Barriers to Developing ‘leadership’ in the Sultanate of Oman

Very little is understood about the applicability of the concept of leadership in the Arab Gulf States in general, and the Sultanate of Oman in particular. This article considers the unique context of Oman to produce an interpretation of leadership which stands outside mainstream leadership epistemologies. Thus, there is no explicit model or theory that could be usefully tested in the Omani context. As the article explains, the cultural and institutional dominance of political leadership in the Sultanate extends to organizational behavior. This very rich and embedded context thus provides a considerable challenge to Western based interpretations of and normative approaches to leadership. This article is intended to provide a basis for how leadership may be developed and adapted in the Arab Gulf region in particular and in diverse managerial environments in general.