Leading Multicultural Teams in the Gulf: How to Prevent Misunderstood Instructions and Expectations

Where does misunderstanding start in multicultural teams?

Many Gulf teams bring together people of different nationalities, mother tongues and professional backgrounds, communicating in Arabic, English or a mix of both. The most frequent problem is not weak language skills but shared words carrying different expectations. “Send the final version soon” leaves open what “soon” means, what “final” means and who decides that it is.

Writing in Harvard Business Review, Erin Meyer explains that culture shapes working behaviour along eight scales: communicating, evaluating, persuading, leading, deciding, trusting, disagreeing and scheduling. ^[1] Each can be a source of misunderstanding: someone who expects explicit instructions versus someone who reads between the lines, someone who treats a deadline as a fixed commitment versus someone who sees it as a flexible target, someone who disagrees openly versus someone who disagrees in private.

Why is knowing each nationality’s culture not enough?

A manager may be tempted to build rules on general images of nationalities. But Meyer herself warns that common stereotypes lead to false assumptions, and recommends considering multiple perspectives, recognising the value of different ways of working and continually adjusting your own behaviour. ^[1]

CIPD explains that inclusion means people feel safe to be themselves and that their contribution matters, and that diversity alone is not enough unless individuals feel empowered and safe to share their ideas. It argues that good people management should be consistently fair yet flexible, because a one-size-fits-all approach does not achieve fairness. ^[3] The practical upshot: do not assume; agree explicit rules with the team, and ask each person how they work best.

How do you write actionable instructions?

A good instruction is one the recipient can test for themselves: have I done it or not? So state the output and its completion criteria, the deadline as a date and time, and who reviews and who approves. Ask the recipient what they will do if the deadline clashes with an approval needed from someone else, then confirm the agreement in a short message.

When you write in a language that is not some readers’ mother tongue, borrow from the tips on writing for non-native speakers published by the Home Office’s digital team: choose words that translate directly, avoid abbreviations and idioms, keep sentences short and simple, and give an important sentence its own paragraph. ^[2] The same rules work in Arabic too: a local colloquial expression may not carry the same meaning for an Arab colleague from another country.

Deadlines and time zones in distributed Gulf teams

Teams spread across Gulf countries do not all work on the same clock. The UAE uses Gulf Standard Time (UTC+4) all year round, ^[4] while Riyadh uses UTC+3 with no daylight saving, ^[5] a one-hour difference. A meeting at “ten o’clock” with no time zone can mean two different times for two people in the same call.

So write every important deadline with the date, time and time zone, and allow for differences in working days and public holidays between countries when setting deadlines. When announcing a task or an opportunity, make sure it reaches everyone at a time that lets them respond, not only those in the manager’s city. If the team uses a shared electronic calendar, send the invitation from it rather than only writing the time in the message, because the calendar shows each invitee the time in their own zone automatically, provided members’ time-zone settings are correct.

Hypothetical example

On a project run by a team split between Dubai and Riyadh, a review was set for “two o’clock” with no time zone, and half the team joined an hour late. The same week, one side understood “approving the version” to mean starting delivery, while the other meant approving it for internal review only. The team fixed both problems in two steps: a short glossary of document statuses (draft, for review, approved for action) and a rule that deadlines are written in both time zones. Each document was given a single owner who publishes the approved version in a known place.

The team glossary: agree what words mean

The simplest tool for preventing recurring misunderstanding is a short list of the terms your team reads differently, with the agreed meaning of each. Start with words that have actually caused disagreement, then add technical terms used with different meanings across departments or between Arabic and English.

To keep the glossary useful, give it a single owner who updates it, and keep it somewhere everyone can reach, such as the team’s page in the document management system or the project channel, not in an old email. Add every term that causes a new misunderstanding at the regular team meeting, and remove what is no longer used. Make it part of onboarding for new joiners; it is the quickest way for a newcomer to learn how the team talks.

The glossary need not stop at words. Add the conventions that may differ between members: the usual time to reply to an email, when a call outside working hours is acceptable, and how to ask for a deadline extension. These small details are the source of much of the friction in multicultural teams.

When should you write and when should you talk?

Each channel has its role in a multicultural team. A face-to-face conversation or a call is better for explaining a new task or discussing a disagreement, because it allows immediate questions and lets you notice hesitation. A written message is better for fixing what has been agreed, because the reader can go back to it and translate it if needed, without the embarrassment of asking you to repeat yourself.

The practical rule: discuss verbally, then confirm in writing. In the written message:

• Put the request and the deadline in the first line, not at the end of a long paragraph.
• Write numbers and dates in a single format the team agrees, and state the calendar used if the team handles documents with both Hijri and Gregorian dates.
• Use the same term every time and do not vary the word to avoid repetition, because someone reading in a second language may think the new word means something else.
• If the message is in both Arabic and English, check that the two texts say the same thing, and state which one prevails if they differ.

How do you run discussion and check understanding?

People differ in how they disagree: some object openly in the meeting, others prefer a private word afterwards, and Meyer includes “disagreeing” among her eight scales. ^[1] So do not infer agreement from silence; give participants time to read material before the meeting, and offer a written reply within a set window for those who prefer it.

At the end of any important discussion, do not ask “Is that clear?”, because the answer is almost always yes. Ask each person responsible to describe the next step and its deadline in their own words. When there is disagreement, go back to the expectation that was unclear instead of looking for someone to blame, and add what you have learnt to the team glossary.

If your organisation requires a particular language for official correspondence, contracts or technical instructions, check this with the relevant department, and also keep the version the people doing the work actually understand.

Conclusion

Leading a multicultural team does not require memorising the traits of every nationality, but turning implicit expectations into explicit agreements. Define the output, deadline, time zone and approver, agree what words mean, and check understanding by asking for the next step rather than asking whether things are clear.