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.

1. Introduction

The increasing interest in studying organisational culture has resulted in a deeper understanding of the subject and its overall growth, which can financially benefit the stakeholders [1,2]. Organisational culture is a collection of values and perceptions among an organisation’s employees or members. A clear understanding of organisational culture is crucial for implementing methods that could benefit an organisation [3]. The interest of many companies in developing, sharing, identifying, and using knowledge more systematically helps to enhance and increase the benefit of the organisation as a whole [4]. Similarly, culture may either bolster profitability or frustrate efficiency [5]. Hofstede differentiates between national and organisational culture, stating that national culture is built on values people unconsciously adopt before the age of ten and serves as the foundation for personality development. In contrast, organisational culture is defined as “superficial practices” that are consciously performed on the job [6]. While many researchers have examined organisational and national culture [7,8,9], they focus on multinationals doing business outside their home countries. There is no comprehensive research on how changes in one’s own national culture can lead to changes in organisational culture.

In an attempt to increase productivity, Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 was developed between 2016 and 2020 and involved setting up crucial legislative reforms and developing programs that would have a tangible effect on its citizens. Vision 2030 is seen as an unprecedented social and economic reform representing ‘what is effectively a cultural revolution’ and is based on three themes: a vibrant society; a thriving economy; and a strong foundation for economic prosperity [10] to transform Saudi Arabia from a predominantly state-driven economy to a market-driven economy [11]. As part of this strategic plan, the Saudi Arabian government has privatised its infrastructure and companies to increase employment by developing human capital consistent with the labour market’s needs and ensuring equal access to job opportunities [10].

One of Saudi Arabia’s largest government-owned companies, the New Water Company (NWC), was established in 2008 to serve the community and protect the environment with key responsibilities for providing services for groundwater production, purification, treatment and distribution; collecting and treating wastewater and related work, including construction, management and operations; and developing, operating, and maintaining sewage treatment plants. The company’s headquarters is in Riyadh, and its 9000 employees operate from 10 customer service offices and 52 water distribution stations in the cities of Jeddah, Makkah, and Taif [12]. As the largest government-owned company, it should provide an excellent case analysis of how the government implements its Vision 2030 initiatives.

This research aims to employ the most used framework for studying culture [6], Hofstede’s dimensions of culture, to determine if Vision 2030’s reforms have led to changes in the National Water Company’s organisational culture which is essential to organisational success [7], using five of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions: (1) power distance; (2) uncertainty avoidance; (3) individualism vs collectivism; (4) masculinity vs femininity; and (5) long-term orientation. Therefore, we address the gap in the literature by examining national policies aimed at changing national culture and, in turn, organizational culture. The study answered the research question: “Does explicit attempts to change the national culture in KSA result in changes to the organisational culture at the NWC”.

This paper is divided into five sections. The first reviews the literature on organisational and national culture, focusing on Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. The second discusses the research methodology and presents descriptive statistical analysis results. The third discusses the results in light of the literature, while the last section draws conclusions and highlights this research’s implications and limitations.

2. Literature Review

In his critically acclaimed book, Culture’s Consequence, Geert Hofstede conducted a multinational study of various cultural dimensions of over 49 countries and defined culture as “the collective programming of the human mind that distinguishes the members of one human group from those of another. Culture, in this sense, is a system of collectively held values” [13]. He defined culture as “value” in his study and further elaborated, saying it is “a broad tendency to prefer certain states of affairs over others” and has “attributes of individuals as well as those of collectivists” [13].

Hofstede’s work is the most comprehensive study of cultural differences with putative relevance. His model has significantly influenced the social sciences and cross-culture studies and is the most critical and valuable theory about culture [14,15]. His dimensions that examine power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism, masculinity, and long-term orientation are the most widely accepted [6].

While Hofstede provides an in-depth insight into the dynamics of culture, others have sought to develop and expand on his definitions. Therefore, the definition of organisational culture has been numerous and varied. Some researchers define organisational culture as the distinctive beliefs, norms, principles, and methods that give an organisation its unique character [16]. Others see organisational culture as a method by which general assumptions are invented, developed, or discovered by an assigned group or team [17]. However, most firms adopted the term ‘organisational culture’ to describe the connectivity between all employees to achieve organisational goals through combined efforts [18]. These assumptions attempt to map the issues of internal integration and external adaptation considered valid for implementation. Thus, they need to be communicated to other people to explore, perceive, and analyse [19].

Organisational culture examines key elements and defines why and how decisions are made and implemented. Culture can be characterised as either an empowering influence or an impediment when initiating action. Researchers have proposed various factors that determine organisational culture, including employee personalities. However, corporate culture is not characterised by the sum of all the personalities. An organisation’s history is also a critical factor [20]. When an organisation’s employees unite to achieve an assigned task or goal, an unfolding of group processes takes place that integrates the group and establishes effective relations within the organisation.

Nevertheless, the definition that is most widely used was written by Schein [2], who defined organisational culture as:

A pattern of shared basic assumptions that the group learned as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems. It is evident that commonality in the definitions exists [21]. ‘Sharing’ is the most pertinent part of the definitions, irrespective of what is being shared. Thus, organisational culture could be defined as shared values, assumptions, ideas, traditions, and ways of thinking that distinguish different groups of people. It is also the key element that makes each group of people or society unique.

National culture and organisation culture

Most of the research on national and organisational culture is conducted among multinational companies to understand better how the national culture impacts those organisations doing business overseas. For example, Gerhart [9] examined how national culture constrains organisational culture in multinationals. He concluded that resource base views could be significant in differentiating culture to sustain competitive advantage. However, contextual views are determined by the environment and national culture. In another study, Van Muijen and Koopman [22] used a FOCUS instrument to examine and compare 10 European countries in terms of their power distance and uncertainty avoidance to determine if national culture influences organisational culture and concludes that while national preference influences organisational values, the organisation’s founders and industry leaders also played a role. Finally, Kattman [23] examined whether national or organisational culture had an impact on the continuous improvement processes of global suppliers in China, Estonia, India, Japan, Mexico, Poland, South Korea, Taiwan, the UK, and the US. The action research found that while Canada was the most receptive to continuous improvement and China was the least, national culture was not influential. Instead, organisational culture formed by strong leaders and clear visions was attributed to organisational success.

While research results on the intersection of national culture and organisation culture outside of multinationals are scarce, some do exist. In a brief discussion of Romania’s national culture, Iorgunlesu and Marcu [24] concluded that organisations use and adapt language, symbols, behaviours and myths from their national culture to create strong organisational cultures. Anash [25] investigated the influence of national culture on organisational culture by surveying 269 managers in Ghana and found that Ghana’s uncertainty avoidance and high power distance had a significant positive influence. In contrast, collective and masculine cultures did not influence organisational culture.

Nikčević [26] examined the influence of national culture on organisational behaviour in terms of motivation, organisational change, and communication using Hofstede’s dimensions of national culture. The author noted that national culture could significantly influence the process of change management in organisations but noted that an individualist society would have a positive attitude towards change while collective societies would have a passive attitude towards change.

Additionally, Klein, Waxin, and Randel [27] assessed the impact of Arab national culture on organisational culture in the United Arab Emirates by examining 17 small firms to determine if the “Anglo ideal” held any strategic importance in the Gulf. They found that national culture influenced organisational culture, which could limit managers’ effectiveness in shaping behaviours within their organisations as their constructivist cultures conflict with their defensive norms. Klein et al.’s conclusions could lead one to believe that without a direct effort to change the national culture, Araba organisations would be unable to develop a competitive corporate culture needed to compete globally.

Finally, based on KSA’s national culture and notions of wasta, streamlining any organisational process is challenging for Saudi employees who lack decision-making authority [28]. The same can be said of the NWC, where Al-Anazi’s [29] study of the NWC concluded that performance appraisals were highly dependent on the manager’s ethnicity. Moreover, promotion was based on in-group members regardless of skills or previous performance appraisals. The study also revealed that management does not usually involve employees in the decision-making process, leading to a lack of innovation and productivity.

Saudi National Culture, Vision 2030, and Hofstede

According to the Doing Business (2020) report, Saudi Arabia ranked 62nd for ease of doing business out of the 190 economies analysed [30]. KSA has made 13 positive reforms for business since 2008 concerning construction permits, acquiring credit, trading across borders, closing businesses, starting businesses, registering property, and protecting investors. However, employment indexes for Saudi nationals have changed very little over the past ten years. Its culture and views on employment can explain this lack of change in values instilled in Saudi nationals since birth.

Therefore, Saudi upbringing encourages the pursuit of a financially rewarding position rather than professional excellence. Many Saudi citizens are raised in luxury and have observed their parents receiving high salaries for respectable positions for little effort. Hence, in Saudi culture, non-management roles are considered demeaning and demotivating [31]. For example, professionals who are technically trained as engineers work in managerial positions. However, Saudi organisations are now being flooded with foreign nationals resulting in a shortage of lucrative positions to accommodate Saudi job seekers [32].

To secure management positions, nepotism is used. Employment opportunities are often reserved for family members and friends or through personal connections instead of merit. This is known as “wasta” [32,33]. Wasta is a form of networking that facilitates decision-making in Arab life in general and KSA in particular [32,34,35,36]. In Saudi Arabia, nepotism or wasta plays a crucial role in recruitment and selection, law enforcement, political decision-making, awarding contracts, and related processes [36].

Once a Saudi Arabian secures a management position, he is expected to make most decisions and act as the leading figure in the organisation. Since the decision-making onus is on the managers, they often find it difficult to engage employees in the decision-making process [37], creating a vertical organisational structure where decision-making is centralised in a few individuals’ hands [32,36]. Central decision-making can be highly detrimental as the managers’ merit is questionable, given the culture of wasta. As such, the daunting task of improving the organisation’s performance is challenged by additional cultural factors and work practices where working in groups is highly valued, and individual contribution is seldom recognised [32].

Furthermore, Saudi managers do not give honest and accurate feedback to subordinates because it might be misconstrued as unfriendly or demeaning [38]. The social constructs see constructive criticism as a blow to the individual’s ego. Moreover, local employees dislike comparison with their foreign counterparts and find it confronting. As a result, employee feedback is delivered via a third party to avoid miscommunication [32].

As previously noted, between 2016 and 2020, KSA embarked upon unprecedented social and economic reforms [10] to transform the Saudi Arabian economy from a state-driven one to a market-driven one [11] by developing human capital consistent with the labour market’s needs and ensuring equal access to job opportunities [10]. Vision 2030 has included educational, labour, and equity reforms that are set to transform its national values.

Using the nexus between Saudi Arabia’s national culture and Vision 2030 tenants, Hofstede’s cultural dimensions can be used as a framework to determine if the NWC organisational culture is changing to align with the government’s effort to change its national culture via Vision 2030. Hofstede’s work is the most comprehensive study of cultural differences with putative relevance. His model has significantly influenced the social sciences and cross-culture studies and is the most critical and valuable theory about culture [14,15]. His dimensions are the most widely accepted [6] because they provide an in-depth insight into the dynamics of culture. Therefore, in developing the hypotheses for this study, Hofstede’s dimensions were employed because they hold significant face validity [6,39] and are the most deep-seated measure of culture [6,40].

Power distance refers to the extent to which the less powerful members of a society accept and expect the unequal distribution of power [3,13,32]. Having a low power distance means the individuals question authority and attempt to distribute power. High power distance means that there is a clear hierarchy that is established and executed in society.

KSA scored very high with 95 on Hofstede’s power distance scale [41], implying a high inequality of power and affluence. Citizens accept a hierarchical order, and the individuals who are in top positions are deserving and should not be questioned. KSA’s citizens accept inequality, rigid or authoritative structure dominates, vertical hierarchies in organisations, centralised decision-making, authority, large gaps in compensation, respect, fear of the boss, and individuals possessing power and position through privilege [41,42]. There is an emotional need for rules, and employees do not enjoy working independently [43]. Employees prefer clear employment laws and highly detailed contracts [44,45]. Additionally, punctuality and busy work are rewarded instead of innovation.

Vision 2030 aims to change this narrative by reducing power distance through fostering Islamic values that promote moderation and tolerance, excellence and discipline, equity and transparency, and determination and perseverance. By improving the welfare system’s efficiency and effectiveness, developing human capital, and ensuring equal access to job opportunities, KSA aims to reduce power distance by aligning educational outputs, youth readiness, and women’s participation to meet labour market needs [10].

Uncertainty avoidance is ‘the extent to which individuals feel threatened by uncertain and ambiguous situations’ [3,43,44]. To limit the ambiguity, rules, codes of conduct, and laws are used [45]. Low uncertainty avoidance countries are more accepting of differing views and impose fewer regulatory measures. In countries where uncertainty avoidance exists, formal and informal rules will be established to control employees’ rights and responsibilities [46]. Thus, people from high uncertainty avoidance countries are motivated by leadership styles that promote planning, career stability, and formal rules [45].

KSA ranked 80th and has a low tolerance level for uncertainty and encourages strict formal rules, policies, laws, and regulations to avoid ambiguity and uncertainty [11]. Control mechanisms are used to prevent and eliminate ambiguity, demonstrating KSA’s unwilling to accept changes and is highly risk-averse [11]. The organisation’s hierarchy reflects inherent inequalities; centralisation is popular; subordinates expect to be told what to do, and the ideal boss is a benevolent autocrat.

However, through Vision 2030, strict rules, policies, laws, and regulations have been eased and relaxed to diversify the economy and enhance government effectiveness [10] to increase flexibility so decisions can reflect the needs of a rapidly ever-evolving economic environment.

Individualism vs. collectivism indicates people’s preference to integrate within groups [3,46,47]. In individualistic cultures, individuals have loose ties to society and organisations and tend to look after themselves and their families. A collectivistic approach, by comparison, sees people engaged and integrated into influential groups from birth [33,48].

Ranked 25th, KSA is a collectivist society [41] that reflects its Islamic and Arab culture with tightly integrated robust family bonds. Relationships take precedence over business dealings [49], and loyalty is paramount, overriding most other societal rules and regulations. Society fosters strong relationships where everyone takes responsibility for group members. In collectivist cultures, offences lead to shame and loss of face; employer/employee relationships are perceived in moral terms; hiring and promotion decisions take account of the employee’s in-group, and management is the management of groups. In organisations, employer–employee relationships are perceived in moral terms, similar to family relationships. Recruitment and promotions of employees are based on the desire to provide for family and friends instead of merit [41,42]. The idea of collectivism does not accept individual performance through the pay-for-performance systems but only recognises group work [50,51,52].

KSA’s Vision 2030 attempts to mitigate the advantages and disadvantages of its collectivist nature so the economy can thrive. It aims to strengthen the national identity through the Arabic language and cultural heritage while promoting excellence, discipline, equity, and transparency in the workplace, business transactions, and society. Also, by increasing employment through equal access to job opportunities and improving youth readiness, Vision 2030 should limit its collectivist notions. Furthermore, creating an empowering environment to enable children to develop a positive attitude and resilience and to reward individual effort [10] may also reduce KSA’s collectivist nature.

Masculinity vs femininity recognises the gap between male and female values [3,53,54]. The masculinity index measures society’s preference for power, assertiveness, and competitiveness [50]. Conversely, femininity measures caring and modest behaviour by placing more value on interpersonal relationships and being concerned with the weak [55].

KSA has a more feministic culture and is ranked 60th [41], where there is a concern for the quality of life and distribution of sensitive roles between genders [55]. Feministic cultures reflect how organisations accentuate interpersonal sensitivity and concern for relationships. KSA employees value good relationships with supervisors, cooperation, compassion, employment security, and small-scale enterprises [41,42]. Managers are expected to be decisive and assertive while emphasising equity, competition, and performance, and conflicts are resolved with minimal confrontation.

Vision 2030 aims to increase some aspects of KSA’s feministic nature by improving healthcare services, promoting a healthy lifestyle, ensuring environmental sustainability, promoting cultural activities and entertainment, decreasing elements associated with unequal access to job opportunities, and enabling job creation through SMEs and micro-enterprises [10].

Long-term vs. short-term orientation recognises the connection between past, current, and future actions or challenges. Long-term orientation views adaptation and circumstantial, pragmatic problem-solving as a necessity, while short-term orientation honours and values traditions [56].

Below the world average of 45, KSA ranked 36 on the long-term orientation scale [41]. Therefore, it respects traditions but does not save for the future; instead, it focuses on quick results. The score also shows that KSA does not encourage long-term traditional commitments, increasing flexibility and responding swiftly to new opportunities [41,42]. Employees lack commitment to the workplace and long tenure and prefer time-honoured traditions and norms while viewing societal change with suspicion.

The primary purpose of the Vision 2030 initiatives is to increase long-term orientation through long-term goals and expectations that reflect the country’s strengths and capabilities. The Saudi government hopes to achieve this by moving away from traditional natural resources and becoming a global investment powerhouse connecting the three continents of Asia, Europe, and Africa [10].

The extant literature examines how national culture influences organisational culture, but no research examines how changes to national culture impact organisational culture. Therefore, this research aims to use Hofstede’s five cultural dimensions to determine if the new national tenants espoused in Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 have impacted the organisational culture of the NWC.

3. Materials and Methods

This exploratory study used descriptive statistics to investigate the organisational culture of the NWC using Hofstede’s cultural dimensions in light of the government’s efforts to change the national culture through Vision 2030. Descriptive statistics were used to measure the central tendency, variability, and frequency of the sample population response to the randomly distributed survey. The survey was developed based on the literature review and contained two sections. The first section included socio-demographic characteristics such as age, gender, educational level completed, and job title. The second used a Likert scale, a popular tool for assessing attitudes, awareness, perspectives, beliefs, and changes in behaviour [57]. It contained a 5-point scale where 1 was Strongly Disagrees, and 5 was Strongly Agree to obtain the participants’ degree of approval of the research variables power distance, uncertainty avoidance, collectivism, masculinity, and short-term orientation. There were 24 items across the five variables: six each for power distance and uncertainty avoidance; five each for collectivism and masculinity; and two for short-term avoidance.

Using a sample size calculator, it was determined that 250 viable surveys were needed for this study. Therefore, 500 hundred employees were emailed to managers, supervisors, and officers employed at the Riyadh, Jeddah, and Makkah branches of the NWC. Three hundred thirty-four surveys were returned, but 72 were discarded because they were incomplete, so a total of 262 surveys were analysed. SPSS was used to calculate the weighted arithmetic mean, arithmetic average, and standard deviation of the responses. Cronbach’s alpha was also used to measure the data’s internal consistency to determine whether the survey questions consistently measured the same characteristics. The following descriptive statistical methods:

The descriptive data analysis was conducted using the SPSS (Version 23.00) software to determine if the data were ready to continue to the multivariate data analysis step. This analysis examined the participants’ profiles and data screening by studying normality, means, standard deviations, and standard error of the mean implemented to examine the data’s central tendency and dispersion. Means and standard deviations for the independent variables were calculated as follows:

• From 1 to less than 1.8 (Strongly Disagree)
• From 1.8 to less than 2.6 (Disagree)
• From 2.6 to less than 3.4 (Don’t Know)
• From 3.4 to less than 4.2 (Agree)
• From 4.2 to less than 5 (Strongly Agree)

Reliability is the degree to which test measures are free from error and can yield consistent results over time and across situations. Reliability can be assessed on two dimensions: repeatability and internal consistency. Reliability scores are expressed numerically as a coefficient. For example, a coefficient score will be 1.00 if a test is 100% reliable. A high coefficient of at least 0.70 is required to indicate an acceptable degree of reliability. However, a minimum alpha of 0.60 suffices for newly developed research. In this case, the reliability of the scales was established by utilising Cronbach’s alpha which varied from 0.626 to 0.843, which is considered acceptable for this type of research (see

Table 1. Cronbach’s Alpha Test.

Variable	No. of Items	Cronbach’s Alpha Test
Power Distance	6	0.725
Uncertainty Avoidance	6	0.626
Individualism and Collectivism	5	0.843
Feminism and Masculinity	5	0.779
Long-term Orientation	2	0.782
Total	24	0.782

).

Table 2. Characteristics of the sample according to demographic variables.

		Frequency	Percent
Age	Under 20	6	2.3
	20–24	30	11.5
	25–29	61	23.5
	30–34	72	27.7
	35–39	41	15.8
	40–49	32	12.3
	50–59	13	5.0
	Over 60	5	1.9
Gender	Male	251	96.5
	Female	8	3.1
Educational Level Completed	Below secondary	21	8.1
	High Schools	46	17.7
	Diploma	24	9.2
	University Degree	100	38.5
	Postgraduate	69	26.5
Job Title	Officer	180	68.7
	Supervisor	50	19.1
	Managers	32	12.2

provides descriptive statistics of the survey respondents’ demographics, where a significant percentage (27.7%) of the NWC sample are aged 30–34 years. Age indicates organisational performance where older workers aged 50 and over are less productive [58,59,60]. The expectation is that the NWC would be a high-performing organisation as only 6.9% of the sample population occupies the less productive age group [58,61,62].

Concerning gender, 251 (96.5%) of the study sample were male. This indicates that the data for this study are skewed toward a male-dominated response. Therefore, the data must be separated to analyse and compare responses to determine any significant differences between the men and women. The low participation rate of females was due to the low number of women employed at the time of the study. Thirty-three women were employed at the NWC, and only eight agreed to participate in the study. The low number of women in the Saudi Arabian labour market is a direct result of historical, cultural values [63], and the patriarchal interpretations of Islam [64].

Additionally, educational levels attained play a crucial role in organisational productivity. At the NWC, 64% of the sample population hold a university degree or higher, while only 8.1% have below secondary educational level. Concerning job titles, the majority of the respondents were officers (180, 68.7%), followed by supervisors (50, 19.1%), and the least were managers (32, 12.2%).

Gender can impact organisational performance in three ways: (1) prescription of gender roles affects expectations of differences in behaviour; (2) gender orientation may result in self-identifying gender roles that are socially prescribed; and (3) occupational segregations and gender stereotypes lead to gender-typed behavioural anticipations for gender-typed occupations [65,66,67,68]. However, the number of females is significantly lower than males in the NWC, indicating that more males were selected due to cultural norms, gender bias, legal restrictions, tribalism, or ethnicity [57,69,70].

Additionally, educational levels attained play a crucial role in organisational productivity. At the NWC, 64% of the sample population hold a university degree or higher. Evidence has shown that more educated employees possess a higher level of task commitment [71] but may have a negative relationship with organisational commitment [72,73,74,75]. This implies that highly educated employees have higher expectations that the organisation cannot meet or satisfy [76]. Additionally, organisational commitment decreases if the rewards do not adequately reflect the employees’ skills, knowledge, and education [75].

Furthermore, 180 (68.7%) respondents were officers, 50 (19.1%) were supervisors, and 32 (12.2%) were managers, whose opinions on organisational culture can be divided into two parts. First, the managers are the decision-makers whose opinions could be biased due to their hierarchical privilege and the benefits received from the existing organisational culture [77,78]. Second, officers and supervisors opinions could be unbiased based on the unfavourable and ineffective organisational culture [79].

Table 3. Respondents to the dependent variables.

Variables	All Respondents		Female Respondents
	Mean	Level	Mean	Level
Power Distance	3.57	Agree	1.63	Strongly Disagree
Uncertainty Avoidance	3.73	Agree	1.53	Strongly Disagree
Collectivism	3.57	Agree	1.74	Strongly Disagree
Masculinity	3.61	Agree	1.47	Strongly Disagree
Short-Term Orientation	3.61	Agree	2.21	Disagree

shows the respondents’ degree of approval of the research variables, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, collectivism, masculinity, and short-term orientation. Findings revealed that all respondents agreed with all five factors with values of 3.57, 3.73, 3.57, 3.61 and 3.61, respectively. However, the female respondents strongly disagreed with power distance (1.63), uncertainty avoidance (1.53), collectivism (1.74) and masculinity (1.47), while they showed disagreement with short-term orientation (2.21).

In contrast, the female respondents strongly disagree with most statements, rating power distance 1.63 out of 5. This indicates the dissatisfaction and significant impact of power distance on the female workers’ behaviour and decision-making in the NWC. They admit that power is distributed unequally to their predominantly male superiors.

For uncertainty avoidance, the statement ‘It is very important to write out the job requirement in detail so the employees know what they should do’, ranked first with an average of 4.29. This indicates a strong agreement that ambiguity needs to be avoided. The statement ‘You sometimes feel nervous, tense, or in danger of losing your job at the NWC’ ranked last with an average of 3.36. Most respondents feared losing their job at the NWC, which they may have obtained through favouritism and connections rather than merit.

Again, the female respondents had an opposing view and strongly disagreed with uncertainty avoidance statements, rating it 1.53 out of 5 on average. The female workers disagree with avoiding uncertainty in the workplace and do not fear losing their jobs at the NWC. This may be attributed to traditional cultural and religious values where women are not expected to work. Individualism vs collectivism compares the importance of individual goals versus group goals. The statement ‘An individual should not pursue his or her own goals without considering the group’s welfare’ ranked first with an average of 4.07. This is located in the second category of the Likert scale and means the study samples agree that individuals should not pursue their own goals without considering the group’s welfare. Additionally, the statement ‘the NWC encourages employees to work individually’ ranked last with an average of 3.19, signifying that the respondents agreed that the NWC gives room and recognised individual impact on job performance.

The female respondents had an opposing view and strongly disagreed with the statements on collectivism, rating it 1.74 out of 5. This indicates that the female respondents are isolated in the workplace and, as a result, pursue their individual goals without considering the group’s welfare because the NWC does not recognize individual job performance.

Masculinity refers to whether the company embraces a gender balance in its culture and functions, and femininity measures caring and modest behaviour by placing more value on interpersonal relationships and being concerned with the weak. While most employees were happy with the level of interpersonal relationships and not standing out in the crowd, the statement, ‘There are some jobs which a man can always do better than a woman’, ranked first with an average of 3.83, which means the respondents agreed that there are some jobs that a man can always perform better than a woman. The statement, ‘Women at the NWC, do not value promotion in their work as much as men do,’ ranked last with an average of 3.35. This indicates that most male respondents agreed that women at the NWC do not value promotion in their work as men do.

Moreover, the female respondents strongly disagreed with the statements and rated this dimension only 1.47. This indicates that the female respondents do not believe and firmly rebuff the statement ‘There are some jobs which a man can always do better than a woman’ and strongly denied that ‘Women at the NWC do not value promotion in their work as much as men do,’ revealing a gender bias and imbalance at the NWC.

Long-term orientation refers to whether the employees face any challenges that could affect their intention to work for the company. The statement ‘I have prospects for promotion at the NWC’s, ranked first with an average of 3.63, suggests that most of the respondents have prospects for promotion at the NWC. Finally, the statement ‘I plan to stay at the NWC for at least five years,’ ranked last with an average of 3.55, located in the third category of the Likert Scale, which means most of the respondents are willing to work longer in the NWC, which could be traced to job satisfaction and endurance in meeting obligations.

In opposition, on average, the female respondents disagree with the statements, with an average of 2.21. This implies that the female respondents do not have any prospects for promotion at the NWC and do not plan to stay at the NWC for more than five years, indicating job dissatisfaction that could be traced back to gender bias and unequal distribution of power.

4. Discussion

The current literature on national and organisational culture revealed the need to explore how implicit attempts to change national culture impact organisational culture. Therefore, this study used Hofstede’s five cultural dimensions to explore the NWC’s organisational culture by examining the participants’ level of agreement on each dimension. The research findings show that the organisational culture of the National Water Company has not changed to align with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s attempts to change national culture through its Vision 2030 initiatives.

The participants in this study were predominantly male (96.5%) and consisted of 32 (12.2%) managers, 50 (19.1%) supervisors, and 180 (68.7%) officers. Their opinions on organisational culture can be divided into three parts. First, the decision-making managers’ opinions could be biased due to their hierarchical privilege and the benefits received from the existing organisational culture [77,78]. Second, officers and supervisors opinions could be unbiased based on the unfavourable and ineffective organisational culture [79]. Third, women accounted for only 3.1% of the respondent population, indicating that males were selected due to cultural norms, gender bias, perceived legal restrictions, tribalism, or ethnicity [57,58,59,60,61,62,63,64,65,66,67,68,69].

Power distance measures the degree to which power is distributed within the organisation. The results revealed that there is a significant power distance in the NWC. Most respondents agreed that managers should define functional areas and reporting lines and provide clear job descriptions to clarify their roles. Likewise, most male employees wanted managers to provide clear directions so they could better understand the nature of the work and increase productivity. However, there was a sharp dichotomy between male and female respondents. While most male respondents agreed with and wanted to maintain a significant power distance, females strongly disagreed with the status quo and wanted to reduce the power distance by being part of the decision-making process.

According to Watson [80], a high degree of inequality will increase the power distance, thus affecting the organisation’s structure and culture. Large power distances reduce employee participation, reduce organisational communication, and lead to poor decision-making [81]. Firms with a culture characterised by low power distance allow socialisation between managers and employees, thus motivating them to share the firm’s problems and possible solutions and promote teamwork to increase productivity [82,83].

Uncertainty avoidance measures the degree to which uncertainty is tolerated in an organisation [48]. Most participants feared losing their jobs obtained through wasta rather than merit. Findings also revealed that the NWC managers do not trust employees to develop or use new methods to serve their customers, suggesting a preference for avoiding high uncertainty among employees. Similarly, male employees want to follow orders rather than take the initiative or risks to perform duties differently. While most male respondents wanted to avoid uncertainty, female respondents wanted to take risks and attempt things differently without fear of being terminated. However, results showed that all employees agreed by a small margin that the NWC provided some job security.

Uncertainty avoidance may result in varying behaviours, as companies with a low uncertainty avoidance index serve their clients better than those with a high avoidance index [84]. Jobs with high security motivate employees to work hard and develop strategies to satisfy customers that may lower the avoidance index. To reduce uncertainty avoidance, the NWC needs to provide job security to improve employee behaviour and organisational citizenship and prevent turnover and absenteeism [85]. More certainty can be achieved by hiring individuals based on merit and increasing the autonomy of individuals to carry out their duties. By moving away from a Theory X (low trust) to Theory Y (high trust) managerial style, both individual and organisational performance will increase [85].

Collectivism stresses the importance of the community, while individualism focuses on individual rights. The current study revealed that most male participants agreed with group objectives rather than individual activities. As managers prefer teamwork over individual efforts, they assign collective tasks, symbolising excellent organisational culture [86] but do not encourage team autonomy, which decreases organisational performance. Again, female participants took an opposing view and disagreed with the collective statements because they were excluded from team-based tasks. Instead, they wanted to participate in individual activities for which they could be recognised.

Femininity emphasises caring for others and the quality of life rather than standing out and being the best (masculinity). However, survey results uncover a significant disparity between men and women at the NWC. While managers and male employees were happy with their positions, women were more likely to face challenges in attaining senior management than men.

According to Jackson [87], women in most organisations face the glass ceiling and cannot advance to top management positions. When managers believe that women cannot perform some roles, they are likely to discriminate against them during employment or regard women as incompetent for that role [3,48,88]. Additionally, studies showed that gender could impact organizational performance in three ways: (1) prescription of gender roles affects expectations of differences in behaviour; (2) gender orientation may result in self-identifying gender roles that are socially prescribed; and (3) occupational segregations and gender stereotype lead to gender-typed behavioural anticipations for gender-typed occupations [48,49,50,51,52,53,54,55,56,57,58,59,60,61,62,63,64,65,66,67,68,69,70,71,72,73,74,75,76,77,78,79,80,81,82,83,84,85,86,87]. Good organisational culture promotes an environment that favours all employees when allocating duties, rewards, and promotions and encourages equal employment opportunities [88].

Long-term orientation describes how society maintains some links to its past while dealing with current and future challenges. Overall, the NWC is holding on to its old traditions as most of its labour force gained employment through wasta, resulting in managers not trusting that their employees can perform the job. As such, employees continue to favour decision-making to be initiated by managers. Managers and male employees also believe that the NWC has a healthy work environment and are keen to develop their careers, agreeing that there are opportunities for promotion and intend to stay at the NWC for more than five years. Conversely, female respondents do not believe they have any advancement opportunities and are less committed to the organisation.

Based on the results of this study, the NWC’s organisational culture does not align with the Saudi Arabian government’s desire to change its national culture as stipulated in the Vision 2030 directives. The participants agreed that a good corporate culture promotes staff empowerment and positive evaluations, contributing to lower turnover. However, the positive aspects of collectivism are overshadowed by biases towards men and leave little room for women to flourish and advance. If the NWC embraced the initiative set out in Vision 2030, it would transform the organisation and help lay a solid foundation, contributing to the economic prosperity of Saudi Arabia.

To increase productivity, the NWC must reduce power distance by measures identified in Vision 2030 by developing human capital and matching educational outputs with labour market needs so that organisational members participate and contribute to the decision-making process. They need to create an open forum with equal participation, develop cross-functional teams, open communication channels between all layers and departments, build an accessible knowledge-sharing portal, and ensure active participation [82] by integrating human capital development with labour market requirements, ensuring equal access to job opportunities, aligning educational outputs with the labour market’s needs, creating a high-performance culture, and improving the readiness of youth and participation of women in the labour market would reduce power distance. Relaxing and easing strict organisational rules and policies would reduce uncertainty avoidance.

Encouraging decision-making and autonomous teamwork by improving government employees’ productivity, enhancing transparency across its roles, and being responsive to stakeholders’ feedback would promote collectivism. Providing equal opportunity initiatives for women’s participation in the workforce and strengthening channels with employees, citizens, and business communities to curb gender bias will reduce masculinity. Developing a learning organisation mentality and complementary organisational structure to enhance performance and productivity will increase motivation and improve long-term orientation in the NWC.

Furthermore, strengthening the national identity through upholding the Arabic language and fostering Islamic values that promote equity, transparency, moderation and tolerance, excellence and discipline, and determination and perseverance could be used to support all aspects of the NWC’s cultural dimensions. However, the deep-rooted preference for gendered roles may lead to resistance unless Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 is embraced by its society. For example, equitable access to education, especially in rural areas, to foster life-long learning and improve fundamental learning outcomes will be a step in the right direction to support the national shift needed to include women in the workforce.

5. Conclusions

The organisational culture is essential in increasing productivity and efficiency. Using Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, this study identified cultural factors within the organisation to determine if its organisational culture had changed to align with Saudi Arabia’s national directives specified in Vision 2030. Findings revealed mixed implications of employees’ perceptions of the organisational culture. NWC managers and male staff prefer power held by top management who provide clear rules, engage in teamwork rather than individual activities, and follow orders rather than take the initiative or use innovative ideas to perform their duties. They also prefer to be consulted in decisions that are important or related to their work. However, the female employees showed disagreement with these cultural values as they could not participate as equals within the organisation.

This study’s results contribute to the study of organisational culture in the Saudi context and reveal that traditional Islamic values like wasta make it difficult for organisations to change as managers and employees are risk averse and are comfortable with the status quo. If the Saudi government wants to change its national culture, the people in the organisations must be willing to change their values, as legislative reforms and employability programs are insufficient to increase productivity and efficiency.

Furthermore, this study has practical implications for organisational leaders in terms of change management. Organisations change continuously, and as more women enter the workforce, cultural dimensions change further. Therefore, there will be disharmony, so change needs to be incremental. In addition, management’s behaviours, attitudes, and perceptions must change to support and align with cultural changes in the organisation. By hiring technically trained and qualified employees, managers will see an increase in teamwork, individual and team decision-making, innovation, risk-taking, and responsibility sharing, leading to increased productivity and organisational success.

Finally, this study is not without its limitations. The disparity in the gender of respondents is of concern as there were 251 men and only eight women because of the legislation before Vision 2030 limited women’s employment to health-related and educational positions. Additionally, the analysis was descriptive. Therefore, future studies should address these limitations by focusing on the female perspective and including quantitative analysis to examine the correlation between cultural changes and Vision 2030. Correlations research can be used to determine the prevalence and relationship among the female perspective with regard to culture and Vision 2030. The researchers also believe that a longitudinal study on the NWC is needed to examine how change management processes and leadership styles are used to align organisational values with national values.