Farid A. Muna and Ziad A. Zennie are not fanciful men. As researchers they have to deal with hard facts. But that doesn’t stop them from digressing occasionally. “Not only is the world getting flatter, it is becoming more colourful,” they say, explaining the effect of multiculturalism on leadership in the business environment today.
“As globalisation becomes a reality, more and more companies will employ people of every race, nationality, religious background, and age group. These people will work side by side in the same office building, others a hemisphere away. That’s why if your company is still leading the ‘old’ way, you’re making a mistake.”
It would be great if you could magically fill your leadership ranks with men and women from different cultures and backgrounds. But
if that’s unrealistic, Muna and Zennie, who are chairman and partner respectively at Meirc Training and Consulting, an international training, consulting and research company, say you can gain a lot by borrowing the techniques outlined in their book, Developing Multicultural Leaders: The journey to leadership success, published by Palgrave Macmillan.
“Today’s leadership models, although they may differ from person to person and method to method, generally have a common bias toward Western- or European-influenced ways of thinking,” say Muna and Zennie.
“In most of the training programmes we conduct at Meirc Training and Consulting, the question often arises why we always refer to Western models. The question has been bothering us for so many years that at a point we said ‘hey isn’t it time, not to come up with
a model per se – you don’t want to box an elusive and amorphous topic like leadership within boundaries, but to try to understand what kind of a journey can we successfully embark in this regard’. This led to the book.”
Contemporary leadership theories exclude the contributions, potential learning, and insights that come from leaders in diverse communities. “We are fascinated and intrigued by a topic like leadership that has baffled many management thinkers,” say the authors. “Call
it a curious passion, or a passionate curiosity.”
Take for instance the UAE. There are more than 200 nationalities living and working here. According to Muna and Zennie, the most successful businesses will be those that incorporate the influences, practices, and values of these diverse cultures. “Through implementing multicultural leadership, not only will a company’s working environment be a better, more enjoyable place to work, but you will be able to better handle the needs of your multicultural customers,” they say.
“Multicultural leadership encourages an inclusive and adaptable style that cultivates the ability to bring out the best in our diverse workforce and to fashion a sense of community with people from many parts of the globe.
“It enables a wide spectrum of people to actively engage, contribute, and tap their potential. That’s why making sure your workplace has culturally inclusive leadership will be one of the most important transitions you make into the new globalised world.”
The stages of success
Muna and Zennie say there are three stages of leadership development all successful leaders go through. “The first stage starts from childhood. Development starts at home, then through school and university. Not just the academic path, but also extracurricular activities.”
“For example my daughter as we speak is on a trip to Vietnam,” says Zennie. “It appears that some children who may have been too spoiled need to go through an experience like this about how less privileged people live, to appreciate life. The extracurricular experience that is integrated with the curriculum at the school she goes to here becomes a learning experience. This is the kind of development
we are talking about pre-leadership.”
That’s why the early years of potential leaders are given so much importance in the book. “We found that there are a number of factors that influence their leadership and leadership development in that period. The factors influencing careers or success which may happen as early as in the pre-career stage are people; father, mother, teachers, siblings. That is one category. The other is events, education, crisis even; for example experiencing a war or personal crisis. Other factors would be application,
self-development, luck and opportunity.”
The second stage of aspiring leaders continues and identifies specific competencies, not technical skills, but attitudes or abilities that are critical for becoming outstanding leaders. “In this stage, based on ours as well as other research findings, the book identifies five paths to success. The five paths are: Working hard and smart, training and career development, personal development, cultural sensitivity, and cultivating emotional intelligence.”
The final stage is of how leaders become outstanding through specific actions, strategies, and systems. “It’s at this stage that leadership and decision-making styles need to fit the culture in the context. It is also when hiring and developing potential leaders for the future becomes a critical task. Vision, strategy execution, performance accountability are required to ensure that organisations grow and remain competitive,” say the authors.
The authors see the book as a watershed in understanding management issues in the Middle East. “One of our contributions through the book is that we have tried to understand for lack of it the local, regional, Middle Eastern culture,” say the authors. “We based the research in 12 different countries – six GCC and six Arab countries. The countries were
By the way …
Farid Muna and Ziad Zennie point to four clusters of competencies:
Being self-aware: You cannot lead others unless you can manage yourself. And you can’t do that unless you are self-aware.
Self-confidence and accurate self-assessment are critical competencies for leadership success.
Self-management, especially the competencies of transparency and adaptability.
Social awareness: being aware of other people, empathising with them. Having a sense of service orientation.
Relationship management: developing and inspiring others, as well as team work and collaboration.
Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Palestinians outside Palestine, Iraqis outside Iraq.
“We have referred to significant international literature written on leadership issues. Some of the paths that lead to successful leadership for instance have been mentioned by other researchers. But the framework remains ours, the result of the content analysis of 310 interviews of leaders, from 129 organisations,
59 of whom were women.”
Extensive research over 18 months
The research was conducted by a team of ten Meirc consultants including Muna and Zennie, who travelled extensively over a year and a half to these countries and interviewed the leaders nominated by their organisations, and screened by Meirc. They ranged from CEOs to frontline supervisors. “Because of the protocol of research we can’t mention names. The companies ranged from multinationals to privately owned, and government and semi-government organisations – financial institutions, airlines, oil and gas companies, the works.”
The leadership qualities of such a wide spectrum does not differ much despite the nature of the industry they work in. “We don’t think certain qualities spring up because of the industry, but there have been certain leadership or decision-making styles that may be contingent up whether the companies are privately owned, or a multinational, rather than the type of industry as a variable, as a factor that influenced success.”
How much of a role does culture play in this? “It plays a big role,” emphasise the authors.
“We tried to look at leadership, followership,we looked at paths that lead to success, the ingredients of success from a macro view, from a cultural perspective. The influence of culture plays a big role. If we use the onion metaphor for culture – borrowed from Geert Hofstede – the outer layers are things like artefacts, as you peel the layers you get symbols, norms and attitudes and then finally, core values. A successful multicultural leader would need to understand the outer layers, but most importantly the inner layers – the core values of culture.”
A multicultural leader needs to bridge cultures. Muna and Zennie say, “You have to go beyond the boundaries of the national culture. Multicultural leadership involves an understanding and appreciation of cultural differences and diversity. It means developing cultural sensitivity – essentially learning from other cultures. It means observing the world from a macro level.”
First, a history lesson
So why not simply hire new leaders from varying backgrounds and incorporate their leadership techniques into the organisation? Here’s why. Expanding the leadership at your organisation into a multicultural form requires an understanding of how western-centric and hierarchical leadership became dominant in the first place. That may mean breaking down myths about various nationalities.
For leaders, understanding the history that gave rise to ethnocentricity is perhaps the most difficult step in transforming leadership to an inclusive, multicultural form. “You need to learn about these cultures in order to develop the clarity that allows you to incorporate multicultural leadership techniques into your organisation,” say the authors.
Today’s corporate world is a competitive place where the motto seems to be ‘Every man for himself’. Bringing in multicultural leadership will put an end to this way of thinking and create a working environment where the focus is on mutual, not singular advancement, say Muna and Zennie.
Multicultural leadership techniques originate from collectivist cultures. These are usually more tightly woven and integrated than western cultures, and may as a result cherish welfare, unity, and harmony. “Value all ethnic groups, which is an emotional intelligence competency,” advise the authors.
“Look at differences as opportunities to bridge the gaps, while acting towards the mutual benefits of both parties. It means having the ability and willingness to continuously learn from the experience of working and living in different cultures.”
Multiculturalism at the workplace has tilted our understanding of leadership from the standpoint of the leader as a hero, as somebody with a divine ability, which is a myth. Now we cannot look at leadership in isolation; leaders have to be understood in conjunction with
their followers.
What leaders require is an understanding of different cultures, the ability to bridge the gap and the cultural sensitivity that would allow you to understand the situation on a macro level and therefore adapt your style to meet the needs of the situation as a whole.”
The research revealed an important aspect of leadership that has undergone a drastic change. “There has been a shift from a consultative style of decision-making where a leader listens to his people, invites inputs, but it’s up to him at the end of the day to make a decision. This is an autocratic-consultative style of leadership. It has shifted from that style to one that’s more participative, where the leader jointly pitches into the discussion. His voice is like the voice of any other member. So, there has been a shift from the old style to the new style.”
A multicultural environment requires that people behave politely, act in a socially desirable manner, and respect others. Such companies succeed if their staff are happy and cooperative. “There isn’t a business out there that won’t benefit from employees who identify themselves as part of a team and who, as a result, work together to make the entire company a great success.”
The value of generosity
In some communities, being generous is an expected leadership trait that indicates integrity and garners respect. How does this generosity show itself in the working world?
“Outstanding multicultural leaders are viewed as being great contributors at work. This reflects their value of generosity. They view work as an opportunity to share their talents and contribute to the welfare of the organisation.”
Traditional leadership is associated with fat salaries and the privileges that come with being in the top echelon. These perks create elitism that runs contrary to the principle of equality in the workplace, resulting in economic and social chasms between leaders and employees.
“As we become more global, successful companies will be those whose CEOs view themselves as just another part of the company and who place value in the expertise and innovation of their employees,” Muna and Zennie point out. “Flattening the leadership structure will put you a step ahead of your competitors.” Why? “Because employees will feel more appreciated and will work more easily together instead of getting hung up on a ‘You’re the boss’ mentality.”
What we are looking at is a more human face of the leader. “The human dimension of leadership seems to be very critical,” say the authors. “Whether international or regional, one of the most important qualities or practices of exemplary leaders is to encourage the heart, to appreciate the people. I feel appreciation is one of the greatest human needs no matter who you are or where you come from.”
Leaders need to listen more carefully. “They need to invite input, to empower and delegate. It is a misconception that if you empower people you lose power. Proper empowerment means that you as a leader gain power. It means everybody becomes more powerful and the end result is a more high-performing organisation.”
You can’t do it solo any more. These are the days of teams. Changing culture is not an overnight affair. It takes time. It took Jack Welch years to change the GE culture from a seven-layer wedding cake to cross-functional teams, islands of excellence where everybody had their say. “In the Middle East based on our research, there has been a shift, however small. We hope to see greater participation and delegation within the next decade.”
