GLOBAL AND LOCAL REALITIES
IN THE ARAB CLASSROOM
Some reflections.
DEVELOPING LEADERSHIP . . WITHOUT
DISCUSSING POLITICS

Developing critical thinking . . Without being
critical of local political systems or leaders.
OBSERVATIONS FROM MY TIME IN THE
REGION
Look at the realities of tackling leadership issues to
undergraduate and MBA business students in the
Gulf region.
Based on a year in the UAE and 5 years in Oman.
Leadership is integrated into OB. Increasingly, it is
a stand alone course at under/ graduate MBA
levels.
AMERICAN HEGEMONY IN BUSINESS
EDUCATION IN THE GULF
Hegemon =leader/ Hegemonia = leadership
 Gramsci on cultural hegemony.
 Particularly problematic in Gulf business schools.
 Teaching of business and of leadership
dominated by US materials. Textbooks. PPT
slides.
 Language: English
 Cases and examples: Primarily western.
 Research: Leadership Quarterly (US)
 Institutional dominance: Association for the
Advancement of Collegiate Schools of Business
(AACSB).

PROBLEMS WITH HEGEMONY
Mismatch between what Gulf Arab students
learn, and their work experience.
 Why?
 Western business materials/ ideas implicitly
assume an idealized Western context:
 authenticity/ transformational leadership;
 straight talking; freedom of expression;
 Challenging the status quo – often highly
political (Lincoln, Mandela, Ghandi).
 Political process, and representation.
 Models taught are problematic in the Arab
workplace.

IN THE GULF STATES THERE ARE CERTAIN
KEY FACTORS THAT ANY LEADER MUST
DEAL WITH.
Enormous wealth in the hands of key families in
each country.
 Wasta networks.
 Absence of political dissent/ critical political
discourse.
 No free press/ investigative journalism.
 Unions. Industrial democracy.
 Dominance of state bureaucracies.
 Qarar culture.
 Lack of transparency (recent Dubai bailout).

IMPLICATIONS FOR LEADERSHIP
DEVELOPMENT
“Think critically . . But without publicly
criticising the State, the political system, powerful
business leaders, or politicians”.
 Leadership development and education is thus
characterized by a tension . . .
 between Western discourse, theories and
research, and local realities, which are often
glossed or avoided.
 That is what why . .
 when discussing leadership for the common good,
we avoid challenging, or even mentioning, the
political structures.

Global and local realities in the Gulf Arab
classroom
 Developing leadership . . Without discussing
politics.
 Developing critical thinking, without being
critical of local political systems or leaders.

THE WAY FORWARD?
Address these tensions . . and use them to
enhance learning and development . .
 Tensions: Global – Local/ Universal-particular
 Problem based learning techniques . .
 Politics: Tightrope . .
 “Leadership for the common good?”
 We walk the same tightrope!
