With the advent of globalization it is becoming even more apparent that cultural competence is becoming a lifeline of any successful endeavor. CIA defines cultural competence as “the ability to understand, appreciate, and interact with persons from cultures and/or belief systems other than one’s own and apply insights learned for better outcomes.” It is imperative that we apply cultural competence as a prism through which we approach globalization and doing international business.
“Today, according to the Global Intelligence Monitor, 4 four of the world’s most promising Emerging Markets for the period 2012–2017 are located in the Middle East. The Middle East is where three continents meet –Europe, Africa, and Asia. In ancient times, it was known as the Fertile Crescent. It was the birthplace of two of the four most ancient human civilizations, Egypt and Sumer” (Moran, Abramson, Moran, 2014). “Today typically geographical classification of Middle East would include the countries Turkey, Cyprus, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Yemen, and Oman” (PSU, 2016). This is a significant part of the world and business with the Middle East is an awfully large market to ignore.
President Obama speaks “Our Nation derives strength from the diversity of its population and from its commitment to equal opportunity for all. We are at our best when we draw on the talents of all parts of our society, and our greatest accomplishments are achieved when diverse perspectives are brought to bear to overcome our greatest challenges.” It seems that in the age of globalization that diversity is becoming ever more inherent in routine business and cultural competence is becoming more necessary skill to have.
The Middle East is still an area of exploration and research for western markets, but with our ability to learn, change, and apply cultural competence to diversify our prospectives we can achieve even more success and greater accomplishments. Each country within the Middle East has it’s own unique history, development, political and socioeconomic state as well as preference on the way things should be done. This individualistic aspect should be considered prior to interactions.
References:
CIA Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (2016-2019). Retrieved October 7, 2016 from https://www.cia.gov/library/reports/Diversity_Inclusion_Strategy_2016_to_2019.pdf
Image retrieved October 7, 2016 from https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0a/1-12_Middle_East_Green-Grey.png
Moran, R. T., Abramson, N. R., & Moran, S. V. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences (9th ed.). Oxford: Routledge.
PSU.( 2016). Lesson 7: The Middle East: Focus on Saudi Arabia. Retrieved October 7, 2016 from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1802572/modules/items/21179096
Lauren Fillebrown says
Hello,
Thanks for sharing. I really like the topic of this post- as with anything else, leadership, communication and business are becoming more global. With that in mind, we must find better ways to allow business to flourish with globalization occurring. I think you hit it on the head when you said that the Middle East is diverse, and each country is different. With that in mind, concerning leadership and business, there can’t be a ‘one size fits all’ method to fixing the issues in those countries or even jumpstarting some sort of leadership trend. We must look towards their culture and start at grass roots.