New Lamps for Old

Abstract

Our study aims to examine ways to counteract the arbitrary mix of organizational communication practices that has evolved in the Gulf Region as a result of the large numbers of different cultures that make up the workforce there. To this end, we attempt to develop a conceptual model of leadership communication, the Gulf Leadership Communication Framework. We see this as a crucial element in organizational communication practices that is of particular relevance for the process of localization in the Gulf Region. In this analysis, we refer to two sets of empirical data on discursive leadership and interpersonal communication that were collected from around 600 Emirati nationals. Our findings show that a leadership model for social contexts like the Gulf Cooperation Council may look very different from the models that obtain elsewhere; this is the case because in the region organizational communication may be most successful when people use strategies that privilege uniformity, rather than selecting strategies that celebrate diversity.