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Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Leadership challenge, juggling cultures

Saudi Arabia is a society of paradoxes with an ever increasing number of contradictions between their modernized economic system and their repressive and rigid socio-political system, (Clarke, 2007). Women and men are still segregated today in all public arenas, as they have been since the government was founded in 1932. Saudi women currently represent only 7% of the workforce, with 80% of them working in governmental jobs, however they are becoming increasingly more educated and prominent in business and the Saudi government is working on creating additional jobs for educated women, (Mansour, 2008).

As the purpose of the negotiation is to draft a new deal it is absolutely necessary to send your most skilled negotiator which would be the female executive. Presumably if negotiating the deal is successful, at some point in time the Saudi’s would have to deal with female executives in the firm. It would be important to let the Saudi’s know from the onset that your company is diverse and if they want to work with your firm then they will have to adapt as invariably this same situation will arise in the future.

Definitely the most experienced and skilled negotiator should be sent to meet with the Saudi Arabians, regardless of that person’s gender. If the best negotiator isn’t sent, then the message leadership sends throughout the company is inconsistent, as both men and women are allowed to practice as negotiators and ultimately the action would be discriminatory.

In order to ensure that the deal is not put at risk I would first contact the Saudi company to make sure they are understand and are aware that a woman will be sent to negotiate. As Saudi’s still segregate men and women, even in business; if this is not done then leadership would be disrespecting Saudi culture and this would put the deal at risk. If the Saudi company is not equipped to allow a female executive into the negotiating room then I would seek a solution that would be acceptable to both cultures. If the Saudi company doesn’t have female executives, as negotiations often take place over prolonged periods of time, then the American female executive can be partitioned, as is customary is Saudi society, or seated in another conference room. The American executive’s male “second in command” could then be sent back and forth to communicate between the female executive and the Saudi executives. Regardless, to preserve the dignity of the female executive, and also the dignity of the company and all other women working for the company, it would be absolutely necessary to make sure that the Saudis knew you were sending a female executive to negotiate.

Afsaneh Nahavandi maintains that leadership is central to bringing about cultural and organizational change in order to create multicultural organizations that value all individuals including women and minorities, (2006, p. 53). For a leader to work to build a multicultural environment, and then allow that effort to be subverted in certain circumstances as business dictates, would be counterproductive to building an open and inclusive organizational culture.



Clarke, K. (2007, Fall). A modernization paradox: Saudi Arabia’s divided society. Harvard International Review, 29 (3), 30-33. Retrieved from ProQuest ABI-Inform complete.

Mansour, M. (2008, September). Women job satisfaction in Saudi Arabia: an exploratory analysis. Journal of the American Academy of Business, 13 (2), 204-208. Retrieved from ProQuest ABI-Inform complete.

Nahavandi, A. (2006). The art and science of leadership (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

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resume

David Hector Thibodeau

1045 Wylie Street SE • Atlanta, GA 30316

• davidhectorthibodeau@gmail.com



Professional Experience:



Georgia College & State University - Milledgeville, GA 31061 2008 - Present

www.gcsu.edu



­Serials/Acquisitions Coordinator

­• Establish policies and procedures for the efficient operation of the Serials and Acquisitions Department, oversees database maintenance and quality, and processing of materials.

­• Supervise full-time faculty, staff, and student positions.

­• Manage electronic serials collection using electronic management software systems.

­• Update bibliographic holdings for serials collection using standard library utilities.

­• Direct all major projects and daily activities involving the management of the serials collection.

­• Oversee participation in National Library of Medicine’s DOCLINE ILL program.

­• Meet with department faculty to review their acquisitions needs and serve as a library liaison with academic departments.

­• Provides assistance and advice to the Dean/University Librarian in the overall administration of the library, including strategic planning and the establishment of overall goals and objectives.

­• Assist library administration in monitoring the budget and expenditures, recommends equipment, supplies, personnel, and other needs. Perform fiscal period close in Voyager integrated library system.

­• Serve as primary liaison to vendors and as the technical contact for electronic databases, including setting up trials, negotiating licensing agreements, managing SLAs, and authoring RFQs and other correspondence.

­• Participate in collection development to support the curriculum by recommending acquisitions and participating in the evaluation of current collections.

­• Develop and prepare statistical and narrative reports.

­• Provide reference services as assigned.



KPMG LLP - Atlanta, GA 10/2003 - 10/2007

http://www.kpmg.com/



­Southeast Area Library Associate

­• Relocated from Miami to Atlanta by KPMG due to assuming additional offices in 2006.

­• Reference, research, and collection management for fifteen Southeast area libraries.

­• Developed on-line training sessions for proprietary accounting research platform.

­• Set up, developed, and administered SharePoint internal collaboration web site.

­• Liaison to National Operations teams on SharePoint development.

­• Redeveloped external acquisitions web site to be high functioning and suitable for firm-wide use.

­• Collaborated with marketing department to improve collateral for delivery to clients and targets.

­• Account contact and administrator for firm-wide on-line subscription.

­• Coordinated development of the Latin American Tax Handbook between the European Tax Centre, the Latin American Tax Center, and the International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation.

­• Led a team to develop an electronic tool to survey library users.

­• Appointed Work Environment Initiative Local Action Committee Representative in South Florida.

­• Promoted from Area Library Coordinator to Area Library Associate and relocated from Boston to Miami in 2003; originally responsible for library collections, acquisitions, vendor relations, and accounts in 13 Northeast area offices.



KPMG LLP - Boston, MA 03/200- - 10/2003

http://www.kpmg.com/



­Northeast Area Library Coordinator

­• Implemented integrated library system software in area libraries.

­• Assisted in creating a collection development database on MS Access to track expenditures.

­• Substantially decreased print purchases through resource sharing and eliminating duplicative materials.

­• Developed electronic process for Partners to select and order professional literature annually that resulted in $60K savings in the Northeast in the first year, (project adopted firm wide).

­• Piloted on-line access to tax literature platform in Northeast Area that resulted in over $25K cost savings in Northeast area and a wider distribution of resources, (project adopted firm wide).

­• Coordinated and developed training programs for Lexis/Nexis, Westlaw, and other information platforms for professionals and support staff, (project adopted firm wide).



Education:



American Intercontinental University

­• 2010 – Present, MBA – Project Management Concentration



­Simmons College--Boston, MA

­• Summer 2000; audited - Knowledge Management

­• Summer 1999; audited- Management of Information Technology

­• 1996-1998 MLIS, Graduate School of Library and Information Science



­Boston College--Newton, MA

­• 1984-1988 BA, College of Arts and Sciences: Double Major: English and Psychology





­Hebrew University--Jerusalem, Israel

­• Summer 1988 & summer 1990, Assistant Archaeological Field Supervisor and associated graduate level classes.



Leadership:



Georgia Leadership Institute – State Personnel Administration

­• 2009 – The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People



­Florida Library Leadership Program -- Tallahassee, FL

­• 2005-2006 - Year-long comprehensive series of learning sessions that focuses on developing an understanding of leadership, within a conceptual framework and practical applications.



Certifications:



Emory University - Center for Lifelong Learning – Atlanta, GA

­• 2008 - Emory University: Management Certification.

­• Courses included: Essentials of Personnel Management, Win-Win Negotiations, Essentials of Supervision, Essentials of Motivation, and Essentials of Coaching for Managers.



­New Horizons--Boston, MA

­• 2002 - Certified Internet Webmaster – Foundation Fundamentals

­• Courses included: Networking, Internet, and Web-Page Authoring Fundamentals.



Professional Memberships:

SLA Georgia Chapter Board Member 2009 - Present

­Tennis Club II Condominium Association President, Fort Lauderdale, FL 2005-2006

­Member: ALA, NASIG, CIP



Skills / Strengths:

• Lexis/Nexis, Westlaw, Factiva, ProQuest, EBSCOhost, & other information databases.

­• Conversational French, some Spanish

­• MS office: Excel, Access, PowerPoint, Word, Outlook, SharePoint, Visio, and Project.