Many business topics cover the subjects of knowledge sharing, leadership management and organizational effectiveness, which would impact the entrepreneurial industry. Research covering this subject is looking to identify the most effective methods of managing businesses and organizations, and finding the correlation between solid organizational behaviors, good leadership and success in business. The initial problem that was discussed in this article is the lack of research produced on leadership, knowledge management and organizational skills in the United Arab Emirates. Prior to this article, “there has been no previous direct empirical evidence” in Dubai and the researchers wanted “to fill this research gap,” (Behery, 2008, p. 227). This paper will seek to critique Mohamed Behery’s article in his research methods, and discuss its strengths and weaknesses after properly describing it in whole.
The hypotheses developed for this paper are multifaceted, and are connected through certain known factors and variables. One of their hypotheses is that the sharing of knowledge is “positively correlated with the organizational effectiveness and benefits of the UAE,” (Behery, 2008, p. 230), and they also assume in two of their other hypotheses is that transactional and transformational leadership positively correlate with the sharing of knowledge. Considering the relationship between effective knowledge sharing and having organizational benefits, the point of the study overall is to figure out whether transactional and transformational leadership have positive correlations with organizational effectiveness (since this is the end goal here).
Much of the prior research done in this field of studying leadership methods and successful organized businesses has been done by Western researchers. It has been stated before that there is clearly a gap in the research since there hasn’t been any attempts in researching this field within the country of the United Arab Emirates. This is especially important considering that Dubai is one of the most lucrative cities in the world, and has been immensely successful in the entertainment, hotel and tourism industry. It saw a 7.5 percent rise of tourists throughout 2015 “despite slowing economic growth in many markets,” (“Dubai visitors,” 2016), which is a testament to its strong economic standing.
Behery (2008) conducted this study by giving a survey to 560 managers “at different levels working in a variety of service organizations in Dubai,” (p. 230). An anonymous questionnaire that studied “measures of transactional and transformational leadership behaviors, sharing knowledge activities and organizational effectiveness and benefits” (p. 230) were given to 504 different employees. These two questionnaires would then be compared to find motifs and other findings. These employees have been part of their companies in an average of 3-4 years, so they did have ample experience in working within the company structure and with the managers. Fifty five percent of the employee participants were female and forty percent were local workers (and not foreign). The surveys given were designed by prior researchers. The Transformational Leadership Measurement was designed by Bass and Avolio in 2000. The Knowledge Sharing Measurement was deisnged by Nonaka and Takeuchi in 1995, and the Organizational Effectiveness Measurement was designed by Gaertner and Ramnarayan in 1983 (Behery, 2008, p. 231).
As part of the literature review, there are several terms that were defined in the article in order to express the message of the study clearly. Without these definitions, the methodology of the study would be unclear and undefined. Transformational leadership, for example, is defined as a theory that “simultaneously involves leader traits, power, behavior, and situational variables,” (Behery, 2008, p. 227), making it a hybrid approach to business practice. The importance of it is in the way it influences and inspires followers to feel respect, loyalty, and admiration to the leader. Transactional leadership, on the other hand, is defined by Behery (2008) as a theory that is based on the exchange between leader and follower. Ideas and terms are discussed between colleagues, where reward and punishment is discussed based on performance (p. 228). In this sense, some leaders are actively trying to fix their employees’ performance, and some will only interfere when there is a problem.
Knowledge sharing is as a practice where colleagues transfer knowledge from one group or organization to another. In this sense, knowledge is considered to be “a critical factor affecting an organization’s ability to remain competitive in the new global marketplace,” (p. 229). Organizational benefits are defined to be the state of affairs within an organization to be successful and sufficient, according to Behery (2008). These definitions were comprised of a hybrid of many different studies done by prior researchers as well. The literature review of the piece also defined variables for the study that were asked in the questionnaire. Transformational leadership behavior and transactional leadership behavior were described as two independent variables. Participants were asked to describe the behaviors of their managers according to these two behavioral theories. Knowledge sharing was also considered an independent variable, where the participants had to “assess how well their companies implement the sharing of knowledge activities” (Behery, 2008, p. 230). At the same time, knowledge sharing is a dependent variable. Participants were asked in this way to assess the effect of leadership skills on how knowledge was shared. Organizational effectiveness is the second dependent variable, where they had to answer whether or not their companies benefitted from the managers’ leadership behavior.
Behery (2008) assumed that the limitation of his study was partially due to his data being “cross-sectional,” (p. 235), and that “definite conclusions concerning causality are not possible.” He suggests potential for further research to include more data “in longitudinal bases could be obtained to produce more reliable results,” (p. 235). In other words, Behery has critiqued himself in that he did not gain enough data. He also wanted to differentiate the responses given by managers and non-managers.
The study thus far has “reported a positive relationship” (Behery, 2008, p. 234) between transformational leadership and transactional leadership on knowledge sharing. Behery (2008) understood, however, the implication that as “we enter a knowledge society, the workforce becomes dominated by knowledge workers,” (p. 234). Behery believes that his research findings supported a working culture where “leaders are no longer the source of knowledge and are no longer perched at the top of the organization but rather in the center,” (p. 234). As far as knowledge sharing is concerned, Behery discussed that “the success, indeed the survival, of every business will depend on the performance of its knowledge workforce,” (p. 235). His study has showed results that supported a positive correlation between these transformational leadership and organizational effectiveness (and this is more so than transactional leadership, but only slightly).
Some of the critiques towards this specific academic paper are centered towards writing style and lack of information presented in the paper. First of all, academic writing is, according to Bartholomae (1986), a language of its own. It is a “specialized discourse” where students are appropriated to write a certain way to be “easily and comfortably one with their audience,” (p. 5). A good writer, by his definition is one that can “imagine how a reader will respond to a text and can transform or restructure what they have to say around a goal shared with a reader,” (p. 8). These are the elements that Behery is unable to fulfill in his writing. The literature review was absolutely necessary and appreciated in order to understand the purpose of the study. However, the majority of the details in the actual study was all laid out in the charts and in the statistics. This, on his part, would have been his assumption that his exclusive audience is one that is able to grasp a decent amount of information out of the statistics. His discussion section is severely lacking. There are mentions of other theorists on the concepts that he studied in his methodology, but he does not discuss his results in his analysis nor does he relate his results to the other theorists mentioned. Furthermore, he will invariably mention certain methodologies of his studies, like how he implemented his studies into a “regression equation,” or that a “One-Way ANOVA test has been employed” for the study (Behery, 2008, p. 231). There is no explanation of what means or what he is looking for specifically by using these methods. It is in this way that Behery forces a very exclusive audience that is comfortable with statistics to read this paper.
Because of these weaknesses, there are also many areas left in his paper that still need to be answered. This paper takes no consideration into cultural practices in the UAE as part of its analysis. Considering that many of these theories that he is testing originate from Western theorists, there is no consideration about the Western influence in business management on Arab culture. In other words, “there is a need for a cultural insight before judging whether certain management concepts are transferable to the Arab Middle East countries and how these concepts can most effectively be transferred,” (Elbanna, 2012, p. 100). Arab business is greatly influenced by Islam, Bedouin and tribal inheritance, foreign rule and oil. While Behery is studying very specific things (how leadership essentially plays a role in the organizational effectiveness of a company), this lack of consideration can actually make the data unreliable. It is not enough to know the gender of the employees or what level they are. It is important to include a wider variety of participants that also consider their financial background as a means to fully understand the relationship between manager and co-worker.
Furthermore, only 40 percent of his participants were local. This would mean that the majority of those filling the survey were foreign workers. There is a large gap in academic understanding with this statistic, considering that the Human Rights Watch has determined that there are millions of low-paid, abused migrant workers (Malik, 2011). Through high death rates and lack of human rights protests due to their strict kalafa system where employers are hosts to residency, migrant workers work hard through fear (Malik, 2011), which would question the legitimacy of these consistent positive correlations that Behery (2008) found in his studies.
Said Elbanna (2012) proposed a much more rounded study into the effectiveness of information gathering and organizational performance in his study of the UAE since he considers these cultural aspects about the Arabian Gulf. It would be a prime example for Behery to follow in further studies that he may publish. It fulfilled its purpose of establishing a rare study conducted in Dubai, but it has gaping holes in its research as a result. There is a large potential for further research, therefore, where it is needed to compare Western values and how it is adapted into Eastern culture, which has different expectations and behavioral mannerisms for running everyday life.
References
Bartholomae, D. (1986). Inventing the university. Journal of Basic Writing, 5(1), pp. 4- 23
Behery, M.H. (2008). Leadership, knowledge sharing, and organizational benefits within
the UAE. Journal of American Academy of Business, 12(2), pp. 227-236.
Dubai visitors up 7.5 pc to more than 14 million. (27 January 2016). Business Standard.
Retrieved from http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/dubai-
visitors-up-7-5-pc-to-more-than-14-million-116012701159_1.html
Elbanna, S. (2012). Slack, planning and organizational performance: Evidence from the Arab Middle East. European Management Review, 9, pp. 99-115.
Malik, N. (2011). Dubai’s skyscrapers, stained by the blood of migrant workers. The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/may/
27/dubai-migrant-worker-deaths
