hi, I need help on this case study

If Anna has informed Linda of all the issues, how would Linda respond? Why?

it would be appreciated if you can provide a brief answer with applications of management theories, thank you

Here is the Case

It was 01:00 AST by the time Anna's plane landed, and she was surprised at how hot and muggy it was even at that hour. She knew the Arabian Gulf was a desert climate but she had not expected this humidity. 'All thisresearch on the Internet sure didn't prepareme for this' she thought.

A recent graduate from an elite American university, Anna had searched exclusively for an overseas job upon graduation. She wanted a challenge, a role that would stretch her professionally, a post that would test her personally. Having been offered a position in Doha, Qatar she researched the region extensively before agreeing to be Buildings Unlimited's first Recruitment Coordinator in the Qatar office. Buildings Unlimited, an American construction management firm, boasted a twenty-year presence in the Arabian Gulf. Anna hadnever been to the Middle East, and the 'unknown' factor was a big part of her excitement. This was sure tooffer the challenges she was looking for.

From her reading she knew that Qataris were historically nomadic people, living in desert tents with camels for transport and falcons for hunting. Area relationships between families were and are important, and there is still a strong emphasis on family ties that extend well beyond the nuclear unit. The relationship between men and women was not a dynamic Anna was accustomed to. Qatari women are traditionally private, both in dress-donning the abaya and niqab when outside of the home-and in practice. And yet a few, such as the dynamic Sheikha Mozah (DBEa), the second wife of the Emir were stepping out and bridging the cultural gap between Qatar and the West.

Qatar's struggle to maintain its national identity and culture has only increased with its rapid economic progress. A population that used to make its earnings on pearl diving now boasts one of the highest GDPs per capita in the world1. The country's vast natural gas deposits have attracted foreign interest leading to rapid economic expansion from natural resources to finance, infrastructure, luxury goods, sporting events like

the Asia Games and upcoming World Cup 2022, and tourism. In 1970 the population was a modest 111,0002; just four decades later there are over 2,000,0003people living on the tiny peninsula. While exact numbers are difficult to find, it is estimated that Qatari nationals make up only 10-15% of the country's population.

"This country is being transformed before my eyes. What a time to be here" mused Anna as she flickedchannels on the enormous TV in her hotel room.

Induction

Her first day on the job was exhilarating. Anna's objective as Recruitment Coordinator was to bolster the organization's recruitment efforts in light of the recent push for more and faster development. Most of the recruiting focused on international candidates, as the small Qatari population relied heavily on importing foreign talent. There were two other company recruiters in the region, albeit in the Dubai office, but they were struggling to staff the mixed-use building, hospital, airport, and infrastructure projects being constructed to support the rapidly expanding population.

Before she left for Doha, Anna had had an interview and a follow-up meeting with Simon, the Global Head of Recruitment in Buildings Unlimited's New York office. His office was papered with graphs, tables, and process maps outlining and monitoring recruitment efforts across the company's international offices. Simon was obviously impressed with Anna's Ivy League education and enthusiasm.

"I know,"he had said, peering over a color-coded Gantt chart,"thatwith time and effort, you'll quickly learn the basics of our business. Doha is a great office-commercially successful with really good people, and some have been there a long time so they're pretty tightly knit. And remember you can always call me if you have anyquestions."One week later Anna was on a plane.

Linda, the Human Resources Manager based in the Dubai office, was Anna's line manager and had come to Doha to induct and train Anna in the company's recruitment process. Linda was British and had five years of experience recruiting in the region. She seemed nice and quite relaxed about things, though obviously relieved to have Anna on-board. There was already a backlog of vacancies to fill and Linda was flying back to Dubai in two days, so she did not waste any time showing Anna how to review curriculum vitaes (CVs) and conduct interviews.

"This is pretty exciting, and we're covering a lot of information. Is this process recorded anywhere, or is theresome type of reference I can use afteryou leave?"asked Anna.

"Not really,"Linda replied,"it'sa fairly straightforward process. And you can always call or email to me ifyou have any questions." Anna was surprised that there was no formal recruitment process documentedanywhere, just oral learning. This was not what she had expected coming from Simon's New York office. But before she could ask any further questions, the receptionist responsible for serving teas and coffees stepped into the room.

"Coffee, ma'am?"

"Ohyes, please. Would you like tea or coffee,Anna?"Linda smiled.

"Um, coffee please," Anna replied absentmindedly, thinking to herself she was at the bottom of a very steep learning curve.

A Different World?

Shortly thereafter Anna was introduced to Mohammed, a Lebanese native and the General Manager (GM) for the Qatar office. Anna would be reporting dually to Linda, the regional HR Manager, and Mohammed, the country Operations Manager.

Two days later Linda returned to Dubai and Anna was left to apply her recent recruitment training, and fast.

They scheduled a bi-weekly check-in call to maintain regular contact. In the meantime, there were urgent proposals to submit to clients, and Buildings Unlimited needed to demonstrate that they had the people who could manage some of the world's largest construction projects. Anna's days were filled sifting through CVs, conducting telephone interviews, putting sample CVs together for client proposal submission, plus she was managing most of the on-boarding processes after successful candidates, then new hires, arrived in Doha. The work was fast-paced and Anna was juggling her responsibilities with learning about the industry and the work environment in Qatar.

A few weeks into her role an exciting new project came up-Buildings Unlimited was asked by one of the local sheikhs to submit a proposal for AquaZoo, the world's first floating zoo cum aquarium. Anna was called into Mohammed's office for a recruitment briefing. He and Abdul, the Omani Business Development Manager, were sitting at Mohammed's desk, chatting in their native Arabic and sipping tea.

They had both been with Buildings Unlimited from its earliest days in Doha, and were always first to arrive and last to leave the office. Abdul had been kind enough to accompany Anna when she first went to view a flat to rent. He was sceptical of the situation-a single woman renting from a man could have put Anna in a sticky situation-and wanted to verify the arrangement and ensure Anna's safety. When she initially politely objected to Abdul's offer, Mohammed had insisted.

"You'repart of the Buildings Unlimited family now. Abdul will go with you, just to besafe."Anna was touched, grateful to have found such loyalty and protection this far from home.

Both men were smoking. They switched to English when Anna entered the room.

"This is a really exciting opportunity, Anna. If we win this, it will be ground breaking from a technical perspective and huge for our reputation in Doha!" Abdul was clearly excited; Mohammed smiled through the cigarette smoke.

"Thatdoes sound interesting-a zoo and aquarium on a floating island? Only in Qatar! So what positions are we looking at for theproposal?"Anna received a copy of the full proposal brief as well as a chart outlining the availability of current employees. It was always better to commit legacy staff to a potential client, though not necessarily possible especially with the top employees staffed on so many new projects.

"There is a particularly challenging one in there, Anna," Mohammed pointed out. "The Sheikh is going to putan architect at the helm of this project and he wants someone with at least 20 years of experience working on waterfronts and amusement parks, familiarity with the region, and the person needs to be LEEDcertified."

"Wow, ticking all of those boxes with one candidate will be hard. What did you say is the deadline for submission?"With only a week to go Anna politely excused herself and got to work on filling the role.

Recruitment is difficult anywhere, but its remoteness and nascence on the world stage made Qatar that much more of a challenge. It was an incredibly dynamic economy, however, that provided above market salaries and expatriate packages to poach young and adventurous talent. Anna had already met fellow twenty-somethings who were accelerating their respective careers as TV sports journalists, project managers, engineers, and researchers. It was not an easy place to get to, but Qatar would provide the dynamism and opportunity to anyone adventurous enough to move to a desert with underdeveloped institutions; a 21st century economic frontier.

After a particularly tough search and interview process, Anna found a candidate to put forward to the client; someone who, amazingly, met all of the criteria. She sent the candidate's interview briefing and CV in an email to Mohammed and Abdul. An hour later Abdul wrote back with a curt, 'This won't do - keep looking.'Surprised, Anna wrote again sending the candidate's details to Mohammed, this time asking for his feedback specifically. A few minutes later Anna was called into Mohammed's office.

"He is Egyptian, yes, this architect?" Mohammed asked. Anna confirmed that he was. "The Sheikh will sayno. He doesn't want Egyptians. It's a personal thing, really, but we can't get around it-he's quite firm onthis."

Anna was shocked.

"But he meets all the criteria. There aren't many architects like him at all, let alone available to move for thisproject."

"Anna, he won't work with Egyptians. That's it." Mohammed lit a cigarette. "Oh, and -I almost forgot to tell you-the government has put a temporary hold on Pakistani visas, so we can't recruit anyPakistanis."

"Wait,so no Egyptians and no Pakistanis? Isn't thatdiscrimination?"

"This isn't America, Anna. Things are just done differently here." Mohammed called for the Tea Lady tobring him a coffee and Anna left his office, deflated.

Anna worried that these restrictions were limiting the professional talent that Buildings Unlimited could otherwise bring to their projects. The candidates who met the institutional restrictions or client preferences were not always as high quality as others who did not fit the mandated personnel mould, as was the case with the Egyptian architect. And if the candidates put forward were not as strong, the company's project deliverables and thus its reputation may suffer.

More Issues

Internal to the organization, many colleagues were initially sceptical of Anna, a young white American woman with no Arabic language skills and no experience in the Gulf. Though none of the Qatar staff were indeed Qatari-hailing from Yemen, Lebanon, Jordan, Britain, India, Greece, and the Philippines to name a few-they all had at least ten years more experience than Anna. She took coffee and tea with the project managers, engineers, contract managers, and administrators that circulated through the head office when they were not on a project site in an effort to get to know her fellow employees.

Anna was pleased that after a few months this was starting to ease relationships with her colleagues. Some even sought her out when they visited the head office. Although her role was technically limited to recruitment, as the sole Buildings Unlimited human resources employee in Qatar she was finding that some employees were starting to open up to her about personnel-related issues.

Some of the concerns that the staff brought to Anna's attention were cause for concern and led Anna to question the quality of employee welfare at Buildings Unlimited. One of the Indian mechanical engineers was increasingly frustrated with his project manager, claiming that the man shouted at staff regularly, unless the client or GM Mohammed was present. A team on another project asked to speak with Anna about their working hours; at seventy hours a week they were unhappy with the present work/life balance and wanted Anna to bring their concerns to Mohammed's attention.

The most worrying was a complaint she received from one of the Filipina assistants on another project site, Rosa. The young lady informed Anna that one of the project managers, Ibrahim, had repeatedly come on to her when they were alone in the site office and verbally sexually harassed her, threatening to fire her should she report him.

"Howlong has this been goingon?"Anna asked in the privacy of a closed-door office.

"It happened two or three times over the past few weeks, Miss Anna." Rosa looked visibly scared. "Whydidn'tyou tell me sooner?"

"I was worried, Miss, I don't want to get in trouble or lose my job." Anna reassured Rosa that her job was safe, thanked her for her honesty, and promised to follow up with her as soon as she could. If this was a real sexual harassment complaint, surely the company would have an obligation to protect Rosa, either move her to a different project or maybe even fire the project manager in question. Buildings Unlimited prided itself on its transparency and employee empowerment program. The company's strict no-harassment policy was

widely advertised, weaved into the global new hire induction process, and all GMs were required to attend relevant training. Moreover, Simon, Linda, and Mohammed had always been supportive of her, insisting that their doors were open if she needed to discuss any issues. There would have to be an investigation, Anna thought, and she emailed Mohammed to schedule a meeting.

"I've been told about a number of staff concerns," Anna informed the GM when they met the next morning.Mohammed looked bored.

"Ohyes? Likewhat?"

"Someof the employees have spoken to me about their work/life balance, their weeklyhours..."

"Anna, let me tell you something," Mohammed interrupted. "The staff are always complaining about theirhours. Yani, this is what they do. The project hours are committed to the client when we start a project and it is the same on all projectsin Qatar."

"Ok, if there's an explanation and contractual obligation, that's one thing. But there has also been a sexual harassment complaint." Mohammed's brow furrowed and he got up to close the door. Sitting back down, he lit a cigarette and took a long sip of coffee.

"Wallah?Tellme."

"Rosa, one of the site administrators, said that she'd been approached inappropriately by Ibrahim. She wasalmost too scared to come forward about it, the way he threatenedher."There was a long silence in the room as Mohammed took a long deep inhale of his morning cigarette.

"Right.I will talk to Ibrahim. Leave it withme."

"Well,I've done someresearch,"Anna offered."It'snot exhaustive but I believe that since this is an American company, even though we're operating outside of the US, we have an obligation to address this with the same stringent standards that would be upheld were we inAmerica."

"Anna," Mohammed smiled, "I don't think we need to go that far. I mean, sexual harassment? This is apersonnel complaint and I said I would deal withit."

"But as the only HR representative in country, I think I can help. I also think this is something that should be discussed withLinda..."

"No,no, no, we do not need to bring her intothis."

"Butwhat about the'BuildingsUnlimitedfamily'?I thought we were all part of it, supporting eachother,"Anna interrupted.

"We are very close at this company, that is still true. But we cannot have something like this getting out toCorporate, and especially not to the public. If any client got word of this, that could be very bad for business. Listen, I am responsible for operations in this country, and I will speak with Ibrahim and ensure this does not happenagain."

"And what about Rosa, will she be protected? How can we ensure that she feels safe at work? We have thatresponsibility as heremployer, certainly..."

"Yes, of course. I'll move her to a different site. It will be fine. Please just leave it with me." Mohammed hadfinished his cigarette and coffee and was looking increasingly agitated.

"Alright," Anna conceded. Although she was uncomfortable with the situation, she was unsure of how to proceed. With dual reporting lines into Linda and Mohammed, she felt a sense of responsibility to report this significant issue to Linda, but did not want to betray Mohammed's trust. After all, she was only just starting

to feel like part of the team. But why should the reputation of this local office trump the safety of a company employee?

"There was one other thing, just before I go," she hesitated. "I would like to start going out on site visits, tothe project sites. I was thinking I could visit one each week, on a rotation basis. That way the staff would feel more connected to the head office andthey'dhave a chance to talk about things, if they neededto."

"'Talk about things'? You think there are problems they don't want to discuss with me? Listen, Anna,"Mohammed's tone changed and he smiled,"Iknow about their problems, their complaints. I know. I don't want you to go on site visits because that is not part of your role. You need to focus on recruitment. This would only detract from your office work, which is very important for ourbusiness."

Anna slowly walked back to her desk. The reality, she knew, was that employees in Qatar have little voice due to the legalities of employment visas. To move from one employer to another required a letter of permission from one's former employer, as mandated by the Qatari government. But if that company was so inclined, they could refuse to grant a visa transfer letter. It was that simple, and thus that easy to disregard employee complaints.

It was clear to Anna that Mohammed did not want to open a forum for such complaints, and she questioned whether employee welfare was really a priority for Buildings Unlimited in Qatar. The more Anna learned about the company's organizational culture and the nation's institutional idiosyncrasies, the more boasts of"success" and "openness" seemed a smokescreen for personal restrictions and a sole focus on increasingrevenue. And yet Mohammed and Abdul had shown her nothing but support from the start, welcoming her into the Buildings Unlimited family, and doing what they could to set her up forsuccess...

Just then her phone buzzed. It was Linda, ringing for their bi-weekly call.

"HeyAnna, it's Linda checking in. Why don't you start this week's update-how are things in the Dohaoffice?"

Anna wondered if she should tell Linda about the sexual harassment case. She also wondered how she might respond to Mohammed's concerns about her project site visits. These concerns were probably not even specific to Qatar, and could have arisen in any organization anywhere, but the refusal to work with certain nationalities was a serious concern not only in ethical terms but also for the competitiveness of the organization in the long run. She felt she needed some quick advice on all these troubling issues.

References

1. "Population Structure." Qatar Statistics Authority. Aug. 2014. Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics. 14 Sept 2014 http://www.qsa.gov.qa/eng/populationstructure.htm. 2. Al Nabit, Saleh. Qatar Population Status 2012. Doha: Permanent Population Committee, Oct. 2012. PDF. 3. "GDP Per Capita." The World Bank, 2014. Web. 14 Sept. 2014. http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/ NY .GDP .PCAP .CD/countries/1W?display=defaul http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781473974494