Introduction
Since different leadership styles are needed during different occasions, this paper analyzes some of the views of respondents interviewed. Respondents observed that leadership styles affect the organizational aims and objectives. In the United Arabs Emirates, leadership affects job satisfaction, loyalty of employees, and efficiency.
Therefore, leadership style is a dependent variable that is affected by other variables, such as the background information, cultural values, organizational culture, career plans, and job attitudes.
A leader applies a style that is acceptable culturally. Moreover, the style applied should be consistent with the organizational culture. Other factors, such as the level of education, age, gender, marital status, and experience affect the leadership style of individuals in the organization. Since leaders have career plans, they may apply certain styles that would allow them to fulfill the plans.
Finally, the attitude of the leader towards a certain job might influence his or her leadership style. It is obvious that a leader with a positive attitude would apply a democratic style while a leader with a negative attitude would definitely apply an autocratic style.
Leadership Styles
The above data shows that consensus style of leadership is not common in the Emirati society. A small percentage of those interviewed felt that leaders in United Arab Emirates apply consultative leadership styles.
Factors Influencing Leadership Styles
Cultural Value Orientation
The Arabian culture affects the leadership styles of leaders in a number of ways. A majority of respondents claimed that followers should obey their leaders without questioning. This means that the culture of the United Arabs Emirates does not support democratic or consultative leadership approaches. Managers are charged with the responsibility of ensuring that the policies are made and implemented in the organization without involving the junior employees.
One of the leaders interviewed observed that people in higher positions should not delegate important tasks to people in lower positions. Doing this would result to the tyranny of the multitude. From the views of those interviewed, it is clear that the Emirati leadership style is directive and paternalistic. Employees are viewed as junior members of the family who should simply take up instructions without questioning.
In case a leader applies a different style, he or she would be perceived as weak and unable to lead the organization. According to the Emirati society, consultative leadership style amounts to poor management. However, employees are comfortable with the leadership style because it is interpreted to mean a family-like leadership approach.
Since the boss is the father, he or she would not do something that would anger children (employees). The father has the responsibility of instructing the children on what to do. Moreover, the father should care for children by providing everything to them. For children to benefit from the father, they must follow instructions without questioning some of the decisions.
Children are expected to be respectful to their father and other elders in the family. The style is defective because it does not facilitate innovativeness and inventive ideas in the organization. Employees perform duties that the boss assigns to them. Doing something outside the assigned roles would be interpreted to mean rudeness and breach of contract. On their part, managers are expected to deliver instructions accurately and expansively.
In the United Arab Emirates, the behavior of leaders is influenced by ancestral traditions. Junior employees should comply with the rules and regulations set by the management. Leaders are always in full control meaning that they design all policies without involving junior employees. The leadership is centralized implying that the top management makes decisions that are distributed to other units.
Even though technology has reshaped decision-making in many organizations in the world, the Emirati organizations still rely on individuals for decisions. The leadership styles employed in the United Arab Emirates limits competent employees from contributing their meticulous ideas to the running of organizations. Application of innovative and creative ideas in resolving issues affecting organizations are highly discouraged.
In other words, the leadership styles do not permit change. Cultural values are always used as conflict resolution tools in the organization. The dominant cultural values have led to the generation of a leadership system based on religion. In big organizations, the autocratic leadership style has led to the emergence of hierarchical power and observance of defective rules.
Background Information of the Leader
The background information of the leader matters as far as a leadership style is concerned. For instance, the nationality of the leader, gender, age, marital status, professional experience, and education affects the effectiveness of the leader. In the United Arab Emirates, a large number of leaders are Emirati nationals.
They employ different leadership styles as compared to their European and American counterparts. The leadership styles employed by Emirati nationals are autocratic as compared to the styles employed by European and American nationals. Nationality of the leader is closely related to culture because each nation has unique cultures. Other Asians, such as Chinese and Japanese, employ a consultative leadership approach, which is related to their culture.
The gender of the leader affects the leadership approach in a number of ways. From the data obtained, respondents are aged between 46 and 50 years. Research shows that young leaders are innovative, adventurous, risk-takers, and dynamic. Their decision-making is efficient and swift as compared to the decision-making approaches of older leaders.
Old leaders are associated with conservatism and autocratic approaches. For instance, an older leader would not consult his or her juniors. Such leaders believe that they have adequate experience and they do not see any need of consulting inexperienced leaders. Age plays a critical role in leadership.
The older leaders interviewed observed that they have the responsibility of ensuring that the organization succeeds. To do this effectively, they should not consult because it would affect the speed with which decisions are made. Younger leaders suggested that consultation is very important because it encourages cooperation and unity in the organization.
The gender of the leader is another independent variable that affects the leadership style to be adopted. Women are considered weak leaders because they give in easily to the demands of employees. Their leadership approach suggests that they are democratic and transformational as compared to the leadership approaches of men. Women tend to consult more as compared to men. In the interview, female leaders claimed that they consult at every stage.
Respondents observed that female leaders in their organizations help subordinates overcome problems that stop them from carrying out their tasks. On the other hand, respondents claimed that male leaders in their organizations do little to make subordinates feel good about being a member of the team. The study shows that women have different leadership approaches as compared to those of men.
Regarding the level of education, leaders who responded to the questionnaires claimed that they apply democratic approaches. Those with high school qualifications and diploma holders apply autocratic leadership styles. It can be observed that old leaders tend to employ autocratic leadership styles.
A large number of old leaders have diminutive education, with most of them holding diplomas. The situation is worse when the older leader is a man. In this regard, it can be observed that education improves an individual’s level of awareness. Training plays an important role as far as growth and success of the organization is concerned. Educated leaders are more efficient as compared to unskilled and semi-skilled leaders.
Therefore, new employees joining the organization should be offered adequate training. Training new employees helps them in accomplishing organizational tasks, dreams, policies, and set of laws. High education has four major benefits. One of the benefits is that it improves the confidence of leaders.
Through training, the leader is assured of the job, leading to satisfaction. Leaders with adequate training require lesser supervision as compared to those without training. In the interview, some top leaders claimed that they had to exercise autocratic leadership style because mid-level and junior leaders were unable to make sound policies. Enhanced training in the organization leads to high productivity.
Organizational Culture
In the organization, employees acquire cultural values over a long period. The acquired cultural values are transmitted from one employee to the other over years. Organizational culture sets the rules and standards for all employees joining the organization. In other words, employees joining the organization must adjust their cultural values to suit the organizational expectations.
The organizational norms, standards, principles, and laws are put in place to control the behavior of employees, including leaders. Every organization has established ways of carrying out duties. Therefore, leaders must design leadership styles that reflect the organizational policies.
Organizational values develop through leadership. It is the role of leaders in the organization to impart specific skills to new entrants. Each employee is expected to follow the values strictly in order to achieve organizational goals and objectives. Through organizational values and principles, employees are able to achieve collective goals. When employees learn to work together as a team, the organizational culture emerges.
The role of leaders is to maintain the organizational culture. Through organizational culture, there would be consistency in the behavior of employees. This means that leaders would simply adopt the leadership styles recommended by the organization. Leaders would not be allowed to devise new leadership styles since such styles would be considered inconsistent to the organizational culture (Nydell 14).
In the interview, a large number of respondents observed that their organizations encourage members to respect the authority. This means that most leaders are tough on employees. In the United Arab Emirates, leaders discourage competition among employees in the organization because it leads to low productivity.
The Emirati organizations employ collectivistic organizational cultures, which appreciate the efforts of groups rather than individuals. In this regard, employees are expected to consider the interests of the group before acting. Therefore, group goals are given a priority as opposed to individual goals. Moreover, the organization utilizes the family connections in enhancing the performance of the organization.
In this case, the manager is perceived as the father while junior employees are children. In other words, each member has a role to play in the organization. Each member ensures that the organization achieves collective goals. Under the Emirati organizational culture, the management awards groups, not individuals.
Therefore, each member of the group must perform his or her duty faithfully in order to boost the performance of the team. Finally, the responses of the interviewees suggest that interpersonal relationships are valued rather than the task assigned to the group. Therefore, members of the group are expected to relate well (Deal 46).
Job Attitudes
A strong relationship between the attitudes of employees and the leadership styles they employ exist. As earlier observed, employees might develop either positive or negative attitudes.
When they develop a negative attitude towards the job, they would tend to employ defective leadership styles, such as autocracy. The attitude of the leader influences the leadership style because anger might force the leader to adopt a destructive style in certain situations. In some occasions, a leader might adopt a leadership style that is detrimental to the organization.
For instance, the leader might be too soft to employees mainly because he or she achieved something in his or her private life. For female leaders, emotional circumstances affect their leadership styles. A pregnant female leader may apply a leadership style that seems discriminative. The leader might favor certain individuals or groups based on age and gender.
For those interviewed, youthful leaders and women suggested that they miss an opportunity to serve their organizations beyond the official work.
Their aim is to improve the performance of the organization. They cannot do anything to improve the performance of the organization because the attitude of their seniors is negative. For male employees, they suggested that the organization is no longer an ideal place for them to work.
In other words, the attitude of senior leaders is negative. In the organization, older men have a feeling that their ideas are not always taken into consideration. They believe that the management is always against them because they are not allowed to take up leadership positions. A number of mature employees would suggest that shifting to other organizations would be the best option.
Works Cited
Deal, Kennedy. Corporate cultures: The rites and rituals of corporate life. Cambridge: Perseus Publishing, 2000. Print.
Nydell, Margaret. Understanding Arabs: a guide for Westerners. Yarmouth: Intercultural Press, 2002. Print.