Zain Group's Cultural Diversity: Challenges and Strategies Report

This report examines the cultural diversity management practices of Zain Group, a telecommunications company based in Kuwait. The study highlights the company's efforts in promoting gender equality through women empowerment initiatives, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa. However, it also identifies significant shortcomings in addressing other forms of discrimination related to caste, religion, and ethnicity, including the treatment of migrant workers. The report analyzes the variances between professional and organizational culture, emphasizing the importance of ethical business practices and employee feedback. It concludes with recommendations for Zain Group to improve its approach to cultural diversity, fostering a more inclusive and equitable workplace environment. The report emphasizes the need for a more comprehensive approach to diversity that goes beyond gender to encompass all aspects of cultural differences within the organization.

Running head: MANAGING CULTURAL DIVERSITY
Managing Cultural Diversity
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The main objective of the given report is to investigate and discuss the telecommunication
company headquartered in the region of Kuwait, named Zain Groups. The report focuses on
examining the cultural traits of the organisation as well as the challenges related to the
cultural aspects that the company suffers from. In this connection, the report came out with a
finding that the organisation has effectively managed the cultural aspects of gender equality
by initiating the support and empowerment to the female population. However, the company
has drastically failed in the other aspects of discrimination that occurs because of the caste,
religion, colour, creed and race of the individuals as well as fostering initiatives for the
migrants who are discriminated highly in the regions Zain Group operates. The report ends
with providing recommendations to the company that would help the same to carry up their
smooth operations in the concern of managing the cultural diversity and gain a massive
success for the organisation.

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Overview of Organisation..........................................................................................................3
The multi-culture traits of the Organisation (International Operations)....................................4
The multi-culture traits of the Organisation (Domestic Operations).........................................4
Variances in the professional and organisational culture...........................................................5
Cultural Issues in the Organisation............................................................................................7
Leadership Management Issue in the Organisation...................................................................8
Cultural as well as Ethic Differences.........................................................................................9
Language and Communication Barriers.....................................................................................9
Corporate Culture.....................................................................................................................10
Recommendations....................................................................................................................10
Conclusion................................................................................................................................11
References................................................................................................................................12

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Introduction
Based on the viewpoint of Trax, Brunow and Suedekum (2015), cultural diversity is
considered as the most significant and vital part of a productive workplace in the modern
business environment. The business organisations getting diversified in nature has become
accountable towards the synergy of managing as well as understanding diversity. The
working individuals coming down from different background paves the path for the need for
a diversified workplace environment. In this connection, it was stated by Tarba et al., (2019),
that the synergy of culture diversified workforce is essential in an organisation as the same
increases the overall performance level of the same with superior quality. This brings up a
requirement for the organisation to include the management of advanced innovation strategy
in the working transactions with regards to fostering a competitive working environment.
This, in turn, will help in ensuring that the working organisation is paving its business
transactions towards the steps of successful operations that will help the firm to generate
profit and revenue. Concerning to this ideology, the given report sheds light on the aspect of
the cultural diversity in the business entity named Zain Groups.
Overview of the Organisation
Zain Groups Company is profoundly recognised as a mobile telecommunication
company which was founded and established in the year of 1983 (Asiri, 2015). It is known to
be headquartered in the region of Kuwait and was named as MTC. In the fiscal year of 2007,
it was reorganised and named as the Zain Group. In the current business market, the
concerned company is recorded to dominate the market of Middle East with its operation
wings in around eight countries of the same (Luenen, 2019). The company also operates itself
in the region of North Africa. The company is known to have a profound hold in the market,
with over fifty million active users connected to the same. Studies also show that the net

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worth income of the concerned mobile telecommunication company is calculated as $155
million and this had made Zain Groups be one of the most successful business entity
concerning the financial hold in Kuwait (Slideshare.net, 2019).
The multi-culture traits of the Organisation (International Operations)
As stated by Sidani (2018), the current working environment based on the
international operations of Zain Groups is recognised to highly diversified in its cultural
aspects. Expanded in the regions of North Africa as well as the Middle East where the
company is operating it's business wings have taken up sustainable initiatives that help in the
encouragement of work diversity in the firm. The sustainable actions of the firm at the first
place is determined as the aspect of women empowerment and in this connection have
implemented the introduction of women empowerment network (Amadi, 2015). This
happened because of the belief of the organisation that the factor of gender diversity will help
the business entity to improve and develop their workplace. The strategic plans used by Zain
Groups had been recorded to ensure the growth as well as advancements of careers in the
company. The principal goal and objective of this initiative were to achieve the synergy of
gender equality as well as to empower the female workers of the company to develop, act,
succeed as well as the lead in the working environment. However, the only drawback found
was that the company keeping its primary focus on the gender equality, have not focused on
taking initiatives that ensure the diversity of different individuals working in the firm which
belongs to different caste as well as religion and cultural background (Alhashel & Albader,
2018).
The multi-culture traits of the Organisation (Domestic Operations)
The concerned company named Zain Groups is recorded to work along with over
6200 working employees on its everyday basis (Bhaya et al., 2018). This helps in catering the

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needs of the customers and the end market and therefore satisfying their unique demands as
well as making their lives better by offering excellent products and services. It was also
examined that cultural diversity is well promoted in the domestic workplace of the Zain
organisation as compared to its international sector. However, the synergy of women
empowerment exists both in the domestic and the international operations of the concerned
telecommunication company (Mousa & Elamir, 2015). The belief of the organisation is that
women are more capable and robust enough to lead the business organisations and give a
better performance level. The concerned organisation has been recognised to provide
different training programs and leveraging their women employees to pursue education which
will help them enhance their skills and the same, in turn, would prove beneficial to the
company (Aldaihani, 2019). The strategic plan of the company that the factor of women
empowerment will help the firm to create a path for the gender equality as well as the fast-
tracking of the principal ambitions the company has in the concern of its growth
opportunities. The company also believed that the synergy of gender equality would help the
same to bring improvement in its bottom line transactions as well as the competitive
differentiation as compared to its competitors.
Variances in the professional and organisational culture
As examined in the above part of the report that Zain Group is a successful as well as
renowned company in the region of Middle East as well as North Africa, it was also
undermined with the help of the studies that the company carries up its business transactions
in an ethical and fair manner following the synergy of integrity as well as honesty (Times,
2017). The casual employees, as well as the head employees along with its board members
connected to the Zain Groups, are accountable towards maintaining the confidentiality of the
organisation’s sensitive information that has been disclosed to them and is asked to be kept
enclosed within the employees itself (Ali, Divya and Saradhi, 2017). The disclosure of the

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sensitive information to any outside resources is determined to let fall the responsible person
into trouble. This obligation of keeping the information enclosed is known to continue even
after the tenure end of the employees, the board members, as well as the head managers
(Bhaya et al., 2018). This secrecy is believed to be kept in the organisation in the concern of
protecting the organisation from the threat of the business markets as well as the competitive
level of the competitors in the market.
As stated by Beckford (2016), the employees are inevitable as well as an integral part
of every business organisation. Concerning to this ideology, Zain Groups telecommunication
Company is known to take their employees in a severe manner and therefore provide their
employees with the leverage to the proper freedom of coming up and providing the
organisation with different creative as well as innovative ideas that may turn out to be
beneficial for the working transactions of the business and help the same to grow (Alafi,
2018). Moreover, the company is also open towards the feedback provided by the employees
of the organisation in the concern of making any improvements and changes in the working
environment of the firm to make them feel valued and an integral part of the organisation. As
examined above, the concerned company profoundly supports the aspect of women
empowerment; the company is also recorded to promote the same in the professional culture.
This is because of the firm thought process of the organisation that different gender
employees are working together into a singular working firm with foster better innovative
ideas for the better future of the company.
Both the aspect of the organisational as well as the professional culture, are considered to be
interchangeable in nature (McCune, Lewis & Arendt, 2016). Both the concerned form of
cultures are known to approach the synergy of the outlook as well as the collective values that
lie within the productive organisation of Zain Groups. Nonetheless, the manner in which
these two cultures manifests the different settings in the organisation have some variations.

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The organisational culture of the business organisations are known to show the synergy of
ethics as well as the values that the owner and the employees of the company trust in (Vargas
& Negro, 2019). In this concern, the organisational culture of the Zain Groups is considered
to be motivated to the non-profit aspect and follow the business operations in an ethical
manner (Yusoff & Idris, 2017).
However, in lieu of this, the professional culture of the Zain Groups is recognised to be
clearly profit-motivated as well as the employees are given complete freedom to come up
with the innovative ideas as well as feedbacks for the profound benefit of the firm (Shaha et
al., 2016). This also motivates the employees to works in a more enthusiastic manner and
with greater zeal, and thus the same pave a path for the building of significant success in the
organisation.
Cultural Issues in the Organisation
The concerned telecommunications company of Zain Group is known to be famous
for the useful products and services it offers to its end market and target customers (Dhir at
al., 2019). In addition to this, the initiative concerned to the support of the women
empowerment taken up by the Zain Groups has also made in famous in the current business
market as well as the eyes of the society. Studies show that the women population in the
region of North Africa, as well as the Middle East, have been deprived of the rights they are
leveraged to and always been treated below the male population notwithstanding their talent,
educational background as well as the skills level they indulge with. The female population in
both the stated countries where the company of Zain Groups are under operation have known
to be the victims of the patriarchal society. In this connection, the concerned company
brought up an initiative to break the stereotype of the adverse conditions of the women in
these two regions. The company, as examined above, have been profoundly recorded to

8MANAGING CULTURAL DIVERSITY
empower as well as support the female population to go to work as well as build their careers.
Thus, Zain Groups have succeeded in managing the diversified workforce that promotes the
synergy of gender equality.
However, it was also recognised that Zain Group has been highly focusing only on the
women population and have failed to notice the other inequalities that exist in the company
(Singh, 2018). Therefore, this had turned out to be an issue for the organisation. Studies show
that the initiatives taken up the firm in the concern of women empowerment is an effective
one; however, the same cannot help in building the entire workforce of the concerned
organisation. The company had been recorded to fail in the acknowledgement of the issues
that are concerned to the migrant population and also the individuals who are known to be
discriminated in the organisation with regards to their caste, colour, creed as well as religion
and the other aspects that hurt their sentiments as well. This discrimination takes place
because of the pre-conceived notion of the individuals which they have in their thought
process about different religion of different people. As stated by Kessler (2016), the aspect of
discrimination in a productive business organisation profoundly affects the mindset of the
employees in a negative manner and the same results in the reduced performance level of the
employees. This aspect of poor performance, in turn, paves a path for the loss as well as the
downfall for the concerned business organisation under discussion here in the paper.
Leadership Management Issue in the Organisation
The concerned organisation understatement here in the report has been predominantly
working towards achieving the synergy of diversified work culture and somehow have
received success to a small extent with regards to its initiative taken to empower women and
including them into the managerial position of the company. However, the company lacks in
the management of the other issues that are connected to the global dimensions of the

9MANAGING CULTURAL DIVERSITY
leadership context (Jaimes-Valdez, Jacobo-Hernandez & Ochoa-Jimenez, 2017). This, the
company is considered to be yet to focus on the synergy of obtaining other aspects of cultural
diversity in its workplace. Take, for instance; there are several migrants who come up to the
regions of the Middle East as well as North Africa in the connection of finding a better job.
Studies show that these migrants are not treated well in these two regions and are
discriminated on a profound basis. This discrimination is considered to be relevant to these
two countries, and along with this, it is mainly based on ethnicity, the origin of the people
concerning their social and religious life. Thus, this discrimination is also prevalent in the
concerned company of the Zain Groups telecommunications. This, in turn, has proved that
the relevant organisation is facing the problem of leadership management.
Cultural as well as Ethnic Differences
As opined by Rosenau (2018), the current world is known to be changing as well as
evolving at a high pace to be an equal one for every existing individual to feel an equal
citizen of the world. Nevertheless, studies predominantly show that the aspect of
discrimination is still prevalent in several countries, and two of them are considered as the
Middle East and North Africa. In this context, the discrimination in the workplace of Zain
Groups takes place because of the differences in the religion, caste, creed as well as race of
the individuals (Al Mutairi & Fayez, 2015). The only discrimination that is avoided in the
organisation is gender discrimination as the company profoundly manages gender diversity
management in its working synergy.
Language and Communication Barriers
The different individuals come into a working organisation from different countries
and therefore, a different culture as well as language background (Gee, 2018). Concerning
this aspect, it is undermined that communication barriers thrive in the organisation of Zain

10MANAGING CULTURAL DIVERSITY
Groups as it works into a diversified form. These communication barriers affect the
performance level of the employees as the same demotivate the employees in the workforce
(Wigert & Harter, 2017). This happens because the employees are unable to communicate
with each other because of the different languages they are leveraged too and thus they are
felt left out in the firm. Thus, the top-level managers at Zain Company should focus on
ensuring to foster healthy communication between the different employees by the help of
training them so that they can accept the differences of each other.
Corporate Culture
The aspect of cultural diversity in an organisation has both its positive as well as
negative sides (Gay, 2018). Thus, it is important for the telecommunication company of Zain
Groups to take effective implementations into working in the concern of ensuring cultural
diversity in the workplace. The company believes in gender equality and thus working
equally helps the company in bringing up significant ideas to be implemented in the firm and
enhance the company to achieve huge success. The corporate culture of the Zain Groups is
considered to be advanced due to the initial implementation of the women empowerment
(Rai, 2018).
Recommendations
As analysed with the help of the study that Zain Group lacks in other aspects of
cultural diversity, keeping its main focus on women empowerment, the given report tends to
suggest the strategic recommendations that would help the company to manage its cultural
diversity in an effective way.
 Taking effective measures that will help the migrants to get a standard level of job
and work satisfaction in the organisation along with the female population (Hansen,
2019).

11MANAGING CULTURAL DIVERSITY
 Providing effective training and development process to the employees.
 Implementing strict laws and legal suits against workplace discrimination.
 Encouraging effective communication process in both the inward and outward
synergy of the firm (Hernandez & Nieto, 2016).
Conclusion
Given the findings based on the cultural diversity concerned with the organisation of
Zain Groups, Kuwait, it can be seen that the synergy of cultural diversity is an inevitable part
of a business organisation in this era of globalisation and privatisation. The aspect of cultural
diversity helps the firms to come up with diversified innovative and creative ideas to make
the business a successful one. Thus, it was examined with the help of the study that Zain
Groups have implemented the initiative of women empowerment to combat the issue of
gender discrimination in the firm. However, the company have been failing in its global
dimension of leadership and managing the other points of discrimination occurring in the
firm. Thus, the report suggests that the company should look after these drawbacks on an
immediate basis.

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