Developing Multicultural Leaders: The Journey to Leadership Success

Citation

Ramsey, R.D. (2012), "Developing Multicultural Leaders: The Journey to Leadership Success", International Journal of Commerce and Management, Vol. 22 No. 1, pp. 91-93. https://doi.org/10.1108/10595421111134895a

Leadership and multinational management are two of the largest topics in the study of business. All the more impressive, then, is the way in which Farid A. Muna and Ziad A. Zennie have blended these two topics into a cogent set of lessons represented by Developing Multicultural Leaders: The Journey to Leadership Success. The timeliness of the topic is apparent in the attention which academicians and practitioners alike have directed, toward what Jakob Lauring has called “the impact of informal and power‐related aspects in intercultural communication” (Lauring, 2011, p. 231).

The authors are associated with Meirc Training & Consulting (Meirc, originally an acronym for Middle East Industrial Relations Counselors, being pronounced like the pharmaceutical company Merck), with offices in Dubai and Beirut (www.meirc.com). Both authors have extensive experience in human relations with multinational corporations. Muna, who is based in Dana Point, California, holds a PhD from the London Business School and wrote The Arab Executive (Muna, 1980) and Seven Metaphors on Management (Muna, 2003). The bulk of Zennie's experience is with training and human relations in the Middle East. Zennie obtained his EdD from the University of Cincinnati and lives in Dubai.

Beyond the “Introduction” (which in tone is actually a preface or foreword), Developing Multicultural Leaders has four parts accommodating ten numbered chapters. Part I, “Looking at the Whole Elephant,” comprises the first three chapters: “On Leadership, Followership, and Culture,” “A Framework for Understanding Leadership Success,” and “A Road Map to Success.” In these chapters, Muna and Zennie convey an understanding of leadership and focus on integrating and synthesizing their concept of leadership while delving into meticulous interviews which they conducted with 310 managers.

Part II, “The Making of Outstanding Leaders,” entails Chapters 4, 5, and 6: “The Early Years of Potential Leaders,” “Paths to Outstanding Leadership,” and “Learning to Lead: Cultivating Emotional Intelligence.” In this section, Muna and Zennie stress the heuristic role of early experience in managerial careers, map four career paths which have led to success for managers in the past, and then emphasize the criticality of the fifth path, one which depends on emotional intelligence (EI, as discussed in Caruso and Salovey, 2004).

Chapter 7, “Styles of Emotionally Intelligent Leaders,” Chapter 8, “Decision‐Making Styles, Execution, and Accountability,” and Chapter 9, “Recruiting and Developing Talent,” form Part III, “What Outstanding Leaders Do Exceptionally Well.” These chapters, as evaluated by Bailie (2011, p. 329), “place the book apart from others of its kind [,] and readers will find the material thought provoking.”

The book concludes with the single chapter (Chapter 10), “Final Thoughts,” of Part IV, “Implications and Recommendations,” followed by two appendices which display and describe the interview‐method design and measurement.

Developing Multicultural Leaders has a variety of strengths. Particularly noteworthy are Muna and Zennie's experience and their careful research permute the diverse variables of leadership and culture. The book contains 39 tables and 12 figures, displaying a useful and an unusual awareness of many factors in the equation between leadership and culture. The book is quite eclectic but simultaneously well organized. The ten numbered chapters naturally structure the book into the lessons of a course which could fit into a like number of weeks or (with testing and student presentations) a semester. This book has a handsome appearance; its blue color and its imprint by the prestigious publishing firm of Palgrave Macmillan being visible assets.

Matters in the book that could be improved on are largely characteristics of writing. The prose style has a somewhat high viscosity, a characteristic exacerbated by occasional distractions of grammatical or mechanical character. The “Introduction” should be retitled “Preface” and its pages numbered in small‐Roman‐numeral front matter sequence (or, vice versa, rephrased as a traditional introduction and left in the Arabic‐page‐number sequence). A number of quotations in the book come from authorities such as Rudyard Kipling and Louis Pasteur; although these individuals were not primarily involved in the contemporary topics of leadership and culture, their quotations should be treated like all the others so that complete facts of publication are available to interested readers.

The intentional focus on businesses leaders in the Middle East may at first seem like a downside, but simultaneously the authors in the book have developed concentrated appeal in that genre, situating the book to fit into training with respect to leadership and business elsewhere.

Developing Multicultural Leaders by Farid A. Muna and Ziad A. Zennie is an excellent candidate for the library of multinational business leaders in practice and in academic study and research.