In the ((SELECT COUNTRY)) choose: United Arab Emirates
In the ((COMPARISON COUNTRY)) choose: Saudi Arabia
2)Identify and describe some of the cultural differences in the two chosen countries and how it affects
leadership practices.
3) Analyze the effect such cultural features have on leadership practices.
4) Evaluate the effectiveness of your own country�s leadership practices with regard to acknowledging
and understanding these two other cultures.
2
This paper seeks to identify and describe some of the cultural differences between the
United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. This paper also seeks to analyze how this difference
affects leadership practices. Studies on how different cultures perceive leadership and leadership
behaviors. This paper also provides an analysis of the effect such different cultural features have
on leadership practices. Finally, an evaluation of the effectiveness of the United Kingdom’s
leadership practices with regard to acknowledging and understanding of both the cultures of the
UAE and Saudi Arabia will be made.
In identifying cultural differences that affects leadership practices between the two
countries, a comparison conducted by the globe studies identified dimensions of leadership
behavior in relation to culture. They included Charismatic or value based leadership, team
orientated leadership, participative leadership, human orientated leadership, autonomous
leadership and self protective leadership.
Cultural features have also been proven to have various influences on leadership
practices. For examples, many cultures in the Middle East such as Saudi Arabia and the United
Arab Emirates have self protective characteristics which are indicative of authoritative and
autonomous leadership styles where the leader comes first in society then everybody else follows
coupled with a lack of participative leadership behavior which involves the inclusion of everyone
in decision making and implementation.
3
As compared between Saudi Arabia, the UAE and the UK, it is clear that culture and
power distance play a major role. Power distance is the extent at which the less powerful
members of a society expect and accept that power is unevenly distributed. In the United Arab
Emirates people accept pecking orders in which everybody has a place in society and everyone
should be content with that place to maintain stability. The power distance is lowest in the UK
but highest in Saudi Arabia. Individualism as a cultural attribute also plays an important role.
Individualism is the degree of interdependence a society maintains among its
members. In Individualist societies people are supposed to look after themselves and their direct
family only while in collectivist societies in the Middle East such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia,
people belong to societies as manifested in close long-term relationships like family and
extended family. For example the employer and employee relationships are made in gentleman
and moral terms and hiring and promotion take account of where the employee is from and who
they know.
Masculinity however has no much difference in the three country comparisons with the
United Arab Emirates scores 50 in this dimension indicating that it is neither masculine nor
feminine. Where uncertainty avoidance is concerned, the United Arab Emirates has a high
preference for avoiding uncertainty indicating that the extent to which the members of the culture
feel threatened by unknown circumstances and try to avoid them while the United Kingdom has
the highest.
4
Works Cited
Foster, Dean Allen. The Global Etiquette Guide to Africa and the Middle East Everything You
Need to Know for Business and Travel Success. New York: J. Wiley & Sons, 2002.
Harris, Philip R., and Robert T. Moran. Managing Cultural Differences. 6th ed. Amsterdam:
Elsevier/Butterworth-Heinemann, 2004.
Khan, Marryam. Gender Dynamics from the Arab World an Intercultural Service Encounter.
Orlando, Fla.: University of Central Florida, 2013.
“THE HOFSTEDE CENTRE.” United Arab Emirates.
