Shreya Rathi

Section H
Situational Analysis
Seema Saran is a valuable employee working at SSSL as a senior project manager for 8 years.
She stands out in office parties as well as managing PAN India business operations. She has the
opportunity to prove her mettle by working on the company’s expansion plan in Qatar.
Although this is a golden chance for her, it is not an easy decision for Sameer to send Seema as
Qatar’s culture forbids women to work in male dominated environment. Patriarchy still has its
influence in Qatar and Sameer has a difficult choice to make despite Seema’s expertise and
superior skills. Islamic culture poses great restrictions to the plethora of opportunities, which
will open if the company successfully completes the expansion plan and gains significant market
presence.
Seema’s Character: She was an MBA degree from Christ University and had worked with SSSL
since 2004. She has proved her managerial and domain expertise in the past. She was also good
at interpersonal skills and managing cross-cultural relationships.
Problem Statement
Samir has to decide if he should send Seema to Qatar for the expansion plan or give this
opportunity to a male employee while compromising on caliber that Seema bring s to the table.
Evaluation Criteria
Options will be evaluated based on employee’s skills, knowledge and career progression.
Cultural coherence also needs to be keep in mind while analyzing an option because the place
where the person needs to work for the expansion of the business is a male dominated society
where it is prohibited for women to work, prominently in aggressive environments. Qatar’s
culture see women as inferior to men and this poses a problem for Seema to go there and work
freely and confidently.
Evaluation of options
a) Send Seema to Qatar: Seema is the most deserving candidate for the expansion project
of Qatar. This is evident from her background and expertise. She has showed her
abilities to manage relationships in the meeting in Qatar and in the past while
researching about the place. The main problem is if Seema goes to Qatar SSSL will face a
lot of backlash from the Zulfi’s employees. It might also hamper the relationship of
SSSL’s CEO Samir and Mir Ahmed as the latter has some reservations against women
and this very first impression will show SSSL in a bad light. It is mandatory to abide by
the Arabic corporations to operate business in Qatar and Samir cannot afford to lose the
contract at this point given the rewards this expansion project will bring if successfully
executed.
b) Don’t send Seema to Qatar: Decision to not send Seema to Qatar will compromise the
skills and expertise she possess as a senior project manager but it will solve the problem
of cultural differences which arises while sending a women to a male dominated society.
 Zulfi’s employees will cooperate and willfully accept orders from someone who is not an
opposite gender. Cohesiveness among SSSL’s and Zulfi’s employees is one of the most
essential aspects to look at if Samir need to make this expansion plan a success. Seema
can stay at India and analyze the business operations at Zulfi. This will not create
resistance from Zulfi’s workers, as Seema will not be working from the front and her
experience can still be useful to make this project a success.
Recommendation and action plan
Expanding in Qatar is very important for SSSL to establish presence globally. This project will
help in SSSL to grow at a rapid rate, as Qatar’s expansion will create ample of opportunities to
work with. As mentioned before Zulfi has the upper hand otherwise SSSL has to lose the
contract that they cannot afford given the returns on this investment. Second choice is more
feasible as Seema can work on this project while maintain distance. Lal or Mehta can help with
the operations and they can work in front. This will not compromise the relationship of the two
organizations and at the same time Seema can use her skills and expert knowledge which SSSL
needs the most to complete the expansion successfully. She could prove her competency at the
start and when in future Zulfi employees recognizes her valuable work she can go to Qatar and
work without any restrictions.
Contingency plan
Seema may feel disappointed if she was not selected for the Qatar’s expansion task. Seema
needs to understand that it is also difficult for Samir to make this decision. She needs to analyze
the situation from every perspective and should consider that even after all the work she does
indirectly she might not get selected for the actual job because of the strong patriarchal system
and Islamic religion Zulfi employees follow. In this scenario, Seema can work on other overseas
countries expansion that may come in future where gender discrimination doesn’t prevail.