The Soft Power
Kuwait and other Arab countries have faced dramatic changes in their way of life and in their organizational culture. The most important change to have affected these countries is the cultural change within organizations. Although there are many studies that have been conducted on Arabic organizations, they have not yet understood the reasons beyond the changes that have shaped the unusual practices seen especially at the organizational level.
Most researchers and scholars have taken Hofstede studies on culture as a basis for their research, as I did in my PhD study, but not taking it for granted where
I concentrated upon the power distance aspect, and had gone through the critiques of Hofstede. The reason I (with all respect to the findings of Hofstede studies), do not see such studies are feasible is based upon the fact that Hofstede studies are only addressing the hard-wiring of people though surveys and such a quantitative approach does not reveal the soft side of humans, i.e. feelings, emotions, body language, etc.
When such an approach is followed by the leaders of those organization or even the societies, they are not seeing the most effective part of it, the causes of our behaviour. This element remains the focus of ongoing research.
Culture, by its definition, is derived from the beliefs and values of individuals, and numbers do not represent the real picture of individuals or groups.
Kuwaiti organizations are becoming negatively affected by the moral state of leaders, who control the present operation in the short term, neglecting the long term visionary aspect, which is confirmed by Hofstede.
Leaders are coming to organizations in a variety of ways: Political Influence of the group, family, sects or the party the candidate is part of, Owners or major shareholders, or from the government under pressure of parliament members or group … this leads us to believe that leaders loyalty will remain to the group that
Most researchers and scholars have taken Hofstede studies on culture as a basis for their research, as I did in my PhD study, but not taking it for granted where
I concentrated upon the power distance aspect, and had gone through the critiques of Hofstede. The reason I (with all respect to the findings of Hofstede studies), do not see such studies are feasible is based upon the fact that Hofstede studies are only addressing the hard-wiring of people though surveys and such a quantitative approach does not reveal the soft side of humans, i.e. feelings, emotions, body language, etc.
When such an approach is followed by the leaders of those organization or even the societies, they are not seeing the most effective part of it, the causes of our behaviour. This element remains the focus of ongoing research.
Culture, by its definition, is derived from the beliefs and values of individuals, and numbers do not represent the real picture of individuals or groups.
Kuwaiti organizations are becoming negatively affected by the moral state of leaders, who control the present operation in the short term, neglecting the long term visionary aspect, which is confirmed by Hofstede.
Leaders are coming to organizations in a variety of ways: Political Influence of the group, family, sects or the party the candidate is part of, Owners or major shareholders, or from the government under pressure of parliament members or group … this leads us to believe that leaders loyalty will remain to the group that