Mohammed A. Al-Waqfi

Of private sector fear and prejudice

Purpose – The uncompromising preference of citizens for public sector employment throughout the Middle East is not new. However, with the recent saturation of the public sector job market and demographic pressures, it has grown to become a problem of unpredictable economic and social consequences. This paper aims to explore the factors determining career choice behaviour and the underlying career expectations and perceptions of young citizens in one Middle Eastern country, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where the preference for public sector employment is not only very strong, but is also perceived as increasingly problematic.Design/methodology/approach – Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with a total of 60 UAE citizens in the age group of 18‐23.Findings – The authors explore and discuss cognitive, social, and institutional factors that influence the job‐seeking behaviour of young Emiratis and lead to negative attitudes towards the private sector. They further suggest potential causes of the very...

Barriers to Emiratization: the role of policy design and institutional environment in determining the effectiveness of Emiratization

The severe shortage in local workforce, in the face of an escalating demand for workers over the past several decades, induced the United Arab Emirates to adopt a liberal immigration policy which allowed an influx of large numbers of foreign workers into the country. However, the continued reliance on foreign workers created a distortion and segmentation of the labour market whereby the national workers became concentrated in the public sector, while close to 99% of the jobs in the private sector is staffed by expatriate workers. An unemployment problem among nationals started to appear despite the workforce Emiratization policy which has been implemented since the late 1990s. The current study assesses the effectiveness of the Emiratization policy as practised over the past two decades along with major challenges encountered. Data for the study were collected through interviews with a sample of 32 senior managers and human resource professionals from various sectors of the economy. Findings of the study reveal several weaknesses of the Emiratization programme over the past two decades related to the policy tools and regulations, as well as implementation mechanisms adopted. Based on assessment of weaknesses and challenges faced, recommendations are provided with regard to the needed changes in regulations, policy tools and mechanisms, and parameters of compliance to ensure effective implementation of an Emiratization programme that can significantly contribute to alleviating the unemployment problem among citizens and ensuring their effective integration into the labour market in both the public and private sectors.

“A job interview for Mo, but none for Mohammed”

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine workplace discrimination in the context of immigrant employees and job seekers, with a specific focus on perceived discrimination resulting from affiliation with a specific religious group.Design/methodology/approach – A total of 40 Muslim immigrants in two host countries were interviewed regarding their perception of discrimination and the consequences for their workplace experience. For the analysis, responses were clustered to identify emerging themes using NVivo.Findings – Results indicate that Muslim immigrants encounter treatment at the workplace that they perceive as discriminatory. On the other hand, findings show high levels of commitment where employees were not discriminated against – contrary to their almost inherent expectations that they would be.Research limitations/implications – Because of the exploratory nature of this study, the results need to be treated with caution. The small sample size may limit the generalisability of findings. Als...

Labour Policy and Determinants of Employment and Wages in a Developing Economy with Labour Shortage

Using data from a sample of 1,099 workers, this paper investigates the determinants of employment and wages for workers in the United Arab Emirates. The paper further examines the wage distribution and the decomposition of the wage gap between the public and the private sectors. Results of the study are consistent with the dual labour market theory and indicate that the labour market in the United Arab Emirates is segmented based on sectors (public versus private) and types of workers (nationals versus non-nationals). The study concludes with a discussion of the implication of these findings for the effectiveness of labour and economic policy.

Gender-based differences in employment conditions of local and expatriate workers in the GCC context: Empirical evidence from the United Arab Emirates

Purpose - – The labor force participation rates of females have been increasing steadily over the past few decades in the UAE and other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and are expected to continue to increase due to increasing levels of education and social change. While, there is a substantive amount of literature on the issues of gender gap in wages and employment conditions in Western developed economies, the evidence from developing economies – especially in the Middle East – remains very scant. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to contribute to bridging this gap by examining gender-based differences in employment conditions for local and expatriate workers in the context of the GCC region. Design/methodology/approach - – The authors utilize a data set from the 2007 cross-section Dubai Labor Market Survey which covers a stratified random sample of employees in the UAE labor market. In addition to descriptive statistics and cross-tabulations of the data by workers’ gender, nationality, and various characteristics of their employment conditions, two empirical models intended to investigate factors that influence access to employment and wage determination of male and female workers in the UAE labor market were estimated. Findings - – The findings of the study reveal that there are gender-based differences and inequity in employment in the UAE labor market. The authors highlight specific impacts of contextual factors on the employment conditions of women compared to men. The gender gap in the UAE context is compounded by nationality effects; whereby gender-based differences become less apparent in the case of foreign workers compared to UAE nationals. Originality/value - – This paper is one of very few studies that addressed the gender gap in employment conditions in the Arab Middle Eastern or GCC context. The paper uses quantitative data from a large random sample of workers in the UAE.

The role of privacy invasion and fairness in understanding job applicant reactions to potentially inappropriate/discriminatory interview questions

Purpose – Building on organizational justice and privacy literatures, the purpose of this paper is to test a model capturing the impacts of potentially inappropriate/discriminatory interview questions on job applicant perceptions and behavioral intentions in a developing economy context with a multicultural workforce. Design/methodology/approach – An experimental design using senior undergraduate students (n=221) seeking or about to seek jobs in the United Arab Emirates was used to examine interviewees’ reactions to inappropriate/discriminatory interview questions. A questionnaire was used to collect the data. Structural equation modeling and bootstrapping were used for data analysis and hypothesis testing. Findings – This study demonstrates that inappropriate/discriminatory interview questions influence privacy invasion perceptions, which in turn influence job applicants’ fairness perceptions and behavioral intentions. This study also demonstrates that privacy invasion perceptions fully mediate the effec...