Abstract
Leadership is a paramount element in every organization since it determines the success or failure of a company. Organizations in the Middle East use various leadership styles such as authoritative, transformational, bureaucratic, charismatic, and participative ways of leading employees. In order to find out how the leadership styles are employed by organizations in the region, the researcher had a face-to-face interview with G&M Middle East’s manager and carried out secondary research with the help of reputable journals.
Introduction
This research aims at identifying the characteristics of leadership styles used in the Middle East. The identification will assist in assessing whether organizations in the region offer an employee-friendly environment.
Literature Review
Leadership is a process that an individual or group uses to influence and guide their followers to achieve common goals (Khan, Aslam, & Riaz, 2012). Companies in the Middle East mainly use authoritative, transformational, bureaucratic, charismatic, and participative leadership styles to manage their employees (Greaves, 2012). Perhaps due to their societal culture, managers in the Middle East usually use the authoritarian leadership style (Iqba, Anwar, & Haider, 2015). The subordinates of an authoritarian leader are rarely trusted with crucial activities and are not involved in decision making (Gonos & Gallo, 2013). Besides, authoritarian leaders offer minimal or no guidance to their followers. Autocratic leaders coerce their employees instead of persuading them to work hard to achieve organizational goals (Zhang et al., 2015). Additionally, such leaders usually supervise their followers closely, but without participating, to make sure they meet the set goals and deadlines (Von Krogh, Nonaka, & Rechsteiner, 2012). Authoritative leadership is supported by transactional leadership theory where leaders punish or reward employees to promote compliance and desired work performance. In this theory, leaders are task and result-oriented.
Primary Research
The researcher approached G&M Middle East’s manager for a face-to-face interview to find out the type of leadership style that the company uses and its influence on the organization’s employees and operations. Some of the questions posed to the manager required information about: the type of overall management style that the company uses, the form of leader that the manager thinks he is, the involvement of the manager in employees’ activities, the kind of supervision offered by the manager, and ways of inspiring the workers.
The manager who participated in the interview responded that G&M Middle East’s management used the autocratic leadership style to manage all its employees. He added that he always wanted to see tasks completed quickly and that he leads by example. Concerning the way he supervises his juniors, the manager responded that he allowed the independent employees to work on their own as teams but closely monitors the dependent employees to keep them on track. On the question regarding inspiring the employees, the manager responded that he pushes, motivates, offers necessary assistance, gives monthly feedback, promotes teamwork, and keeps himself on track with the employees that he supervises to inspire them.
Discussion
Although G&M Middle East’s management is said to be autocratic, some of the theoretical characteristics of the leadership are missing in the company’s management while others are present. The manager’s participation in subordinates’ tasks, the offering of guidance, and allowing some of his employees to work without much of his supervision is inconsistent with the autocratic style of leadership (Gonos & Gallo, 2013). Companies using the authoritative style should emulate G&M Middle East’s management for flexible leadership rather than control their employees in a brutal manner.
Conclusion
G&M Middle East Company uses the authoritative style of leadership. Although some organizations in the Middle East use transformational, bureaucratic, charismatic, and participative leadership styles, authoritative style is the most common although it is not entirely applied.
References
Gonos, J., & Gallo, P. (2013). Model for leadership style evaluation. Management: Journal of Contemporary Management Issues, 18(2), 157-168.
Greaves, S. (2012). A primer of Middle Eastern leadership culture. Journal of Strategic Security, 5(4), 99.
Iqba, N., Anwar, S., & Haider, N. (2015). Effect of leadership style on employee performance. Arabian Journal of Business and Management Review, 5(5), 1-6.
Khan, M. J., Aslam, N., & Riaz, M. N. (2012). Leadership styles as predictors of innovative work behavior. Pakistan Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 9(2), 17-22.
Von Krogh, G., Nonaka, I., & Rechsteiner, L. (2012). Leadership in organizational knowledge creation: A review and framework. Journal of Management Studies, 49(1), 240-277.
Zhang, J., Ahammad, M. F., Tarba, S., Cooper, C. L., Glaister, K. W., & Wang, J. (2015). The effect of leadership style on talent retention during merger and acquisition integration: Evidence from China. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 26(7), 1021-1050.