Common Arab Management Attribute … Disagreement Avoidance

I just finished a leadership program in Madina. During this course we conducted several exercises to both test our current leadership competency and develop it further. Each one of us gets his own results that includes a comparison with the peers in that class and with the global average. One interesting observation the lecturer pointed out to us from the results was that the avoidance of disagreement was a common trait in the Arab region.  In every other attribute the average peer group result was very close to the global average.

Reflecting on that a bit, I tried to understand why and looking at my own feelings towards disagreeing with someone on an idea. My analysis brought me to the conclusion that disagreement is often seen as a lack of respect, and thus something you want to avoid. But that is my on conjecture.