Achieving Better Compliance: Avoid Cultural Collisions

Qatar is presently reported to have a population of around 2.3 million people of which approximately 12% are locals and 88% are expatriates. The figures speak for themselves in that Qatar has a truly multi-national workforce comprising of people from almost every corner of the globe. But beware; a multi-national workforce comes with many interesting challenges, particularly for organisational corporate compliance staff.

It is a fact that expatriate staff in Qatar will come from either a relationship or a rules based society or culture. Understanding the difference is important to succeeding both in business in Qatar as well as internationally.

Broadly speaking, relationship based cultures are such that authority is invested in those people where there is a significant relationship, such as parents, elders or supervisors and those persons are to be respected. Errant or bad behavior tends to be prevented through a variety of ways such as loss of face, shame or punishment. Of course rules exist in relationship based cultures but they generally derive their authority from the people who lay them down.

A rules based culture, on the other hand, is based on a respect for the rules. In a rules based culture people respect the rules for their own sake and compliance with them occurs through fear of punishment or guilt. In complete contrast to relationship cultures, personal relationships tend not to be important in enforcement of the rules. People from countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United States as well as much of Europe typically come from a rules based culture.

The two different cultures therefore have completely contrasting approaches as to how behaviour is controlled. So how do these cultural differences impact on the role corporate compliance staff? 

Well, typically corporate compliance staff need ensure compliance with corporate policies and relevant laws. Many laws which create high-risk exposure to organisations come from a rules based culture; examples being the United States Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the UK Bribery Act. It also happens that each have active corporate regulators with a long international reach. An astute compliance officer will recognise that to have staff comply with foreign laws or policies from a rules based society will involve a mixed approach when staff from differing cultures are employed in the organisation. A rules based culture approach to compliance policy design and training is not enough – more needs to and can be done to accommodate those from a relationship based culture to achieve maximum compliance.

If your or your organisation needs help with compliance please feel free to reach out to me.