Title: Task complexity and non-Arab expatriates' wasta performance in Arab markets

Authors: Rami H. Aljbour; Robert J. Hanson

Addresses: Dean of the College of Business and Management, Fahad Bin Sultan University, P.O Box 15700 Tabuk, 71454, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia ' Management Science Department, Yanbu University College, Jabriah 2, Royal Commission, Yanbu Industrial City, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Abstract: Multinational corporations continuously relocate expatriates from one culture to another without taking into consideration the difference in the level of task complexity between the two cultures. The purpose of this paper was to investigate the impact of differences in complexity level between non-Arab cultures and Arab culture on wasta performance of non-Arab managerial expatriates. The invited population of 325 non-Arab managerial expatriates who are working in the UAE resulted to 175 valid responses that represented the sampled population. Quantitative non-experimental survey design was used to collect and analyse data and factor analysis, coefficient alpha, and simple regression was conducted to examine variability and validity. It was found that, level of task complexity in Arab markets is higher than other markets and that has significant influence on non-Arab managerial expatriates performance related to building good relations with Arab managers and influencing Arab managers' decision making.

Keywords: Arab markets; expatriate performance; task complexity; wasta performance; social networks; global mobility; managerial expatriates; expats; multinational corporations; MNCs; culture; UAE; United Arab Emirates.

DOI: 10.1504/MEJM.2015.069005

Middle East Journal of Management, 2015 Vol.2 No.1, pp.1 - 20

Received: 26 Apr 2014
Accepted: 04 May 2014

Published online: 24 Apr 2015 *

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