The Impact of Culture on the Leadership Behavior in the UAE Organizations - Literature review Example

Name Instructor Institution Date The Impact of Culture on the Leadership Behavior in the UAE Organizations Introduction Kouzes and Posner chronicles that the demand for effective leadership has continuously evolved into an issue of global concern in different organizations operating at local, regional as well as the international level (32). Most of the multinational organizations view appropriate leadership as a fundamental tool and a key determinant towards their success as well as the achievement of their aims. Good leadership not only helps in improving the organizational performance but also endeavors to provide single direction and proper guidance for all the employees to follow towards meeting the set organizational targets. According to Kouzes and Posner, the increasing demand for real leadership led to the establishment of different techniques for determining the effectiveness of a given leader at work (32). Such methods include the objectiveness of a particular set of data that indicate the sales volume earned, the size produced as well as the achievement of safety and reduction in costs. Moreover, the costs techniques are diverse to include subjective data such as surveys and ratings as well as the reviews conducted targeting to address the board of directors. According to House (2013), the influence, organizational expectations as well as leader’s decisions and actions vary considerably as an outcome of the cultural forces in the companies and firms where managers work. Consequently, there are some tasks and relationship- oriented attitudes and behavior that a leader gets entitled to in the struggle for organizational success. It is, therefore, imperative to discuss in details the effect of culture on leadership behavior in the United Arab Organizations Emirates (UAE). The Influence of Culture on Leadership Behavior Despite the countless numbers of existing leadership definitions, the current explanation emphasizes the emotional aspects of influence. This current view of leadership is entirely contrary to the traditional interpretation that emphasized on cognitive as well the rational processes. While leadership may seem to be more correlated with management, they are mutually exclusive and entirely different. Moreover, management is efficient depended with managers targeting to do things right whereas leaders aim at doing the right things. Furthermore, leadership is typically concerned with effectiveness. House asserts that culture plays a significant role in determining the leadership behavior in a given setting (1). Culture influences all aspects of the society ranging from effective leadership to meeting of ethical standards and operation in a particular business firm. In a commercial company, culture acts as the elementary fabric that binds employees, managers as well as stakeholders together. Consequently, the organizational culture is not only shared among the key stakeholders of the organization but also determines the overall stability and satisfactory performance of the firm. It determines how people in a given firm dress, eat as well as shaping the philosophical and the political views of the workers. It is, therefore, imperative for every organization regardless of its size to establish an active culture as well as ethical standards to be followed by all stakeholders and key players in the company. Furthermore, setting up an appropriate organizational culture will determine how a business company operates. It will influence the manner in which its members behave in the best way within and outside the organization. Prejudice and ethnocentrism are the two fundamental concepts that depict the interrelationship between culture and leadership (Kumar, Sinha & Anjum, 1). The two concepts have a great impact on leadership behavior and how different leaders influence others. According to Kumar, Sinha, and Anjum, business culture tends to differ from one region to another in the United Arab Emirates (1). Additionally, the implicit leadership theory asserts that different people have inherent convictions and beliefs about the characteristics that play an integral role in differentiating leaders from their counterparts. Also, implicit theory distinguishes effective leadership from an ineffective one. The theory asserts that leadership lies in the eyes of the beholder (Kumar, Sinha & Anjum, 1). Each region in the United Arab Emirates tends to display its individual leadership culture that affects the nature of business and leadership behavior. Dubai is an example of an Emirate member state that displays such attributes. According to House and Javidan, there are six distinct global leadership behaviors that depend on a particular entrepreneurial culture for their proliferation (3). The practices include participation, charismatic, human-oriented, autonomous, team oriented and self-protective. However, the most currently recognized types of leadership that originate from the influence of culture on leadership behavior is the charismatic and the transformational leadership. Charismatic leaders are sometimes referred to as value oriented. It is a style of leadership that reflects the ability of a given leader to motivate, to inspire, and to expect high performance from others by the powerfully strengthened core values. Kumar, Sinha & Anjum identified a variety of attributes that characterize charismatic leaders. They are usually inspirational, trustworthy, visionary, decisive, self-sacrificing, and passionate as well as performance oriented (1). Max Weber conducted the first and earliest research regarding charismatic leadership. He identified traditional, charismatic and legal-rational as the three basic types of authority that could provide the real identity of a given society. The traditional unwritten laws enabled the society to identify different people with authority and how to use the power. However, power originated from the cultural and societal beliefs in the laws that governed the society. Winkler hypotheses that different scholars have had esteemed passion in establishing the accurate sources of charisma since its proposal by Max Weber (30). The ability of charisma to sprout from the situational conditions, leader attributes, and the interactive process between the followers and their leader brought about leader-follower-situation framework. Contrary to the many advantages and benefits associated with charismatic leadership, such leaders may have negative influence organizations and the societies. Nonetheless, their adverse effects may be explained by the negative value systems of charismatic leaders. Charismatic leaders may be prone to avoiding professional discourse and may face challenges on ideas (Gerald & Coppola, 75). They may exercise charisma for evil drives since some of them lead their organizations towards illegal and immoral ways through unethical behavior as well as an abuse of power. Comparatively, the transformational leaders usually have an appealing and a clear vision, act confidently and optimistic while explaining how to attain the vision as well expressing the confidence in the followers. Additionally, transformational leaders always lead by example (Gerald & Coppola, 75). They empower the whole organization to achieve its vision by utilizing symbolic and dramatic exercises while emphasizing on the key organizational values. The most appealing characteristic of the transformational leaders is that they provide opportunities for early successes. Nonetheless, the Team-oriented leadership targets to strengthen team building as well as creating a joint purpose for the whole group. Leaders who exercise team-oriented leadership are always diplomatic, non-malevolent, integrative, and administratively competent. Participative leadership has a close relationship with the team-oriented style. It reflects the extent that leaders actively involve different stakeholders including their employees in making, planning as well as implementing decisions. Leaders exercising participatory leadership are non-autocratic. Culture may also influence leaders in an organization to adopt the Humane-oriented leadership behavior that emphasizes being compassionate, generous, considerate and supportive. Such leaders usually practice sensitivity and modesty to people. However, some cultural practices in different organizations may also encourage autonomous leadership. Such leaders will always exhibit individualistic and independent leadership characterized by autonomy and a high degree of uniqueness. Organizational culture may also establish Self-protective leadership depicting behaviors that ensure the security and the safety of the entire workers and the leader. Leaders practicing self-oriented leadership are usually conflict inducing, status conscious, face-saving, self-centered, and procedural. The UAE Case The United Arab Emirates case provides the best case example of how culture influences organizational leadership as well as quality and satisfactory performance. The UAE has seven emirates. Abu Dhabi serves as the capital city of the seven Emirates (Azmy, 63). Dubai is the most worldwide popular and famous emirate in terms of proliferated and successful business activity. Dubai has modern developed buildings that support business activities. According to Azmy, the World Trade Centre around Sheikh Zeyed Road is the Central Business District (63). Any foreign company wishing to supply goods and services from abroad can appoint a commercial agent without necessarily establishing a physical contact in Dubai. The UAE business cultural laws allows frequent trading among its member emirates. Despite the fact that Dubai is virtually free of trade restrictions, there are cultural Arabian rules that still apply. It is unethical for someone to break the rules. The Arabian culture requires that all business conserve the smart dressing culture despite the frequent soaring heat. Azmy reports that unless a lady extends her fist, visitors should know that it is wrong to Arabian women hands following the Islamic Sharia (64). It is also wrong for visitors whether clients to sit while feet is pointing to someone to the extent of embarrassing her/him. However, corrections are kept for private discussions. Phone calls as well as scheduling of meetings should not occur on Fridays as this are the worshiping as well as the resting days. In terms of business, trust must be established and proven. Any suspicion of untrustworthy will lead to business frustration. Business owners, leaders, and managers should avoid political comments while refraining from the exhibition of tension and impatient. All leaders must be aware of the different public holidays in Dubai that align with the rest of UAE. The proliferated and cultural adherence of business managers in Dubai won it a marvelous deal to host the World Expo 2020 at the Dubai World Center. The deal is approximated to benefit major sectors of the Dubai economy. Some of the sectors that will synergistically impact in revenue increments of the UAE include the building and construction industry, hospitality, and tourism, as well as the aviation industry. Conclusion There has been a dramatic growth in the number of businesses operating in international markets due to the increase the impact of globalization. Consequently, the growth and advancement in business operations created the demand for leaders with a greater comprehension of cultural differences and enhanced performance in cross-cultural practice. Ethnocentrism and prejudice play an integral role in hindering the proliferation of cultural influence on leadership behavior in the different organization in the UAE. Culture refers to the commonly shared norms, values as well as beliefs of a given group of people. The cultural influence not only remains relevant in asserting ethical standards in communities but also plays an integral role in the organizational leadership. There are fundamental ways through which culture affects the behavior of leaders. Such techniques include the value orientation or the charisma, future direction, assertiveness, humane orientation and performance orientation. All transformational leaders are always charismatic, but charismatic leaders are not transformational. Additionally, charismatic leadership has far reaching disadvantages as discussed above as compared to transformation leadership style. Ineffective leaders are always self-focused, malevolent, and autocratic. It is, therefore, evident that culture plays an integral role in influencing the behavior and leadership styles of different leaders. Organizational leaders should always aim at establishing a culture that encourages appropriate leadership styles for them to achieve their vision. Works Cited Azmy, Ahmed, Business Environment in Dubai. Raleigh, North Carolina, United States: Lulu.Com, 2014, Print. House, Robert Cultural Influences on Leadership and Organizations: Project Globe. Markus Hauser, University of Zurich, 2013, Print. Retrieved from: http://globalmindset.thunderbird.edu/wwwfiles/sites/globe/pdf/process.pdf Kouzes, James and Posner, Barry, The leadership challenge: How to make extraordinary things happen in organizations. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2012, Print.  Kumar, Rakesh, Sinha, Ashis & Anjum, Bimal, Cross-Cultural Interactions and Leadership Behavior. International Refereed Research Journal: Vol. – II, Issue –3, July 2011 [151]. Retrieved from: www.researchersworld.com Ledlow, Gerald and M N. Coppola. Leadership for Health Professionals: Theory, Skills, and Applications. Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett, 2011. Print. Winkler, Ingo. Contemporary Leadership Theories: Enhancing the Understanding of the Complexity, Subjectivity and Dynamic of Leadership. Berlin: Springer, 2010. Internet resource. Read More