TITLE:
Employees’ Identities, Cultural Values, and Leadership Preferences in a Multicultural Workplace in the Sultanate of Oman
AUTHORS:
Maria Chulkstan
KEYWORDS:
Cultural Values, Leadership, Cultural Identities, Social Identities
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Leadership,
Vol.13 No.4,
December
31,
2024
ABSTRACT: Multicultural working environments, diversity, and inclusion are the topics of interest in contemporary human resource management and leadership studies (Getha-Taylor et al., 2020). Since working environments with truly homogenous workforce are difficult to find, it is acknowledged in the literature that diversity brings benefits along with challenges for leadership to handle. This case study of a higher education institution in a governmental sector in the Sultanate of Oman aims to explore the role of cultural values, cultural and social identities in employees’ preferences of leadership styles. In this study, quantitative and qualitative approaches were combined to triangulate the findings and ensure their reliability. Initially, data were collected using an online survey distributed among employees of a governmental higher education institution in Oman. 153 responses were obtained with 52% response rate. Quantitative data were coded and analyzed statistically with the help of SPSS software. This was followed by one-to-one semi-structured interviews with 28 participants to clarify the findings of the first stage and ensure their reliability. Thematic analysis with thematic mapping was utilized to analyze the data collected by grouping concepts into themes and establishing the relationships between them. Overall, the current study attempts to demonstrate how employees’ identities and cultural values affect individuals’ leadership style preferences. The findings, in general, support previously conducted studies. However, they highlight the lack and inconsistency of other works regarding the correlation between leadership style preferences and cultural values in non-Western countries.