The strategic vision of oil dependence in the Middle East region

The strategic vision of the minimization of oil dependence in the Middle
East region has triggered a flurry of innovation, investments and
management initiatives in many public and private organizations. Help
with essay shows that the Middle East has western experts working
diligently to bring western theories and practices into the region,
promising a better future with concrete improvements. The basket of
services ranges from corporate governance, risk and compliance,
strategic management principles, leadership models, organizational
performance measurements and evaluation, through to organizational
learning. This is a very noble and impressive collection of management
concepts that has, in many instances, assumed that people, who are at
the heart of all these theories, must be western like-minded (changed)
for these principles to work. Adopting western management concepts in
Middle East organizations has always been a challenge for many experts,
especially during the implementation phases. We should understand
firstly the Arabic culture, the organizational dynamics, their value
system, as well as their learning styles. We should preserve the culture
and adjust the theory to fit the culture not the other way around.

Help with essay shows that First and foremost, the major issue in
implementation phase is the resistance to change to an organizational
system where the “one man show” does not exist and hence management
personnel feel more accountable for their efforts. The culture needs
time to understand and adjust these ingrained concepts of “whom I know”
and “passing the buck”. That is the work they should do is passed to
others to avoid accountability” and not “Is he capable” or “has the
required competency”. Hence the resistance to change is high but it has
improved recently as government are applying these principles at the
highest levels by stressing on delegation and accountability to the
strategic management personnel. Still time is required and hence the
transitional period should be less drastic to avoid a major change in
management style
Help with essay shows that another cultural issue is the need to always
be on top and making high end profits which prompts managers to effect
major organizational changes that most of the time back-fire and do not
solve the problem simply because the problem is insoluble because of
economic depression and rather management should streamline its
operations and accept sustainability even if it is with very low or
negligible profits till depression is finished. These plans may have
short-run effects but in the long run they are probably destructive. For
example, many organizations in the Middle East and also in the Western
world tend to have major restructuring and firing of employees during a
depression when it is possible to retain most of the valuable employees
but at a lower salary rate. Culturally this idea is not acceptable in
the Middle East and this is sometimes the reason for the closing of an
organization. It is what I call for “better or worse” – Loyalty
Help with essay shows that Value systems and perceptions also differ in
the MEA and this should be taken into account as the management is
transformed. One major issue with the value system is that many MEA
management are culturally inclined to make things personal and the
concept of “this is just Business” affects the decision- making process.
This issue is evident in all cultures but much more in the Middle East
because they are culturally inclined to be emotional about things and
have a lower level of objectivity in their dealings.
Help with essay shows that Another value system that is also cultural is
the need for new leaders / CEOs to make a change to systems that are
already working but need fine-tuning to become more efficient and
productive. This way no implementation of any structure is allowed
enough time to mature and produce the right results or fine-tuned to
become better and rather a radical change in management happens. For
example the recent change in the ADNOC organizational structure to
become more central than distributed making a major change that does not
necessarily solves the issue. ADNOC was centralized, then they became
distributed, and now they are back to centralization. At each phase
there was someone new who headed the change. Hence Middle East has major
issues with change management and its implementation properly and the
need to do so when other solutions are there.
Learning styles on the other hand are still on the basis of “Copy
& Paste” hindering innovation and customization to actual needs
of an organization to become better simply because of cultural and
competency diversity. “Copy and Paste” still is useful to management
when applying western concepts, that have a proven record of success,
with slight customization to account for cultural and competency
diversity. Learning styles are also fast paced with emphasis on the end
result but not understanding and mastering – impatience. Culture does
not think with long run perceptions and hence western style of
management is not allowed to mature with customizations to suit the
culture.
Private and Confidential
Thoughts of a colleague
Help with essay shows that the frustration and frequent failures of
transferring consultant programs and businesses is that we do not
understand- or frequently fail to try understand how the culture impacts
the model.
Additionally, to many consultants have an attitude that they know all
and the locals are not capable of understanding the product or what they
do. Some of that may be true- especially in emerging technical areas.
However, the Emirati’s are sophisticated enough to know when the
consultant is not qualified to deliver what they promised. The latter is
perhaps far more important than the former.
Help with essay shows that I’ll return to the academic side shortly, but
my first experience here and the GCC was with a US company, Cyberpoint.
As the name suggests this was a cyber-security company that picked up a
political risk unit; this was my team. Our mission was twofold- to
provide analysis and related services, second to train Emiratis to be
risk analysts. There were multiple issues- including a failure to get a
clear understanding what the clients wanted the unit to be- a current
intelligence shop, a strategic issues program or a policy oriented think
tank. But our biggest problem is that we didn’t fully understand the
culture. Our model of working, product development, and challenging each
other frequently caused problems.
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Two stories should suffice- first the meeting culture (time management)
was very skewed. Many of my colleagues were ex-military so if they
arrive at a meeting 10 minutes early they are already 5 minutes late.
Our clients frequent last-minute time changes, and regularly being 10-15
minutes late to a meeting- due to socializing, drove my military
colleagues mad. We know some of this was a power dynamic- you all think
you’re so smart but I’m actually in charge, and some was just the
culture. The second was the inability to make, and stick to, any
decision. There were numerous occasions that we would need a decision
taken, get a meeting- after numerous delays, and then depart with no
actual decision taken. The first project manager had more regional
experience and was able to manage that process relatively well. She was
able to scope projects and get sufficient decisions to start. But the
general chaos was a constant theme; and was a mix of unclear and
constantly changing mission and unclear and constantly changing internal
power dynamics that were likely cultural and not organizational.
One of the key mission problems was we were being asked to fulfill two
tasks, provide analysis for the clients as well as training locals
through knowledge transfer. Parenthetically that is a term that is
frequently used and so poorly defined that, except in rare instances, it
seems almost impossible to achieve. The key concerns here- beyond the
one previously mentioned, were our clients- and the technical side of
Cyberpoint, had a poor understanding about what we did and the time and
education involved, that it created unrealistic expectations and time
tables. One does not create a terrorism expert in weeks.
Additionally, three was an intense desire not to lose personal face.
Thus, as analysis we were tasked to get basic information that was
likely already available to and through other clients. But no outreach
was permitted because our team could not admit that our client didn’t
know the answer to the question – even if there was no reason they
should.

Private and Confidential
This feed a persistent concern- it’s always the expats fault. Even if we
did everything as directed, if there was on failure- demonstrably due
to a local’s failure, we took the blame. Our final project manager- the
one with local experience left, regularly failed to support the expat
staff, causing additional problems.
My total academic experience is based an academic experience in the GCC
and interviewing with two other local universities. The interview and HR
process were similar in both places (thought my Cyberpoint hiring was
run buy them so the lost documents and other items were all on the local
end.) You are well aware of the issues of teaching culture so I will
not detail them here. The only general point is that the students here
are not materially different from those I have taught elsewhere- at
least at the undergraduate level. The unusual influence of HR in
academic hiring seems to me to be more of an attempt to have local
control rather than a cultural issue, but I could be wrong.
The one issue that is not unique is the difficulty of balancing the
understandable desire to have increased local content with the
sensitivity in sharing the material. Singapore was very similar, our
institution was able to gain access to a wider range of material than we
get here, but if you were an expat you had some clear limits on what
you could access and say. This had more to do with local sensitivities
and the frequently correct assessment that expats would not be aware of
those sensitivities and say something that would create an incident.
Given the topics I covered it usually meant a diplomatic one.
All of this is an extended way of saying I agree with you, expat
consultants and academics frequently have a terrible combination of
hubris and ignorance, making cooperation and knowledge transfers- which
are often technically difficult, all the more challenging. A key driver
in the aforementioned is the lack of stability. Consultants, and
academics, are usually parachuted in for a short period of time; they
are not able to or frequently interested in learning another culture in a
depth. So of this is a consequence of time- if you’re here to do a job
for months or even a few years, why make the investment to know more
than you have to accomplish the task. You may think that you are being
brought here due to the lack of a local capability and are deemed an
expert in filling that gap. If that’s so- and it usually is, why would
you bother to learn what is causing the lack of that capability? Just
fix the gap and move on.
But even if you’re like us expats, going to be here for a time, what
local contact do we have? I know I live in a largely expat tower block. I
hardly know any of my neighbors. My local knowledge comes from my work
experience- or the all too frequently negative stories from other
expats. I have no language ability, and few social contacts with the
society I’m here to help. My wife- who gets out more than I do, has a
similar experience- though she speaks Arabic so it’s a bit easier. I’m
not suggesting forced integration, but more of an explanation as to why
there are still issues.

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One closing point- I promise, I have a slight disagreement with your
comment over the contractor not bringing back any knowledge to apply in
his home. Help with essay shows that Some of the above comments apply,
but I’m not sure that his inability to answer the question speaks to the
larger issue. It of course could be that he saw nothing of value in the
culture so the answer was suggesting that. Or it could be that the area
he was exposed to did not lend itself to external adaptation, but does
not reflect any negative views of the wider culture. I’m not sure the US
could adopt any of Singapore’s culture, and if asked the same question I
would be unable to answer; yet I have a great respect for the culture
and society.