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The aim of this chapter is to study individualism and collectivism as two construct indicators of social patterns in Lebanon using Triandis's (1995) framework of individualism and collectivism. This study explores the Lebanese autostereotypes and views of their extreme individualism and collectivism compared to the common opinion held by cross-cultural research. The study sheds light on how social patterns of different Lebanese individuals are distributed across four “cultural syndromes,” namely vertical and horizontal collectivism and vertical and horizontal individualism. These four social patterns will be tested against various contextual factors such as age, gender, and education. The results may provide a better idea for managers and human resources practitioners of how to prepare training and evaluation programs for their employees. Findings from 161 respondents showed that the subjects tested tended to be individualistic in their choices, and this suggests that the classification in the literature of the Lebanese as collectivists was based on the fact that there was no evidence to the contrary. Also, results showed a positive correlation between sociodemographic measures (gender, age, education, income, occupation, and location) and individualism. The author argues that these findings might have been the result of the evolution of the Lebanese family in the past 25 years. Suggestions for the use of these results in management and human resources practices and theory are given.

The Arab countries are a complex and diverse world, within which exists a cultural diversity that manifests in multiple dimensions: ethnic, tribal, religious, and linguistic, resulting from history, tradition, and immigration. This chapter aims to shed light on the diversity spread across the Arab countries in general, and on the management of this diversity in businesses. We first offer a general description of the societal context of the Arab countries and then highlight the religious, cultural, and ethnic diversity that exists within this context. In the third and fourth parts of this chapter, we outline the means of managing this diversity.

Interpersonal and informal ties and networks, known as wasta in the Arab Middle East region, remain a major force in Middle Eastern societies, determining most economic, social and political outcomes. Yet the literature on informal ties and networks is largely characterized by a lack of contributions from the Arab world, despite the adverse effect that lack of understanding of the wasta phenomenon is having on the effectiveness of expatriate managers and subsequently on business performance. This chapter therefore aims to shed light on the meaning, characteristics, structure, and role of wasta in establishing and maintaining successful business relationships. It ends with recommendations for foreign investors and international managers who wish to establish and maintain successful business relationships in the Middle East on how to capitalize on interpersonal networks within this process.

This chapter examines the moral dilemmas mentors from three different groups (Jewish, Druze, and Arab) encountered in Israeli Arab schools, how they manage these dilemmas, and how the nature of particular dilemmas might connect to their management strategies. Given the multicultural and politically conflictive context of Israeli society, a cultural and political reading of in-service mentors' moral dilemmas reveals that mentors' encounter and management of recurrent moral dilemmas is embedded in cultural and political issues that seem to hinder their mentoring practice. Preparation programs need to highlight awareness of mentors' own culture and that of their mentees in order to implement a culturally and politically responsive practice.

Purpose: This study aims to investigate the effect of culture on innovation within the workplace. Special attention has been paid to Middle East and North Africa (MENA) culture features and their impact on employees’ adaptation to the innovation within their organizations.

Approach/methodology: To achieve this objective, a theoretical study has been carried out. Given its popularity in culture-related research, the Hofstede model has been used to understand the specificities of MENA region culture. An extensive literature review has been employed to investigate the relationship between culture and innovation in the workplace.

Findings: Based on the relevant literature, it can be said that the country’s culture has a considerable impact on how the employees adapt to the changes within the workplace. Some issues of Arab culture that managers should be aware of and suitable solutions have been underlined to improve the adoption of innovation within the organizations in Arab countries.

Research implications: This study contributes to knowledge regarding the association between innovation and culture within the workplace in the MENA region. Findings provide straightforward ways for managers to improve the adaptation of their employees to the growing innovation required by the global market.

Originality/value: This study is among the earliest to focus on the association between innovation and culture within the MENA region. In addition, it is among the rare studies, which explore the main issues of Arab culture that make the adaptation to innovation a complex phenomenon that requires further efforts from managers for successful innovation performance. The limitations, as well as the future research pathways, have been mentioned at the end of this study.

This chapter approaches the topic of teaching the Western scholarly tradition in non-Western countries like the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from three perspectives employing the following metaphors: as a Public Servant motivated by public service to the goals and aims of the country’s development articulated by UAE rulers and its citizens; as Cultural Diplomat, representing the Western tradition and its scholarly achievements while respecting other traditions; and as Intellectual Imperialist, aiming at a colonising incorporation of the UAE into the Western academic world.

The main methodology adopted is the Weberian ideal type, located within a comparative and historical context that produces the metaphors as analytically possible perspectives as a western expatriate faculty member. Additional critique is drawn from Bourdieu, Said, Freire, Giroux, Foucault, Goffman and cross-cultural organisation studies.

The findings consist of an analytic framework consisting of public servant, cultural diplomat and intellectual imperialist as a set of conceptions for analysing possible orientations of Western expatriate academics in developing countries.

The implications are threefold: on a personal level, what experientially does each of the metaphors mean for one’s sense of identity, profession, values and relationships; on a pedagogical level, what principles and values distinguish the curriculum and teaching styles as well as orientation to Arab and Islamic scholarship; and politically, what is the potential impact and unintended consequences for the indigenous culture, sovereignty and societal survival of a country under the heavy influence of globalisation. The contention of this chapter is that one cannot avoid adopting one or more of these roles and may even perform in contradictory ways.

The originality is in establishing a new set of analytic categories drawing on post-colonial, diplomacy and critical studies.

Diversity management in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is of particular importance given the fact the UAE is the sixth country in the world for hosting the largest number of international migrants in 2017. The purpose of this exploratory study is to understand how diversity is managed in the public and private sector and to identify the most important factors to diversity manangemet in the UAE context.

A Grounded Theory approach to research was used to explore this very sensitive issue for the case study. In the absence of robust data on diversity management in the UAE, this inductive qualitative method was preferred since it does not presuppose a hypothesis and allows a contextually relevant theory to be derived from the data, which were collected through interviews with the participants from the public and private sector. An open-ended interview schedule was emailed to the purposefully selected group. Careful thematic analysis was undertaken to identify the resonant issues related to diversity management in this context.

This heralds increased demographic diversity in the public sector, even if only at a strategic level in order to achieve political and social objectives. Further, as the UAE embarks on being a Smart nation, successful diversity management will be a critical indicator of public sector reform.

The study analyzed the perceptions of the participants using a qualitatitve method which might not be considered to be as objective. Hence a confirmatory follow up study using quantitatve design will be required to verify the findings.

This chapter will explore the diversity management in the public and private sectors of the UAE, the role leaders and managers have to play, challenges faced, and what is on the horizon in this new public–private partnership environment.

This chapter suggests the need for a unified understanding of diversity management among leaders in the public and private sector of the UAE as a crucial enabler of productivity, development and social cohesion.

This heralds increased demographic diversity in the public sector, even if only at a strategic level in order to achieve political and social objectives. Further, as the UAE embarks on being a Smart nation, successful diversity management will be a critical indicator of public sector reform. This chapter will explore the diversity management in the public and private sectors of the UAE, the role leaders and managers have to play, challenges faced, and what is on the horizon in this new public–private partnership environment.