I have had exposure with Middle Easterns when I was in the Air Force on three different occasions. I was stationed in Iraq, Qatar and Afghanistan and each country seemed a bit different then each other in terms of wealth and political conditions. The biggest thing I took away and learned was that you should not treat each country the same and that even though they have very similar ideas and values then that doesn’t mean that they have the same political or economic issues or strategies. For example in Qatar, women were more commonly accepted in the business world and I noticed this when the a director of operations was giving us a tour of a facility she was going to be a manager of. This shows a great example according to Moran, Abramson, and Moran (2014), “In some Arab countries, women enjoy equality with men, while others have limitations. The cultural contrasts within the Arab societies on this matter are considerable. ” The key thing I took away is that a person really needs to learn about the culture they are going into, so they know what values and beliefs that system has which will prevent any hostiles that could come up in negations or dealings. I had the pleasure of actually working along side with people from these countries and even though I was making negotiations; I still felt like an ambassador for the U.S, so I had to know how to represent my country well with giving respect to these host nations. The one thing they did have in common was the fact that their religion of Islam is what rules and governs their country and in which makes the leaders pass laws for the people to follow close to that. According to Moran, Abramson, and Moran (2014), “Arabs are a people of great emotion. They hold in high regard friendship, loyalty, and justice.” This type of knowledge helped me greatly and I was able to create a great bond with the Middle Easterns that I worked with because I respected their values and traditions, but at the same time I showed them that if they asked for my help then they could depend on me. I had a situation in Afghanistan where I was in charged of helping clean up chemicals that was in danger of spilling into a nearby town. I was tasked to ask for helped from Arab contractors that we had on base, so we went off and ask the towns people for their permission as well to wish us look.The reason for this is because in a lot of areas tribal leaders try to fight terrorism, but are not always willing to accept help from the U.S. I let my Afghanistan do most of the talking and the tribal leaders were gracious for my wiliness to work with them to help better serve their community. According to (World Factbook), the area still consists of a majority of, “religious groups, tribal leaders.” They still try to have a great influence on the how the government should be ran, so many people like my fellow coworkers respect their demands and/or wishes that they have. My commanders didn’t want me to do this, but I saw how important this was to do and my temporary coworkers appreciated this act and worked harder for me. This is a good example of how a leader is capable of understanding when it comes global differences that if you are able to overcome those and understand the culture then you can have great success.
References:
Central Intelligence Agency ( CIA ). [Internet]. The World Factbook. Retrieved at https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html.
Moran, Robert, Abramson, Neil, & Moran, Sarah. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences. Oxford: Routledge.
hcj5018 says
I am quite envious of the fact that you have seen different parts of the Middle East on occasion, even if it was not in the most opportune circumstances. I was surprised to read about your experiences in Qatar and Afghanistan. I think that it is a positive move for the representation of America in other countries that you helped out the underlying population with the removal of the chemicals. The lack of initiative could have been disastrous which could have lead to more negative perceptions of the American forces in Afghanistan. Thanks for your service.
-Hugh