CAES Morocco: Advanced Leadership Theories, Ethics, and Culture

The friendliness of Moroccans is a constant in their culture. Whether it be a stranger on the street, walking around the shops, or in our hotels, they always seem to try to start a conversation with you. No other place in the world have I experienced so many people who want to invite you in for tea or chat with you on the street. Walking around and seeing Moroccans interact with each other, they all seem like friends or acquaintances. They are always smiling and talking to each other. Take Naima, our guide in Casablanca, for example. She made friends on every street we went on. She was constantly striking up conversations with strangers and they would do the same with her. For instance, the man who was telling her/us about his sister in Florida and going to see her, and then invited us in for tea. She was frequently disappearing and we would spot her off somewhere talking to someone different almost every time. Just like her, I have seen so many Moroccans strike up conversations with s...

  Moroccan culture is very different from what I typically experience in the United States. There have been many cultural practices related to food and their generosity that I have noticed since arriving in Morocco that I found very interesting. One of the first things that stood out to me is how welcoming this culture is to those who are different from them. This strong sense of coexistence is shown through actions such as inviting us into their home, being given tea upon arrival, and making an effort to communicate with us. This is very different from how people treat foreigners and other people in general in the United States. While in Morocco, the people focus on generosity, people in the U.S. prioritize success and money. United States citizens are very quick to do whatever it takes to get ahead which makes it very hard to be open-minded and build relationships with those who are different. Americans are much more individualistic than what I have seen so far in Morocco. Accord...

Morocco is a country of diverse landscape, people, and history, which creates a unique local food palette for its inhabitants. Because Morocco borders both the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, fishing is an integral peice of their economy and is therefore incorporated into the daily diets of Moroccans. Sardines, swordfish, sole, and sea bass are examples of fish found in local waters, and as they rely on them for heavily for export to bring in revenue for the country they also rely on them to feed their costal populations. Sardines especially are a Moroccan staple as they are found to be abundant in numbers on the coast, and they can be prepared in many ways such as canned and on toast or raw and on homemade bread. Vast farm lands exist in north western Morocco, home to different livestock and luscious farms of berries, avocados, cereals, and potatoes, and the country similarly relies heavily on this sandy soil to produce crops for export and to sustain their growing populatio...

Nowhere was the Berber presence more felt than the Oudaya kasbah we visited in Rabat. From the introduction, our tour guide highlighted the Berber influence in building the kasbah and the city at large. He also mentioned the very name of ‘berber’ comes from a translated Latin term for ‘barbarian’. The self-professed and preferred name of the people is Amazigh which translates to ‘the free people/man.’ This point was expounded on further today when visiting Chefchouen with mention of further nominal divisions between the Berber people across the 3 main regions of their occupancy. The mention of these regional differences shows how important it is to see beyond the antiquated and generalized  term of ‘berber’ to recognize the people’s historical importance and their place in contemporary Moroccan society.  Language is an integral part of any culture and for the Amazigh, they “consider language and culture core to their Amazigh self-awareness, uniqueness, and cultural identity…th...

In Morocco, a large part of the culture and community is a relaxed, more relationship-based approach to time management and productivity. This is what is considered a polychronic approach to time where time is considered flexible and intangible in the context of prioritizing the fostering of relationships over rushing to somewhere else or reaching somewhere on time ( König, 2010).   Moroccans lean heavily on this type of approach in their daily life, including in the workplace, whereas other cultures are more monochromic approach based with valuation on stricter deadlines, plans, and higher priority placed on respecting times that are set. Oftentimes times and plans are cast aside in Moroccan culture in favor of being present and creating a space to interact with others organically that is not affected by time constraints. With this said, personal connection through this approach to time is something deeply intertwined into Morocco and its culture.   Ahead of this tr...

       After traveling to Morocco,  I learned that the religion is mainly Islam, and 99% of Moroccans are identified as Muslim. Muslims have a call to prayer five times a day. We were able to visit the Hassan II Mosque on the first day of our trip. Mosques are places where Muslims go to worship. I had never seen a mosque before I came to Morocco, and the architecture of them is like something I had never seen before. Everyone must take their shoes off when entering the Mosque because it is unsanitary to wear shoes. Muslims are also let off work from work on Fridays so that they are able to go pray in the middle of the day. Then they would come back to work after prayer. Our tour guide also mentioned that workers will get off work for prayer, and act like they are religious just to get off of work. Morocco’s king is a political leader and a religious leader of his country.  In contrast, the religion in the United States has significant diversity compared t...