Annotated Bibliography: Managing Employee Relations in Global Context

This annotated bibliography examines the disparity in female leadership between Saudi Arabia and Sweden, exploring the cultural, social, and organizational factors that contribute to this difference. It analyzes five key articles, each offering a unique perspective on the topic. The first article compares women in business leadership in Gulf Arab states, highlighting the limited representation in Saudi Arabia. The second article explores the challenges women face in leadership roles, emphasizing the impact of implicit biases and cultural norms in Saudi Arabia. The third article focuses on the experiences of professional women leaders in Sweden, contrasting the supportive environment with the challenges in Saudi Arabia. The fourth article examines the cultural aspects and leadership effectiveness of women leaders in Saudi Arabia, highlighting the limitations imposed by cultural norms. The fifth article analyzes gender differences in global leadership self-efficacies, comparing Saudi Arabia's approach with that of Sweden, which demonstrates a stronger commitment to gender diversity and equal opportunities for female leaders. The bibliography underscores the need for Saudi Arabian organizations to adopt strategies to promote gender equality and empower women leaders.

Running head: MANAGING EMPLOYEE RELATION IN GLOBAL CONTEXT
Managing Employee Relation in Global Context
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1MANAGING EMPLOYEE RELATION IN GLOBAL CONTEXT
Research Question
Why does Saudi Arabia have less women in global leadership than Sweden?
Kemp, L. J., Madsen, S. R., & Davis, J. (2015). Women in business leadership: A
comparative study of countries in the Gulf Arab states. International Journal of Cross-
Cultural Management, 15(2), 215-233. Available at DOI: 10.1177/1470595815594819
Based on the above-cited article it is evaluated based on the viewpoint of Kemp,
Madsen and Davis (2015), that the female population is equally capable of handling the
synergy of business leadership in the region of Arab Gulf States. The article evaluates the
status of the women leaders in the concerned area, specifically the senior executives as well
as the managers with the help of the survey form of quantitative gender analysis connected to
a number of 2805 private as well as public listed business firms in diversified regions and
states. The position held by the different number of women in the different number of
organisations is analysed, detailed as well as compared with regards to the different countries,
classification of business, and the size of the business companies as well as the ownership.
In this connection, the findings of the above-cited article show that the business
organisations and its cultural managers need to have a positive and optimistic approach
towards the encouragement of the participation of the women population in the concern of
leading business organisations. Concerned to this, it is investigated that the nation of Sweden
and it's business organisation are more dedicated to employing more of the female as their
senior business executives as well as managers in a different department of business
organisation. This statement proved the fact that the business organisations in the region of
Sweden have efficiently followed the system of gender diversity as compared to that of the
region of Saudi Arabia. In light of this, it can be stated that the nation of Saudi Arabia has
less global leadership connected to the women population as to that of Sweden.

2MANAGING EMPLOYEE RELATION IN GLOBAL CONTEXT
Bierema, L. L. (2016). Women’s leadership: Troubling notions of the “ideal” (male)
leader. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 18(2), 119-136. Available at DOI:
10.1177/1523422316641398
Based on the viewpoint of Bierema (2016), it is undermined with the help of the
above-cited article that the female population are well prepared and established in the
concern of assuming the leadership roles. They are grown up with proper education level and
the will as per the view of the expert and that the women can grow themselves in a better way
and in a double bind manner once they are let to work in the role of a leader. However, it was
also determined with the help of the article there are several forms of challenges that the
women employees and leaders have to face in the concern of remaining cautious of holding
the line of challenges and issues to be faced in the working organisation and their daily lives.
Thus, the findings of the article based on the different development theories of the
human resource department, it was found that the understanding of the business organisations
situated in the region of Saudi Arabia related to the concern of preparing its women leaders
for better career prospects as well as creating competitive business organisations that are
hospitable to the same is been limited by the synergy of implicit biasness, inadequate system
of learning as well as development strategies as well as the cultural diversity of the
organisations that is resistant towards the changes. The current theories of human resource
development in the business organisations in the region of Saudi Arabia have been recorded
to be inefficient and inadequate in the concern of addressing as well as solving the issues
related to the challenges faced by the female leaders of the firm as compared to that of the
business entities in the country of Sweden. This turns out to be another major reason why the
female global leadership in the nation of Saudi Arabia have been on a lower level.

3MANAGING EMPLOYEE RELATION IN GLOBAL CONTEXT
Johnson, E. R., & Tunheim, K. A. (2016). Understanding the experiences of professional
women leaders living and working in Sweden. Advances in Developing Human
Resources, 18(2), 169-186. Available at DOI: 10.1177/1523422316641894
The above-cited article based on the viewpoint of Johnson and Tunheim (2016), states
that the women employees working all across the world have been recorded to go through a
profound level of struggle in the concern of achieving better positions of leadership as well as
management while working in a business organisation and needful to take parental leaves,
access the affordable amount of childcare as well as maintaining the balance in their daily
work as well as personal life. Therefore, the article has been focused on the use of several
business models in the concern of understanding the relevancy in the development as well as
the retention of women employees as the leaders of a business organisation in the country of
Saudi Arabia.
The findings of the article have been recorded to show that the business organisations
in the region of Saudi Arabia lack behind in the aspect of motivating and retaining their
female employees and leaders in the concern of maintaining the human resource development
department of the same. This brings up the fact in light that the nation of Saudi Arabia has
less level of women leadership. Whereas, the nation of Sweden has been effective and
efficient in retaining and providing better opportunities for work to the female leaders.
Akram, F., Murugiah, L., & Arfan, A. (2017). Cultural Aspects and Leadership
Effectiveness of Women Leaders: A Theoretical Prospective of Saudi Arabia. Pakistan
Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 5(1). Available at:
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3081373
Based on the viewpoint of Akram, Murugiah and Arfan (2017), in the above-cited
article, it was evaluated that the cultural aspects related to the gender egalitarianism,

4MANAGING EMPLOYEE RELATION IN GLOBAL CONTEXT
assertiveness as well as the future orientation of the women leaders and the effects on the
effectiveness of their leadership. Thus, the article is mainly focused on explaining the cultural
aspect of the nation of Saudi Arabia and different regions for comparing the development
level of women leaders in the region of Saudi Arabia and Sweden. It was evaluated with the
help of the studies that the women leaders working in the business entities of Arab have to
bear through a different form of restrictions as well as have to work with different future
orientations as compared to the male employees working in the same firm.
The findings found as per the investigation of the article was recorded as that the
women leaders in the nation of Saudi Arabia were less oriented towards their future career
prospects, they are also less assertive as well as have limited amount of facilities that are
provided to them by their working business organisation as compared to that of the male
leaders and other countries such as Sweden as well. Hence, it can be concluded that the
leadership effectiveness of women in the country of Saudi Arabia has been at a lower level,
and male dominance is higher in the same. Studies have implicitly shown that the nation of
Sweden provides equal rights to the women population in consideration of motivating them
to work in an effective and efficient way and thrive in the business entities with a higher form
of leadership.
Javidan, M., Bullough, A., & Dibble, R. (2016). Mind the gap: Gender differences in
global leadership self-efficacies. Academy of Management Perspectives, 30(1), 59-73.
Available at DOI: 10.5465/amp.2015.0035
The above-cited article clearly evaluates the current form of literature that is required
for the business organisations to succeed in its global roles. Javidan, Bullough and Dibble
(2016), states that the business firm needs to have a global mindset in the concern of
determining the gender differences in the self-efficacies connected to the global form of

5MANAGING EMPLOYEE RELATION IN GLOBAL CONTEXT
leadership. The article is the consideration of determining the same had taken a random
sampling of a number of 1,187 managers from 74 different number of countries. The different
number of countries were taken into consideration in the concern of making a necessary
comparison of women leadership level in the country of Saudi Arabia and other countries.
In this context, the findings of the article had profoundly shown that with the help of
using the method of Global Mindset Inventory that, the population of the women leaders are
determined as well as demonstrated to have a high level of strong profile in the aspect of
global leadership with connection to the synergies of the passion related to diversity, empathy
in the inter-cultural scenario and acceptance as well as the factor of diplomacy in the several
countries and especially in the nation of Sweden. However, it was also undermined that the
country of Saudi Arabia has lacked behind in providing equal benefits to its female
employees and leaders and that they would be retained in the business organisation and can
work in the firms as equal to the male employees of the same. This, in turn, leads to the lack
in the global level of women leadership in the region of Saudi Arabia, making the female
leaders disregarded with their work and education level.

6MANAGING EMPLOYEE RELATION IN GLOBAL CONTEXT
References
Akram, F., Murugiah, L., & Arfan, A. (2017). Cultural Aspects and Leadership Effectiveness
of Women Leaders: A Theoretical Prospective of Saudi Arabia. Pakistan Journal of
Humanities and Social Sciences, 5(1). Available at:
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3081373
Bierema, L. L. (2016). Women’s leadership: Troubling notions of the “ideal” (male)
leader. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 18(2), 119-136. Available at DOI:
10.1177/1523422316641398
Javidan, M., Bullough, A., & Dibble, R. (2016). Mind the gap: Gender differences in global
leadership self-efficacies. Academy of Management Perspectives, 30(1), 59-73.
Available at DOI: 10.5465/amp.2015.0035
Johnson, E. R., & Tunheim, K. A. (2016). Understanding the experiences of professional
women leaders living and working in Sweden. Advances in Developing Human
Resources, 18(2), 169-186. Available at DOI: 10.1177/1523422316641894
Kemp, L. J., Madsen, S. R., & Davis, J. (2015). Women in business leadership: A
comparative study of countries in the Gulf Arab states. International Journal of
Cross-Cultural Management, 15(2), 215-233. Available at DOI:
10.1177/1470595815594819