Leadership assessment and development in the mid-East

Abstract

I remember talking with Hugh Stephenson some time in the early 1980s after he returned from a trip to the Middle East. Hugh was in charge of Career Development for NCR and had been assessing the leadership and management skills of NCR leaders in the Middle East. I recall his amusement and his frustration as he remarked on how difficult it was from his Western perspective to interpret leadership motivation and drive when the answers to so many of his questions was tempered by, “If Allah wills.” This led us into a long discussion about assessing across cultures, including the challenge of seeing and interpreting things from a different cultural perspective, and the relevance of the NCR corporate model to leadership effectiveness in the Middle East. It would be another 18 years, however, before I was to gain first hand experience assessing and developing leaders in the Middle East.

Citation

Arnold, V.J. (2009), "Leadership assessment and development in the mid-East", Mobley, W.H., Wang, Y. and Li, M. (Ed.) Advances in Global Leadership (Advances in Global Leadership, Vol. 5), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 273-295. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1535-1203(2009)0000005015