EXERCISE 1
1.Abd-al-Wahab who was an influential Islamic scholar who thought of purifying the Islam and wanted to bring back the traditions mentioned in Koran supported the formation of Saudi kingdom and in 1922 Saudi kingdom was born. There are two Arab societies Shiites in the south and Sunnis in the middle and north side who are pursuing their way of life that dates back around 5000 years. By tradition Saudi is conservative country who believed in their religious values and traditional practices.
There is a significant difference between western and Saudi culture mainly because of the religion they follow most of the western countries follow Christianity were as Saudi follows Islam both of their culture were influenced by their holly books Bible and Quran. In United States there is lot of individualism which helped them to create lot of entrepreneurs were as in Saudi there is a lot of family and friendship ties in all there business related activities, friends and family suggestions will be kept above expert advice so there is not much entrepreneurial activity in Saudi.
Saudi imposes lot of restrictions on women and women have a very limited role in shaping a society because all the decisions made in Saudi were by male, women were even restricted to drive any vehicle it shows how much male centric Saudi society is where as in US woman were given sufficient space for them to evolve and there is no gender based restrictions in US unlike in Saudi.
The Americans are very concerned about time and scheduling but for the Arab, who lives in a society where finishing a discussion with the friend is more important than adhering to a strict schedule.

2) Cultural differences in attitude towards meetings can also cause problems. In US, meetings will be one after another and there will be no disruptions when meeting is going on, but in case of Saudi they maintain open offices where there will be frequent disruptions, for this US delegates might think that Saudis are rude but open office practice is inherent in Saudis culture following from their ancestors. This creates a gap between them and could leads to damage to their relationship.

3) For doing international business cross culture literacy is very important it lets both the country delegates to know about each other’s country cultural practices. Saudis gives utmost importance to the loyalty and relationships so establishing a trust and relationship will play a huge role in the success of business. Saudis did not like to finalize a business related deal with a low or middle level executive they always look to communicate with a high level management person. Saudis will not adhere to the deadlines, appointments or fixed scheduling’s as they maintain an Open Office and interceptions in between a meeting to do other business is quite common in Saudis culture so people should be prepared for this.