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The purpose of this paper is to test the relationship between high‐involvement human resource management practices and organizational performance in the Sultanate of Oman, an Arabian Gulf country.

Companies listed in the Muscat Securities Market in the Sultanate of Oman were surveyed. The final sample consisted of 87 companies. Survey responses were subjected to statistical analysis. Financial measures of organizational performance were also used in the analysis for a subset of the sample for which these data were available.

Results of the statistical analysis indicated that, after controlling for size, type of firm (publicly traded or closely held) and average industry price‐earnings ratio, high involvement human resource management practices were positively related to subjective organizational performance and an objective measure of performance, ratio of market value to book value.

Research limitations include measuring high‐involvement HRM practices and subjective organizational performance from the same source, assuming that HRM practices are uniform across organizational levels and using a composite measure of high‐involvement HRM practices. Future research should address these limitations.

The results of the study suggest that organizations in the Arabian Gulf can enhance their performance by implementing high‐involvement HRM practices in spite of the unique national culture and special features of the labour market in the region.

To the best of one's knowledge, this is the first study of high‐involvement HRM practices and organizational performance in the Arabian Gulf using both subjective and objective measures of organizational performance. Unlike other studies on HRM in Oman, this study was based on data collected from private‐sector organizations.

The purpose of this study is to explore the key cultural factors that shape the Arab style of buyer-seller negotiations in the industrial goods sector; formulate propositions predicting behaviors of empowered buyers, avoidant buyers and deciders in an expensive industrial purchase situation; and develop a model of communication structure in an industrial buyer firm in the Arabian Gulf. In addition, the study advances propositions concerned with the bargaining style of Arab industrial buyers and the relationships between industrial sales effectiveness and negotiation tactics.

The study draws on literature in the domains of industrial buying behavior, influence tactics in industrial buyer-seller negotiations and communication in industrial buyer-seller bargaining interactions.

The more expensive an industrial purchase is the more empowered buyers will tend to anticipate the wishes of and seek the endorsement of powerful stakeholders, the more avoidant buyers will tend not to take responsibility for the purchase and the more decision makers will tend to rely on unwritten and formal rules and consult with influencers, subordinates and peers. Aggressive bargaining is unlikely to be used by Arab industrial buyers, who prefer a problem-solving approach. Sales effectiveness will be higher when industrial vendors incorporate tactics of ingratiation and inspirational appeal to influence Arab industrial buyers.

The study offers a systematic examination of industrial purchasing characteristics through the lens of Arab culture. It synthesizes several literature streams, develops eight original research propositions and proposes a new conceptual model of the communication structure in an industrial buyer firm in the Arabian Gulf.

The purpose of this paper is to draw together available data as a means of comparing the state of corporate governance in five countries; Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Oman. This comparison provides a basis for analyzing the efficacy of corporate governance and government regulation in the region.

The authors construct a measure of corporate governance using the OECD's 2005 survey data, which includes these and many other countries in the sample. The authors analyze the resulting measures in the light of ongoing institutional developments in each country.

Based on the corporate governance measurement scale, Oman is the clear leader among the five countries, followed by Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. Bahrain and Qatar rank fourth and fifth, respectively.

This paper adds value by transforming the data in the OECD survey, thus adding to the limited information available on corporate governance and related issues in the Arabian Gulf.

The purpose of the paper is to show that the Arabian Peninsula, and the United Arab Emirates in particular, has not been spared by the trends of biodiversity loss observed on the world scale. The authors aim to present a rapid review of the challenges facing the biodiversity in the UAE and the solutions that this young country proposes to counteract the erosion of its biodiversity.

The authors gathered and compiled published and unpublished information from governmental and non‐governmental sources.

Despite being regarded as a vast desertic and unfertile area with one of the lowest human populations in the world, the UAE hosts a unique and remarkably adapted fauna and flora. Adding to natural causes (drought), the main threats facing biodiversity identified were: coastal development and urbanisation, as well as over‐exploitation of natural resources (fishing, hunting, grazing and water extraction) that are linked with the tremendous population increase and changes in lifestyle. Traditional systems of resource management in the UAE have been abandoned. Over the last few decades, the UAE has lost most of its big fauna and is witnessing the remaining Arabian leopard, Mountain Gazelle, Arabian Tahr, Arabian Sailfish, groupers and shark populations at the brink of extinction.

The paper proposes the inclusion of environmental issues in the development planning (with proper environment impact assessments), the involvement of local communities in the decision making and the improvement of federal and international trans‐boundaries collaborations. Highlights that an urgent step would be the implementation of integrated costal management zoning to stop the current extent of coastal development that contributes through physical alteration of habitats to the disappearance of key resources and habitats.

Investigates the attitudes towards women held by 5,974 Kuwaiti and 7,382 Qatari professional men and women respectively, 53 men and 67 women Qatari college students, 26 Qatari college men student‐father pairs, and 36 Qatari women student‐mother pairs. Explains the predictive utility of sex, nationality, age, education, marital and parental status, and sex‐role self‐concepts (i.e. androgynous, masculine, feminine and undifferentiated self‐concepts) in attitudes towards women of the professional groups. The subjects completed the short version of the Attitude toward Women Scale (AWS), Bem’s Sex Role Inventory and a demographic questionnaire. Analysis indicated that the AWS scores of the various groups were very low, suggesting very traditional attitudes towards women in both Kuwait and Qatar. Compares the findings with those reported in Western and Asian cultures, and discusses the results and implications in the context of the Arabian Gulf environment.

Library services have been tremendously influenced by rapid technological innovations over the years. The Internet has virtually provided a new dimension to every area of library services and operations. Document delivery remained no exception to these changes. Besides looking at various Internet applications, the paper also examines available electronic document delivery (EDD) transmission systems using the Internet, such as the ARIEL system of Research Libraries Information Network (RLIN), the North Carolina State University Digitized Document Transmission Project (DDTP), and the Ohio State University Network Fax Project. The paper also presents the results of a survey conducted to determine the availability of required hardware and software in the Gulf academic libraries to use the Internet for EDD. The survey confirmed the availability of required equipment in the Gulf academic libraries and their willingness to participate in the EDD. Their adoption of the Internet for EDD for resource sharing is essential if user self‐sufficiency is to be achieved.

The Gulf States (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Oman Bahrain and Qatar) represent a major global market accounting for 26 per cent of European exports, 22 per cent of Japanese exports, 27 per cent of South East Asian exports, and 14 per cent of US exports. Despite this importance comparatively little interest has been shown in buyer behaviour in the Gulf States. Based on extensive research and direct experience a number of salient differences between western models of organizational buying behaviour and actual practice are identified and give rise to specific recommendations for marketing strategy in the region.

Manama, the capital city of the Kingdom of Bahrain, is a major port in the Arabian Gulf, a financial hub. Following the discovery of oil, Bahrain attracted skilled and unskilled expats. The Government initiated plans for urban development. Urban growth was at the expense of agricultural and desert lands in addition to reclaiming land from water bodies. Affluent Bahrainis moved to newer settlements. Low-income Bahrainis continued to live in the old quarters. Single male workers, mostly Asians, moved into dilapidated buildings in the old quarters of the city. The paper employs a mixed research approach. It uses Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems to account for urban transformations; and as well as document review, interviews, and a questionnaire to understand the process underlying these transformations and their outcomes. The results show how globalisation and neoliberalism led Manama to emerge as a global city. Cultural identity and geographic location within the Bahraini metropolitan area suggest these relationships are dynamic. Planners perceived Bahraini cities as a morphological phenomenon. They did not comprehend the complexity of the socio-cultural particularities of Bahraini cities. Revitalising the old quarters of Manama can serve as a national mega project, thus conserving its cultural identity.

The emergence of consumer‐oriented societies has become the central trait of our era. Saudi Arabia gained entrée to consumerism via its oil wealth. Numerous studies demonstrate that consumer lifestyle and consumerist attitudes are spreading in the country. The purpose of this study is to explain how Saudi Arabia came to be a consumer society, to present evidence of rampant consumption, and to describe how global and local economic, social, and governmental factors colluded to reinforce this cultural trend.

This study is based on the survey and analysis of secondary data gathered from published studies and reports available in English and in Arabic.

The study shows that the spread of consumerism in Saudi Arabia is a consequence of a complex of global and local factors. Commercial television and the internet, marketing strategies, relentless and manipulative advertising, urbanization, and proliferating shopping centers, are all components of globalization promoting emulation of the Western consumerism lifestyle. The national government subsidies and give‐aways during the oil boom years due to increased national income, absence of taxes, public job availability, emerging middle class, liberal import policies, increased female participation in family purchase decisions, a burgeoning youth market, and increased per capita income have also enabled Saudi Arabia's transformation into a consumer society. In addition, statistics presented for a variety of durable and nondurable goods and services amply testify to rampant Saudi consumerism.

Excessive consumption in Saudi Arabia is a threat to the social order. It is exacerbating economic, environmental, social, psychological, and health problems. As Saudi Arabia seeks sustainable development, more research is needed to identify and address problematic aspects of consumption. As part of this process, policy makers should distinguish what constitutes consumerism from healthy consumption patterns. Excessive consumption should be minimized as a way to avoid economic minefields and sustain economic growth.

This paper aims to examine GCC companies' use of visual images to interplay modernity and globalism with tradition, Islam and local culture. The analysis aims to bring attention to the way that businesses in the GCC use visual images to engage with or influence debates in their societies concerning the tension between modernity, globalisation and traditional values in the Arab‐Islamic world.

The analysis is critical and discursive and based on a close reading of the visual images reported in the 2005 annual reports of companies listed on GCC stock markets.

The analysis suggests that GCC companies on many occasions used visual images to depict and represent the possibility of a successful profitable, modern and global business that is also sympathetic to tradition and operates within the framework of Islamic principles.

While visual images are increasingly used in companies' annual reports they have been largely ignored in accounting research. Furthermore, when this research manifests, it has been concerned with investigating Anglo‐American and Western contexts. This paper instead emphasises the significance of researching the use of visual images in a variety of contexts and locations. It critically and contextually explores the use of visual images in a largely unexplored, non‐Western and a significantly Islamic context.