Organizational Culture towards Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030: Evidence from National Water Company

Abstract

(1) Background: Organisational culture provides a framework and guidelines that influence behaviour and control employees’ performance and activities. (2) Methods: This study uses Hofstede’s five dimensions of organisational culture to understand better the organisational culture of three of the National Water Company’s (NWC) branches in Saudi Arabia. A random sample of 500 employees, consisting of 50 managers, 100 supervisors, and 350 officers, were surveyed, and 334 reliable responses were received. SPSS was employed to analyse the responses, and the empirical findings suggest that NWC’s corporate culture is in line with the findings of Hofstede. (3) Results: There was a sharp contrast between the male and female responses, with men ranking power distance, uncertainty avoidance, collectivism, masculinity, and short-term orientation, high, and the women ranking them low. Unfortunately, innovation and productivity suffer within this autocratic culture, resulting in the NWC not meeting Saudi Arabia’s new national mandates outlined in Vision 2030. (4) Conclusion: The study recommends how HRM can help NWC change its organisational culture to increase innovation and productivity.

Keywords

• organisational culture
• national culture
• Hofstede
• Saudi Arabia
• Vision 2030