Background
The article under analysis called Leadership in a Multicultural Arab Organisation considers the role of leadership styles, as well as supervisor-subordinate relationships, in increasing organizational performance and culture (Butler 139). The author provides an overview of connections between efficient decision-making and its influence on productivity levels in a company.
The article starts with identifying leadership in terms of its relation to business performance. The researcher also provides a distinct analysis of leadership, particularly how it differs from managers. Further, the author proceeds with the assessing communication that is crucial in promoting leadership skills.
Therefore, leaders should be able to generate favorable behavioral patterns and shape an effective organizational environment. With an emphasis on organizational culture, leaders should be able to use power effectively to influence other people. As a result of such relations, leaders evoke certain moods, expectations, and images which later allow managers to carry specific roles.
To emphasize importance of leadership for organizational performance, the author also touches on the problem of cultural diversity in Arab multicultural organizations. Implementing specific leadership styles can both encourage and motivate employees to work more enthusiastically.
Therefore, concept of cultural diversity comes to the forth. At the end of the studies, the scholar concludes that leadership should underline charisma to attract employees’ attention and increase their satisfaction. It has also been found that commitment to organizational goals is strongly associated with quality of relations between supervisors and their subordinates.
Clarity and Usefulness
The article has well organized and transparent structure. The author’s ideas closely relate to the structure and organization and provide the readers with the overall concepts and connections. Therefore, the article is consistent and logical. In addition, the article is useful because it highlights aspects and challenges of managing cultural diversity in UAE. The author has managed to shed light on leadership in a narrow cultural concept.
The author also presents information about features and conditions under which multicultural organization can improve its performance. In addition to the consistent structure, the article provides a number of reliable evidence stipulating the usefulness of the research under consideration. In particular, the authors provides similar research studies related to cross-cultural issues.
Research Methodology
The study is based on a qualitative methodology which allows to analyze 137 employees working in a multicultural Arab company. By means of Likert scale, the participants had to choose seven variants of answers, which ensure greater objectivity of the text. The chosen sample for the research is adequate for conducting a research provided the sample covers the entire population.
Although the give methods allows to provide significant findings, as well as practical implications for future research, introducing quality methods, such as interviewing of the focus groups, individual interviewing, and recording of the answers, could contribute greatly to the analysis of employees behaviors, as well as their attitude toward the challenges of multicultural environment.
Quality of Hypothesis and Data
The hypotheses of the research study are relevant because they are confined to a specific problem investigated in an Arab leadership context. Each hypothesis out of five is followed by detailed explanations of purposes and arguments that should be researched and discussed. Specific attention is paid to the analysis of the necessity to establish frames within which leadership influences other organizational aspects, as well as human resources.
By discussing various traits of leadership, the author skillfully finds correlations with other dimensions of organizational leadership, including employees’ commitment, reward and recognition schemes, cultural backgrounds, and leadership styles.
Apart from the topic relevance, the given hypotheses allow for assessment of employees’ behavior. They also predict further implications for studying leadership styles and their influence on a multicultural environment. The quality of data delivered in the article is justified because it is taken from the real-to-life environment.
Discussion Evaluation
Though there is no particular heading for discussion, it still involves explanations that are matching with all hypothesis posed at the beginning of the research. The explanations, however, do not provide consistent and systematic responses to the research questions, but are incorporated into thematic domains.
While evaluating the persuasiveness of the highlighted themes, specific emphasis should be placed on considering logical connections established between employees’ responses and leadership theories.
The value of the discussion is enhanced because it relates to a specific cultural context within which leadership styles are considered. Despite the consistency and clarity, much concern is connected with the generalized conclusions based on the surveys.
So, there should be more references to the initial hypothesis, instead of generalized statements. In particular, the discussion focuses primarily on general assumption, but not on practical implementation of the discussion.
Findings and Practical Implications
The findings are represented in a clear and transparent way. Each of the conclusions made in the passage correspond to the numerical data received during the survey. Because the research refers to a certain multicultural variety, as well as the way it is treated in an Arab world, the findings could be used to make the corresponding changes to work and objectives of an organization.
Despite the narrow context, the findings can also be applicable to the multinational organizations established in other countries. For example, it has been defined that “commitment to the organization is related to the quality of supervisor-subordinate relations” (Butler 139). The finding proves the importance of introducing person-oriented approaches in managing multicultural organizations.
Therefore, the research proves the reliability and validity of the findings. Practical implications introduced in the article reflect further perspectives for analyzing business environment in terms of culture and organization.
Limitations for Academics and Consultants
The limitation of the study lies in a narrow-focused discussion of supervisor-subordinate relations in a particular organization. The findings related to this topic could not be applied to other organizations with various cultural backgrounds.
Indications on Future Research
Because the research under analysis focuses mainly on the analysis of leadership qualities and their impact on employees’ performance, future research should be dedicated to the analysis of employees’ behavior and their influence on the development of new leadership styles.
In addition, the author pays closer attention to language and communication skills as essential components of successful cross-cultural interaction. Managers and leaders should be more concerned with understanding cultural peculiarities. A person-centered approach is more justified.
Relevance of the Research to an Arab Management Context
The research studies are based on the survey of employees working an UAE multicultural company, but their nationalities differ. On the one hand, because UAE culture shapes the basis of organizational culture, the research findings are highly relevant to the topic.
On the other hand, the employees who take part in the research originate from different cultures and, therefore, their answers that do not depend on the UAE cultural peculiarities. Such perspectives, however, could be used in any multicultural context to meet the needs of culturally diverse employees. The task of Arab leaders, therefore, is to correspond to international standards of managing business.
Works Cited
Butler, Colin. Leadership in a Multicultural Arab Organisation. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 30.2 (2009): 139-151. Print.