Yusuf M. Sidani

Women, work, and Islam in Arab societies

Purpose – This paper attempts to present varying discourses pertaining to womens work and how it is impacted by interpretations of Islam.Design/methodology/approach – Current discourses from various viewpoints are presented including Muslim scholars on the one hand and active feminists on the other. Personalities are presented as being representative of the debate that has been going on pertaining to women in Arab societies.Findings – Attempts that aim at categorizing Arab thought and activism into two camps, one is religious‐based adverse to womens causes, and the other being secular and supportive of their causes does not present a candid depiction of the different forces.Research limitations/implications – Personalities chosen represent specific case studies that, although thought to be representative, cannot realistically reflect all the multitudes of views expressed pertaining to the issues discussed. Future studies may cover other relevant personalities in the region.Practical implications – Devel...

Constraints facing working women in Lebanon: an insider view

– The ascendancy of women to top management positions is a perennial problem plaguing organizations worldwide. The purpose of this paper is to present some insights relating to this pervasive phenomenon from a Middle Eastern context by exploring the constraints reported by Lebanese women managers throughout their careers., – Literature review and qualitative research methodology consisting of interviews with 62 Lebanese women managers in different fields of occupation., – The findings suggest that the constraints reported by Lebanese women managers are similar to those reported worldwide. The main differences revolve around the strongly felt salience of cultural values and expectations constraining women to traditional roles and a more accentuated sense of patriarchy., – The value added of this research is to present an insider view and fresh perspective into career constraints facing women from a non‐traditional context, namely Lebanon. In view of the Western‐centric nature of academic publication on the topic, there is a real need and added value in empirical research stemming from an Arab‐Middle Eastern context.

United Arab Emirates female entrepreneurs: motivations and frustrations

Purpose – This paper seeks to summarize the results of a study assessing the status of United Arab Emirates (UAE) female entrepreneurs and attempts to sketch the pattern of the UAE female entrepreneur. It aims to draw a profile of typical UAE women entrepreneurs and their characteristics, outline the makeup of their entrepreneurial businesses, identify some barriers that women face at the startup stage, and in addition – their entrepreneurial motivations and driving forces, satisfactions and frustrations.Design/methodology/approach – An interview‐based qualitative method was used. Structured interviews were conducted with 16 women entrepreneurs over a two‐month period. The contents of the interviews were analyzed and recurring themes were identified and highlighted.Findings – The interviewed women seem to experience no conflicts between their entrepreneurial life and their personal, family, social, leisure, and friendship lives. However, although satisfied from being in business, they face some barriers a...

The Learning Organization: Tracking Progress in a Developing Country--A Comparative Analysis Using the DLOQ

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to survey the various measurement instruments of the learning organization on offer, leading to the adoption of a tool that was considered most suitable for gauging progress towards the learning organization in two sectors of the Lebanese economy, namely banking and information technology (IT).Design/methodology/approach – The paper capitalized on a literature review to identify the various measurement instruments on offer in the context of learning organizations. The Dimensions of the Learning Organization Questionnaire (DLOQ) by Watkins and Marsick was adopted in light of the review to gauge the progress towards learning organizations in two progressive sectors of the Lebanese economy, namely banking and IT. The questionnaire was administered to a sample of six organizations from each sector, respectively, drawing on responses from a total sample of 227 employees and managers to benchmark progress towards the learning organization in a developing country context.Fi...

Data Envelopment Analysis Model for the Appraisal and Relative Performance Evaluation of Nurses at an Intensive Care Unit

The appraisal and relative performance evaluation of nurses are very important and beneficial for both nurses and employers in an era of clinical governance, increased accountability and high standards of health care services. They enhance and consolidate the knowledge and practical skills of nurses by identification of training and career development plans as well as improvement in health care quality services, increase in job satisfaction and use of cost-effective resources. In this paper, a data envelopment analysis (DEA) model is proposed for the appraisal and relative performance evaluation of nurses. The model is validated on thirty-two nurses working at an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at one of the most recognized hospitals in Lebanon. The DEA was able to classify nurses into efficient and inefficient ones. The set of efficient nurses was used to establish an internal best practice benchmark to project career development plans for improving the performance of other inefficient nurses. The DEA result confirmed the ranking of some nurses and highlighted injustice in other cases that were produced by the currently practiced appraisal system. Further, the DEA model is shown to be an effective talent management and motivational tool as it can provide clear managerial plans related to promoting, training and development activities from the perspective of nurses, hence increasing their satisfaction, motivation and acceptance of appraisal results. Due to such features, the model is currently being considered for implementation at ICU. Finally, the ratio of the number DEA units to the number of input/output measures is revisited with new suggested values on its upper and lower limits depending on the type of DEA models and the desired number of efficient units from a managerial perspective.

Ibn Khaldun of North Africa: an AD 1377 theory of leadership

Purpose – This papers purpose is to present the works of a North African early contributor to sociological theory, Ibn Khaldun (1332‐1406), specifically pertaining to his conceptualization of leadership and the role of asabiya (group feeling) in leadership emergence.Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews the Muqadimmah, (Prolegomena or the introduction), which contained his most important views of the issue.Findings – The paper develops an early model of leadership as described by Ibn Khaldun. This research study presents a different understanding of leadership that has applicability in a different era and in a different culture. The paper summarizes Ibn Khalduns views on human nature, how leadership emerges, and the role of group feeling or asabiya in leadership situations.Practical implications – The paper presents some implications of Ibn Khalduns work for understanding leadership dynamics in a non‐western cultural context. It is suggested here that many of Ibn Khalduns leadership proposit...

Gender, age, and ethical sensitivity: the case of Lebanese workers

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to address issues of gender, age, and ethical sensitivity and to address the interplay of gender and age and levels of ethical sensitivity within the Lebanese context.Design/methodology/approach – A structured survey was designed and administered to a sample of Lebanese respondents to test the extent of ethical sensitivity of the respondents. This study used a range of situations and scenarios to identify the levels of both sensitivity to business ethics and awareness of unethical business.Findings – Significant differences were found in ethical sensitivity in only four out of 18 situations where in all cases females were more sensitive than males to issues of ethical nature. When comparing younger to older employees, significant differences were found in six out of the 18 situations. Age of the respondents seemed to better explain some ethical differences among respondents in some situations.Research limitations/implications – The specific context (workers) in which...

Learning organizations: diagnosis and measurement in a developing country context: The case of Lebanon

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to assess the performance of a sample of Lebanese organizations vis‐a‐vis some of the core learning organization dimensions identified in the literature, focusing specifically on those dimensions that are considered most salient and relevant in the Lebanese context.Design/methodology/approach – The paper capitalizes on a comprehensive literature review to identify the core dimensions of the learning organization construct to be tackled in the questionnaire. The questionnaire was then compiled, comprising 40 questions consolidated from the published literature, addressing seven key learning organization dimensions. Factor analysis following survey administration allowed for filtering five dimensions of learning organizations that are most salient in the Lebanese context.Findings – Five salient characteristics of effective learning organizations are identified through factor analysis, namely employee participation, learning climate, systematic employee development, con...

Classical vs. Modern Managerial CSR Perspectives: Insights from Lebanese Context and Cross-Cultural Implications

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a concept that has acquired a new resonance in the global economy. With the advent of globalization, managers in different contexts have been exposed to the notion of CSR and are being pressured to adopt CSR initiatives. Yet in view of vastly differing national cultures and institutional realities, mixed orientations to CSR continue to be salient in different contexts, oscillating between the classical perspective which considers CSR as a burden on competitiveness and the modern perspective that views CSR as instrumental for business success. Capitalizing on the two-dimensional CSR model developed by Quazi and O’Brien, Journal of Business Ethics , 25, 33–51 (2000), this article attempts to gauge managerial perspectives toward CSR in Lebanon. An empirical study of 119 Lebanese managers reveals that the majority of respondents (83 percent) are favorably inclined toward

Is CSR Counterproductive In Developing Countries: The Unheard Voices of Change

This Special Issue of Journal of Change Management tackles an ascending trend across the globe and in the developing world in particular, namely Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). CSR is increasingly cast by policy makers and international agencies (e.g. World Bank and United States Agency for International Development [USAID]) as an alternative route to facilitate and accelerate development, particularly in emerging economies (Blowfield, 2005; Jenkins, 2005). But the real potential of CSR to deliver on this aspiration or promise should be constantly revisited and reassessed, taking into consideration local community voices and perspectives. Although international agencies and multinational companies have had ample opportunity to express and communicate their views on the potential of CSR from their perspective, the voices of indigenous communities continue to be thwarted and stifled when they should logically lie at the heart of effective change management interventions. The added value of this Special Issue is that it brings forward this alternative perspective, through accounts of how CSR is experienced by local workers, owners and managers in the developing world, and the extent to which it does indeed offer hope and an alternative avenue for change. The first article, co-authored by Farzad Rafi Khan and Peter Lund-Thomsen adopts a phenomenological approach that maps the interpretations given to Western-based CSR initiatives by local manufacturers in Pakistan. The article capitalizes on interviews with owners/managers of local soccer ball manufacturing firms in Sialkot, Pakistan, one of the largest hand-stitching soccer ball industrial clusters in the world. The research highlights the ethnocentrism in current Journal of Change Management Vol. 11, No. 1, 69–71, March 2011