Managers in Saudi Arabia come with communication problems

By Mohammed Al-Kinani

JEDDAH – Managers in Saudi Arabia need to think again about communicating the objectives of their companies or organizations to their employees, a new study found.The findings were published in Middle East Corporate Reputation Watch 2008 – Getting the Message Across, a survey of more than 500 managers and employees in the Gulf Council Countries (GCC) conducted by leading communications consultancy Hill & Knowlton, using YouGov Siraj. The study found that while 79 percent of managers in the Kingdom believe they make a point of explaining their organization’s strategic objectives to staff, only 47 percent of employees in Saudi Arabia feel that these objectives are properly explained to them. Only 45 percent of employees believe that their direct manager helps them to understand how their job connects to their company’s business objectives.More than a third (37 percent) of employees surveyed in the Kingdom do not feel that they receive the information they need to do their job well while 36 percent do not feel valued for the contribution they make. While 98 percent of employees would like to develop their skills and advance professionally in their job, only 42 percent feel that the way to do this was not properly explained to them.“The Saudi Arabia findings are broadly consistent with the results in other GCC States,” Fran McElwaine, Director of Change and Organizational Communications at Hill and Knowlton Middle East said. She added that although managers in Saudi Arabia realize how important it is to communicate with their employees, many of them fail to convey their message.“This is a vitally important issue for corporate managers in this region. Companies are on the spot to lift productivity and it is becoming harder to attract and keep top talent. The ability to engage employees and align them with a company’s strategic objectives is a key to better motivation, productivity and staff retention,” McElwaine said.International research suggests that highly engaged employees try 57 percent harder, perform 20 percent better and are 87 percent less likely to leave than the less engaged employees identified in the Hill and Knowlton study.According to the study, many employees in Saudi Arabia also believe that their managers are simply not listening to them. Almost all managers (91 percent) agree with using staff feedback when making decisions. However, only 45 percent of employees believe that their managers usually act on employee feedback. A possible reason for the gap between managers and employees may be that many managers do not feel empowered to communicate, or even make, decisions. “Sixty-one percent of Saudi Arabia managers believe that making decisions increases the chances of being blamed if something goes wrong. One-fifth (20 percent) admits to following decisions made by others without fully thinking through the consequences,” the study found out.It also detected that forty-eight percent of managers believe that keeping a low profile at work will help ensure their position is safe. The study concluded that the lack of effective communication by managers has led many employees to look elsewhere for the information they need. “Only 53 percent of Saudi Arabia employees think their managers are very useful sources of important information, while 46 percent mainly rely on external media and friends to collect information about their job,” the study disclosed.On the other hand, managers themselves admit that the responsibility for communicating with employees is often pushed off to specialized departments such as Marketing (25 percent), Human Resources (25 percent) or Internal Communications (38 percent). The study also found out that ten percent of Saudi Arabia managers say they don’t know who is responsible for internal communications in their company. Twenty-seven percent of managers believe it is not necessary for staff members to understand how their job connects to their company’s business objectives. Only 69 percent of managers in the Kingdom agree that it is a priority to keep staff members informed, compared with 86 percent of all managers across the GCC.“The study findings indicate that organizations in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf in general can do a better job of structuring their internal communications effectively,” Alec Peck, General Manager, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, Hill and Knowlton Middle East, said. He added that there is a real potential for companies across the region to improve morale and productivity by creating structures and systems for employee communication.“There is also an opportunity to empower managers with the skills to flow information down through their establishments. To achieve this, managers need practical advice and the right tools so that they can communicate with employees in a way that is meaningful, relevant and accessible,” he added. The survey was conducted by YouGov Siraj for Hill & Knowlton. A total of 553 interviews were conducted during late 2007 in KSA, Kuwait, UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Oman. The survey respondents comprised 307 managers and 246 employees. 25 percent of all respondents worked in government organisations, 24 percent in foreign owned multi-nationals, 27 percent in locally owned multinationals and 21 percent worked in local businesses. 55 percent of respondents had lived in the Gulf all their lives.