Dissertation: Impact of Employee Cultural Differences on Shell Iraq

This dissertation investigates the impact of employee cultural differences on the performance of Shell in Iraq. It begins with an overview of the importance of culture in the workplace and the challenges that arise from cultural diversity, particularly within a global company like Shell. The research aims to understand the concept of cultural differences and organizational performance, investigate the impact of these differences among employees at Shell Iraq, and provide recommendations for mitigating any negative effects. The study employs a positivism philosophy, a deductive approach, and a descriptive research design. A non-probability sampling technique was used to survey 200 employees of Shell Plc. Data was collected using primary data collection techniques and analyzed using quantitative methods, including correlation and regression analyses. The findings indicate a strong association between organizational policies, tradition, employee beliefs, morale, and organizational performance, suggesting that cultural differences significantly impact the company. The dissertation includes a literature review covering factors affecting cultural differences, theories of cultural differences, and Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, followed by a detailed methodology section outlining the research design, sampling, and data analysis techniques. The results are presented and discussed, leading to conclusions and recommendations for Shell Iraq to manage and leverage its diverse workforce effectively. The research concludes that employee cultural differences have a significant impact on organizational performance within Shell Iraq.

Running head: DISSERTATION
Impact of Employee Cultural Differences on the Performance of the Organization:
A Case Study of Shell- Iraq
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

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Acknowledgement
Thank you to all of those who have helped listened and encouraged me throughout this study.
I am indebted to my supervisor ……………………. whose guidance, advice and patience
have been immeasurable. My sincere thanks to all members of the…………… [Mention your
university/college name], both staff and students, whose continuous support have made this
thesis possible.
I would like to thank all of the participants in the study: students, teachers and Local
Education Authorities, for the time and help given throughout. Without their participation,
this research would not have been possible. In this context, I am also thankful to them, whose
research work helped me to execute this paper well.
Finally, I thank my family, without whom this thesis would not have been started or
completed! Your encouragement and support have never faltered; thank you.

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Abstract
The aim of the research is to investigate the impact of employee cultural differences on the
performance of the business organization. For this research, the organization selected by the
researcher for investigation is Shell in Iraq. Culture is an integral part in the life of the
individuals, as this lays the foundation of what they become in their life. It is often seen that
the difference in terms of culture results in varied opinions and decisions that gives rise to
differences among the individuals. It is essential for the business organizations to develop
strategies that make the employees highly productive thereby, aiming towards improving
organizational development and growth.
Previously, extensive research has been conducted on cultural diversity but has failed to yield
any convenient results on differences among the employees due to the culture they belong to
and its impact on general performance of the employees both positively and negatively.
Positivism philosophy, deductive approach and descriptive research design. In addition to, the
researcher has used random non-probability sampling technique for selecting 260 employees
as the sample size out of which 200 employees has been selected as response of Shell Plc for
surveying them in order to determine the impact of employee cultural differences on the
performance of the organization. In addition to, the researcher will be using primary data
collection technique for collecting the data from the employees of Shell Plc. Considering the
research strategy and the data collection method, the researcher has used quantitative data
analysis technique by using SPSS.
From the co-relation analysis, it can be inferred that the organizational policies and
organizational tradition are strongly associated with the beliefs of the employees, as the co-
relation values obtained are .791 and .759 those are more than .7. Moreover, the co-relation
value also indicates strong association between morale values of the employees and

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organizational tradition, as the value obtained is .745 that is more than .7. The second co-
relation analysis indicates that the independent variables such as beliefs, language, morale
values, organizational policies and tradition is strongly associated with organizational
performance, as the value obtained is .830 that is more than .7. Moreover, the result obtained
from the regression analysis indicates that the p-value is .000 that is less than .05. Hence, it
can be said that the null hypothesis has been rejected and the alternative hypothesis has been
accepted. The result of the regression analysis is supported by the results obtained from the
second co-relation analysis that indicates strong association. Therefore, it can be said that the
existing cultural difference among the employees in Shell Plc has an impact on the
organizational performance.

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Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction..............................................................................................................8
1.0 Overview.....................................................................................................................8
1.1 Problem statement............................................................................................................9
1.2 Research aim..................................................................................................................10
1.3 Research objectives........................................................................................................10
1.4 Research questions.........................................................................................................10
1.5 Research hypotheses......................................................................................................11
1.6 Research rationale..........................................................................................................11
1.7 Structure of the dissertation...........................................................................................12
1.8 Summary........................................................................................................................13
Chapter 2: Literature Review...................................................................................................14
2.0 Overview...................................................................................................................14
2.1 Conceptual framework...................................................................................................14
2.2 Employee religion and organizational performance......................................................15
2.3 Factors affecting cultural differences.............................................................................16
2.3.1 Beliefs.....................................................................................................................17
2.3.2 Morale values..........................................................................................................17
2.3.3 Organizational policies............................................................................................18
2.3.4 Language.................................................................................................................19

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2.3.5 Organizational tradition..........................................................................................20
2.4 Relationship between employee value system and organizational performance...........20
2.5 Influence of employee language on organizational performance..................................22
2.6 Factors affecting organizational performance................................................................25
2.6.1 Guidance.................................................................................................................25
2.6.2 Motivation...............................................................................................................26
2.6.3 Counseling...............................................................................................................27
2.6.4 Cultural differences.................................................................................................28
2.6.5 Working environment.............................................................................................28
2.7 Theories of cultural differences.....................................................................................29
2.7.1 Cultural difference theory.......................................................................................29
2.7.2 Cultural reproduction theory...................................................................................30
2.7.3 Cultural deficit theory.............................................................................................30
2.8 Hofstede’s cultural dimensions......................................................................................31
2.9 Research gap..................................................................................................................34
2.9 Summary........................................................................................................................35
Chapter 3: Research methodology...........................................................................................36
3.0 Overview........................................................................................................................36
3.1 Research outline.............................................................................................................36
3.2 Research philosophy......................................................................................................36
3.2.1 Rationalizing for applying positivism philosophy..................................................37

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3.3 Research approach.........................................................................................................38
3.3.1 Rationalizing for applying deductive approach......................................................38
3.4 Research design..............................................................................................................39
3.4.1 Rationalizing for applying descriptive design.........................................................39
3.5 Research strategy...........................................................................................................40
3.5.1 Rationalizing for applying survey and interview strategy......................................40
3.6 Sampling technique and size..........................................................................................41
3.6.1 Rationalizing for applying non-probability sampling technique............................41
3.7 Data collection technique...............................................................................................42
3.7.1 Rationalizing for applying primary data collection technique................................42
3.8 Data analysis technique..................................................................................................43
3.8.1 Rationalizing for applying quantitative data analysis technique.............................43
3.9 Research limitations.......................................................................................................43
3.10 Ethical considerations..................................................................................................44
3.11 Summary......................................................................................................................45
Chapter 4: Data analysis...........................................................................................................46
4.0 Overview........................................................................................................................46
4.1 Descriptive analysis.......................................................................................................47
4.1.1 Demographic analysis.............................................................................................47
4.2 Inferential analysis.........................................................................................................48
4.2.1 Co-relation analysis.................................................................................................48

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4.2.2 Regression analysis.................................................................................................50
4.3 Summary........................................................................................................................52
Chapter 5: Discussion..............................................................................................................53
Chapter 6: Conclusion and recommendations..........................................................................58
6.0 Conclusion......................................................................................................................58
6.1 Liking with objectives....................................................................................................59
6.2 Recommendations..........................................................................................................61
6.3 Future scope of the study...............................................................................................62
References................................................................................................................................63
Appendix 1...............................................................................................................................72
Survey questionnaire............................................................................................................72

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Chapter 1: Introduction
1.0 Overview
Culture is an integral part in the life of the individuals, as this lays the foundation of what
they become in their life. As mentioned by Lis et al. (2015), the individuals imbibe the
surrounding habits and beliefs as they grow up in their culture. Thus, it can be said that it is
the difference in mind-set, rituals, customs, habits and beliefs that distinguish one individual
from another. It is often seen that the difference in terms of culture results in varied opinions
and decisions that gives rise to differences among the individuals. According to Gu et al.
(2014), the workplace is a diversified environment that highlights the involvement of
individuals or employees from distinctive cultural background. The workforce of the business
organization comprises of distinctive cultures based on their nationality, religious belief and
ethnicity.
While recruiting the employees, it is difficult from the business organizations to
separate them from their cultural background. It is essential for the business organizations to
develop strategies that make the employees highly productive thereby, aiming towards
improving organizational development and growth (Wang and Rafiq 2014). Thus, it is
important for the business organization to respect the culture of the individual employees
working for them. The business organization that offers respect to the employees from
different diversity is suggested to be most successful because it has the potential of attracting
highly skilled individuals from the external environment (Rabl et al. 2014). Age, gender,
sexual orientation, culture and ethnicity are some of the factors that determine the diversity of
the workplace (Hyland, Lee and Mills 2015). Culture is often defined as the shared norms
and values of a specific social system that is regarded as the society. It is important for the
business organizations to know that there are specific employee cultures that contribute

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towards the betterment of the workplace by confirming improved organizational growth and
performance (White III 2014).
Shell is a United States based wholly owned subsidiary of the Royal Dutch Shell and is
one of the largest oil companies in the world. Houston, Texas, United States, is the head
quarter of the company with branches all around the world. The various products of Shell
include exploration, production, refining of the petroleum products along with car services,
oils and fuels. Shell is considered as the market leader because it summons up to 25,000 Shell
branded gas stations for the public use. Sell Oil Company is a 50-50 partner with the Saudi
Arabian government that is owned by the Saudi Aramco in Motiva Enterprises. However,
over the years the number of employees in Shell has decreased from 100,000 to 86,000 that is
a major reason of concern (Shell.iq 2018). Considering this aspect, the impact of employee
cultural differences on the performance of the Shell in Iraq is analysed.
1.1 Problem statement
It is important for the business organizations to develop and establish an
organizational culture that highlights harmony with the culture of the employees. As a result,
the business organizations are able to improve job satisfaction among the current workforce
thereby, resulting in improved organizational performance. Previously, extensive research has
been conducted on cultural diversity but has failed to yield any convenient results on
differences among the employees due to the culture they belong to and its impact on general
performance of the employees both positively and negatively. The research conducted
previously emphasized on cultural diversity and performance of the employees but not impact
of cultural differences on employee performance in oil and gas manufacturing company that
have diversified workforce. As known, Shell is a highly diversified workplace with
employees belonging to different cultural background. It will be interesting to know whether

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the cultural diversity affects the employees and give rise to conflicts or tensions and affect the
overall organizational performance (Denison, Nieminen and Kotrba 2014).
In addition, no prior study or research has been conducted in terms of the impact of
employee cultural difference on Shell Iraq’s performance. Thus, this research aim towards
fulfilling the identified gap in the knowledge by conducting a thorough research on how the
cultural differences among the employees at Shell Iraq have an impact on the organizational
performance of the company. This is done by aligning the culture of the organization with the
cultural background of the employees for improving the optimal performance of the highly
diversified workforce of Shell in Iraq.
1.2 Research aim
The aim of the research is to investigate the impact of employee cultural differences
on the performance of the business organization. For this research, the organization selected
by the researcher for investigation is Shell in Iraq.
1.3 Research objectives
The objectives of the research are:
 To understand the concept of cultural differences and organizational performance
 To investigate the impact of cultural differences among employees in Shell Iraq
 To provide suitable recommendations for mitigating the employee cultural differences
in Shell Iraq
1.4 Research questions
The questions of the research are:
 What is the impact of cultural differences on performance in Shell?
 What are the possible strategies that can be used for overcoming cultural differences
among the employees in Shell Iraq?

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1.5 Research hypotheses
H0: Employee cultural differences do not have an impact on the performance of the
organization
H1: Employee cultural differences affect the performance of the organization largely
1.6 Research rationale
Taking into account the research topic that has been discussed in the above section, it
can be said that this is an important aspect for research because this will provide an
opportunity for investigating the influence on the cultural differences among the performance
of the employees for Shell Oil Company in Iraq. As a result, the research will allow
encouraging the trend if the outcome turns out to be positive (Singh, Darwish and Potocnik
2016).
On the other hand, upon encountering negative results the research can also prohibit
conducting further research on the cultural differences among the employees for improving
organizational growth and performance of Shell Oil Company in Iraq. This research also
highlights potential significance for the researchers and the academicians, as the findings of
the research will help in contributing towards the skills and knowledge that facilitate
improved organizational performance regardless of the existing cultural diversity among the
employees. In addition to, the findings of the research will also provide an opportunity for
other researchers to recognizing and addressing the gaps in the research that needs to be taken
into consideration in the future (Ovidiu-Iliuta 2014).
The research is also significant as the management of the Shell Oil Company in Iraq
will be able to gain adequate knowledge in terms of the impact of the performance of the
employees due to cultural differences along with developing strategies that facilitate Shell to