Archives for March 2020

As a High School Volleyball coach, I have a small checklist of requirements that should be accomplished in the event that our team wants to be successful for the upcoming season. One of those categories is Team Cohesion, which I’ve defined as “the ability to produce high-level results as a team by maximizing each players strengths in a selfless pursuit to achieve our goal(s).” While teaching the X’s and O’s of a game is not easy, I’ve found that getting groups of young men and women to work together is significantly tougher, yet far more satisfying to observe the learning process and final outcome. The sport itself will be a game played by my players at a recreational level for as long as their bodies can hold up physically, but teaching players how to work together as a group with sometimes very little common ground outside of an attempt to be successful as a team together; that’s a life skill.

In Lesson 6, we were introduced to the concept of Synergy. According to Moran, Abramson, & Moran, “Synergy is a cooperative or combined action, and occurs when diverse or disparate individuals or groups collaborate for a common cause. The objective is to increase effectiveness by sharing perceptions and experiences, insights, and knowledge. (Moran, Abramson, & Moran, 2014, p . 266). Our Lesson material goes on to further define synergy as “the synthesis of what each individual in the group has to offer.” (PSU WC, L6, 2020). As I continued through the lesson, I realized that my definition of Team Cohesion was very close to how synergy was being discussed in our lesson. This led to a deeper alteration of how I will go about achieving Team Cohesion AND Synergy for my teams going forward.

In my first year with the school I currently work for, I had three weeks to familiarize myself with the 32 players in our Girls Volleyball program prior to our first match. This three week period gave us less than 15 practices to prepare for competition… yikes! While our coaching staff was trying to determine who the best players were, I assigned the task of identifying players exhibiting strong leadership and team work qualities to another coach on staff. After a few sessions, we realized we had three categories of players; talented, less talented and not talented. From those three categories, we spent the next session evaluating whether these players showed strong leadership skills, an awareness of empathy when players around them weren’t performing well, and whether they showed support for others in situations where both positive and negative outcomes took place. The results of our eye test were somewhat disappointing; most of our better athletes with the high level of overall talent were falling into the behavior patterns of not being a good teammate. Those who were somewhere between the less talented and not talented were overall better teammates, and showed support for the higher level players, while also trying to support the players who had no idea what was going on on the court.

As you could imagine, this led to a long conversation among the coaching staff that led to a daunting decision that would shape how our program would move forward under my leadership. Would we put together the most talented teams with the players we had available, teach them the game, and try to get them to support each other as teammates? Or, would we place more value on being what we defined as “being a good teammate”; someone who served as the glue between those who lacked the empathy for lesser players and the players who didn’t quite have the short-term results the older players had.

The decision was made to allow the older, and in some cases more talented and experienced players remain on the Varsity team. With the less experienced, but not so much less talented group, we put them with our most experienced coaches on a Junior Varsity team. While in most programs, the importance of being successful at the Varsity level is the highest priority. For this group, we realized we had a significant culture issue centered around what our lesson would define as an issue with synergy. We had older kids who were not supportive of the younger players simply because they weren’t in the program as long, which I had to manage on the back end with one on one discussions among players.

Throughout the season, we had numerous talks as a team before and after competitions about the lack of cohesion, or synergy, that was felt on the court during times of great success, or times when the outcome was not good. Each and every time, the conversation would begin with a Senior stating that the team needs to work together more, and communicate better; followed by calling out a younger player who didn’t do what an older player said to do. No empathy for a lack of experience, and no flexibility to discuss with that player why we should do what they were suggesting. What we as a coaching staff eventually concluded was that the Seniors on the team weren’t getting the support from their teammates, or in their opinion “respect”, that they felt the “deserved as seniors on the team”. So, with this group feeling slighted by the younger, less experienced, yet more talented group, they refused to work with them and “lead” them unless they received the credit they felt they deserved by being older.

As a result, we had many of our sophomore players ask to play on the JV team. This was something I had never experienced before; younger players turning down opportunities to play up at the Varsity level. While I did not think our team would be successful without their participation, I allowed those players to play at the JV level, and moved forward with our less talented, more experienced players for most of the season. By the time playoffs began, our Varsity team was just above .500, and qualifying for playoffs with the group of seniors that refused to work with the younger players. Meanwhile, our JV team, with a combination of young, talented players and players who shared empathetic qualities, found themselves with only one loss on the season. Shocking, right?!

As a staff, we decided for our playoff matches that if we wanted to be successful, we had to build for the future. We asked that all of the JV players move up for playoffs, and we met with the Seniors whose playing time would be affected. At this point, they realized that the younger players were more talented, and they needed them in order to win games in the playoffs. Yet I still didn’t feel the buy-in from a few seniors who assumed leadership positions on the Varsity team. For the first time in 25 seasons, our program won a playoff game; with the young players all playing a role in the match wins. In fact, our season-ending loss by four points (in the fifth game) in the Section Quarterfinals (to a team we had no business competing with) was due to the older, more experienced players not performing to the standards we needed to be successful, and our younger players didn’t quite have the experience on a stage that significant.

As a coach, I was faced with the task of reviewing the season in order to best prepare for what we needed to improve going into the next season. Among the list of areas we needed to improve, Team Cohesion was what I kept coming back to. Throughout our spring training sessions, we’ve applied principles of synergy to our practices, which require teammates of different background, skill level, levels of empathy, and positive energy to work together. We’ve also incorporated self-evaluation assessments for our players to initiate conversation about how well they performed, but also how well they helped a teammate improve or raise their level. Going into next season, I believe our synergy and cohesion will be one of our best strengths based on the results so far. Will that translate into wins…maybe not. But as a life skill, these players will have learned the steps it takes to be a good teammate who can maximize the results of themselves and the people around them to achieve a common goal.

References:

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.

PSU World Campus Lesson 6: Cultural Synergy. (2020). Retrieved March 2, 2020, from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2041071/modules/items/27977849

A focus on Middle East creates the urgent need to also specifically look at Saudi Arabia that is held to be the epicenter of the Arabian Peninsula and further, the hotbed of the Arab culture. It is the largest country in Western Asia and the second largest sovereign state in the Arab world. According to World Economic Performance report released in October 2018, Saudi Arabia has the largest economy in the Middle East while in the world it is ranked eighteen. The nation is a self-dependent monarch that flourishes through the large oil deposits. Being that it is one of the instrumental countries that make up, “the Modern Middle East”, focus will be placed on its climate, economy, government model and culture so as to gain more insight on how it is comparable to the world situation.

Saudi Arabia is a contributor to the world economy through the supply of oil deposits that amount to about 12% of the world supply. Ninety percentage of the Saudi exports is oil which is approximately seventeen percentage of the world oil in the market (Hertog, 2011). However, the nation has been experiencing unemployment among its youth because this young generation does not have relevant skills and education as per the job market.  This has forced the Saudi government to stimulate growth of the private sector so as to increase local employment.

In terms of government, Saudi Arabia is a monarch whereby the king is the head of the state and there are no political parties (Niblock, 2015).  Sharia law is the major legal system that is practiced. The nation has had tremendous influence on the Arab culture as they are considered to be the custodians. Saudi Arabia is made up of thirteen provinces and only males who are twenty-one years and above are allowed to vote. The country, just like most in the region, was formed after World War I based on the geography as opposed to the tribal boundaries (Moran, Abrahamson & Moran, 2014). The nation still faces backlash from the world democracies who see their approach to governance as oppressive and constraints a huge amount of the people’s freedoms.

The recent climate change phenomenon has affected the nation tremendously where as reported by Broom (2019), the temperature records have been broken continuously in the middle east regions. The nation experiences average temperature of about nineteen degrees Celsius in the coldest months while the hottest months it experiences an average temperature of forty-three degrees Celsius. Dust and sand storms are very frequent in Saudi and they have caused a serious environmental hazard in the country (Dickson, 2015).  Just like the fear that has been across the world, the temperature levels are rising tremendously creating threats to human and the environment.

Saudi Arabia is an important piece in the middle east that is seen to be self-independent in its dealings. The nation faces similar global issues like climate change that has caused a rise in temperature. Also, it is a global producer of oil and is taken as a strategies producer and key partner in the field. However, the monarch system of government has led to huge criticism in relation to how it conducts its actions.

 

References

Broom, D. (2019, Apr 5). How the Middle East is suffering on the front lines of climate change. Available at https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/04/middle-east-front-lines-climate-change-mena/

Dickson, H. R. P. (2015). The Arab of the Desert (RLE Saudi Arabia): A Glimpse into Badawin Life in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Routledge.

Hertog, S. (2011). Princes, brokers, and bureaucrats: Oil and the state in Saudi Arabia. Cornell University Press.

Moran, R. T., Abramson, N. R., & Moran, S. V. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences (9th ed.). Oxford: Routledge.

Niblock, T. (2015). Social structure and the development of the Saudi Arabian political system. In State, Society and Economy in Saudi Arabia (RLE Saudi Arabia) (pp. 77-107). Routledge.

 

As Westerners, we are accustomed to a certain way of life and culture. What we believe and how we act are determined in part by our history. Religion, though still divisive, is a personal choice as per our Constitution, and there is a separation of church and state. Therefore, it can be difficult for us to understand the nations and leadership styles in the Middle East as they are guided by religion in all things. However we should keep in mind that prior to modern governments and the separation of church and state, this was the norm in the Western world as well (PSU WC, 2020). The religion that ties the Middle East, Islam, is a way of life (PSU WC, 2020). Therefore, in order to successfully interact with business leadership in the Middle East, we need to understand what drives them.

There are sixteen best practices for management in Islam that can contrast greatly with our own beliefs on management (Moran, Abramson and Moran, 2014). The main difference can be identified in the first and second qualities of a good manager respectively: “Work as an act of worship”, and “fulfill all contracts” (Moran, Abramson and Moran, 2014). Because Islam defines taking care of one’s family as a duty, working is viewed as an act of worship of God (Moran, Abramson and Moran, 2014). Islam also requires that contractual obligations are always fulfilled, so there in no arguing about terms after a contract is executed (Moran, Abramson and Moran, 2014). In contrast, work is not an act of worship for Westerners. It is common for us to engage legal assistance after contracts have been executed due to disputes in terms of the Agreement or how the Agreement was meant to be understood (Moran, Abramson and Moran, 2014).

The brotherhood concept of Islam requires that every Muslim look after his brothers and sisters (Moran, Abramson and Moran, 2014). Therefore, it is understandable that Islam promotes altruism rather than self-interested management styles (Moran, Abramson and Moran, 2014). Best practices in management that can relate to the Islamic brotherhood tenant are to be just and build trust (Moran, Abramson and Moran, 2014). Being just includes dealing fairly with others, including subordinates (Moran, Abramson and Moran, 2014). Building trust means that management should focus on honesty, integrity and reliability as “Subordinates will be angry if treated unjustly”  (Moran, Abramson and Moran, 2014). Therefore, it is important for Westerners doing business with Muslims to also be just and trustworthy in order to establish rapport. Deviation from these principles can potentially break down communication and trust with Muslim business partners since they may interpret dishonesty and unjust practices as evil (Moran, Abramson and Moran, 2014).

In conclusion, in order to create productive business relationships with leadership in the Middle East, we must understand their behaviors and what drives them. As a way of life, Islam guides Muslims in all they do, including business and leadership (PSU WC, 2020). Understanding this is the first step in developing successful strategies to engage with leadership in the Middle East. Westerners should remember to keep promises, build trust and act fairly in order to build strong business relationships with leadership in the Middle East.

 

References

Moran, R. T., Abramson, N. R., & Moran, S. V. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences (9th ed.). Oxford: Routledge.

PSU WC: Pennsylvania State University World Campus. (2020). OLEAD 410 Lesson 07: The Middle East: Focus on Saudi Arabia. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2041071/modules/items/27977855

 

 

Women leaders are important to global business.  In order for businesses to operate on a global scale, leaders must include people of different cultures.  In our changing climate, it must also include women. Globally, women are rising to the top and becoming outstanding leaders.  As the world changes, so do the leadership and customs of the Middle East.

 

The dominant culture in the middle east is the Arab culture.  While not all countries in the Middle East are Arab a good number are.  Women’s roles in Arab culture differ from country to country. Moran, Abramson, and Moran (2014) indicate that in some Arab countries, women run the household while men work.  Some women work outside of the home and have a rich education, whereas in some countries women do not know how to read.   

Aguirre, Cavanaugh, and Sabbagh (2011) describe that in the Gulf Corporation Council (GCC) countries, which include Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, women are playing a bigger part in business and government.  Women involved in the governmental aspect of these countries are setting standards in which women are respected and accepted in the business world outside of traditional gender employment. Women are pushing themselves to step out of their comfort zones and attend universities and obtain leadership roles in companies that were mostly male-dominated industries.  

 

Women leaders in the Gulf Corporation Council countries also face the same roadblocks as many women in America.  They face the challenges of work-life balance and the challenges of not being taken seriously. As the global culture changes, these countries are realizing that women must be included at the table in order to be taken seriously on a global scale.  Women lead companies in GCC countries are excelling and prospering. Women leaders have started mentorship programs to encourage other women to attend university and further their education. Just as in most parts of the world, it will take time and effort to make these changes, but thus far the GCC economy has excelled with more women in the room.

 

Moran, R. T., Abramson, N. R., & Moran, S. V. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences (9th ed.). New York: Routledge.

 

Aguirre, D. Cavanaugh, M. Sabbagh, K. (2011).  The Future of Women Leaders in the Middle East. Strategy + Business, 2011(63). Retrieved from https://www.strategy-business.com/article/11209?gko=b6b18

 

The evolution of technology is growing more than ever before, not only when it comes to the populace, but to organizations as well in order for them to stay current. As time moves forward, new technologies come in many forms at a rapid pace, and as such, organizations have to adapt or they get left behind. Considering the amount of competition there is in almost every industry, it is imperative that organizations keep looking into strategies to stay relevant around the clock. This means that not only do these strategies should focus on change in the corporate environment; but, in the organization as a whole both internally and externally.

Nowadays, there is a push to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and as such, car manufacturers have adapted to the desires of the populace to create an alternative for people who want to do their part in reducing emissions. One such company that has followed Tesla’s footsteps in this regard, is Ford Motor Co. “After reading the writing on the wall, Ford Motor has taken the bold step of melding the Mustang brand with the latest in automotive trends. The result, unveiled late Sunday, is the Mustang Mach-E, an all-electric sport utility vehicle that the company claims will have a range of at least 230 miles and possibly as high as 300, depending on how the vehicle is equipped” (Holley, 2019).

This change to add an electric car lineup to compete with Tesla, was a change that reflects the desires of the organization’s goals in appealing to a new subset of customers. One can see Schein’s Change Theory in play here, as change must occur in order for an organization to evolve in such a way. “Planned change is the process of preparing the entire organization, or a significant part of it, for new goals or a new direction. This direction can refer to culture, internal structures, processes, metrics and rewards, or any other related aspects” (Pop, 2018). One can see that the difference between regular gas-powered vehicles, and electric vehicles are vastly different from each other, as they need completely different skills in order to develop, build, and modify them.

Schein’s Planned Change Theory emphasizes that motivation must occur first and foremost, in order for that change to take place. Ford Motor Co. seems to have completed such a change considering its priority to adapt to the ever-changing market. Once that motivation has occurred, it is up to upper management to emphasize the change and development of new attitudes in response to the changes. “The effect of creating a motivation to change is to open the person up to new sources of information and new concepts or new ways of looking at old information (cognitive redefinition)” (Schein, 1980, p. 245). Lastly, management must make sure that the change is now stabilized and cemented in, with respect to the structure of the organization.

Overall, in order for Ford Motor Co. to completely redefine itself to appeal to a whole different market, organizational change had to occur; otherwise, if the organization did not adapt to the market, Tesla, as well as other brands would take advantage of the new market that is still in its infancy. If one is too late to appeal to a potentially vast market, loss of revenue may occur, as well as a host of other issues. “Companies’ learning behavior is generally driven by their market performance. Market success is critical. The best managers want to work at the best and most successful companies. If a company’s performance starts to go downhill, good personnel may behind to leave in search of better opportunities” (Moran, Abramson, Moran, 2014, p. 106). An example of an organization failing to adapt and change for the market is Blockbuster when Netflix was in its infancy. In short, Netflix emphasized online DVD rentals and Blockbuster refused to tap into that market, as such, Netflix continued to dominate until there was little to almost no market left for DVD rentals, leaving Blockbuster to “file for bankruptcy and closing all of its stores except for one” (Olito, 2020). This instance demonstrates the importance of organizational learning and change, which must occur at all levels within the organization.

References

Holley, P. (2019, November 18). Banking that electric cars can also be cool, Ford introduces an all-electric Mustang. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/11/18/banking-that-electric-cars-can-also-be-cool-ford-introduces-an-all-electric-mustang/

Moran, R. T., Abramson, N. R., & Moran, S. V. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences (9th ed.). Oxford: Routledge.

Olito, F. (2020, January 16). The rise and fall of Blockbuster. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/rise-and-fall-of-blockbuster

Pop, O. (2018, April 5). Planned Change Management and Why You Should Care. Retrieved from https://blog.hypeinnovation.com/planned-change-management

Schein, E. H. (1980). Organizational Psychology. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

 

Synergy is a term I learned early on in life as it was a buzz word in my family for a short while. As a ten-year-old I thought it was one the coolest words I had heard in my entire “lengthy” life as a child. I remember going to school and telling my friends about it, and they asked me what it meant. Being the center of attention and realizing the opportunity in front of me, I told them it was a way to say cool, just as any kid who was looking to be the new trendsetter in elementary school. I don’t recall how many days went on where I heard kids in the halls saying that they have synergy, but it was at least a week before a teacher corrected someone. At least you could say that my friends and I had some decent synergy on the subject of spreading false information, as harmless as it was. However, synergy as we know, “is a cooperative or combined action, and occurs when diverse or disparate individuals or groups collaborate for a common cause” (Abramson, Moran & Moran, 2014, p. 266). It’s been quite a long time since I was ten, (approximately 19 years) but now I hear the word more than ever before with video games and the evolution of the esports industry.

First, lets dive into video games. They’ve been around quite a long time now and are evolving every day at an extraordinary rate. One game in particular was huge in my teenage years and early twenties, this game was World of Warcraft. I was encapsulated by how you could control a character that you named with its own special abilities. Its genre is known as a massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). Another way to describe how this game works is that if you’ve ever played dungeons and dragons or even know about it then just picture actually being able to control every movement in that character within a video game. As the genre states, this game was massive. Millions of players and a hyper competitive player vs player environment. As I progressed being a competitive player myself, I wanted every advantage I could get. The first thing I did was start to search online, “who best works with a warrior?”. Then that fateful word showed up again, synergy. I immediately began playing with other class types like druids, or mages, who best synergized with my own class, the warrior. This went on for years and I was able to climb higher in the ranks simply due to my team having more synergistic qualities than another, it was my first real experience feeling what synergy really meant. What I didn’t realize at the time was that there was more to it than just picking an artificial character that worked well with you.

After a while I was tired of playing the same old game as it deteriorated in popularity and picked up a new one called League of Legends. This game caught my eye by how enormous its professional scene was. It can also be credited for the massive growth in esports that we’ve seen in recent years (Cook, 2009). It’s considered a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) and matches take place on what’s called the Rift in five versus five scenarios. The game is not simply about killing one another more than its about precise movements and team synergy. With my previous knowledge I was able to pick up this game and choose what are called champions that benefitted my team the most. As I mentioned earlier though, there is more to it than just picking the artificial character that worked best with your team. I was encapsulated by the professional players and began noticing what made the top teams the best. It wasn’t necessarily who picked the best team composition, but mostly who in real life could communicate with each other best and know each of their teammates strengths and weaknesses to pick up each other slack and carry them to victory.

In conclusion, synergy is more than what it looks like at face value. It has engrained itself in so many different aspects of our lives, from choosing a spouse to finding the right employees and all the way to choosing a character in a video game. As prevalent of a word this is in todays age maybe there’s a ten-year-old out there right now telling his friends what the word actually means.

 

References:

Abramson, N., Moran, R., & Moran, S. (2014). Managing cultural differences (8th ed., p. 266). Routledge.

Cook, C. (2009). Legislating from the Bench | Harvard Political Review. Retrieved 26 February 2020, from https://harvardpolitics.com/online/legislating-from-the-bench/

Admittedly, leadership and business endeavors in the Middle East was not a topic I had previously written about. After the lesson, I was interested in finding out more about leadership in the Middle East and ways in which to approach the diverse nations. Social cognitive theory tells us that there are many factors that fall under behavioral analysis and more importantly, motivation. Bandura “explains human behavior in terms of a three-way, dynamic, reciprocal model in which personal factors, environmental influences, and behavior continually interact” (Glanz, 2001). As leaders, it is important to focus on connections rather than disconnection. Likewise, while approaching leadership and business in the middle east, it’s important for leaders to recognize motivational factors appropriate to that culture. By understanding that environment, social, as well as internal factors all play a role in connecting with others, leaders will be able to approach many differing cultures with success as the outcome.

Relating to environmental experiences of those within the middle east, a leader from north America needs to recognize that these regions are and have been in turmoil. Not only has turmoil affected the middle east but full on disparity and war. As stated in the lesson, “The economics of the region have changed as well. With a much younger population than a generation ago and an ever-growing disparity between the rich and the poor, the seeds for turmoil are there” (Penn State WC, 2020). While this does not mean that the region, overall, is impoverished, it does give insight to leaders from other countries that empathy is required during business relationships with those in the middle east because many have been affected by war and its horrifying effects. In addition, as a leader, one could advise against utilizing a sense of entitlement because America has been recognized as a polarizing entity. The empathy and understanding from a leader are vital in connecting with others from the middle east in order to build trust and work toward a common goal of success.

Socially, the culture of Saudi Arabia within the middle east is diverse and engaged in the religious practices of Islam. The nation is ever changing and amassed of a population of those in their mid 20’s Sadly, women and lgbtq people are still disparaged and marginalized (Penn State WC, 2020). By applying social cognitive theory and analyzing this culture’s social practices, leaders may gain insight into how to communicate with those in Saudi Arabia. By formulating effective communication, leaders from north America can bridge that gap between understanding to aid in the process of collaborative efforts. By staying socially conscious and aware, one can objectively approach business with those in Saudi Arabia, in order to increase productivity and catalyze connection.

Upon analyzing the internal factors that may influence business, leaders from north America must understand that the population of Saudi Arabia practices Islam and are Muslim. These factors not only influence but also guide decision making processes due to the all-encompassing components of the religion. By identifying factors that Islam upholds throughout business practices, leaders will gain valuable terminology and understanding of Islamic ethics. Researchers offer, “Islam, on the other hand, believes in justice and fair-play in all walks of life. Man is a viceroy of Allah on earth and has been given limited rights of ownership. In order to ensure welfare of the citizens, it is necessary for the state to interfere in economic affairs. Elimination of interest, establishment of the institution of Zakat and Sadaqat, rightful allocation of economic resources, discourage hoarding, concept of Halal and Haram and wellbeing of individual and community are the distinguishing features of the economic system of Islam” (Maimoona et al, 2018) Thus, because one is now cognitively aware of the ethical allocations of resources in Islamic culture, leaders who do not practice Islam will be able to focus less on personal performance and gains to offer business goals through the lens of benefiting many. Social cognitive theory can be applied to business in the middle east and with added research and expectation, leaders can connect with those of diverse cultures and regions.

 

References

Glanz, K. (2001). Current Theoretical Bases for Nutrition Intervention and Their Uses. Nutrition in the Prevention and Treatment of Disease, 83–93. doi: 10.1016/b978-012193155-1/50008-8

Penn State World Campus., Lesson 7: the middle east. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/canvas/sp20/22011–17869/content/06_lesson/printlesson.html

Saleem, M., Khan, A., & Saleem, M. (2018). Business Ethics in Islam. Dialogue (1819-6462), 13(3), 327–341.

 

Israel has a long history with diamonds even though the country has no diamond mines. Dating back to the mid-1600’s Portuguese Jews fled their homeland for Amsterdam. This group of Jews arranged working agreements with craftsmen that would teach their sons the art of cutting and polishing diamonds as a way to earn a living. According to Michman (n.d.) “…just prior to the Holocaust there were still 3000 Jewish diamond workers in the city as well as a number of large polishing houses.”

After the Holocaust and before the state of Israel was even fully established there was a mass exodus of diamond polishers to Israel. There they would establish the diamond trade according to the traditions of their culture. Geosui, (2019) writes, “Throughout the 1930s, with a large number of European Jews going to Israel came the development of Israel’s diamond industry. The first diamond exchange was established, and within the 1960s the Israel Diamond Exchange (IDE) went global by moving to Ramat Gan.

In 2008, with the crash of the global economy, the diamond market also lost a tremendous amount of its value. As stones became devalued the polishing industry for stones below one carat began to move to other countries, like India where cost of labor was much lower.  Polishing of larger stones above 3 carats requires more skill and that industry remains in Israel.

It was about that time when the demand for diamonds began increasing in the Middle East. The wealthy Gulf states were not as concerned with the economic downturn as the rest of the world and with ready cash were eager purchasers of the larger polished stones from Israel.

For Israel to participate in moving these larger stones creative interventions had to to be negotiated with all parties. It is not possible to travel to the Gulf with an Israeli passport and even with a passport that indicates you have traveled to Israel you could be denied entry. Regional expert Shindman, (2018) says, “Everything, from the diamantaires, (a gem cutter or producer), with multiple citizenships and passports to the goods themselves, must pass through a third country. That means this thriving business appears on the books as Israel-Swiss and Swiss-UAE trade or Israel-Belgium and Belgium-UAE trade.”

Shindman continues, “Moscow-listed mining company Alrosa-Nyurba PJSC announced the closing of its fourth rough diamond auction in Dubai this year, which generated $9.5 million through the sale of 141 large and exceptional quality diamonds—exactly the type in which Israel’s remaining polishers specialize.”

As Israel began to realign their market and seek out other ways to recapture the revenue lost from diamonds, they discovered a cultural synergy shared with the Arab world. Their way of doing business in the diamond industry is largely informal. “… deals worth millions of dollars are sealed on the basis of handshakes, a slip of paper and the Hebrew oath “Mazal u’Bracha” (trust and bless)”, Reed (2018).

This cultural synergy has surprisingly softened the ability of the Gulf States to conduct business with Israel. They too are relationship-centric. Because of Israel’s collaboration with the UAE, other Gulf countries are looking at doing business with Israel in a variety of areas from cybersecurity software, homeland security projects, and high-speed trains. Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon are all engaged. Pick (2018).

“Away from the public eye, ties between the countries have been gaining momentum for quite some time. Both sides were drawn closer as worries of increased Iranian dominance in the region intensified, especially since the war in Syria began.” Pick (2018) Continually fostering these Middle East relationships may even bridge the way to a peace treaty at some point. We are all more alike than we realize, perhaps the universal language of business, commerce, and mutual profitability can unite us all.

References

Geosui, L. (2019, April 07). The relationship between diamonds and The Jewish people.

Retrieved March 01, 2020, from https://www.jpost.com/Special-Content/The-Relationship-between-Diamonds-and-The-Jewish-People-585659

Michman, D. (n.d.). Bar-Ilan University. Retrieved March 01, 2020, from

     https://www.biu.ac.il/JH/Parasha/eng/tetzaveh/michman.html

Pick, A. (2018, November 12). Long hidden ties are made public as Israeli Officials descend on

Gulf states. Retrieved March 01, 2020, from

     https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3749658,00.htm

Reed, J. (2016, May 12). Israel: The going gets rough for diamonds. Retrieved March 01, 2020,

from https://www.ft.com/content/120bdeaa-1778-11e6-9d98-00386a18e39d

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