Ethical leadership in the cultural context of Oman

The thesis offers a deeper understanding of ethical leadership from an indigenous lens to explain leadership ethics beyond Western contexts by exploring the various experiences and perceptions of Omani leaders and employees in the Omani oil sector. Although ethical leadership has become one of the most critical topics, there is a significant concern which has been highlighted by many researchers that the majority of ethical leadership literature mainly represents the Western view and fails to conceptualise and measure ethical leadership cross-culturally. Exploring ethical leadership through an indigenous perspective addresses a critical issue that is rarely examined throughout the leadership literature, which is the specification of the relevant norms for ethical leadership or identifying normative moral foundations underlying ethical leadership theories. From the normative cultural stance, the specialised studies which investigate the relationships among societal culture, leadership, and organisational practices, such as GLOBE Project (Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness project) (House et al., 2004) and Hofstede’s framework (Hofstede, 1980) reveals different views on what is viewed as ethical leadership in different cultures. Hence, these residual concerns regarding deep differences in cultural outlooks have led to the emergence of interest in developing indigenous theories to explain the ethics of leadership beyond Western contexts. The imperative here is for a culturally coherent ethical discourse that is likely to be based on the local values and norms of each culture. Against this backdrop, this research has selected Oman as the context for the study due to its predominant cultural context. The Omani cultural context is influenced by two main forces: Islamic religion and social norms, including tribal traditions, customs, and values that affect perceptions of local contextual configurations on ethical leadership.
An exploratory qualitative study was undertaken using semi-structured interviews. Twenty-seven were conducted within three leading companies in the Omani oil sector with managers and employees from three leading companies in the Omani oil sector. These included nine interviewees at the top management level, nine at the middle management level, and nine employees. By utilising data collected from participants, this study developed a conceptual model of Ethical leadership from an Omani perspective. This model underlines the value of exploring ethical leadership as a socially constructed phenomenon from within the context of cultural and social conventions in Oman, emphasising the significance of understanding the culture and context of ethical leadership and acknowledging its standing within its environment. That is, understanding ethical leadership is incomplete without accounting for its social and local context because that local ethical assumptions, societal values, traditions and religious beliefs influence interpretations of ethical leadership. The study yields a number of contributions. This study emphasises the significance of understanding the culture and context of ethical leadership and acknowledging its standing within its environment by suggesting that local values affect perceptions of ethical leadership, and leaders’ morality can influence their ethical leadership. It also demonstrates that by moving beyond Western cultures, in some contexts, local values related to religious beliefs work as normative ethical foundations