As someone who lives in a suburb of Detroit, one of my neighboring Detroit suburbs is Dearborn, Michigan, which is one of the largest and most concentrated Arab populations outside of the Middle East (Karoub & Householder, 2020). While I find this claim to be slightly misleading, when considering countries outside the Middle East like Indonesia and Bangladesh, perhaps the technical detail resides in the distinction between Arab and Muslim concentrations.
Regardless, with over 30% of the Dearborn population of nearly 100,000 people identifying as having Arab descent (Leech, 2017), this week’s lesson reminded me about how little I know regarding Islam, as well as Arab culture in general, and felt this would be a good time to dig a little deeper. More specifically and, as we noted early in class, it was important to explore the differences within groups and not just between groups. I chose to focus on the five countries in the Middle East with the largest populations (estimated in millions): Egypt (106), Iran (86), Turkey (82), Iraq (40), and Saudi Arabia (35) (CIA, n.d.). While there are a significant number of factors that differentiate these countries, for the purposes of how it relates to leadership the focus is on the people and, to some extent, the governments considering the influence of Islamic law.
For a reference of a high-level overview of the differences between Middle Eastern countries, and including the United States and China for comparative purposes, here is how each country ranked according to Hofstede’s cultural dimensions index (Hofstede, n.d.):
Interestingly, Iraq and Saudi Arabia are extremely high on the power distance scale, while the other countries are only moderately high. According to the CIA’s world factbook, these are the only two of the five countries that are ethnically predominantly Arab and is consistent with other predominantly Arab countries like Lebanon and Jordanian (CIA, n.d.). The same holds true for scoring on the masculinity scale, where Iraq and Saudi Arabia are the only two if these countries to score as masculine, where managers are expected to be decisive, while the other three countries each rank as feminine, and managers are expected to strive for consensus and well-being (Hofstede, n.d.). The latter is seemingly more consistent with Islamic leadership, which identifies one of the primary roles a position of authority holds is that of servant-leader, and expectations that the leader is pursuing interests that benefit the welfare of their followers (Abramson & Moran, 2018).
I found Turkey to be a particularly interesting representative of the Middle East. With a relatively high scores in both the indulgence and long-term orientation categories, this appears to show where the Turkish have been influenced by Europe and Asia, respectively. This seems to make sense, given Turkey’s geographic location as a bridge between the two continents.
One of the biggest takeaways for me was how diverse the Middle East was. Even with each of these five countries being predominantly Muslim, where Egypt, with 90%, has the lowest percentage of amongst these countries, there are still broad differences in ethnic groups, government types, and women’s rights (CIA, n.d.). I hope that having a greater understanding for the vastness of differences within the region itself, let alone within the individual countries, will help me to avoid making assumptions on how I may need adjust my leadership style without spending more time to learn more specifically about the person or group of people I may be interacting with in the future.
Cited
Abramson, N. R., & Moran, R. T. (2018). Managing cultural differences: Global leadership for the 21st century (Tenth ed.) [Kindle]. New York, NY: Routledge.
CIA. (n.d.). Central intelligence agency. Retrieved March 08, 2021, from https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/
Karoub, J., & Householder, M. (2020, May 3). Push is on to get Dearborn Arab Americans counted in census. The Detroit News. Retrieved March 8, 2021, from https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/wayne-county/2020/05/03/arab-americans-deaborn-census-count/111655304/
Leech, N. (2017, July 5). How Dearborn, Michigan became the heart of Arab America. The National News. Retrieved March 8, 2021, from https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture/how-dearborn-michigan-became-the-heart-of-arab-america-1.117177
I think you bring a good differentiation among the Arab countries, China and the U.S. Your diagram has statistically proven that China is high on long-term orientation than the other counties. That means China is more of a future planner where inclusive or teamwork is more encouraging. China has been an industrial economy and export-oriented. According to the CRS report, China has become the world’s largest economy on a purchasing power parity basis, manufacturer, merchandise trader, and holder of foreign exchange reserves. That has made China a major commercial partner of the United States. Egypt also recorded a very low score on long-term orientation.
Another Hofstede’s cultural dimension about the diagram that caught my attention is individualism. The United States scores the highest while China scores the lowest. China’s score on this model emphasizes its desire for long-term orientation. The United States is a system mainly based on the individual survivor. That might add up to the contributing factor of depression, anxiety, and gun violence being a witness.
EveryCRSReport.com (25 June 2019).China’s Economic Rise: History, Trends Challenges, and Implications for the United States.Retrieved on 19 March 2021, from https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/RL33534.html
Thank you for your post; I feel the same way, I am not familiar at all with that side of the world and this course is helping me improve as a person through an increase in cultural awareness. Your post reminds me of what we read back in Chapter 3, specifically conflict management in the Arab world. There was a section where I compared my own beliefs and how that approach would really not have an impact with me. Our readings shared some sample language an Arab mediator would use when trying to resolve a conflict, “Do it for the sake of …your father/brother” demonstrates the underlying assumptions (pg.90):
“- Each individual is obligated by ties of kinship to act in a manner that his kinsmen find gratifying
– The kinsmen, specifically the older ones, are interested in the settlement of any conflict involving their kin group because every conflict represents a potential danger to the honor of the family
– By modifying one’s position, the disputant can manifest generosity which, in turn, redounds to the honor of kin and bedouin values”
I remember reflecting on this and comparing it to my decision making influences. For example, having never met my father and growing up being taught to only care about what I believe and not what others believe of me, the above referenced tactics would not really have an impact on me. This is another reason why improving cultural awareness is key if we want to be better people, just because I dont find that impactful doesn’t mean it isn’t impactful to someone else and we need to be aware of it as we go through daily life. Thank you again for your great post!
References
– Moran, Abramson, & Moran (2014). Managing Cultural Differences (9th Edition)
I really enjoyed reading your post, and can definitely relate to the point you made about living so close to an Arab community and yet not knowing much about the culture of Islam. I too have grown up in the United States, and still I grew up knowing very little about other cultures even when I was around them. Change is quite difficult, countries in the Middle East are not well known for adapting and changing to the ways of others. While it is a very tolerant religion, Islamic culture tends to have a more polycentric or ethnocentric mindset. For Americans this means we must adapt and change to better accommodate our Arab business partners.
Do you feel perhaps the culture in Dearborn is different than where members of the Dearborn communities might have come from? We know that when immigration occurs and new communities form, new cultural norms and tendencies occur. While the Islamic way of life may be very similar around the world. Do you think it’s the learning mindset of the Dearborn community or your own that keeps your knowledge of Islam limited? What sort of changes would you have to make to your social tendencies in order to socialize and learn within the Dearborn community?