There are numerous concepts on leadership and the best approach on working with others in the workplace. Parts of our leadership style here in America come from social norms of the dos and don’ts we experience. This is the same for others in around the world, for example Saudi Arabia and others in the middle east. Our leadership and management style here in American and that of the middle east differs vastly due to the differences in culture, social beliefs and norms. Because of these differences both groups have a difference approach on how to lead and manage people. Because the two social groups differ the expectation on what one can expect from management tends to follow with their own culture. In other words, those that live here in America have a sense of what leadership style they want and need from a American manager or leader and may not necessarily work if lead by an eastern style way of managing and leading.
I have been part of management for the last decade. I have lead small and large groups of people in different capacities. The common theme I have seen is the need for my subordinates to feel included in my decisions and how it affects them all the while being a servant leader. Collaboration and teamwork has never been so important when managing a younger group of people. In an article posted by Tara Duggan who is a Project Management professional (PMP) who has 25 years of experience and specializes in knowledge management and instructional design says, “Leadership styles commonly used by business leaders in the United States include the directive, participative, empowering, charismatic and celebrity. According to Robert J. House of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, six culturally endorsed leadership dimensions contribute to leader effectiveness, including charismatic, team-oriented, participative, humane-oriented, self-protective and autonomous. Attributes include trustworthiness, motivational and excellence-oriented (Duggan, n.d.). These are all attributes of what would be considered a great leader here in America. Though these are all great attributes not all would work in a different cultural setting for example in the middle east. To better understand the middle east style of managing we need to first understand their way of life and how it differs from those here in America.
The buzz around the Islamic way of living has many untrue connotations which is not fair to the people of that region. It is becoming increasingly upsetting that those who are spreading hatred and malicious way of thinking about Islamic lifestyle and putting them all under one umbrella should be firmly dismissed and discredited. We all have our own thoughts on the matter and what we learned from the lesson is the Islamic way of living has religion in mind in all aspects of their way of life. We learn from the lesson that, “followers adhere to its teachings in a different way than other religions. Many Islamic teachings make their way into law, and several countries in the region have theocracies, governments that are run by religious authorities. Islamic teachings, therefore, become law… Islam guides many people’s lives in the Middle East. The word Islam translates to “giving one’s self to Allah/God,” so the teachings that are found in the Qur’an (or Koran) guide people’s daily lives. But like every other religion, there are various branches that interpret the words of the Qur’an differently” (PSU, n.d.). Just like Christianity there are many branches of religion so we cannot assume a person who practices the Islamic style of living is the same as others. Because culture and religion differ vastly in both American and Islam how managers act and react to certain situations will differ. Those that are being managed also have a certain perception on leadership and can anticipate what a leader’s reaction would be and their demeanor on certain situations.
The management style in the middle east differs in many ways from America style of leading and managing. Looking back at the lesson we learned their religion has a major influence in their daily lives. This means how managers and leaders act and react has the Islamic teachings in mind. This also means subordinates, for the most part, will also act and react in a certain way because they too practice the same faith. In article posted by Professor Yucelt of Penn State he writes, “Another study stated that Saudis do things at a leisurely pace and they are unmindful of interruptions: Westerners, however, set time standards and objectives for completion. In addition, the Middle Easterners are highly sensitive to face-to-face criticism and they place great value on hard work and personal friendship. These differences in behavior and motivation help to explain differences in management styles…Managers of the middle Eastern nations are considered authoritarian rather than democratic, and tend to discourage participatory decision-making in the workplace. They believe that authority will produce both higher morale and productivity (Yucelt, 1984). Because of their culture and beliefs this has created a certain type of management style that works for them but might not work, for example, here in America. In contrast certain facets of business may require a more authoritarian in both America and Middle East as well as servant leader. This is not to say one side only does one style but simple an observation of how most do what in each region.
Duggan, Tara. “What Are Differences & Similarities Between American Leadership Styles & Global Leadership Styles?” Small Business – Chron.com, http://smallbusiness.chron.com/differences-similarities-between-american-leadership-styles-global-leadership-styles-55037.html. Accessed 04 March 2020.
Penn State University. (n.d.). Module Lesson 7: Islamic Life OLEAD 410, 001 Spring Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2041071/modules/items/27977820
Yucelt, U. (1984). Management Styles in the Middle East A Case Example. Management Decision, 22(5), 24-35.
kbb5452 says
This post was informative and also paralleled some of the positions I had made within my own post. It is understood that trade and business are conducted differently in American culture versus Saudi culture. In addition to cultural attitudes and differences, leaders must also understand the religious influences on business practices in the developing middle east. In addition to lifestyle attitudes, I was interested in sharing this research, which, posits that ethical business is being supported and promoted among the millennial generation, worldwide. While we understand, from the lesson, that attitudes are different in other cultures, surrounding business, I wanted to know what attitudes were being adopted to support our research in this course. Researchers from the Journal of Business Ethics (Murphy et al.) write that within Muslim cultures, a paradigm shift is happening among business students due to the idea that “Assessing accounting students’ attitudes towards business ethics, in an ethically unfriendly environment (i.e., Spain), (Tormo-Carbo et al. 2016) found that students with previous exposure to ethics were more inclined to believe that business and accounting education ought to incorporate ethics. Their results also demonstrated that female and older students have a greater inclination to ethics than their male and younger counterparts” (2019). It is uplifting to acknowledge that not only ethical practices are being taught in our business and labor relations lessons but also being taught in developing countries-with interest from students. Despite differences, it is interesting to learn that the universal idea of ethics can assist in bringing us together. This will, ultimately, help labor professionals to bridge the gap between distance and cultural differences, in order to conduct business ethically and logically.
References
Murphy, M.J., MacDonald, J.B., Antoine, G.E. et al. Exploring Muslim Attitudes Towards Corporate Social Responsibility: Are Saudi Business Students Different?. J Bus Ethics 154, 1103–1118 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-016-3383-4
tls5512 says
Excellent post! In America we tend to think we are the standard that everyone should live by but your post shows not only are there multiple successful ways of doing things but every leadership style won’t work for every group and that’s okay. The Middle Eastern way of doing things does not seem to encourage the social learning discussed in the lesson but they seem to have more synergy. The current pandemic is certainly testing the leadership styles of our nations leaders. At last night’s presidential debate there was a lot of focus on what they would do to handle crisis if they were president. Now more than ever people are looking to our very problematic president for answers. Throughout the this election season there have been debates of moderates vs progressives. I would love to see how concepts of leadership styles play into that.
Haley Friary says
I found this to be an interesting post. In my previous josb I spent 3.5 years working in Dubai and Oman. I had a team of 9 HR professionals who were part of my global team. I spent a great deal of time coaching the male, Director of Human Resources as he had some difficulty in working in a MNC with several other cultures. (Omani, East Indian, British, South African and American)
I found that the lists of differences in Middle Eastern management styles and American styles presented in our book were spot on. For example one of my coaching efforts resulted in frustration for both of us. As I was explaining how the corporate cultural leadership style was so different from his own and that in order to become more effective he needed to adopt some of our US ways of working he protested.
He did not want to lose his own culture in the process. He was very effective is creating what the Omani workforce needed. If he leaned in too far towards our culture he would lose his effectiveness with the local population. Oman is very tribal and has deep roots in the Bedouin culture.
If I had known what I am learning in this class I may have approached his coaching in a different way. Although, I’m not sure my British CEO would have agreed. He just wanted him to “get with the program”.
Moran, R. T., Abramson, N. R., & Moran, S. V. (2014). Managing cultural differences: Leadership skills and strategies for working in a global world. New York: Elsevier.
Common, R. (2011, January 01). Barriers to Developing Leadership in the Sultante of Oman. Retrieved March 07, 2020, from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275340739_Barriers_to_Developing_%27Leadership%27_in_the_Sultanate_of_Oman%27