The Current Arab Work Ethic: Antecedents, Implications, and Potential Remedies

Abstract

work values, Arab, work ethic, Islam,

Motives underlying the choice of business majors: A multi-country comparison

“…Despite the risk of generalizing cultural values to nations, Sidani and Thornberry (2009) point to particular outcomes of institutional values within Arab societies, especially related to family and education. Specifically, it is argued that societal norms encourage rote-style learning and subservience to authoritative figures such as teachers, which when combined with anxiety over uncertainty of outcomes (Hofstede, 2001), discourage creative effort, deter self-initiative, and hamper the need to stretch critically and intellectually (Sidani and Thornberry, 2009). It is suggested that the perception of failure magnifies under these conditions, elevating the salience of completion rates.…”

“…It is suggested that the perception of failure magnifies under these conditions, elevating the salience of completion rates. Further, since exam failure might be construed as a reflection on the entire extended family, the cost of failure has severe repercussions (Sidani and Thornberry, 2009). With both the perception of failure and associated cost increasing under these institutional forces, choosing majors that are perceptibly easy to complete without significant effort appears to be an attractive coping strategy for UAE majors.…”

Success through Trust, Control, and Learning? Contrasting the Drivers of SME Performance between Different Modes of Foreign Market Entry

“…Whereas Western cultures tend to be less collectivistic and marked by loose ties among its members, Arab countries tend to have a collectivistic culture and are hence more strongly characterized by trust and loyalty as shown by the appearance of strong/close groups [63,77]. Hence, within the Arab culture, the loyalty of individuals first and foremost belongs to their families and only secondly to other members of society [78]. Islam is a major factor promoting the importance of family.…”

Examining the Use of Hofstede’s Uncertainty Avoidance Construct as a Definition or Brief Comparison in Ethics Research

“…Panel A contains articles that focused on single country research. These included Arab societies (Sidani & Thornberry, 2010), Arab-Gulf culture (Al-Khatib et al, 2004), China (Lowe, 1996;Tan, 2008), Egypt (Sidani & Jamali, 2010), Iceland (Vaiman et al, 2011), India (Monga, 2007), Norway (Brinkmann, 2002), Turkey (Atakan et al, 2008), Thailand (Leung et al, 2009) and the United States (Jose & Thibodeaux, 1999;Simga-Mugan et al, 2005). In Panel B, the articles that reviewed two countries compared Fiji to India (Wimalasiri, 2004), France to Russia (Chhokar et al, 2001), Germany to Turkey (Schneider et al, 2011) and Hong Kong to Taiwan (Wan et al, 2009;Whitcomb et al, 1998).…”