University of San Diego Digital USD Theses Theses and Dissertations Spring 5-11-2015 Leadership Cultural Values of United Arab Emirates-The aC se of United Arab Emirates University Ebtesam Ali Alteneiji University of San Diego Follow this and additional works at: https://digital.sandiego.edu/theses Part of the Leadership Studies Commons, and the Sociology Commons Digital USD Citation Alteneiji, Ebtesam Ali, "Leadership Cultural Values of United Arab Emirates-The asC e of United Arab Emirates University" (2015). Theses. 2. https://digital.sandiego.edu/theses/2 This Thesis: Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Digital USD. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses by an authorized administrator of Digital USD. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Leadership Cultural Values of United Arab Emirates-The Case of United Arab Emirates University by Ebtesam A. Alteneiji A Thesis submitted to the faculty of University of San Diego In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts in Leadership Studies May 2015 Abstract UAE is a young country with a young population that has witnessed tremendous changes over the past decades. There has not been much research about the cultural values of the UAE in generational perspectives, and there have been rapid changes. Therefore, this study aimed at exploring systematic changes in leadership cultural values among the older and the younger generations of the United Arab Emirates. The author utilized Hofstede’s (VSM08) instrument to survey undergraduate students, administrators and faculty at UAE University. The study found no significant differences between the younger and older generations’ tolerance to unequal distribution of power (power distance), fear of the unknown (uncertainty avoidance), quality of life (feminism), tight knit social framework (individualisms) and the exhibition of short-term orientation. Surprisingly, participants in this study scored significantly lower on power distance, masculinity and uncertainty avoidance than those in Hofstede’s original data that was collected 30 years ago. The specific characteristics of the represented sample, and the systematic value change were investigated as a possible explanation of the nation’s indices, and low masculinity in particular. Empirically, wealth and Western influence emerged to be the primary factor for the registered index scores, and the study unveiled generational struggles in a traditional, yet largely Westernized society. Acknowledgments First and foremost, I want to thank Professor Afsaneh Nahavandi, my chair supervisor and mentor for her friendly guidance for the study of cross-cultural communication, and constant encouragement in making this research thesis a reality. I would like also to thank Prof. Zachary Green, my committee reader for his tremendous support and guidance over the past two years at the Department of Leadership Studies at the University of San Diego. Words cannot express how grateful am I to my father, mother and sister Nouf for all of the sacrifices you made on my behalf, and for your dedication to lend a hand in this venture. This thesis would not have come to a successful complete without the kind cooperation of United Arab Emirates University’s Vice Chancellor, Dr. Ali Al Noaimi, UAEU Teaching Assistant Office and College of Humanities and Social Sciences. To you all, I owe you profound appreciation and gratitude! i Table of Contents Acknowledgments ........................................................................................................................... ii List of Tables .................................................................................................................................. ii List of Figures ................................................................................................................................. ii CHAPTER ONE-INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................. 1 Rationale and Structure .................................................................................................................. 1 Hypothesis ...................................................................................................................................... 3 Enriching the Existing Literature ................................................................................................... 4 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................ 6 Culture and Change ........................................................................................................................ 6 The Phenomenon of mental programming .................................................................................... 7 Characteristics of Culture and Values ............................................................................................ 8 Antecedents of cultural values and change .................................................................................. 10 Cross-Cultural Research .............................................................................................................. 11 Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner (1997) .................................................................................. 12 House et al.’s Project GLOBE (2004) .......................................................................................... 13 Hofstede (1980) ............................................................................................................................ 14 Power distance ............................................................................................................................. 15 Individualism Individualism vs. Collectivism ............................................................................. 18 ii Masculinity vs. Femininity .......................................................................................................... 19 Uncertainty Avoidance ................................................................................................................ 20 Long-Term Orientation ................................................................................................................ 21 Data Validation: Economic, Geographic, and Demographic Indicators ...................................... 21 Current scores for Arab countries and Middle East ..................................................................... 22 Limitation of Hofstede’s (1980) work ......................................................................................... 24 The United Arab Emirates – The Context .................................................................................... 25 Geography .................................................................................................................................... 25 History .......................................................................................................................................... 26 The Economic and Political Context ........................................................................................... 27 UAE State Federal Formation and System .................................................................................. 28 The political system of UAE Government ................................................................................... 30 UAE Population and National Identity ........................................................................................ 32 UAE Economy ............................................................................................................................. 33 Towards Political Liberalization .................................................................................................. 34 The UAE - Cultural Values and Influences ................................................................................. 36 Religion and language .................................................................................................................. 36 Globalization of higher education ................................................................................................ 37 The age of social media ............................................................................................................... 39 Intergenerational differences – women ........................................................................................ 40 iii Research Hypothesis .................................................................................................................... 42 CHAPTER THREE-METHODLOGY AND RESULTS ............................................................ 46 Methodology ................................................................................................................................ 46 Participants ................................................................................................................................... 46 Demographic Characteristics of the Participants ......................................................................... 47 The Research Instrument ............................................................................................................. 54 Procedures .................................................................................................................................... 55 Analysis and Results ...................................................................................................................