responsibility in Bahrain, and decided they could both benefit from the move.

She believed that the main reasons for working in Bahrain was to train its nationals eventually to take over her job

Ellen

Bahrain Bahrain is an archipelago of 33 islands located in the Persian Gulf

and the main island comprises 85% of the almost 700 square kilometers of the country and is the location of the capital city, Manama.

Bahrain gained full independence from Britain and had population over 400.000 people, about one third were foreigners.

Bahrain has had a prosperous history. Historically, it has been sought after by many countries for its lush vegetation, fresh water and pearls.

Bahrain was the pearl capital of the world for many centuries, fortunately the pearl industry collapsed with the advent of cultured pearls from Japan, Bahrain struck its first oil.

Since the 1930s, the oil industry had been the largest contributor to Bahrain’s GNP.

Bahrain government had been aware for several years that the oil reserves were being seriously depleted..

The inequality among nationalities during her stay in Bahrain The third world immigrants were considered to be the lowest

level possible in the pecking order, just slightly lower than nationals from countries outside the Gulf.

Europeans and North Americans were regarded much more highly.

These inequalities had a major impact on daily life, for example: Availability of jobs What relations would develop or not develop between

supervisors and subordinates.

The range of cultures represented in Bahrain was vast. Most of staff members with micro computer didn’t know the first

thing to operating the equipment. Expatriate managers interacted not only with Arabic nationals,

but also with managers from other parts of the world, and with workers from developing countries who provided a large part of the unskilled labor force.

Managing in Bahrain Several aspects of the Middle Eastern culture had tremendous impact

on the way business was managed, even western firms located in Bahrain.

Most of Bahrainis are Muslims and she thought that several of the Islam rules and laws disrupted the works and productivity.

During Ramadhan, the hours of business are shortened by law. Unfortunately, business coming to an American firms doesn’t stop at

two, and a majority of the non-muslims workers are required to take up the slack.

Women in Bahrain Bahrain tended to be more progressive than many Middle Eastern

countries in its attitude towards women. Although traditions were strong, Bahrain women ha some freedomCareer Decisions She didn’t got the job as the accounts control position, because it

involves periodic travel into Saudi Arabia and women are not allowed to travel there alone. Ellen took the customers service positions. Since she had been considering the two operations positions, though,

she had been looking to forward to moving on to something new. She leaved the company

ELLEN MOREPROFILE

• Young North American female, an expatriate manager of an American financial institution in Bahrain

• Married, no children• MBA degree, graduated as the top female from

high school• Looking for challenges, competence, and career

opportunities• Believe in gender equality and has hard time

settling down in a place which is culturally so different from her own

ELLEN MORE PROFILE

BAHRAIN CULTURE

Bahrain’s Demographic(Based on 2010’s survey: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Bahrain)

Population(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Bahrain)

Languages

Bahraini:ArabicEnglish

Non-Bahraini population:PersianUrduMalayalamHindi

Education(http://www.scw.bh/UploadFiles/pdf/BahrainiWomen_inNumbers2013.pdf)

Separation between boys and girls school

Workforce(http://www.scw.bh/UploadFiles/pdf/BahrainiWomen_inNumbers2013.pdf)

Bahrain Profile

Working Culture

• During Ramadhan the hours of business are shortened by law.

• Bahraini people only accept what they believe, the truth to Bahraini employees was subject to an Arab interpretation

• The inequality among nationalities happened in Bahrain. The third world immigrants were considered the lowest level possible.

Women in Bahrain Culture• Women are meant to have a children, preferably

son.• They were still uncomfortable with western

notions of gender and less traditional roles for women.

• Bahraini women had some freedom, they could work outside the house with permission of husband, father, or brother. They also permitted to wear a variety of outfits.

• Husband was regarded as the sole decision maker in household.

• Bahraini nationals were not only the ones who perpetuated the traditional roles of women in society.

• Social gathering in Bahrain divided women and men parts.

• Discrimination treatment restricting the choice of woman in Bahrain

Business Environment Culture• Business community in Bahrain

had difficulty accepting and acknowledging the contributions of women to internal management, and didn’t want to abandon her values by accepting the position.

PROBLEMFORMULATION

Work Ethics Perception towards time. Bahraini does not really maintain they work time, they perceive time not as the top priority. Thus, they don’t really appreciate deadline as mush as the Western. Incompetency the workers are lacking in the knowledge and competency regarding the attributes that support their job. Example, they don’t know how to work with the equipment, developing a project, or preparing a report.

Religion (Moslem) Ellen has problem with the pray time and ramadhan work’s time. She actually didn’t know the effective time of praying. During Ramadhan, the work time was shorted and it’s legal by law. Bahrain people didn’t work after 2 p.m.

Gender Inequality Because most people hold Moslem as their religion and the value quite strong, woman inequality is a common thing. Bahraini does not see women as an equal co-worker. Mostly they view women as the second tier workers and citizen, who only do either housekeeping, or low-managerial tasks such as clerks, or secretary.  Cultural Values As a woman in Bahrain, they should not work without the permission from their husband or brother and they can’t work in the top position. Besides, they also can’t have a discussion with opposite gender.  Bahraini views the third world immigrants as the low class. So even they come from a good background they still have little to know value.

SOLUTION

As a part of management team in the company, she could arrange to give a time to do prayers. Supposedly the time provided for prayer is transparent enough, so the managerial level worker may know the schedule and could plan better to anticipate this issue. This policy might help them to acclimate if in the future they work with people with different religion or culture. To make a good corporate culture, they should more be strict with the deadline and should have training for the supportive skills for the worker.

Because of what happened to Ellen is a basic problem when we dealing with religion and culture and because of the woman position in these culture is not regarded as high as those in western countries then what she could do is to look for another job in another country.

CONCLUSION

There are many ways of a culture to express themselves whether through people perception, belief, or their own action based on their belief. Bahraini people have its own unique culture, which shares its culture with the Arabian,

which tend to place women value lower than men. This situation could disturb and hinder Ellen’s

career track. There are four main problems that she

encounter when she was working there which is: Work ethics, Religion (Moslem), Gender Inequality, and The local cultural values, all which makes his job is considerably more challenging and harder to do. What

she could do as the part of the management is to make it transparent when is the time to do prayers, to be strict on deadline and to arrange a training to be held to increase productivity. But if she wants to really unleash her real talent, she should consider moving to other country with differing cultural value.

THANK YOU