Leadership's Individualism Culture Effect on Affective Commitment to Organizational Change in Qatar

Abstract

One of the main issues that many organizations will face in the coming years is the management of increasing diversity in the workforce. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of cultural dimension individualism and collectivism of managers on affective commitment to change in 10 public organizations in Qatar. Data were collected by questionnaire from 160 senior and middle managers. Individualism-collectivism dimension was measured utilizing Hofstede's (VSM item scale). Structural equation model employed to test the hypothesized model and analyzing the data. Findings of this study reveal high level score of Qatar culture in individualism. In addition, the Qatari leaders appear to have a significant influence on affective commitment to change. Overall, the findings of the present study suggest that there have been significant shifts in value individualism in Qatar since Hofstede conducted his original study. Practical implications of the results of this study may be of interest and assistance to managers of change strategies in Qatar to understand cultural-values especially individualism and its influence on change implementation.