Purpose
Managing across cultures is vital for international business success. Leaders need to make decisions in a way that suits the new culture in which they are placed. This paper aims to explore how expatriate managers in the UAE make decisions in respect to their contextual environment. Additionally, the study investigates the approaches expatriate managers use to adjust their decision-making and how they manage local staff in contrast to home country staff. Finally, the study investigates the factors that contribute to the situation-specific environment of the expatriate leaders’ experience.
Design/methodology/approach
Structured personal interviews of expatriates drawn from stratified sampling were used to discover the styles of decision-making that were effective in the UAE.
Findings
The consultative management style of management enhanced by a hybrid approach of melding the strongest aspects of the expatriates’ decision-making style with the strongest aspects of the local decision-making style met with much success managing in the UAE. Additionally, the expatriate managers’ expression of appreciation towards local staff provided motivation and encouraged cooperation. Moreover, it was found that expatriates can face difficulties in expressing their wishes and requirements accurately to local staff because of their unfamiliarity with the Arabic language.
Practical implications
This research provides practical guidance for expatriate managers charged with successfully leading organizations in UAE. It also offers guidance for employers seeking to recruit or employ appropriate management talent to UAE.
Originality/value
The paper concentrates on expatriate managers’ decision-making practices within the UAE.
Food consumption has been conceptualized as an integral aspect of employee well-being. Whereas most research in the organizational literature to date is motivated by individual health outcomes, we assert that eating at work also entails interpersonal implications. In this manuscript, we draw from consumption stereotype theory and suggest that workplace healthy eating affects how employees are perceived and treated at work. Specifically, we posit that workplace healthy eating influences the extent to which a focal employee is attributed the trait of self-control, which subsequently impacts coworker citizenship behavior and social undermining enacted toward the focal employee. Moreover, we postulate healthy eating climate as a boundary condition to the effects of workplace healthy eating-when there is a salient healthy eating climate, workplace healthy eating is a weaker signal in the trait attribution process. Overall, we extend the concept of employee eating to the interpersonal level by explaining how employee eating directly affects coworker interactions.
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