Integrative Industry Project Report: Damac's Cross-Cultural Issues

This report presents an integrative industry project focused on Damac, a prominent real estate company. It begins with an executive summary outlining the report's aim: to discuss the issues Damac faces in its growing business, particularly cross-cultural challenges within its international human resource management. The report includes a company profile, SWOT analysis, and identification of course learning outcomes. It identifies the key research issue as cross-cultural issues in international human resource management, leading to a problem statement and research objectives. The proposed research methodology combines qualitative and quantitative approaches. An action plan outlines the 7-week schedule for the project. The report concludes that research is necessary to identify the root causes of these issues and to develop recommendations. The reference section includes various academic sources used for the analysis.

Running head: INTEGRATIVE INDUSTRY PROJECT
Integrative Industry Project
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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Executive summary
The aim of this report is to discuss about the issues being faced by them in their growing
business activities. Accordingly, a proposal will be created to initiate a research work in
determining the area of improvement for the issues being faced by Damac. It is being concluded
that a research work is necessary to identify the root causes of the issues. Moreover, the proposed
research will help to critically analyze the particular issues in details and enable the organization
to have the access of several recommendations to overcome the issues.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Company profile..............................................................................................................................3
SWOT analysis................................................................................................................................4
Strengths......................................................................................................................................4
Weaknesses..................................................................................................................................4
Opportunities...............................................................................................................................5
Threats.........................................................................................................................................5
Identification of Course learning outcomes.....................................................................................5
Identification of research issue........................................................................................................8
Problem statement.......................................................................................................................8
Research objectives.....................................................................................................................8
Research methodology.....................................................................................................................9
Action plan.......................................................................................................................................9
Detail analysis..............................................................................................................................9
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
Reference.......................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
Middle Eastern countries such as United Arab Emirates are going through huge boom in
investment in the recent years. Accordingly, infrastructure is rapidly developing in these regions.
Real estate is the sector, which is having the most impact of the economic development in United
Arab Emirates (Sayigh, 2014). Thus, with having of positive trend of investment in real estate
sector, more and more domestic and global organizations are entering in this sector. However,
with the increase in the opportunities for this sector, various issues are also being started to
generate.
Damac is a prominent player operating in the real estate market from 2002. They forayed
in to luxury and leisure properties in the Middle Eastern countries (About DAMAC Properties –
Luxury Property Developers in Dubai | UAE, 2017). Afterwards they have diversified their
business operations and entered in the market of hospitality. However, with rapid growth in the
real estate sector, Damac shows a strong growth in the revenue turnover and operations.
However, there are various issues being faced by them in the recent years in the internal
management. Thus, this report will discuss about the issues being faced by them in their growing
business activities. In addition, a proposal will be created according to the need and requirement
of research in overcoming the issues being faced by them.
Company profile
Damac is one of the leading organizations operating in the field of real estate in the
Arabian regions. They are the first real estate organization from the Middle Eastern region to
have been listed on the London stock exchange. In the real estate sector, Damac is operating in

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the luxurious and higher end commercial and residential properties. Currently they are having
operation in United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Lebanon and United Kingdom.
Thus, beyond the Arabian regions, they have started their operation in the western countries such
as United Kingdom (Budenbender & Golubchikov, 2017). However, with the entry in the global
market, they are also facing various issues in managing their human resources. This is due to the
fact that global business of them is having diversified human resources which are culturally
distinctive from one another (Harvey & Allard, 2015). Thus, cross-cultural issues are being
generated in their internal management.
SWOT analysis
SWOT analysis will be used to determine the opportunities and threat for Damac, which
will be useful to identify the issues being faced by them.
Strengths
Being one of the leading and prominent real estate organizations, Damac is enjoying
positive brand equity in the market. Thus, it will be easier for them in attracting new customers
and penetrate in the new markets more effectively (Stahl et al., 2012). Moreover, the sector of
luxurious and higher end properties is having increasing demand due to rapid economic
development and it is one of the key strengths of Damac in operating in this sector. In addition,
they have also ventured in the hospitality sector by introducing resorts and clubs in different
locations (Manhas & Tukamushaba, 2015). Thus, having presence in different sectors will help
them to have diversified presence in the market.

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Weaknesses
Damac is having presence only in the higher end properties, which is restricting their
business potential. This is due to the reason that, majority of the real estate properties being sold
in the global market is the middle class properties where they do not have any presence (Brown
& Liu, 2012). Thus, they are lacking a huge market potential. In addition, Damac is having
limited presence in the global market and thus having less brand equity in the global market.
They are the new entrant in the global market and thus having less experience in managing the
diversified human resources.
Opportunities
The global economy is gradually emerging and in accordance to that, the demand for
luxurious and higher end properties is on the rise. Thus, the potential is positive for Damac.
Moreover, they are entering in the global market to increase their market share. Thus, the
opportunities will be more in case of entering in the global market (Johanson & Mattsson, 2015).
With having inducting employees from various regions having differentiated approaches, Damac
can effectively tap the opportunities in the global market.
Threats
In the last few years, demand for the higher end properties got affected due to economic
crisis. Moreover, in the global market, the risk involved in initiation of the internal business can
also pose a threat to Damac (Basile, 2012). International human resource management is also a
potential threat for them due to the fact that, cross-cultural issues are very common in the
international and diversified human resources (Bochner, 2013).

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Identification of Course learning outcomes
Course Course learning outcome Relation
International human resource
management
Various approaches in
international human resource
management.
In the international human
resource management,
organizations operating in
different countries have to
initiate mainly three
approaches of allocating
human resources (Brewster et
al., 2016). Ethnocentric
approach involves selection of
the employees from the home
country only. On the other
hand, polycentric approach
refers to the selection of the
employees from the host
country. Geocentric approach
is the most effective among all
by involving the concept of
selecting the employees on the
basis of requirement and skills
from any countries.
Cross cultural relations Effects of cultural differences In the international business,

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management on international business employees belong from
diversified social
backgrounds. However,
diversified workforce have
both advantages and
disadvantages (Agrawal,
2012). One of the key
advantages of it is the
generation lf various ideas
from the diversified
employees in case of any
issue. Disadvantages include
cross cultural issue such as
resistance of the certain
section of the employees in
accepting their opposite views.
International trade Impact of trade agreements on
international trade and
economy.
Agreements such as NAFTA
and APEC are being initiated
to promote free trade and
prevention of trade barriers
among the participating
countries (Aggarwal & Urata,
2013). These type of

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cooperative trade agreements
promotes increase in trade
activities among the countries
along with improving the
political relationship between
the countries.
Identification of research issue
Problem statement
The key issue being identified from the above discussion is the cross-cultural issues in the
international human resource management. It is being determined that the key issue to be faced
by Damac is to effectively manage their diversified human resources in their international
business. Due to the fact that, diversified workforce comprise of employees from different social
backgrounds, thus, it is important that all the groups be given equal representation and are
managed effectively.
Research objectives
 The key motive of his research is to identify the key reasons of generation of cross-
cultural conflict. To identify the root causes of generation of cross cultural conflict.
 To determine the existing organizational policies of Damac in order to evaluate the
effectiveness of the existing policies in preventing the cross-cultural issues.
 To identify the areas of improvement for the organization.

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 To analyze the gathered data and accordingly recommend policies and strategies to
overcome the issues.
Research methodology
Methodology involved in this research will be both qualitative and quantitative. This is
due to the reason that, use of the qualitative data will help to generate the detailed opinions from
the respondents. More deep and viable response can be gathered with the help of the qualitative
methodology. On the other hand, quantitative research will help to determine the majority trend
and inclination of the respondents. It will help to determine the overall trend regarding the issue.
Thus, mixed methodology will be implemented in this research work.
Action plan
Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7
Introduction
Literature review
Findings
Methodology
Analysis
conclusion
Detail analysis
The total task will be divided in 7 weeks. First week will be allocated to review and
observe the situation before stating the introduction. Accordingly, the introductory statement will

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be given for the organization as well as the industry. In the second week, literature review will be
conducted and it will continue until third week. This is due to the reason that, review of the
literature will take time in critically analyzing the opinions of various authors. Findings will also
be done itself in the third week due to the reason that, findings will take less time. It will only
involve key identified areas from the critical analysis.
Methodology will be stated in the fourth week. Methodology will be designed according
to the pattern of the information being required for the research. Analysis is the most important
part and it will take the whole week five and six. Various analysis modes such as univariate and
bivariate analysis will be implemented to have holistic outcome. The seventh week will be
allocate for the conclusion part. In the last week, the whole research will be concluded and it will
summarize according to the criterions.
Conclusion
Having discussed the issues being faced by Damac and requirement of the research for
further analysis, it can be concluded that, a research work is necessary to identify the root causes
of the issues. Moreover, the proposed research will help to critically analyze the particular issues
in details and enable the organization to have the access of several recommendations to
overcome these issues. Thus, it is expected that, the initiation of the research as being proposed
here in this report will help to identify the issues and implement strategies to overcome them.