Expatriate leaders’ leadership styles vs. local subordinates’ perspectives in a United Arab Emirates higher education institution

Abstract

The main aim of this small scale qualitative pilot exploratory study is to examine how the local subordinates in one of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) higher education institutions perceive their expatriate western leaders’ behaviors, what work and personal relationship is established between them, what leadership skills, if any, the UAE local subordinates think their expatriate leaders need to improve or develop to cope with their culture, and what strategies the UAE local subordinates use to adapt to their expatriate leaders’ behaviors. Semi-structured interviews were used to interview three UAE local subordinates in a higher education institution. The purpose was particularly to answer the following research questions as perceived by the local subordinates: 1) What were your expectations of the expatriate leadership? 2) How would you describe your relation with your expatriate leader? 3) What skills do you think your leader needs to develop to cope with your cultural norms? 4) What strategies do you use to cope with your leader’s behaviors? The main findings show a significant contradiction between what local subordinates expected from their expatriate leaders and their perceptions of leadership behavior.