Leadership, negotiation and decision making of leaders in Malaysia and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Abstract

There are a few researches on leadership, decision making and negotiation but such studies were not directed to understand the dynamics of leadership, negotiation, and decision making in Saudi Arabia and Malaysia. This study fills the gap in the current literature on Saudi and Malaysian leadership and sought the experience of national leaders in Malaysia and Saudi Arabia using a qualitative approach. The research focuses on understanding leadership, negotiation and decision making of the national leaders through interviews. This multiple case study contains seven single case studies where each leader is a subject of an individual case. Based on information from previous literature and research works, a theoretical framework was proposed by which the practices of leadership, negotiation, and decision making of leaders in Malaysia and Saudi Arabia were explored. The research would assist in comprehending the dynamics of leadership in both countries, in subtle and nuanced ways evoked by the collective information from leaders. This understanding contributes to a sense of clarity and direction for the future generations of the two countries. The results of this research may be of interest to Malaysian and Saudi leaders and all of those working in the leadership field in the two countries. The findings suggest that there are many more similarities between the styles of the leadership, negotiation and decision making of the leaders from the two countries than there were differences. The leaders from both countries practice a mix of leadership styles depending on the context they are leading, but it is noticed that the adoption of transformative leadership style was common among the leaders. It seems that culture had an impact on the way leadership is practiced in the two countries. The leaders in this research seem to excel in most of the areas of the proposed framework.