Perceived Managerial and Leadership Effectiveness in UAE and Egypt: A Comparison through the Combined Lenses of Islamic Work Ethics and Islamic Leadership

• Published date: 01 September 2019
• Author: Taran Patel,Ahmad Salih,Robert G. Hamlin
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/emre.12184
• Date: 01 September 2019

Perceived Managerial and Leadership

Effectiveness in UAE and Egypt: A

Comparison through the Combined Lenses of

Islamic Work Ethics and Islamic Leadership

TARAN PATEL,

1

AHMAD SALIH

1

and ROBERT G. HAMLIN

2

1

Grenoble Ecole de Management, Univ Gren-Alpes ComUE, Grenoble, France

2

University of Wolverhampton Business School, Wolverhampton, UK

We conduct an emic replicationstudy of managerial and leadership effectiveness in UAE, thereby addressing the

paucity in extant literature of indigenous management research in non-Western countries. Second, we compare our

findings fromthe UAE study with those from a similar studypreviously conducted by author3 in Egypt, to reveal that

there are considerable similarities in the perceived effectiveness and ineffectiveness of managerial behavior across

these two countries, but also considerable differences. Finally and most importantly, we examine the findings from

the two studies through the combined conceptual lenses of Islamic Work Ethics (IWE) and Islamic Leadership (IL).

Wefind that more than half of positive and negativeBehavioral Statementsemerging from these studiesare grounded

in the principles of IWE and IL, implying that these principles exercise significant influence on followers’Implicit

Leadership Theories, and consequently their perceptions of managerial and leader behaviors. Theoretical and

managerial implications are also offered.

Keywords: leadership; managerial effectiveness; leadership effectiveness; Islamic work ethics; Islamic leadership

Introduction

Despite the increasing awareness that societal, sectorial,

and organizational variables have a significant impact on

manager and employee behavior, most studies in Asian

and Middle Eastern (ME) countries, whether conducted

by Western or indigenous scholars, continue to be

informed by frameworks derived from the United States

Canada, or Western European countries (Leung, 2007;

Li, 2012; Tsui, 2006).

1

This approach is problematic

because the insights gleaned from such studies may fall

only within Western theoretical constructs (Tsui, 2007;

see also Shahinand Wright, 2004), therebycompromising

insights regarding novel country-specific phenomena and

the development of indigenous management/leadership

knowledge. Consequently, many scholars (Rosenzweig,

1994; Rousseau and Fried, 2001) have called for the

generation of indigenous management theories based on

local conditions and socio-cultural factors, and for

indigenous management and leadership research within

non-Western countries (see Shahin and Wright, 2004;

Holtbrugge, 2013; Wolfgramm et al., 2014). This call is

also pertinent for ME countries, where there is generally

a paucity of indigenous management/leadership research

and more specifically, of inductive emic (context-specific)

managerial behavior studies. We suggest that areas of

management research that require particular attention in

both Western and non-Western countries, including ME

countries, are ‘managerial effectiveness’and ‘leadership

effectiveness’. As various writers have claimed

(Noordegraaf and Stewart, 2000; Yukl, 2012), such

managerial behavior-related topics have been

Correspondence Taran Patel, Grenoble Ecole de Management, 12, rue

Pierre Sémard - BP 127 –38003, Grenoble Cedex 01, France. E-mail

taran.patel@grenoble-em.com

1

The only notablenon-US studies are those of: (i) Cammocket al.(1995)who

used ‘repertory grid’and factor analytic techniques to explore from a social

constructionist perspective effective and ineffective managerial behaviors and

characteristics within a New Zealand public sector organization, and thereby

developed a lay model of man agerial effectiveness; (ii) Metcalfe and Metcalfe

(2001) who also used ‘repertory grid’and factoranalytic techniques to derive

an effectivenessrelated new model of transformational leadershipwithin local

governmentdepartmentsand publicsector hospitalsin the UK; and (iii)inductive

emic replicationstudies of perceived managerial andleadership effectiveness

conducted by two of us(Author 1 & Author 3) in various Western and non-

Westerncountries through the use of the CriticalIncident Technique(CIT).

DOI: 10.1111/emre.12184

©2018 European Academy of Management

European Management Review, Vol. 16, 647–616 , (2019)

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substantially neglected since the mid 1980s. Our study

addresses this research gap within the context of two

ME countries: United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Egypt.

Although it is commonly accepted that members of

Islamic countries widely adhere to Islamic work ethics

(IWE) (Ali, 1992 in Whiteoak et al., 2006), and that this

influence is also observed in the workplace with Muslim

managers and employees showing a high commitment to

IWE (Ali and Al-Owaihan, 2008), there is a paucity of

management and leadership theories grounded in Islamic

principles (Elkaleh and Samier, 2013). For centuries, the

Islamic world has accumulated a wealth of knowledge

and experience regarding work and economic enterprises,

and has developed views of work that are a reflection of

their own cultural realities (Ali and Al-Owaihan, 2008).

Yet Western scholars continue to neglect IWE and to

ground their reflections selectively in Max Weber’s

concept of Protest ant work ethics (PWE) (A li and Al-

Owaihan, 2008). Thefew references that have been made

to IWE in Western management literature have a negative

connotation. For instance, Weber (1982) believed that

Islam, and more specifically Sufism, encourages a

fatalistic way of lifeand is an obstacle in the development

of a capitalistic spirit. He also argued that the‘the spirit of

conquest’that characterized Islam is an antithesis of the

productive capitalist spirit. Similarly, Ball and McCulloch

(1985, also Terpstra, 1978) attribute economic and social

problems in Islamic countries to IWE. Such criticisms

have led past scholars to undermine the importance that

Islamic principles might play in the way businesses are

conducted in Islamic countries. In the present paper, we

adopt a different stance. We ex amine our findings of

perceived managerial and leadership effectiveness

through the lenses of two key Islamic concepts –Islamic

work ethics (IWE) and Islamic leadership (IL). As such,

we address the dearth in extant literature of research that

demonstrates empirically the embeddedness of

managerial behaviors in ME countries within Islamic

principles.

Past literature also ignores the fact that every Muslim

country has its own understanding of Islam (and

consequently, of IWE) (Uygur, 2009). Further, Islam

may exercise different degrees of influence on its

adherents, with some followers being more devout than

others (Uygur, 2009). A particular interpretation of Islam

is created by its believers via producing and reproducing

social practicesacross space and time, and therefore,there

could well be different interpretations of Islamic

principles between different peoples. Since the diversity

in the interpretation and application of Islamic principles

across Islamic countries is often neglected in extant

literature, we deem it important to explore the same. With

this objective in mind, in the present paper, we compare

findings between two Islamic ME nations –UAE and

Egypt –to assess the extent to which the perceived

effectiveness or ineffectiveness of managerial behavior

is influenced by the Islamic principles of IWE and IL

across these countries.

Purpose of the study and core questions

In the present study, we replicate in a multinational

company basedin UAE the study of perceived managerial

and leadership effectiveness that Author 3 has conducted

with other co-researchers in various private, public, and

third sector organizations in the United Kingdom, Egypt,

Germany, Mexico, and Romania (see Hamlin et al.,

2012), and more recently in France (Hamlin and Patel,

2017), and South Korea (Hamlin et al., 2016). Barring

the one study conducted by Author 3 with indigenous

co-researchers in Egypt (Hamlin et al., 2010), we know

of no other ‘managerial effectiveness’or ‘leadership

effectiveness’studies conducted by other researchers in

ME countries. Therefore, the first objective of this study

is to build upon Aut hor 3’s previous res earch by

conducting an equivalent inquiry within the UAE. As a

second objective we compare the findings from our emic

UAE replication study with those resulting from the

afore-mentioned Egyptian replication study conducted

within a public sectorhospital in Cairo. We have used this

latter study as a ‘template’for our present replicat ion

study in the UAE. A comparison of the results from the

Egyptian and UAE studies will reveal the degree of

consistency and/or differences between the perceived

effectiveness and ineffectiveness of managerial behavior

between the selected organizationsin these two countries.

The third objectiveof our study is to examine both sets of

findings through the combined lenses of IWE and IL so as

to assess the extent to which these Islamic principles

influence the perceived effectiveness and ineffectiveness

of managerial behavior in UAE and Egypt. Thus the core

question that has guided the study is: ‘How do people

within UAE and Egyptian organizations perceive “good”

(effective)and“bad”(ineffective) managers, and in what

ways are their perceptions influenced by the principles

of IWE and IL?’

Before we outline the knowledge gaps that our present

paper addresses, we clarify two key points. First, within

the context of our study we make no distinction

between ‘manager behavior’and ‘leader behavior’,

and instead use the term ‘managerial behavior’to refer

to both. Our choice is influenced by the fact that

various researchers argue that the terms ‘management’

and ‘leadership’are not distinct constructs (Alvesson

and Sveningsson, 2003; Kotterman, 2006). Leading is

in fact an integral part of the everyday task of

managing (Mintzberg, 2004; Tett et al., 2000). Many

if not most people within organizations and within the

academic world tend to use the terms interchangeably

648 T. Pat el e t a l.

©2018 European Academy of Management