Decision Gravity in the GCC: Why Unresolved Decisions Rise to the Top

By Mohamed Al Hashemi | April 2026 | 10 min read

Every CEO I know in the Gulf has the same quiet complaint. Too many decisions land on their desk that should have been resolved two levels below. Not because the people below are incapable. Because the system is not designed to let them decide.

I call this decision gravity. It is the tendency of unresolved decisions to float upward in an organization until they reach the person with the most authority. And in the GCC, where hierarchical structures run deep and the cost of being wrong can feel disproportionately high, decision gravity is particularly strong.

How Decision Gravity Works

Decision gravity operates through three mechanisms. The first is ambiguity of authority. When it is unclear who has the right to make a call, the safest move is to escalate. The second is cultural deference. In many Gulf organizations, there is an unspoken expectation that significant decisions should be validated by the most senior person in the room. The third is fear of accountability. When the consequences of a wrong decision are severe and personal, people avoid deciding.

The GCC Context

The Gulf business environment has specific characteristics that amplify decision gravity. Organizations are often younger than their Western counterparts. The regulatory environment is evolving rapidly. Many companies are still founder-led or family-influenced, which creates implicit authority structures that override formal ones.

What Leaders Can Do

The solution to decision gravity is not to push decisions downward by force. It is to build the conditions that allow decisions to be made at the right level. This requires three things: explicit decision rights, a tolerance for imperfect decisions, and a culture where escalation is the exception rather than the default.

Mohamed Al Hashemi is the CEO of Union Coop in Dubai and the author of four books on leadership execution and governance. Read full biography