Introduction to the special issue on leadership and culture in the Middle East

Abstract

This article introduces the articles on leadership and culture in the Middle East featured in the October 2001 special issue of "Applied Psychology: An International Review." This issue focuses on values and practices as well as effective leadership attributes that are shared in Middle Eastern societies. The first paper in this collection provides an overview of the Global Leadership and Organisational Behaviour Effectiveness project. The second paper on the Arab culture discusses the quantitative and qualitative findings about effective leader attributes in Kuwait and Qatar. Meanwhile, the third article focuses on Iranian culture and effective leadership dimensions in the Iranian case. The fourth manuscript focuses on societal and organizational culture and effective leadership characteristics in Turkey. This paper concludes with the article that integrates the findings of the papers and extends the implications of the studies reported to the broader question of cross-national research.