Marie-France Waxin

Key issues and challenges in e‐government development : An integrative case study of the number one eCity in the Arab world

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify and study the key issues and challenges facing e‐government development from an integrative perspective, and to provide strategies and policy recommendations to address them in a broad and holistic way.Design/methodology/approach – To achieve a comprehensive understanding of the key issues in e‐government development, the authors took an integrative approach built on several existing theories and research. The authors conducted an empirical case study of Dubai. The data collection methods included documentary research; reviewing the major websites of Dubai government entities; and interviewing 22 e‐government stakeholders.Findings – The authors have identified a variety of important issues and challenges facing e‐government development in Dubai. Of them, they focus on language issues on websites, e‐integration, uptake of e‐government services and the digital divide, and quality of Dubai e‐government websites and e‐services.Practical implications – Given t...

The impact of expatriates' home country culture on their time to proficiency: empirical evidence from the Indian context

ABSTRACT:The time required by expatriates to become proficient in their new positions is important to both employers and employees. The existing literature on expatriate success is largely blind to what may be significant factors in the process of creating and sustaining job performance amongst the expatriate group: the effect of time and the effect of home country culture. In this study, we examined the impact of five organizational antecedents (role clarity, role discretion, supervisory support, coworkers support and perceived organizational culture dissimilarity) on corporate expatriates’ Time to Proficiency (TTP) in four home country cultures (HCC) samples. We specifically examine the direct impact of HCC on expatriates’ TTP and the moderating effects of HCC on TTP’s organizational antecedents. We used a self-administrated questionnaire on a sample of 224 expatriated managers in New Delhi, India, from four different home countries: France, Germany, Korea, and Scandinavia. To analyze the data, we used PLS Graph version 3.00, a component based Structural Equation Modeling technique. We tested the impact of HCC on TTP by examining the mean scores in TTP across HCC. Differences between path coefficients across the four HCC were analysed using path coefficients’ comparison. Our results show that 1) on the full sample, all five organizational antecedents have a significant impact on expatriates’ TTP, 2) TTP mean scores significantly vary across HCC and 3) the organizational antecedents of expatriate TTP and their relative importance vary across HCC. Our results are broadly consistent with the cultural studies: except for the Korean expatriates, the larger the cultural distance, the longer the TTP. Knowledge that HCC is a significant predictor of TTP suggests that organizations may need to reconsider their international staffing policies, especially in the fields of recruitment, staffing policies and support policies.

HRM in the Public Sector: Is It Enough?

This major Handbook provides a state-of-the-art study of the recent history and future development of international public management reform.

Public sector expatriation

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Workforce Localization In The UAE: Recruitment And Selection Challenges And Practices In Private And Public Organizations

price are net prices, subject to local VAT. Prices indicated with * include VAT for books; the €(D) includes 7% for Germany, the €(A) includes 10% for Austria. Prices indicated with ** include VAT for electronic products; 19% for Germany, 20% for Austria. All prices exclusive of carriage charges. Prices and other details are subject to change without notice. All errors and omissions excepted. A. Farazmand (Ed.) Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance

Drivers and challenges for implementing ISO 14001 environmental management systems in an emerging Gulf Arab country

ABSTRACT:Workforce localization (WL) has become an issue of increasing importance in the Arab Gulf region, a key emerging market, where, in many cases, local citizens are the minority in terms of population, and compete with high numbers of expatriate employees for jobs and positions. The purposes of this paper are to empirically explore recruitment and selection (R&S) challenges and practices related to WL in the UAE, and to compare and contrast these between private and public sector organizations. This paper adopts a qualitative, inductive methodology. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews with HR/Localization managers in five private (PVO) and six public organizations (PSO) in the UAE, in different industrial sectors. Data were analyzed using NVivo 10 software. First, we found that both PVOs and PSOs face six common challenges related to the R&S of local candidates: 1) the lack of relevant education, skills and experience of Emirati Applicants (EA), 2) their high compensation expectations, 3) their lack of business, industry and career awareness, 4) competition from other employers, 5) some sector- and job-person fit considerations and 6) resistance from expatriates. Second, we found that both PVOs and PSOs have dedicated recruitment methods to attract EAs. Both PVOs and PSOs developed and communicated employee value propositions for EAs, used proactive, targeted, diversified internal and external recruitment methods, and evaluated the effectiveness of their recruitment practices, using established quantitative and qualitative measures. We found some differences between PVOs and PSOs: PSOs tended to reserve specific positions for local employees, used more targeted external recruitment methods and more numerous effectiveness evaluation measures than PVOs. Third, at the selection stage, we found that all organizations reviewed their job descriptions and selection processes to avoid any discriminatory items, most of them organized inclusive, culturally trained staffing committees. Most of the PSOs intensively modified their selection processes (e.g. using modified screening, selection criteria and standards, and selection steps) to facilitate WL, whereas PVOs only modified experience requirements for EAs. Both PVOs and PSOs used similar testing, interviewing processes and effectiveness evaluation measures, although PSOs generally utilized a greater range and number. While our findings on R&S practices showed similarities between PVOs and PSOs, they also highlighted a number of differences. This paper contributes to expanding the scope of understanding of the staffing processes in a non-Western context, adding to the body of empirical literature on localization, R&S, and public sector HRM in the Arab Middle East and Gulf countries. Implications for further research, practitioners and policy makers involved in WL are discussed.

Cross‐cultural training to facilitate expatriate adjustment: it works!

Worldwide, ISO 14001 certification for organizations has become the norm, but the Arab world accounts for an insignificant portion of all the certified organizations. There is a dearth of research on environmental management systems (EMS) in Arab and emerging countries and in public organizations. The objectives of this research are to: (1) examine the key drivers and challenges related to implementation of ISO 14001 certified EMS in the United Arab Emirates, an emerging Arab country and (2) compare and contrast these drivers and challenges between private and public organizations. We adopt an explorative, qualitative methodology, using semi-structured interviews with environmental managers in 11 organizations (6 private and 5 public) from different industrial sectors. Drivers of EMS certification were mostly similar between private and public organizations, with some differences. Compliance with regulations and standards, and increasing environmental performance were the main drivers for ISO 14001 certification in both private and public organizations. Commitment to sustainability was more important for public organizations. Cost reduction, competitors, leadership commitment and customers’ demands were shared drivers, but more stressed by private organizations. Local community and employees’ pressures were reported by private organizations only. The challenges to ISO 14001 implementation were similar for private and public organizations. They were: a lack of qualified human resources, practical challenges associated with implementation, a lack of regulations, a lack of support from management, and high costs. Our findings have implications for managers, academics, consultants, and policy makers in the UAE and other emerging markets.