Leadership in Gulf Cooperation Council Country - Literature review Example

Leadership in GCC country

Literature Review on leadership in GCC

Unlike the western countries, there is little/no study done on the leadership styles in Gulf world (Politis, 2003). From a study conducted on Arab executives about their management style it was found that consultative style was highly dominating (Ali and Schaupp, 1992). Another study between expatriates and indigenous employees revealed that the former showed affinity towards participative and pseudo-consultative style of management and latter showed consultative characteristics (Ai, Azim and Krishnan, 1995). However, a people-centric attitude and followership management style has also been noticed (Collinson 2006, and Western 2008). From most of the studies conducted, UAE has shown very high impact of its tradition into the behavioural aspect of leadership.

The Arab world because of its high oil content has become commercially important to the western counterpart. Saudi Arabia alone has 35% of the GCC region’s oil reserve and 25% of world’s oil reserve. Due to high demand of this non renewable natural resource and ever increasing price (because of its depleting nature), the Gulf countries are experiencing high amount of cash inflow (Apgar 1977). This has lead to increase in the number of western expatriates in Gulf region and influence of western managerial practices among Gulf leaders is quite evident. A comparative study was conducted between managerial styles of Arab leaders with American leaders but due to the absence of empirical data it was more of exploratory nature. One of the three purposes of the study was to determine the factors that were affecting the styles of management. Normally a traditionally influenced Arab leadership shows consultative form of management but this study outcome was bent towards participative form which indicates the impact of certain degree of western leadership into Arabian leadership style (Jafary and Hollingsworth, 1983).

There are numerous factors that affect the decision making patterns of the Arabian leaders and different researchers have different opinion like the characteristics of individuals and components of organisation impacts managerial style (Ali, 1989). Some believe that the cultural backgrounds of individuals rule their style (Hofstede, 1980) while another group believes decision making is situational (Ali, 1993). A study based on all the presumptions of factors influencing the decision making patterns of Arabian leaders revealed that there are two critical components that highly impacts the style of leadership but has not been empirically measured in Gulf countries; first is organisation’s culture and second is kind of technology that is being used in the organisational set-up (Yousef, 1988).

An empirical study was conducted in Saudi Arabia on their existing managerial value systems and it was important as the existing data on how the leaders in Gulf take decisions was scarce (Murrell, 1979). The study was based on the impact of culture and social values on leadership practices and questionnaires were distributed among different sets of people working in public sector and students. The results showed the dominance of conformist practices (sacrificial and benevolence nature) while egocentric self-centred behaviour scored least. The Arab leaders showed outer-directed values that is tribalistic (followership and obedience) and society oriented while their American counterparts are more self-centred and inner-directed (Ali, 1982). Arab leaders showed the tendency of moving with the group rather than moving ahead of the group; a characteristic more dominant in people working in public enterprises.

Leadership is a generalised term that is applicable for both the genders but a deeper study on the styles of management among men and women brings out a different scenario altogether. Studies have shown that thinking process of men and women varies and the ladder to higher positions is more restricted and tougher to climb for the females which in-turn influence their management styles. According to a research outcome that was conducted to understand the differences in management styles of men and women in Arab world following could be summarized: Arab women were found to be more idealised and believes that actions speak louder than words while males believe more in preaching. Women take the path of motivating towards achievement of the vision of the organisation and emphasises on what actions need to be taken to reach the goal. They also show higher intellectual incitement in giving out different ways of approach and problem solving skills and have more compassion towards individual development and team achievement. Overall the leadership style of women in Arab region seems to be more democratic than their male counterparts (Yaseen, 2010).

In Oman the term leadership is associated with Sultan rather than business or organisational leaders because in this country ‘monarchs not only reign but rule.’ In regards to political leadership, Sultan has the ultimate say and his leadership extends to the social and economic life of the people of Oman. Tribalism is one of the important features that still decide the leadership role prevailing in the country. The dominance or royal families in every level of organisation controls its bureaucracy. The State of Oman is run under the authoritarian regime of the Sultan and his royal family (Common, 2011).

A research on the Omani managerial styles has shown high nepotism (Al-Ghailani, 2005). Situational leadership is also evident in Oman as much as in other Gulf nations where the nature of leadership changes from a public enterprise to that of an MNC (Hersey and Blanchard, 1998). A very significant role is played by the Islam religion on the behavioural aspects of all leaders in Gulf as 80% of them embrace and swings in the thoughts and practices preached through their holy book verses. It has lead to the patriarchal form of society dominated by men in the family as well as the society and organisation at large (Jamali et al, 2005). The selection of the leaders is done by the priests and tribal representative that result in high influence from the religion over the organisational structure of Oman. The leadership exercised by Omani managers will show more inclination towards traditional culture. The managers are free to use power or coercion to ensure obedience and loyalty from their subordinates highlighting the existence high ‘power distance’ within the business culture of Oman (Common, 2011). The centralisation power in the Sultan empowers the monarch to exercise substantial control over the corporation and public sector. This has also prevented the country from developing genuine leadership within the organisations in Oman.

Over the decades the subject of leadership has captured the interest of intellectuals as success/failure has been directly related to the kind of leadership force acting behind it. A study on “Leadership and Islam” has tried to view leadership from the perspective of Islam as the roots of Arab world are immersed in the beliefs and practices of their religion. The study has also tried to highlight the forms of leadership in the present-day Middle-eastern countries; contradicting the authoritarian style with that of the ideals of Islamic verse.

According to the work of Ali, Taqi and Krishnan (1997), Kuwait has been influenced by Arab culture and traditions just like any other Arab country but the societies in the country display a more tolerant and cosmopolitan ambiences owing to the presence of majority merchants residing there. The political set up in this country demonstrates a more autocratic leadership unlike its business environment which is inclined towards consultative approach practiced by organizational leadership. However this raises a significant question how can two totally opposite leadership style in the same economy without any ideological clashes but it is similarly interesting to see that Kuwait has supported the ways of political leaders and their monopoly over political power without any disruption in the organisational culture of the country. One of the primary reasons to this may be Kuwait’s exposure to the Western customs and ideas for a long time shaping their behaviour and attitudes.

The managers in this country strongly support the democratic and participative form of leadership based on its widespread effectiveness in spite of certain instances where it has been found that some supervisors in the practices pseudo-consultative form of leadership as well. This is evident from the survey conducted by Ali and Al-Kazemi (2002) that there are prevalence of favoritisms, shrugging off responsibilities and dictatorship of managers with respects to recruitments and promotions. Female leaders, driven by participative leadership practices, have also their place among male dominated business world (Al-Suwaihel, 2010).

In many ways today’s Gulf nations are different from the flourishing years of Muslim era. Even though it has undergone degrading stage; it still has immense potential to rise up and compete economically or politically. This is yet another reason behind the interest of researchers to study leadership in these nations. Empirical study (whatsoever little) shows the dominance of participative and consultative form of leadership and they show high potential of competitiveness and effective performance. It was observed that decision making power was enjoyed by the top managers (Muna, 2003). There was centralisation of power in Jordanian and Arab organisations (Sabri, 1997; Al-Rasheed, 2002). Leaders play authoritarian behaviour but display idealistic thoughts and believe that their contradictory roles won’t get noticed thereby creating an illusion of setting idealistic form of leadership (Child, 1976).

As a result of a survey among leaders in Gulf nations, four basic types have been identified that are inconsistently present in different countries of GCC; autocratic (people at top makes and takes decisions), sheikocratic (driven by holistic approach), tradition driven and spiritually enlightened.

• Conclusion

Leadership styles and management practices are often studied to understand the implication on the economy and MNCs strategize business policies according to the dominating stature. The Arab Gulf nations are strict to their roots and beliefs and show high degree of commitment and sense of responsibility. People who are in power or in a position to serve, helps in sorting out many problems of fellow countrymen like in getting jobs or lending money if required. Despite of the rigid authoritative control, the organizational environment is participative. Studies also revealed that there is distinct difference between the leadership styles shown by male and female workforce the latter being more democratic. The organisational structure in the Gulf countries is highly influenced by their culture and traditions with the presence of high power distance which a limiting factor the genuine development of leadership qualities in Individual in these nations.

Managers, who are indigenous to the gulf region, play an important role in implementing social and economic development as these countries lack in the availability of well-trained and educated workforce.

The success or failure of an organisation or nation depends on its leader and his followers and the Gulf nations through historically and culturally shaped leadership has gained its competitive advantage over its peers. The present turbulence in GCC can be attributed to the tensions between followers and leaders because of clash in desire of participative approach but dominance of authoritative approach.

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