In this chapter, an analysis of the communication design of Middle Eastern countries will be provided, with particular concentrate on the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Before analysing our focus countries, it is interesting to offer an overview of the communication style in the centre East compared to that in the Western. Only after understanding the key differences between these two areas, can inner dissimilarities be explained.
Western ventures as well as expat international workers that begin working in the centre East face many problems because of the dissimilarities in their communication style. The type of business communication style is the consequence of the combination of different facets, such as ethnic, political, socio-economical and historical characteristics of your country. Some of the main ethnic factors will be therefore analysed in the section.
First of most, Middle East countries are extremely high context, meaning that people from this region consider all different aspects of a certain event in order to get the true knowledge of it. Invisible meanings are available by analysing the situation all together. This term was coined by Edward Hall (1976) and situated in comparison to low-context countries, such as USA, in which the interpretation of words can be taken straight from the message, without the need to analyse the complete context. As is seen later in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia section, the high context characteristic can be associated to the attribute of the Arabic vocabulary as an associative language. This affirmation by Hall (1976, p. 98) effectively offers an efficient understand of the meaning of high framework "When discussing something they have on their minds, a high context individual will expect his interlocutor to know what's bothering him, so that he doesn't have to be specific. The effect is that he will speak around and around the idea, in effect putting all the parts set up except the crucial one. Setting it properly -- this keystone -- is the role of his interlocutor.
Secondly, Midsection Eastern people have a tendency to invest a huge amount of their time establishing personal romantic relationships and addressing better know their negotiating people before actually initiating the task (Badawy, 1980). Because of this, doing business in the Middle East usually takes longer than far away. Personal contacts are believed more important than steps and standard processes for businesses. For example, creative sales techniques and press advertising aren't as effective in these countries just as Western ones. Instead, business in the centre East depends more on the cultivation of individual customers and on federal government officers (Badawy, 1980).
Another characteristic that distinguishes Midsection Eastern management communication style from that of the West is related to the perception of the time and space. Midsection Eastern countries have a mainly polychronic work style, they often engage in multiple activities and goals at the same time. In the centre East, time can be an open-ended concept. It is a mixture of history, present and future. The word "bukra" (basically "tomorrow") that is often found in this region refers to the fact that what can't be done today will be done tomorrow and the word "inshallah" (virtually "God willing") underlines that God is in charge of time (Martin and Chaney, 2006). Therefore, time is known as to be always a flexible strategy, being late at meetings rather than respecting totally deadlines is not often seen as offensive behaviour. Moreover, being late could also be a tactic employed by Middle Eastern managers to demonstrate their superiority and power over their subordinates (Martin and Chaney, 2006).
As far as space is concerned, business interactions in Middle Eastern countries usually take place simultaneously among different people and in the same office, similar to a circular table conversation (Badawy, 1980).
Having described some of the main features that characterise the communication style of the center East, this newspaper will now give attention to both considered countries, UAE and Saudi Arabia. The purpose of both subsections is to provide an analysis of both countries in respect to some factors that either differentiate the Emirati or Saudi communication style from the overall concept of business communication style in the Middle East or that underline differences between the two regions.
United Arab Emirates
The UAE is a very particular Middle Eastern country as we have seen in the prior sections.
As significantly as the communication style is included, studies show sound insights. On one hand, the high percentage of expatriate staff and traditional western organisations have been influencing the communication behaviour of Emiratis. Many UAE companies have adapted their norms and communication style to match the Traditional western ones (Willemyns et al. , 2011). It has been a progressive process, powered by the actual fact that today more and more expatriates work in the UAE and that Emiratis used in large companies can usually speak fluent English. Alternatively, specific habits of communication style are available within UAE companies. Our main research would be the analysis performed by Willemyns et al. (2011) and referred to in their research newspaper "Communication and Sociable Personal information Dynamics in UAE Organizations". The study was conducted among 192 Emiratis (34 women) who performed in several companies in Dubai and were asked to complete a review about their relationship with American expatriate fellow workers.
However, before proceeding with the examination of the studies, a short overview of the theoretical underpinnings in it will be provided. More specifically, the social identification theory has been considered. This theory proposes that "one's self-concept is jeopardized of an individual identity (predicated on idiosyncratic characteristics such as physical attributes, capabilities and psychological qualities) and of social identities, predicated on groups memberships" (Willemyns et al. , 2011). A particular person would thus see themselves within a group (ingroup) and would compare their ingroup to an outsider group (outgroup), made up of people that are not area of the ingroup (Williams and Giles, 1996). This theory can therefore be used to comprehend and explain the way the Emiratis connect to their foreign colleagues, whether they relate with them as part of the ingroup or the outgroup.
The study shows three main communication patterns.
The first category relates to Interpersonal Control, which identifies the social control implemented in the connection of Emirati nationals using their foreign co-workers. This study has stressed the value of the "ingroup" aspect to numerous Emirati employees. Actually, a high percentage of them feel that they are really perceived by their co-workers as owned by the same group, on an equitable level. Furthermore, Emiratis make an effort to understand the sole specific when they interact with their co-workers alternatively than classifying them within a stereotypical ethnic outgroup. Examples of this conception are related to non-work and camaraderie role romance, similar prices and interpersonal similarities. Within a broader sense of the individualization process just detailed, Condon and Yousef (1975) have outlined the difference between individualism, which implies self-reliance from the group, and personality, which pertains to the liberty of an individual to act, "individuality refers to the person's liberty to act diversely within the limits place by the cultural composition" (Condon and Yousef, 1975). Thus, in this specific case, the analysis pertains more to individuality than to individualism of Emiratis. This sense of personality can even be traced in the Quran where an individual (a prophet) would not in favor of his group to be able to proclaim his trust and belief in God. Therefore, for Arab people and in this specific circumstance, for Emiratis, individual dignity and honour are extremely important. (Ayish, 2003). Therefore, if similarly the owned by ingroup can be an essential part for Emiratis, on the other hand, the individual as a unique person is highly respected. This fact shows that it is most likely too simplistic considering Emiratis as a collectivistic culture (Zaharna, 2009).
The second category analysed is discourse management, which refers to the ability of a person in creating written and oral texts. In the specific case, we consider discourse management in relation to conversations held at work between Emiratis and their Western counterparts. As far as discourse management is concerned, the ingroup and outgroup edges seem to be well balanced. More specifically, if similarly, some Emiratis perceive high social difference using their fellow workers, for example they feel their ideas aren't listened to nor known, on the other palm, some other Emiratis communicate an open, translucent and efficient communication process. Significant examples of this aspect are related to the determination or unwillingness of fellow workers to pay attention and communicate or even to take part in small talk and self-disclosure. Small talks are identified by DeVito (2001) as brief conversations typically used to "break the ice" between people. Also, they are defined pathic communication, term that was coined by the anthropologist Malinowsky (1923) and identifies short discussions of low information content that are used to build and keep maintaining relationships, to "saving face" issues.
Finally, a balance may also be found in the last category, face issues. Emiratis value face-to-face communication as an important feature. Face-to-face communication may lead to both results, for example a foreign colleague expressing explicit compliment, congratulations and encouragement and negative implications, for case by embarrassing in public areas an Emirati, through criticism and negative feedback and by asking improper questions such as questions related to wives and or sisters.
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
In this section, an examination of some interesting factors that form the business enterprise communication style in Saudi Arabia will be provided.
First of most, the surroundings highly affects the communication design of Arab countries. In particular, Ali (1990) underlines how Arab people are put through behave in various ways depending on the characteristics of the surroundings in which they are and have romance with. More specifically, in an authoritarian environment, an Arab is commonly conservative, reliant on authorities and on higher position people and refrains from question and conversations (Ali and Hayward, 1993). In Saudi Arabia, the communication style is more indirect and traditional compared to the communication style of other Mideastern including the Emiratis because of the stricter environment. In addition, Saudis show an increased avoidance of general population issue and criticism, preferring personal to impersonal methods to resolve turmoil and one-to-one business communication (Ali, 1995).
Saudi Arabia is the place of birth both of Islam and Arabic. As Arabic is the dialect of the Quran, the spread of Islam to non-Arabic countries, such as part of South Asia, European countries and North Africa, in addition has implied the diffusion of Arabic vocabulary in them (Hitti, 1970; Hourani, 1992; Chejne, 1965). However, even though all countries in the Middle East have a standard history in the Arabic language, not all of these have used Arabic as official first vocabulary.
Arabic is therefore one of the most important factors that effect the communication style in Saudi Arabia. Regarding to Kabasakal and Bodur (2002), the Arabic vocabulary has an extremely strong influence on the personality of your Arabic person as well as on their communication style. Arabic manages to develop a sense of individuality among Arab people that also has crucial repercussions on the communication style. Specifically, the Arabic terminology is very associative, different examples of association are available within the Arabic terms and in the Quran (Zaharna, 2009). Therefore, to be able to get the real understanding of a text message written in Arabic, the ability to read Arabic is not sufficient; it is instead necessary to understand the various associations among words inside a certain context. Also, Saudis use an indirect business communication style, where sole words will not probably be of significant interpretation. Regarding to Katz (2006), a simple expression like "yes" might indicate "possibly" and it'll be very exceptional a Saudi would answer with a direct "no". Instead, Saudis value beautiful, tasteful rhetoric over concise and appropriate communication. Eloquent people are considered to become more worthy of trust and respect and so they will often use extremely descriptive, emotive and even poetic terminology to connect their point indirectly. This may often make it problematic for Westerners to decipher the supposed message. Furthermore, body language and attention contact is very important in the Middle East, however in Saudi Arabia it is more restricted and managed.
The last aspect that will be analysed in this section refers to the interaction of Saudis with the foreign corporations and acquaintances. Unlike UAE, as observed in section 1. 2 where Emiratis show a more available, transparent and positive behaviour, Saudi Arabia is a more conservative and sealed culture that also regulates just how Saudis work with expatriates (Mackey, 1987). Having a local intermediary can therefore be extremely important for a foreigner to initiate a business relationship with local people. The intermediary can help providing the contacts and leveraging on existing human relationships. (Katz, 2006). Actually, as described previously, personal relationships are necessary in Midsection East and in this particular circumstance, in Saudi Arabia.
