I just got back from conducting two courses in Dubai. While I was there, the war in Gaza continued, as did the civil war in Northern Iraq and Syria between the arch-Islamist group ISIS and joint Kurdish and Iraqi forces, fighting back with American air power.
Rather than a conceptual topic this month, I’ll summarize some of my observations and thoughts from this trip and other issues that have been burning over the summer. The key point is that a wider perspective adds to our understanding of global issues, especially with regard to strategy and leadership.
Back in June, when the ISIS offensive started in Iraqi Kurdistan, I sent a quick email to a former student of mine who works in the educational sector in Erbil. I asked if he was weathering the conflict and wished him well. I had forgotten about my message when I received a short reply last week. My acquaintance mentioned that things had been “not going well in past 30 days.” Something of an understatement, I should say. He described some of the problems he was having with getting his job done. He finished his short report by saying, “I believe that no matter what is happening education should not stop.” Indeed!
Meanwhile, I have two friends in Israel who have managed to continue running their business through the frequent missile attacks coming from Gaza. From what I can surmise, just about everyone has a bomb shelter in Israel, and can continue doing what they have to do to earn a living even when under bombardment. In one case, one of my friends was in a conference call with a client and his team in the U.S., and had to interrupt it for 40 minutes while he and his family took refuge in their bunker. He was able to take up the call again after the “all clear.” Needless to say, he hoped this would not hinder his business too much.
Regardless of what our problems might be, these kinds of situations force to look at our own circumstances with a wider perspective. As mentioned at the beginning, I was in Dubai for two weeks delivering training for a UAE based firm, AZTech Training and Consultancy. The people who attend these courses are almost all Arabs from the Gulf Cooperation Counsel countries, primarily Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, and the UAE.
Most of the course participants were men, but there were two women on each of the two courses. One of them is a medical doctor in Qatar and is now also working in management, running a network of primary care clinics. While I was in Dubai, I noted that most local women appear to wear the niqab. This is the full face covering which leaves only a slit for the eyes. These three women wear the abaya and hijab, but it doesn’t seem to stop them from having successful and challenging careers and doing excellent work. I was particularly impressed by their knowledge and intellect. This might come across as patronizing, but I think that women who choose to pursue careers in such a male-dominated culture must be outstanding at what they do.
I don’t know if this is the case in other areas of the Middle East, but in the Gulf countries, nepotism and cronyism are rampant. One of the course participants told me he avoids using his family name—many people simply use their first name followed by a patronymic—because he works in student services for a prominent university. He says if people know his family name, they try to use that to get some kind of favour or advantage for their children.
Many of the other delegates on the courses complain of having to work for managers or executives who are only there because of connections. This appears to make professional life quite difficult and frustrating in many cases. When I’m delivering this training, I’m often asked what they should do about the situation. I always answer that they can avoid reproducing the same behaviour so things can evolve toward a more performance oriented business culture. On the other hand, I realize that’s a facile answer, especially when you’re facing enormous cultural and family pressure to conform to traditional practices.
With that said, the course participants tell me that expectations in this regard are changing with time. The overall population of the UAE is over 8 million, but with only about 1.5 million actual Emiratis among them, I think that eventually the more performance-driven culture of North America and Europe will prevail.
One of the more impressive things about the UAE, and Dubai in particular, is how focused the country is on a vision of development and growth. The UAE is definitely not a democracy, but the group of princes who rule the seven emirates seem to be more in the line of enlightened despots than ruthless tyrants. The country has a vision of becoming a global financial hub, a major tourist destination, and a world-class centre of higher learning and scientific and technical research. The rulers have a vision and everyone in the country is aware of it and it appears to be widely endorsed.
I’m skeptical that a nation can become a hotbed of innovation and learning without some kind of democracy and full openness. On the other hand, the UAE relies heavily on foreign workers for all forms of manual labour and highly educated Westerners to fill out the educational, professional, and executive ranks. Consequently, the government is tolerant of Western ways of doing things, so long as the expats don’t question the underlying structure and functioning of the society.
Maybe the pressures of the next generation will make a difference. I saw lots of local teenagers who were dressed and who appeared to act essentially the same as teenagers here. They are all glued to their smart phones and fashions are identical. Perhaps that’s a sign of global cultural convergence, or maybe just evidence of superficial resemblance.
