CAES Morocco: Advanced Leadership Theories, Ethics, and Culture

Culture is important, and it helps define who we are. There are many different cultures, but everyone has their own. One cultural identity I have noticed is that many Moroccans have accepted some ways of the French especially when adopting their language. Many Moroccans speak French as one of their many languages because it is still being taught in schools. In the schools back home, Spanish and French are offered, but most students only have to take a foreign language for two to three years and maybe in college. Some people lose the way of the language if they do not use it often. However, many people in Morocco speak many languages such as Arabic, French, Spanish, English, etc.  Furthermore, when we were eating lunch at Dar Naji, we had a younger server. Derek was trying to be kind, and telling the server “Merci” which means ‘thank you’ in French when he would place food on the table or got plates out of our way. After about the third time the server had asked Derek to stop s...

  I was concerned about this post because it will look very different from my peers. Unfortunately, I cannot join for the first half of this trip and have missed many of the shared learning experiences in Morocco. My perception of the culture and common identities found in Morocco are based on readings and the experiences shared by my peers. My initial thought was that I could not connect with an identity different from mine that is also related to Morocco. However, I started seeing pictures and reading about others’ experiences in Morocco, and I imagined a conversation with a small-scale farmer in Morocco. My imaginary friend sat down with me and told me stories about his family, friends, and heritage. Our conversation was full of laughs and small jokes, and even though it seemed like only minutes had passed, it had been hours. We did not fret about the length of our conversation yet thanked each other for making the time more valuable. As I read about Morocco, I noticed the d...

One thing that has become more apparent to me during my short time in Morocco is the way in which time is used. If you refer to the GLOBE (Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness) studies, you will notice projects where “similar” countries are grouped together and studied regarding the norms for each culture group. The United States falls in the “Anglo” culture group. Morocco, on the other hand, is grouped with the “Middle East” culture group. One point of difference between the two cultures is the value of performance/task orientation or relational orientation. In conjunction with this theme is the way time is used in each country. In my mind, time is related to performance/task completion. The United States is a monochronic country, whereas Morocco is a polychronic country. The orientation in the United States means that time and commitment to schedule is important. In Morocco, however, everything flows together. People here are less likely to maintain a strict sc...

What are you doing tomorrow? Well likely if you or I were in the United States more specifically living in our daily lives of academics, work, family, friends and hobbies we would know exactly what our day, week and month looked like. Some of us might be planned down to the hours of the day. “For Americans, time is a commodity. It can be saved, spent, invested and wasted” Meyer wrote in Why Americans Are Obsessed with Time. If you were to answer this question while traveling through Morocco you might have a very different response than you would in Georgia. Why? The Moroccan culture is built on a foundation of community and relationships. While meeting deadlines, structure, productivity are part of life the way in which these elements are accomplished are in a way of community development, caring and sharing with one another. Chtatou comments on the relationship with time in Moroccans and the Notion of Time. He says that Moroccans are fully aware of this timeliness of their actions yet...

 I chose to reflect on ethnicity in relation to the leadership across differences framework. I thought about ethnicity and how it could be a fault line. Ethnicity, “shared cultural characteristics such as language, ancestry, practices and beliefs” (American Psychological Association, 2020, p.142-145), is something that is frequently used by people to identify or differentiate themselves or others. Fault lines are “dynamics of multiple demographic attributes that can potentially subdivide a group” (Hannum et al., 2010, p. 14). A group can then be divided into smaller groups based on ethnicity with one ethnic group being the in-group, typically the group in the majority, and another, the minority, the out-group. Tensions arise between these groups because one group is perceived to be favored or has more power than the other where (Hannum et al., 2010). Something stood out to me at the organic farm which at the time I did not think much of. I do not speak French, but I am able to know...

The Practice of Islamic Prayer  " This is a finely scribed and illuminated West African copy of the Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt, a popular prayer book by the Moroccan author Muḥammad Ibn Sulaymān al-Jazūlī."          The most important pillar of the Islamic religion is the performance of five daily prayers. In Ararbic this practice is called "salah," and in Morocco it is typically referred to as the "adhan." Salah is a term which signifies the act of getting closer to or convening with God. The practice of salah is highly structured: it is recited facing a certain direction at specific times of day and is typically accompanied by intentional physical movements to go along with the prrayer. These actions combined are believed to bring an individual closer to God whilst establishing group solidarity as it is often practiced in congregations (whether it be in a mosque, in the streets, etc.). The specific times of day at which the salah is recited are typically signale...

  While in Morocco I have seen a variety of cultural differences. The most prevalent I have noticed is in the Moroccan local people they traditionally speak 2-3 languages being Arabic, French, and a third being Spanish or another. The Arabic being tied to religious values and the French being politically tied back to the colonial era. There is still a societal tension between the Moroccans and French as they had a negative past. They have a challenging societal landscape with many fault lines present. We can speculate multitudes of triggering events that could escalate situations between the two groups. When in Morocco thus far I have learned Moroccan customs of respect such as to not gaze to show respect. Moroccan culture also has a lot of respect regarding their women. This is a large reason women wear hijabs. The hijab is to conceal a woman strictly for her family and her chosen husband. To respect the man she is with. If a French man were to intensely stare into a married Moroc...

  Throughout these past few days, I have enjoyed our traditional Moroccan Tajine! It is always such a surprise when they open the top and we have to try to figure out what is in the dish. I also love how the dish allows all of us to be so communal!        Tajines are a traditional North African dish. They were originally the Berber’s (the first inhabitants of this area) dish. However, as invaders began to come into the area, the dish began to mesh all of the flavors and ingredients of the various new inhabitants (Frendo). Daniela Frendo, stated, “Arab and Moorish were the primary source of many ingredient’s used in today’s Tajines…”(2015). Frendo went further to state that the Berber’s often decided what their tajine would consist of based on their livestock (2015).   The tajine in Morocco represents community, history, and culture. They take great pride in sharing the dish with everyone. I have loved the conversations the meals have brought and watchin...