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The relationship between organisational culture and individual behaviour in Saudi Arabia

Aldhobaib, Meshal 2017. The relationship between organisational culture and individual behaviour in Saudi Arabia. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University.
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Abstract

Although the concepts of organisational culture (OC) and individual behaviour (IB) have attracted considerable interests from both academics and practitioners, there are few studies that examine the relationship between them directly (which were conducted under person-culture fit research (see Chatman and O’Reilly, 2016)). While these few existing studies have made an overall contribution to the culture-behaviour relationship, they have critical limitations and gaps in knowledge. Specifically, they primarily adopt functional and quantitative approaches for examining the relationship between the two concepts, and consequently, they neglect alternative non-functional perspectives of OC (opposition and ambiguity) and their relationship with IB. Also, most of these studies were conducted in organisations from countries that have strict separation between religion and state (e.g. the UK and USA), with very few studies located in countries where people at work actively engage in religious and social practices, particularly Saudi Arabia. This study explores the relationship between OC and IB through an ethnographic case study in a single Saudi Arabian organisation that operates in a vital industry, i.e. financial industry. It adopts a three-perspective theoretical framework (see Martin, 1992), to explore the relationship between OC and IB in a country that is renowned to be highly attached to ancient social norms and religious traditions. The findings of the study lead to the development of a range of insights into the integrated, differentiated, and fragmented nature of OC and how organisational members interact (i.e. perceive and behave) with such cultural components. The empirical evidence suggests that examining the interaction between OC elements (values, believes, and underlying assumptions) and individual traits, including psychology/ social (e.g. values and beliefs), social category (e.g. age and gender), and other subjective characteristics (e.g. education and work experience) is important to understand the relationship between OC and IB. Accordingly, this study develops a conceptual analysis that explains the relationship between OC and IB and considers the dynamic and multidimensional aspects of the two concepts. It also offers contributions to knowledge on organisational literature in general, and Saudi literature in particular, by revealing alternative contingencies that affect the behaviour of organisations and individuals.

Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
Date Type: Completion
Status: Unpublished
Schools: Business (Including Economics)
Date of First Compliant Deposit: 7 December 2017
Last Modified: 18 May 2021 13:52
URI: https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/107352

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