Mark Neal

“My father knows the Minister”: A comparative study of Arab women's attitudes towards leadership authority

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to fill a gap in the literature on Arab womens conceptions of leadership. By comparing womens leadership authority values in three Arab countries, the paper aims to refine existing gender‐neutral research on leadership in the “Arab world”.Design/methodology/approach – The study involved administering a survey, which had been developed based on Webers work on authority (1978) and contemporary discussions of implicit leadership theories (ILT). The data (n=320) were drawn from female subjects who were enrolled in upper‐division business major classes in three countries, Oman, Lebanon and the UAE The women thus constituted educated entrants to their respective labor markets. The data were subjected to an analysis of group means on each of the questions, using the Scheffe option available in ANOVA.Findings – The analysis found evidence of common leadership authority values in the Gulf countries (Oman and the UAE). Lebanon, meanwhile, was distinguished by relatively low...

Sustainability in business education in the Asia Pacific region: A snapshot of the situation

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide information about the extent to which sustainability is integrated into business school education and learning in the Asia Pacific region.Design/methodology/approach – A survey was developed, and administered to business schools in the Asia Pacific region. In addition to measuring the number of courses and programs integrating sustainability, the study solicited qualitative observations by respondents, to provide information and insight into the issues.Findings – The research found that whereas corporate governance, sustainability and business ethics were quite commonly taught in business schools, they were not generally prioritized. There was also an overall lack of systematic approaches to the integration of sustainability in business curricula, and significant barriers to the integration of sustainability into programs remained.Originality/value – This is the first region‐wide survey of sustainability in business education in the Asia Pacific region.

Coinciding crises and tourism in contemporary Thailand

Although tourism crises have received increased attention in recent years, there has been a lack of research into coinciding crises and their effects on tourism. Correspondingly, there has been little theoretical work done on their nature, interaction and dynamics. In this article, we seek to redress this, and extend the study of tourism crises by looking at antecedent crises of different orders that interact and escalate in ways that damage tourism. As a case of this, we discuss the situation in Thailand from 2007 to 2009, and explain how two different orders of antecedent crises – an economic meltdown, and an escalating political crisis – interacted to form an acute and complex mega-crisis, which ultimately facilitated the spectacular occupation of Bangkoks two main airports by the opposition to the government in November 2008; this in turn completely disrupted, and provoked a sharp and prolonged drop in, tourist arrivals to the country. Through a discussion of this case, we raise some important theoretical issues regarding the development of tourism crises generally, most notably the analytical importance of human agency within unfurling antecedent crises.

AMERICAN HEGEMONY AND BUSINESS EDUCATION IN THE ARAB WORLD

To what extent is American business education “hegemonic” in the Arab world? To answer this, the authors examine whether Lebanese people exposed to American-style business education share the values implicit in their textbooks and teaching resources. Finding evidence for such values among Lebanese business students and working people alike, they argue that American business education is not only externally dominant; it is also internally hegemonic in its influences on local Arab values. The authors examine the problems American hegemony causes in Arab classrooms and discuss how problem-based learning provides an alternative and more relevant learning experience for Arab students.

When Arab‐expatriate relations work well: Diversity and discourse in the Gulf Arab workplace

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to document and analyze the case of a public sector organization in the Gulf region, in which Arab‐expatriate relations worked well and sustained a positive and high‐performing organizational climate.Design/methodology/approach – The research employed an embedded ethnographic approach to produce a case analysis of expatriate‐local work relations.Findings – The study found that although there may be multiple sources of difference and potential conflict between Arab locals and expatriates in the workplace, there are circumstances where the effects of such divisions are neutralized, and a positive work environment is sustained. The paper identifies the key sources of division, and social cohesion, and shows how – in this case – these factors interacted so that the negative impact of cultural difference was neutralized, and good working relations were achieved.Originality/value – The paper is new in two respects. It is the first ethnographic study of Arab‐expatriate work...

A Middle Eastern Muslim Tourist Enclave in Bangkok

Abstract Studies of tourist enclaves have noticed their boundedness, but paid little attention to the theoretical significance of the strictness of their boundaries for their internal dynamics. This issue constitutes the point of departure of our study of a Middle Eastern Muslim tourist enclave in an international tourist zone in Bangkok, which plays a double role as a source of religiously proscribed hedonistic opportunities and religiously prescribed services to a Muslim clientele. The enclave was founded by Gulf Arab sex tourists in the early 1980s and became a center of sexual services to Middle Eastern visitors, but its hedonistic role came to be increasingly confined to a hotel, and consequently stagnated, whereas the service role of the enclave flourished, particularly after the recent arrival of Middle Eastern medical tourists and their families, seeking treatment in a nearby hospital. The article analyses how the latters arrival has changed the dynamics and structure of the enclave, led to unresolved tensions between vice and virtue in the area, and reconfigured the relationship of the enclave with the wider international tourist zone.

‘I lose, but that’s not the point’: Situated Economic and Social Rationalities in Horserace Gambling

ABSTRACT This article compares ethnographic observations of horserace gambling in two UK spaces – the betting shop (remote) and the racecourse (proximal). The paper identifies the emerging, situated rationales that attract gamblers to these leisure spaces, and that motivate them to integrate their gambling activities as an ongoing, sustainable feature of their lives. Doing so, it is observed that, for the vast majority of punters, gambling on the horses is neither ‘addictive’ nor is it ‘irrational’, except in narrowly defined zweckrational terms. The article thus argues for a shift in current gambling research, away from an overwhelming preoccupation with pathological gambling, towards a broader consideration of the more representative and socioeconomically significant activities of leisure gambling.

Anatta: Buddhist insights into the paradoxical nature of organizational cultural problems

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate paradoxes in the development of organizational cultural problems – paradoxes that go undetected by people involved in them. The paper explains why these paradoxes remain undetected, and shows how their “invisibility” is a foundation for the development of “cultural problems”.Design/methodology/approach – The approach is phenomenological, in that it explores how actors in cross‐cultural settings understand “difference” and thereby socially construct “cultural problems”.Findings – Three interrelated paradoxes are uncovered: In dyads, actors perceive two‐way “cultural difference” as being one‐way. “Difference” thus becomes embodied in the “other” – “the other” alone is “different” and “difficult”. In bi‐cultural organizations, perceptions of “the other” as “different” and “difficult” encourage the formation of in‐groups and out‐groups that lead to “cultural problems”. “Difference” becomes embodied in “the others” while “cultural problems” that are the res...

Fueling the fire

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the organizational antecedents and management of the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) epidemic in the UK in the 1990s in order to answer the following questions. What organizational factors contributed to the development of the epidemic? How did they do so? What can we learn from the management of BSE that can help us in tackling future epidemics?Design/methodology/approach – The research involved content analysis of the most extensive documentation of the crisis, the Philips Report, and other official and non‐official sources, to gain a phenomenological understanding of the organizational/departmental/financial contexts in which key decisions were taken.Findings – The organization of the institutions charged with managing BSE ensured slow, shortsighted and atomized decision‐making, inappropriate to the management of an epidemic. Organization‐ and department‐specific priorities, budgets and boundaries ensured piecemeal, “locally rational” responses t...

AirAsia The Sky's the Limit

This case details the rise and expansion of AirAsia in South-east Asia. The company employed a business model for low-cost airlines that was originally developed by Southwest Airlines in the United...This case details the rise and expansion of AirAsia in South-east Asia. The company employed a business model for low-cost airlines that was originally developed by Southwest Airlines in the United States and subsequently employed with great success by European companies such as Ryanair and EasyJet. The case thus documents the successful application of a western business model in a previously unexploited Asian environment, and raises issues about knowledge transfer, and the sustainability of such a model in the face of increasing competition and market turbulence. In this way, this case raises issues of innovation, adaptation, strategy and sustainability within the Asian context.