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Rawan Abu Khait

Bio: Rawan Abu Khait is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: Work ethic & Leadership style. The author has an hindex of 1, co-authored 1 publications receiving 17 citations.

Papers
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a conceptual model on the principal social and cultural factors inducing the success of Emirati women in attaining senior leadership roles and shaping their leadership style to be transformational is presented.
Abstract: This paper aims to form an empirical study, stemming from a Middle-Eastern context, on eliminating gender discrimination and achieving women’s empowerment. It aims to develop a conceptual model on the principal social and cultural factors inducing the success of Emirati women in attaining senior leadership roles and shaping their leadership style to be transformational. Moreover, it examines the comparability and divergence of the accumulated data on the empowerment of Emirati women in an international context from existing international literature.,The design of the study was based on data gathered from face-to-face, semi-structured interviews with four Emirati women occupying the highest leadership positions in various fields, followed by thematic analysis.,Data analysis confirmed the significant influence of the study’s key factors, namely, the role of the national government, Islamic work ethic and family, on the subjects’ empowerment and their adherence to transformational leadership style. However, two new k ey factors impacting empowerment emerged, namely, the influence of rulers’ leadership and the efforts in balancing work/life commitments. The findings led to the development of a study model on Emirati women empowerment and leadership style, reflecting the appropriateness of international literature on the Emirati context. Particularly, it is the social and economic circumstances of the nation supported by policies form the major source of empowerment, in addition to the important role that family capital and business ethics play. Remarkably, the challenges facing Emirati working women ought to be different than the rest of the Middle East.,A dearth of literature pertaining to women’s leadership exists; however, they were mostly carried out within Western contexts that may not be applicable to Arab societies because of cultural and religious differences. The study strives to portray an unambiguous picture to the significant impact of the parenting role and Islam work ethics in relating positively to their daughters and prompt them to develop crucial societal and professional skills, in a country as UAE where expatriates and Westerns dominate the population body. In addition, it shapes the UAE national government as a unique example and role model, to local governments in other Arab states, to learn from regarding supporting women, helping them to achieve excellence. Aiming for feminizing leadership, the Emirati women leadership styles are explored in an attempt to demonstrate the capacities and potentials of Emirati and Arab women in positions of power and influence. It is assumed that this study will help in bringing confidence in Emirati women capabilities, inducing a change in attitudes towards Arab women managers and encouraging employment in non-traditional feminine based jobs.

25 citations


Cited by
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the impact of board gender diversity on the level of corporate social responsibility disclosure in the Arab Gulf states is examined. But, the study is limited to the Arab countries and it focuses on oil-rich countries.
Abstract: This study aims to examine the impact of board gender diversity on the level of corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure in the Arab Gulf states. Also, this research further aims to explore whether the impact of board gender diversity varies across the Arab Gulf states.,Ordinary least squares regression is used in this study to test the impact of board gender diversity on the level of CSR disclosure. Manual content analysis is used to evaluate the extent of CSR disclosure in annual reports, stand-alone CSR reports, sustainability reports and website sections to examine the relationship between the extent of CSR reporting and board gender diversity. This study uses the global reporting initiative (GRI) fourth version reporting guidelines to design and define the classifications of CSR reporting checklist.,The findings show that there is a statistically significant relationship between the number of female directors and the level of CSR disclosure. The results show that board gender diversity is positively associated with the level of CSR reporting in two countries, namely, Bahrain and Kuwait. Also, the findings reveal that there is a weak positive relationship between the presence of women on the boards and CSR reporting index in Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.,This study attempts to fill the gap in the literature, in that no similar study covers the Arab Gulf countries as one economic unit. The study is unique in that it focuses on oil-rich countries. This study is, to the best of this researcher’s knowledge, the first to explore the impact of women’s boards on the extent of CSR reporting, as well as investigating the possible variation of board gender diversity impact on the extent of CSR reporting in the Arabian Gulf region.

86 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the impact of the board's female representation on corporate financial and sustainability performance after the introduction of the minimum gender quotas in Italy in 2011 (GolfoMosca Law).
Abstract: In this research, we empirically investigate the impact of the board's female representation on corporate financial and sustainability performance after the introduction of the minimum gender quotas in Italy in 2011 (Golfo‐Mosca Law). We studied the 40 companies of the FTSE‐MIB index for 3 years 2016–2018. Using yearly regression analysis, pooled analysis, and differential analysis, we find that the female involvement on both boards has almost no significant effect on the financial performance; however, a significant association is found with the corporate sustainability performance. The robustness checks using differential analysis confirm the later relationship in which firms that improved female representation had also an ethical score upgrade. Interestingly, we also provide that there is an optimal level of gender quotas that maximizes sustainability performance and beyond that, a negative impact on performance might be detected.

49 citations

Book ChapterDOI
19 Oct 2020
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a systematic review of research on the influence of different factors affecting women leadership/entrepreneurship positions in the UAE and propose a conceptual model on the principal social and cultural factors inducing the success of Emirati women in attaining senior leadership roles or leading entrepreneurs.
Abstract: Women in the UAE have long been recognized as equal partners in national development and many efforts were taken to pursue empowering women in cultural, social, and economic fields. This systematic review is distinctive; that it synthesizes research on the influence of different factors affecting women leadership/entrepreneurship positions in the UAE. It aims to investigate the key factors affecting the female entrepreneurs and leaders, and to develop a conceptual model on the principal social and cultural factors inducing the success of Emirati women in attaining senior leadership roles or leading entrepreneurs. Moreover, this study proposes a set of new directions for future research venues to address the current dearth of empirical work on women’s leadership in the UAE, despite all the empowering programs and initiatives. It includes articles using quantitative and qualitative methods from different databases like ProQuest and EBSCO. The study reviews databases and selects many high-quality articles to be reviewed using a set of inclusion and exclusion criteria. 23 articles were chosen after removing the duplicated ones. From a practical perspective, this study is important while it summarizes and evaluates all factors affecting women empowering in leadership roles and tries to offer a proper model for a large number of women empowerment drivers within the UAE setting.

24 citations

Dissertation
01 Apr 2019
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the influence of the female gender and national culture dimensions on the leadership styles of the Emirati female school principals, as educational leaders, and the relationships that exist among the different variables.
Abstract: Background: With the growing expectations from the field of education day by day, increases the importance of effective school leadership. Leadership is the procedure through which the leaders can influence the decision making process and set the goals of the institution. They apply their influence over other behaviors in order to achieve the set goals. The school proves its effectiveness depending on various factors; the principal’s leadership style is the main one. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of the female gender and national culture dimensions on the leadership styles of the Emirati female school principals, as educational leaders, and the relationships that exist among the different variables. Design/ Methodology/ Approach: The researcher employed Explanatory Sequential mixed method approach in two phases for this study. In the first phase, the quantitative data was collected using the MLQ (5X-short) survey and the cultural dimensions survey. In the second phase, the researcher conducted semi-structured interviews and qualitative observations. Results: the findings of the study indicated that the Emirati female leaders tend to be more transformational in their leadership styles while they still practice transactional leadership to a certain degree. The female principals were found to be more “androgynous” carrying the qualities of both male and female leaders. In addition, the leadership styles and their elements proved to have significant relationship to national culture dimensions except for management by exception (active) that has no significant correlation with any of the culture dimensions. Research Limitations & Implications: Future research should include a larger sample size and the perspectives of the followers as well. It is important to conduct the study in different organizational context not only in schools to confirm the finding that women use “androgynous” style in the UAE and beyond. Some recommendations were also provided to principals and policy makers to design and implement policies and professional development for effective leadership, taking into consideration the UAE cultural dimensions. Key terms: Leadership styles, gender leadership, national culture dimensions.

20 citations