Localization versus standardization of HR practices in Kuwait and its implications on companies’ competitiveness in the private sector

Abstract

As Kuwait invests efforts and money to become a competitive financially sustainable nation by the year 2035, the vision reflects ambitious expectations out of Kuwait’s private sector and consequently highlights pressures on its HR experts to deliver organizational competitiveness through people. By surveying HR managers of medium and large firms of the private sector in Kuwait, this study attempts to explore the institutional pressures hindering or boosting competitiveness and performance, as well as examining whether HR experts are adopting more standardized or localized practices. Findings suggest that HR practices in Kuwait tend to be more localized and fall far from best practices aimed at driving competitiveness and adopted by top employers in the Middle East region. Pressures reported as influential on HR practices the most, were mainly linked to the organization, be they normative institutional pressures, or strategic factors arising from the organization itself. Other pressures included regulative institutional factors and market conditions.