Living in the era of globalization, the concept of cultural diversity gains popularity and, as a result, gender and race discrimination are heavily criticized all over the world. At the same time, cultural diversity issue implies respecting and adhering to cultural, social, and religious standards of a specific country. Therefore, admitting a female to the position of a team leader can become a serious challenge for both the team, specifically when it comes to cooperation with the people originating from low-context and high-context countries. Despite all the challenges, delegating a female leader to Saudi Arabia is much more reasonable in case the executive is a promising and skilled negotiator, as well as a talented person who knows how to behave in a culturally diverse setting. There are several advantages of selecting a businesswoman for this position.
Selecting a female executive leading the team is a resolute step, but it has multiple advantages, particularly for international organizations. To begin with, such a choice will indicate cultural tolerance of an organization to gender discrimination practices. Besides, it is a key step to increasing cultural diversity awareness across the cultures. Besides, because Saudi Arabia is involved in many international partnerships, the business managers will also be able to meet halfway the leader. They recognize the expansion of internalization and the possibility of a woman to equally act in a global environment. Just like Western countries accept Islamic traditions, it will also be able to express their tolerance to loose culture of the Western society. What is more important is that cultural diversity have become a major task of all countries because it the basic conditions for advancing and strengthening relations within international organizations.
There is no guarantee that a male executive is capable of understanding the needs of Arabic clients, as well as find effective communicative approach to reach success. The fact of female executive’s greater experience and command of cross-cultural communication should be an unquestionable advantage in the given situation. Besides, a decision of a company to send a female leader to a male-dominating society is a call for addressing discriminatory practices in the world. Hence, ignoring gender differences is a part of management strategies that presupposes the basic for building a multicultural organization.
The focus on interpersonal skills, leadership gift, and in-depth experience in negotiation is much more typical to feminine identity rather than masculine identity. Women, therefore, are recognized as more talented communicators and diplomats. Addressing the issues of gender, a multicultural organization should not admit stereotypical prejudices and judgment provided they strive to reach the upper level of international relations. Besides, admitting a male executive to the leader position would mean negligence of global strategies of gender equality and cultural diversity. Choosing a leader according to gender affiliation is not reasonable, particularly because of the globalized tendencies of cooperation between countries and cultures.
In conclusion, the shift in views on leadership is a step forward to successful management at the international level. Therefore, appointing a woman on a position of a team leader should not be regarded as disrespect to Islamic traditions, but an adherence to a non-discriminative policy acted out in the globalized community. Besides, Saudi Arabia leader have had a long experience in cooperating with Western countries so that a woman leader should not be a problem for them.