Business Leadership in the MENA Region - Case Study Example

Running Header: Leadership of Organizations Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code & Name: Date of Submission: Contents Running Header: Leadership of Organizations 1 Contents 2 Leadership of Organizations 3 Business Leadership in the MENA Region 3 Queen Rania of Jordan 5 Leadership in the UAE 8 Development of Future Leaders 11 Works Cited 15 Kelly Services. “Developing leaders for workplaces where cultures meet” Smart Manager 2010. 16 27 Nov. 2010, . 16 Leadership of Organizations Business Leadership in the MENA Region The business leadership in MENA region is considered as the Arab model of leadership that is value based, group-driven, humane, and rests on shame and honor opposing to innocence and guilt. Expert in strategic leadership indicates that this has potential to usher in enormous shift in the way business is done globally. Majority of businesses in the MENA region are usually personal. The MENA region have been a successful place in doing business where traders have existed for years and to many, business is still a way of life. The strength of ethnicity with its emphasis on paternalistic leadership, family solidarity, and warm relationships reinforces the connection between personal life and business (Gholamreza, Salmani and Taatian 103). The personal and government owned companies are inclined to a leadership style that is strongly adheres to vertical hierarchy. Business management is more personal compared to the western world and organizations and jobs tend to be mould according to the individuals within them, instead of attempting to fit a person into a particular role. Few times authority is delegated and even minute decisions are executed from the management, mostly through consensus. In MENA region, influential decisions are mostly referred back to the top management. Mostly, leaders are surrounded by family members and friends together with experts who give advice on the crucial decisions. In this type of business leadership, seeking power and utilizing it honestly is the regular practice. The people at management at the middle level gladly capitalize on the small authority they possess. Most of organizations across MENA region have paternalistic leaders, who are also benevolent and personal style is depicted in the entire organization. If the leader at the top management is changed, the orientation of the whole business organization changes with them. Paternalistic leaders combine authority with benevolence. This type of leadership is mostly employed in non-western organization, especially MENA region. It is also viewed as hierarchical relationship in which a leader guides personal and professional life of subordinates in similar manner of a parent, and in exchange of anticipated deference and loyalty. Behavior leadership in Arab societies is highly influenced by tribal traditions on one side and western methods on the other side. The result of Arab managers to act like father complies with authoritative style found particularly in big organization. Majority of organizations in MENA region whether in private sector or public sector are managed with styles of mightiness and in the form that is more centralized, regardless of the technology they utilize or their strategies. Dominance of tribal relations on leaders prevents chance of working with persons out of relatives and family circles. Utilization of creative and innovative styles is uncommon in MENA countries and organizational challenges are solved in terms of cultural and tribal values. According to Gholamreza, Salmani and Taatian, the values that are prevalent in tribal system resulted to sheikh system (104). The main specifications of sheikh system include compliance of law and regulations with personality, hierarchical power, hesitance, and instability in decision-making, and priority of relation on order. It also includes open door policies, nepotism in top organizational level, and paternalism system in leadership. Prevalence of the West on style of managers in Arab world has resulted to duality. On one side, Arabs are interested in establishment of legal and formulated associations and on the one side; they are focused in their own methods of traditions. Queen Rania of Jordan Three women from the Gulf countries and another from Arab countries were included in 2010 Forbes magazine list of top 100 most powerful women in the world. Queen Rania al-Abdullah from Jordan was ranked 76th with the list being topped by US first lady Michele Obama. Queen Rania has been recognized by Forbes magazine for her leadership in campaigns in the areas to reduce the gap between Arab countries and the United States. She has also been known as the social media Queen because she has been able to attract over 1.3 million individuals following her on Twitter and over 300,000 persons being her fan on Facebook. The other three Arab women were Maha Al Ghunnaim who is chair and co-founder of Global investment in Kuwait, Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi who is UAE economy minister, and Qatar first lady Sheikha Moza Al Missned. Her Majesty Queen Rania is a boss, humanitarian, a wife, and an advocate. These responsibilities make her to be recognized as a great leader. She use much of her time talking and listening to Jordan people, to understand from them the suitable approach to improve prospects of Jordan and it citizens livelihood. Under her leadership, she has initiated efforts in her country to adopt a strong approach to country education, encouraging organizations and agencies to work on quality of classroom, computer access, teaching standards, family environment, health awareness, and community investment (Rania Al Abdullah). Through efforts such as the Teacher Academy and Madrasati, Queen Rania is aiding kids in Jordan to obtain the appropriate start in life by revamping and repairing local schools and at the same time inspiring teachers to give their best. The queen believes that the strength of cooperation among private, public, and non-profit organizations is a source of strong potential for educational change in Jordan. Queen runs an NGO by the name Jordan River Foundation (JRF) that is aimed to aid the less fortunate in Jordan. The organization has been under her leadership for the past 11 years and it has managed to equip families with knowledge and skills needed to eradicated poverty. The organization has joined with the entire community and private sector to bring change, energy, and resources to the lives of less fortunate people, inspiring and empowering them to have faith they can make a difference for their loved ones and themselves. The foundation started projects on socio-economic for women to offer opportunities for employment to improve their livelihood while enhancing their skills and knowledge in entrepreneurship and handicraft production. The projects have been beneficial to many people, indirectly and directly, and have continued to give livelihood for vulnerable families and communities. The efforts of JRF have allowed it to be recognized in the area for its successful efforts in children protection. Additionally, Queen Rania puts effort for even greater actions that affect the entire globe. Her efforts are on standard education and fighting for kids in need in her capacity as honorary chairperson for UNCEI and eminent advocate for UNICEF. She is also active in global gatherings such as world economic forum and Clinton global initiative where she shares as a member of board. As a Muslim woman and an Arab, Queen Rania is obliged to reuniting persons of different cultures and faiths by nurturing cross-cultural talk, especially among youth. She has been in the forefront in supporting ASLG (Arab Sustainability Leadership Group) in an attempt to encourage practices of sustainable developments in economic activities. She has acknowledged that Jordan together with other Arab countries have responsibility of taking into account social, economic, and environmental impact of their decisions. She has also been able to point out development challenges facing the region and in particular, Jordan which include an education system that is not aligned with current job market, unexploited women potential, youthful and burgeoning population, highest unemployment rate in the globe, and acute water shortages. According to Queen Rania, if these challenges are addressed it will be possible to ignite growth and counteract long-term problems since this is basic fact, especially in an era where environmental, social, and economic systems are connected to one another. Queen Rania makes a perfect role model for future career of many due to her tireless efforts in her initiatives. Additionally she leads by example where under her leadership, JRF has been in the forefront to show the importance of partnerships between, public, private and non-profit organizations in an effort of benefiting the society. She has also allowed her organization to serve as an inspiration to the local community so that they can take control of community and world towards their own good. This set a good example of how leaders in organization should serve as inspiration to their employees and nurture favorable environment. She also helps to show that every initiative requires strategies the same way she adopted strategy of partnership with different players. Leadership in the UAE The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is composed of seven emirates: Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Fujairah, Ajman, Sharja, Umm-al-Qaiwain, and Ras al Khaimah (Maja 5). UAE is a group of Arabic speaking sheikdoms bordered by, Saudi Arabia on the south and west, Qatar on the northwest, and Oman on the northeast and the east. After formation of AUE in 1971, Abu Dhabi town was picked as the national capital. Emirates is a traditionally inhabited by society of Islam and it has experienced rapid economic growth because of it is rich in huge oil reserves. Currently, UAE is seen as a firmly established and viewed as a peaceful region within a worsen security issues in the Middle East. The economy of emirates of Dubai pass through a transformation and the traditional living norms changed completely with the discovery of deposits of oil in mid 1900s. Since then Dubai launched a plan to develop its educational system, health systems, transportation systems, and infrastructure. This has resulted in a strong emphasis on both industry and tourism. Currently, Dubai view itself as the sanctuary of the region with main focus on encouragement of new enterprises and international business. The population of the Emirates is largely constituted of immigrants such that native Emirates form less than 20% of population of 4.5 million people. The rest is formed by the mixture of approximately 150 nationalities with different languages and cultures (Maja 6). The UAE and Dubai have a similarity in that the indigenous people are the minority. This is due to the environment of economy relying heavily on expatriation of workers. The dependence on importing labor force from other nations to maintain its economic growth is embraced as a key and vital aspect of business life in the region. Situational leadership is the type of leadership that will be necessary in the UAE in the future. This is because effectiveness of leadership is depends on situational moderator variables. The contingency approach to leadership has its main message suggestion that leadership effectiveness and styles will all rely on situational factors that are external situations faced by the leader. Alicia argues that this approach holds it fundamental principle that leaders need to adapt their styles, up to an extent of showing varying behavior and styles concurrently (4). This approach shows that there is no single best way of leadership. Due to cultural diversity in UAE, a leadership that is effective to one group of employees may be not effective to the other group. Leaders need to be flexible and have capability to comply with the requirements of a certain condition. This type of leadership is a simple model where the behavior of leadership is actually matched as close as possible with readiness of follower. Due to changing situations in the global market, a more and more organizations require global presence hence the need for the leadership to creating virtual teams exists (Amin, Tabari and Kaboli 343). By dynamically assigning individuals to projects based on skills instead of location, organization in UAE can more easily allocate the high skilled individuals to appropriate tasks without considering for the wasted productivity and expense caused by frequent relocation or travel. There are various challenges of leading virtual teams and they include: It is impossible to learn the whole technology It is not possible to mentor, coach, or manage something invisible It is not possible to see group that is working for the organization The virtual team use technology that is highly exaggerated Excellent virtue team leaders are conversant to travelling and mostly speak 3 various languages. However, situational leadership style can be used to handle these challenges since leader will be able to employ compatible style and match the leadership behavior with readiness of follower. Cultural diversity in UAE is a prevalent issue taking into consideration that population of the Emirates is largely constituted of immigrants such that native Emirates form less than 20% of population of 4.5 million. Managers and leaders are part of the society and coping with diversity problem and opportunities throughout their life. Those leaders and managers who are well prepared to tackle the challenges and capitalize on the opportunities it gives will most likely turn successful by being appropriate coaches in a workplace that is diverse. Discriminatory vices are rampant in the society including UAE region and sometimes it presents itself in the place of work that can result to huge challenges for leaders and managers. Unjust sides of discrimination mostly take root from biases of society, misinformation, and stereotyping. Instead of progressing biases from society and unfair treatment of employees based on misinformation and stereotypes, leaders can employ situational leadership practices by focusing on the performance of every follower and developing them increasing according to their level of readiness to take on new initiatives and responsibilities (Bahaudin and Sungkhawan 1). Due to the globalization of the market place, the current workforce is more diverse than ever. This has allowed the movement of skills across geographical boundaries, and an improved awareness of the advantages of varied perspectives has resulted to more ethnic and cultural diversity in the workplace. Since the workforce has expanded to be highly diverse, the needs and interests of employees have also diversified. Leaders of today require a flexible approach to lead a wider and diversified group of employees. The concept of situational leadership applies well in era of a globalized market place. It is applicable with both women and men, and can be employed with the same degree of effectiveness across varying cultures with varying groups of employees. When this type of leadership is applied consistently, leaders and managers are likely to remain focused on the delivery and output of their workers and, without regarding their stereotypes or personal biases about the employees, they will constantly help associates to progress into increased levels of readiness for every task. Development of Future Leaders Leadership in workplace in the era of twenty first century is a multifaceted role (Kelly Services). It turns out to be more challenging and more complex, as there is increase in culture diversity in places of work. There is an initiative aiming to call for managers to review the framework of the environment of modern workplace and to reveal new and effective strategies. Teams in workplaces are increasingly turning to be more multinational as the globe becomes highly interconnected and majority of persons envy to work overseas. Noticing individuals from varying countries and continent working together is no longer impossible. No leader or manager can afford to close the eyes to culture implications and influences on leadership with the world economy globalization. Leadership in certain respects can be non-cultural and non-country specific. Additionally, the inflow of outsiders into the workforces of various economies complicates the matter even further. Nearly every place it now considered an advantage to have knowledge of leadership role in multicultural workforce. The role of the manager and leader is evolving as the globe moves away from a vertical hierarchical model (control and command) to creativity and innovation driven model (collaborate and connect). Human resource directors, chief executive officers, board of directors and chairpersons are required to make sure that organizational practices and policies give room to the multi-cultural and multi-ethnic taste of the workforce. Briefly, the mission of an organization that is globalised has to include diversity of ideas. In workforce that is multinational, leaders should be well informed culturally to give morale to their followers to progress past lowest requirements. Due to diversity of culture, managers and leaders of tomorrow are required to have specific knowledge for engendering involvement, innovation, and creativity. It is crucial for the organization to have emerging new kind of leadership since cultural diversity gives the organization some benefits. Workforce diversity has various approaches and perspectives to work which include: Diversity develops a benchmark that is of high caliber since there is more focus on results. Diversity results to learning chances for both employees and employers. Appropriate leaders are required to establish a vision that has huge attraction for followers emanating from different culture and backgrounds. The idea or vision should have the ability to change the group of persons into a team that can complete duties with a sense of persisting satisfaction and commitment. For leadership in a workplace with cultural diversity, leaders need: A new perspective for establishing traits of leadership; The motivation and drive to work in nations where the culture is absolutely varying from theirs Frankness to get to know employers rights and employees duties The skills that are socially oriented to deal with individuals of varying religion and race A commitment to integrity of high level Frankness or openness can also include searching at fresh meanings for such basic concepts as: discipline, femininity, masculinity, objectives, decision-making, socialization, teamwork, collectivism, and individualism (Kelly Services). Past frankness, leaders should take a broad positive attitude focusing on the diversity power. Diversity of culture can be a big power source for driving growth and change. However, if a leader fails to recognize this, it is not likely to occur. Big organization have started to understand that maintaining optimal performance needs a commitment to developing effective leaders at all levels. Developing future leaders is of great importance in order to attain sustainability of the organizations. A major factor in instilling motivation in individuals is to entrench the feeling on their part that they are developing. The effective way to develop leaders is through structured development process, utilizing many processes of development that are as many as possible. By developing future leaders via offering mentorship chances of all sort, coaching by outside parties and line managers, and training programs creates highly effective future leaders. Most of individuals want to have a feeling that they are growing individually and if they feel that they are not progressing, then it is highly likely that they may search opportunities somewhere else. Equipping is the same as training and both terms describe the process future leader must pass through. Action learning, because of its nature of being collaborative, is appropriately suited to facilitate development of leadership as it unfolds, as a reflective and relational process (Cynthia 4). This process was initially introduced as an experiential learning model, where participants learn by including programmed knowledge with questioning insight. It main focus is its nature of being cyclical, interacting with real problems, an inquiry process that tries to unveil all aspects of a certain matter in question, potential resolutions exploration through reflection and action, and promotion of a group dynamic that encourages thorough learning and reflection. Action learning concerns real individual handling challenges in real time, observing the unbiased discipline of setting of business and looking after many workers. The results of action learning can involve increased ability of strategic thinking, development of leadership skills, increased understanding among the section of the organization, understanding organizational change and group process, and more ideas for future projects. This procedure can improve capacity of every member to collaborate as she/he develops a sense of autonomy meaning, self-efficacy, and responsibility. At the level of group, mutual inquiry can nurture team learning, critical thinking, and improved interpersonal interactions (Cynthia 5). The action learning technique can be particularly applicable to development of leadership in that one is able to add to her or his knowledge of main leadership concepts as well as practice and apply them in an environment that is meaningful, relevant, and finally beneficial to the organization. From advertising cost to agency fees, and from training cost to referral bonuses, the process of recruiting is one fundamental part of business life that can mostly put challenges on the company short-term finances. Whether an organization is recruiting to grow or to replace, placing strategy in place to develop efficient leaders internally will aid to maintain the expenditure of recruiting at a controllable level. Developing leaders internally can also have long lived effect on lowering recruitment expenditures, because through appropriate coaching leaders will have the capability to instill a higher level of motivation with their workers and improving engagement. Works Cited Alicia, Kritsonis. “Leadership in organizations: National implications” International Journal of Scholarly Academic Intellectual Diversity 8. 1(2004):1-8. Amin, Kaboli, Mojtaba Tabari and Elham Kaboli, “Leadership in virtual teams” The Sixth International Symposium on Operations Research and Its Applications 2. 1 (2006): 342–349. Bahaudin, Mujtaba and Jatuporn Sungkhawan. “Situational leadership and diversity management coaching skills” Journal of Diversity Management 4. 1 (2009): 1-12. Cynthia, Roberts. Developing leadership at all levels: An action learning approach (2006): 1-22. Gholamreza, Taleghani, Davood Salmani and Ali Taatian. “Survey of leadership styles in different cultures” Iranian Journal of Management Studies (IJMS) 3. 3 (2010): 91- 111. Kelly Services. “Developing leaders for workplaces where cultures meet” Smart Manager 2010. 27 Nov. 2010, . Maja, Warnstam. “A qualitative study of Swedish leaders in Dubai, U.A.E.” Leadership in an Intercultural Organisational Context 2. 1 (2008): 3-55. Rania Al Abdullah. “Jordan River Foundation” Rania 2010. 27 Nov. 2010, . Read More