Proceedings of 6th Annual American Business Research Conference
9 - 10 June 2014, Sheraton LaGuardia East Hotel, New York, USA, ISBN: 978-1-922069-52-8
Cross-Culture Management: An Empirical Examination on Task and
Relationship Orientations of Dutch and Omani Working Adults
Lam D. Nguyen*, Monica J. Favia** and Bahaudin G. Mujtaba***
Cross-culture management scholars have suggested that contextual factors such as
culture can impact one’s leadership orientations. This paper uniquely investigates the
leadership orientations, which include task and relationship orientations, of people in the
Netherlands and Oman. Through the analysis of 396 responses including 208
respondents from the Netherlands and 188 respondents from Oman, it appears that
Omani working adults are more task-oriented than Dutch working adults. Gender is not a
factor in both the task and the relationship orientations of respondents. There is a
significant interaction in the relationship scores based on gender between the two
cultures: Omani male respondents are more relationship-oriented than their Dutch
counterparts while Dutch female respondents are more relationship-oriented than their
Omani counterparts. In this paper, implications for management, recommendations for
future research and limitations will also be discussed.
Keywords:
Field of Research: Cross-culture management; gender; leadership; Oman; relationships; tasks, the
Netherlands. Management, Leadership
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* Dr. Lam D. Nguyen, Department of Management & Marketing, College of Business, Bloomsburg University, Bloomsburg,
PA, U.S.A. email: lnguyen@bloomu.edu, 570-389-4386
** Dr. Monica J. Favia, Department of Management & Marketing, College of Business, Bloomsburg University, Bloomsburg,
PA, U.S.A. email: mfavia@bloomu.edu, 570-389-4389
*** Dr. Bahaudin G. Mujtaba, H. Wayne Huizenga School of Business and Entrepreneurship, Nova
Southeastern
University, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, U.S.A. email: mujtaba@nova.edu