Case Analysis: Ellen Moore (a): Living and Working in Bahrain

1. What would you advise Ellen to do and why? What should be her objectives? Are there objectives and actions consistent with what you would do if you were in her situation?

Even though Bahrain tended to be more progressive than many Middle Eastern countries in its attitude toward women, there were still many inequalities between genders. The current situation is that Ellen’s general manager asked her to change her mind about accepting the Account controlling position because of discriminatory practices in Bahrain. The manager, who is an uncertain avoidance type, stated that Ellen would have troubles traveling alone and clients would not accept her in the future. Ellen’s main objectives were to prove that she not only learned and adapted to the new customs but she also fought back for the local women to have some basic equal rights as men and gained the acceptance from her colleagues and supervisors.

After all her efforts to make people better understand the power of women and to gain more respect and trust from both male and female colleagues, she should not give up by accepting the position because her general manager dominated her decision. She, who is low uncertain avoidance type, already gave him some reasonable evidence that there were some successful businesswomen who did it before and she believed she was at lower risk of danger than her Western male counterparts in the event of hostility.

In this situation, Ellen had four alternatives: 1. Take the Customer Service Position 2. Fight Back 3. Stay in the Business Planning and Development department and 4. Leave the company. I recommend that Ellen choose choice number 3: stay in the same position