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In 1973, Henry Mintzberg examined what managers really do in his classic book The Nature of Managerial Work. His research debunked some of the myths surrounding managerial tasks at that time (1). Thirty two years have passed since he described the following ten managerial roles under three categories: Interpersonal roles: Figurehead, Leader, Liaison. Informational roles: Monitor, Disseminator, Spokesman. Decisional roles: Entrepreneur, Disturbance Handler, Resource Allocator, Negotiator

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of context and culture on leadership and decision‐making styles of Lebanese‐born executives working in the USA, the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, and Lebanon.

Using a semi‐structured questionnaire, 76 successful Lebanese executives were interviewed in three regions of the world. Comparisons among the three groups are made on three elements: early ingredients for success particularly during childhood and educational years, emotional intelligence (EI) leadership styles, and decision‐making styles.

Although successful leaders, born and raised in Lebanon, share the early ingredients for success, they differ significantly in their decision making and EI leadership styles when working outside Lebanon with multicultural and diverse followers.

The research findings strongly suggest that future research on cross‐cultural leadership will be more fruitful when context and culture are taken into account, and if researchers use a non‐Western conceptualization of culture, and when the research is conducted by multicultural and interdisciplinary researchers.

The study lends support to the notion that successful leaders adapt to their new culture and context, learning from adversity and experience, and mastering the cultural context.

After 30 years, the oil industry in Qatar has relatively few Qataris in middle and senior management posts. The reasons were the small indigenous population, the lack of manpower planning, attractive employment opportunities elsewhere, and indifference towards training by the international oil companies. Now nationalised, and with a Qatari chief executive, one of the oil companies commissioned the author to set up a Qatari development and training scheme — described here in detail — suited to the socio‐cultural environment.

The purpose of this paper is to exhort leaders, organizations, and HR professionals to introduce changes in the work structure and environment, as well to pioneer new policies and practices, which allow employees to bring more balance into their lives.

The long‐term benefits of balanced work‐life are outlined from the research literature as well as the experience of selected business leaders. This is followed by a series of practical exercises designed to help readers achieve work‐life balance.

Using the metaphor of an acrobat, this paper provides compelling reasons and proven methodology for leaders and HR professionals to engage more seriously with the topic of work‐life balance. How to effectively balance work with personal life is demonstrated through a series of personalized exercises which urge readers to examine their past, present, and future; and then set and implement short‐ and long‐term action plans to reach goals that are linked to their personal values and priorities. The final exercise allows readers to track and measure progress using a Balanced Scorecard.

This paper highlights the need for a longitudinal research to determine how leaders manage to balance their work and life, and what variables lead to either success or failure.

HR professionals must become creative when designing work systems/programs catering for those who prefer more flexibility through supportive organizational cultures and work/job structures.

This paper links the theory of work‐life balance to implementation of changes in lifestyle through practical individual exercises. It is valuable to both leaders and HR professionals.

The purpose of this article is to discuss the implications of three lessons that leaders can learn from Canada geese to leadership and teamwork in organizations.

Migratory behavior of Canada geese is compared to widespread behavior among leaders and teams in organizations.

The first lesson is: work as a team: Canada Geese migrate long distances flying in V‐formation. This formation results in lesser wind resistance, which allows the whole flock to add around 70 percent greater flying range than if each bird flew alone. Geese find out quickly that it pays handsomely to be team players. Second, wise leadership: when the leader at the apex of the V gets tired, it is relieved by another goose. Leaders rotate, empower, delegate, and even step down when it's in the best interest of the team. How often do we see this taking place among organizational leaders? Wise leaders ensure that their followers are well trained and developed in order to achieve true empowerment and smooth succession processes. Third, humane behavior: if a goose drops to the ground when it gets hurt or sick, two of its colleagues go down with it to take care of it until it either gets healthier or dies. In this fast‐paced and competitive age, we seldom see managers going out of their way to help colleagues who are in trouble. In organizations, morale, productivity, and loyalty increase when employees are treated humanely.

This paper discusses ways that leaders, teams, and organizations can improve performance by applying three lessons learned from Canada geese.

The purpose of this article is twofold: to identify the characteristics of research on organisation and management in Arab countries and to find out whether research results support the culture‐free hypothesis or not. A thorough search of sixteen journals, research monographs, books and theses produced only 35 empirical studies. Most of these studies were exploratory, descriptive, and used small convenient samples. Although some findings supported the culture‐bound hypothesis, major conceptual and methodological weaknesses in these studies throw doubt upon the validity of their results.