Kuwaiti Banking Rely on Western Professionals in Driving Change

Kuwait is viewed in the literature to be a state deeply rooted in tradition and tremendous wealth. Social tradition drove governmental policies and created a culture unique to Kuwait. Some features of the culture are seen as barriers to local professionals when performing change management activities. These features are not seen in other cultures, which forces management in local organization to rely on individuals in these other cultures for change related activities. The aim of the study is to investigate this view that some aspects of the Kuwaiti social culture is preventing local professionals from performing change related activities in the banking industry in Kuwait, making management of Kuwaiti banks to rely on Western professionals to initiate and implement change. Results from the data collection indicated a strong support to the literature regarding the association between local social culture and the ability of the local professionals to perform sophisticated tasks similar to change management. The results also contribute different views regarding risk tolerance by local professionals.