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How do Middle Eastern and European cultures find balance at Emirates?

How do Middle Eastern and European cultures find balance at Emirates?

Caterina Salvi discusses the ongoing effort to balance Middle Eastern and European cultures at Emirates, emphasizing the importance of effective leadership and team management in navigating these differences. She highlights how the company must filter and adapt messages from Dubai to align with local values and cultural norms, ensuring that communication is clear and relevant to all staff members. Salvi points out the role of HR in this process, suggesting that they can significantly contribute to establishing company values and career development plans that resonate across diverse cultures. The continuous search for common ground is essential for organizational evolution and cultural integration. According to Caterina Salvi, this deep transformation takes time and commitment. Don’t miss more tips and insights on managing cultural diversity in the full episode.

2026·Season 3·Episode 5Highlight
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Caterina Salvi · HR Business Partner

Team growth

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Transcription

00:04

Bringing two cultures together

00:15

"How do you strike a balance between Middle Eastern and Europe at Emirates?" In a way, we build it day by day, it's ongoing work.

00:29

The company's naturally influenced by Middle Eastern culture,as it should be.

00:35

A Middle Eastern company like Dubai's can be quite different.

00:40

We learn a bit from each other.Dubai offers us great opportunities in every respect.

00:46

Of course, they need to be adapted from a cultural point of view.

00:51

That's something handled by HR,senior management and local managers alike.

00:59

You could say that the information coming from Dubai needs to be filtered.

01:05

Our team members, especially long-serving staff,already know how things work.

01:11

Those who've joined recently might come across things they don't get yet.

01:16

What we do is re-establish communication, or messages from Dubai, and help interpret them,translating and passing them on to our staff, adapting them slightly to the European culture.

01:34

It's a daily job, a constant commitment.On the other hand, Dubai knows, and increasingly stresses, that messages must be adjusted and filtered according to local legislation and culture.

01:52

The good thing is we're aware of our differences.As we said before, awareness is the first step towards building something.

02:03

After that, we look for common ground.Given that our head office is in Dubai,the decisions made there must be respected, shared and applied to our daily work.

02:19

It's a constant search for balance, but part of the process.

02:24

Companies evolve, they move, change, grow.Dubai is making a real effort to open up to a very different culture from its own, and I think that's very enriching.

02:40

Of course, it's not that simple, changing culture takes a lot of effort, time and energy, it's a long, deep process.

02:50

But I'd say that, in this respect, HR can really make a big contribution, no doubt about it.