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This paper aims to investigate whether the United Arab Emirates (UAE) business context as described in the literature still matches with the UAE business context in practice. In many managerial publications, and even in quite a few academic ones, warnings are given about the different and difficult business environment which exists in Arab countries. This environment is allegedly characterized by a high religious influence, a definitive centralization of power, a strong family and tribal culture and a strong role of wasta, which makes doing business in the Middle East arduous. However, the context of the UAE is not typical Arab, as it is very much multicultural with many expatriates working in both local and foreign companies.

The theoretical aspects of the UAE business context were derived from a literature study. The aspects of the UAE business context in practice were collected during interviews with 36 Emirati and Western and Eastern expat managers working in the UAE. Subsequently, the theoretical aspects were matched with the practical aspects.

The matching shows that the typical Arab business setting is still there but that it exists next to the international business setting.

Because of the coexisting cultural business settings, more nuance is needed in describing the typical Arab elements of the UAE business context, to fully understand the way of operating in the UAE.

As during this study a cross section of nationalities working in the UAE, including Emirati, was interviewed, it gives an unique insight into the current state of affairs in the UAE.

There is a real need for longitudinal research into the factors that cause or contribute to sustainable high organisational performance. Especially in Asia there has not been much research into this topic. The goal of this study is to evaluate whether paying dedicated attention to the factors that were found during previous research to determine the sustainable success of a high‐performance organisation (HPO) in Asia would result in sustainable increased organisational performance.

Nabil Bank, the case company to which the high performance framework was applied, was visited one year later to evaluate whether its performance had improved after taking into account the improvements that originated from the first research.

Although Nabil Bank's financial performance had improved, the increase in HPO results was not so great. Possible explanations for this are that there is a perception gap between management and employees with regard to the improvements achieved, and the fact that Nabil Bank has continued with implementing improvement actions that are already under way, while not starting additional ones specifically targeted at improving the HPO factors. Alternatively, it can be stated that, if the transition to an HPO takes on average three to five years, an improvement per year of 0.3 to 0.5 points is viable. In this light Nabil Bank is definitely on its way to becoming an HPO but it seems to be taking the “slow road”.

The research results show that dedicated attention has to be paid to the HPO factors in order to take full advantage of them.

This is the first longitudinal research into the factors that determine sustainable high performance in Asian organisations.

The purpose of this paper was to identify the factors that determine the continuous success of a high performance organization (HPO) in Asia and to apply these at a case company. In the past few decades organizations all over the world have been searching for the elements that constitute continuous organizational success. Fuelled by bestsellers such as In Search of Excellence and Good to Great, managers have implemented many different improvement concepts, often with mixed results.

On the basis of a previous meta analysis into high performance which identified 35 characteristics of an HPO, a case company in Nepal was studied to identify the practices this organization applied to become and stay one of the best financial services organizations in Nepal.

The results of the study show that it is possible to identify factors that determine continuous organizational success in Asia, and that managers can be offered a framework that adds focus to improvement. An important part of an HPO in Asia turns out to be the performance management system.

The HPO approach detailed and applied in this article can be used to identify the high performance status of other Asian companies.

Because the research described in this paper looks at so many aspects – it encompasses not only structural, but also the behavioural aspects of management – it provides a unique insight into what makes a great Asian organization tick. The research results provide the foundation for an action agenda listing the improvement efforts organisations in Nepal have to undertake to make the transition to HPO.