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The purpose of this paper is to explore the influence of a range of factors on the decision of female Emirati students to join the private sector as a career choice.

This study employs the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to prioritise the factors affecting Emirati students’ choice of career. The AHP model was developed with five criteria and 19 sub-criteria based on previous literature. Data were collected through interviews of 12 female Emirati students enroled in higher educational institutions in the UAE. The respondents were selected from both public and private universities on the basis of their majors and their academic performance (GPA). The data collected were interpreted and a priority vector was assigned to each criterion and sub-criterion.

The findings show that emotional stability for engineering students and job-skills mismatch for business students are the most important factors that influence the career choice of female Emirati students in the private sector.

Authors can develop this model in their academic pursuits, and the AHP method can be used to solve employment-related decision-making problems in the private sector. Also, the findings can help policy makers and related associations to develop various policies based on the specific factors found to empower female Emirati students in the private sector in an effective manner.

The low rates of employment of the native population in the private sector is a major issue in the UAE. The study is the first of its kind to propose an AHP model that prioritises the factors which influence female Emirati students to join the private sector.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between time orientation and strategic practices in the context of an Arab country. Toward this end, the paper studies a conditional process model that assesses the role of visioning ability and perceived uncertainty in explaining how future-oriented managers may be better at strategic management.

The study adopts a quantitative research design with closed-ended questionnaires as the main mode of data collection, and applies bootstrapping technique to test the significance and validity of the conditional process model.

The results confirm that time orientation influences strategic practices in an organization through its impact on a manager’s visioning ability, when uncertainty in the environment is perceived as low-moderate. The study also notes that local managers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) tend to be relatively future oriented and demonstrate a greater preference toward strategic work in comparison to operational tasks.

The scope of this study has been limited to UAE nationals, and generalization of these results should be done with caution. Future research is recommended on a wider geographical area, such that cross-national results can be used to better understand the concept of time orientation in Arab countries.

Findings of this paper contribute to the literature by studying the concept of time orientation in a unique cultural domain. Moreover, by providing a theoretically relevant model for understanding the relationship between time orientation and strategic practices, the study highlights the significance of environmental uncertainty, and the importance of developing the visioning abilities of those involved in strategic roles in an organization.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the merger of two distinct higher education institutions. The change process was studied from the perspective of multiple stakeholders, and its major outcomes were evaluated in terms of various dimensions of success.

The study uses a qualitative research design. For the purpose of data collection, semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions were used, targeting key decisions makers that led the change process. Additionally, university constituents, comprising students, faculty, and staff who were present during the merger, were invited to participate in an online survey.

Findings indicate that, although the merger deal appeared good on paper, it was not executed as well as it could have been, and the aftermath yielded lower than expected returns. The systems were not integrated properly, and cultural elements were overlooked, resulting in an anomic organizational environment, in place of what should have been a more cohesive academic community. The study establishes that institutions considering a merger should ensure that effective leadership is put in place to manage the implementation and that the cultures and identities are addressed and integrated as early as possible.

Although the findings of this study are limited to the case of one university, it forms an illustrative example for other institutions that are undergoing or considering major change. Recommendations are given to avoid the pitfalls of merger in areas such as integration, identity and, leadership.

Contemporary research establishes mergers as one of the most crucial change processes a university goes through. This study contributes to the literature by using a micro-level approach to study an institutional merger and targeting the perception of key university constituencies, thereby providing in-depth analysis and a multidimensional outlook.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the extent to which contextual factors outlined in the theory of planned behavior (TPB) affect entrepreneurial intent (EI) of female students in the United Arab Emirates.

This paper presents a hierarchical regression analysis utilizing data from a university in the UAE.

The study indicates that prior and current family business exposure to entrepreneurship does not affect the EI of female students from the UAE. However, the family affects EI via the family norms. More exposure to business classes and the subjective norms from the university are not significant predictors of EI, and perceived behavioral control is the strongest contextual predictor of EI.

The study was limited to the UAE and to a small sample of female students from a single university; therefore, the findings should be interpreted with caution.

The study points to opportunities within the university environment to design more robust curricula that offer female students opportunities to boost their confidence in the ability to start up and manage a business.

The paper is the first of its kind to apply the TPB to the context of female students from the UAE.

This paper aims to investigate the nature and prevalence of environmental scanning as practiced by organizations in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and explore the impact of perceived uncertainty on the way various information sources are used in managerial decision-making. Specifically, by targeting firms in the region, the paper examines whether the degree and frequency of scanning activities influence the relationship between perceived uncertainty and the use of environmental information in making strategic decisions.

The study uses a cross-sectional research design, with self-administered questionnaires as the main mode of data collection, and uses quantitative data analysis tools to answer the research questions.

The study finds that perceived environmental uncertainty significantly influences scanning efforts in an organization, which in turn influence the use of environmental information in decision-making. Additionally, findings suggest that while perceived source quality significantly influences frequency of scanning, the influence of perceived source accessibility on scanning is statistically insignificant.

The results of this study have several implications for academics in the field of strategic management and industry professionals involved in long range planning. Results indicate that scanning activities should be more extensive and frequent when perceived uncertainty is high and indicates the potential value of timely market research to assess demand, gather consumer feedback and respond to changing needs of the customers.

The study addresses an identified gap in the literature and adds to the existing body of work by exploring organizational practices in a unique cultural context and assessing a conceptual model that links perceived uncertainty and environmental scanning to strategic management practices.

This paper examined the relationships between national culture and strategic behavior in the banking industry in Jordan and U.S. The study first developed a strategic posture and secondly a cultural profile for the top management of the research domain. The strategic posture suggested the readiness for strategic response from managers. The degree of readiness was correlated with the constructed cultural profile of the managers and financial performance of the banks. The study found significant relationships between certain national cultural strategic characteristics, (risk propensity, time orientation, and openness to change, uncertainty avoidance and managerial perception of control over the environment) strategic behavior and financial performance.

The purpose of this study is to identify and rank the enablers that promote female empowerment in the health-care sector in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

This study uses the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to rank the enablers that promote female empowerment in the health-care sector. The AHP model was developed with 7 criteria and 28 sub-criteria based on previous literature. Data were collected through interviews of 24 female Emirati medical professionals. The respondents were selected from UAE-based public and private health-care units. The data collected were interpreted, and a priority vector was assigned to each criterion and sub-criterion.

It is observed that organizational human resource policies, organizational culture and institutional factors take top priority under the main enablers, and training and development, ethical environment and institutional and legal systems were determined to be the three most important sub-enablers that promote female empowerment in the UAE health-care sector.

The major limitation of this study is that it is conducted only in the UAE. Similar studies should be carried out in other GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries due to the governmental and cultural homogeneity. The study will help policymakers and health-care organizations in the GCC to adopt the best approaches that transform work cultures and realize the potential of investing in female and their contribution to the national economy.

Female empowerment has been a challenging task for the mainstream literature of gender advancement. This study is the first of its kind to propose an AHP model that ranks the enablers that promote female empowerment in the UAE health-care sector.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to understand Emirati nationals’ perceptions of the role of workforce localisation policies in their professional aspirations and growth and, second, to determine the role of higher education and job attributes in the achievement of their goals. The study uses a hierarchy-based model/road map to improve localisation efforts by attempting to aid understanding of the relationships and barriers hindering these processes.

The study follows a two-stage process. In the first stage, a questionnaire-based survey was administered to 207 Emirati postgraduate students from public and private universities based in two major Emirates: Abu Dhabi and Dubai. The sample data were analysed by basic descriptive statistics in the form of cross-relationships and rank correlation tests. In the second stage, an interpretive structural modelling approach was used to develop a hierarchy-based structural model of the barriers to localisation.

Emiratis younger than 30 years old consider localisation as an enabling factor in their professional success in contrast to those older than 30 years old. The results also indicate that working female Emiratis have significantly more positive attitudes regarding the contribution of localisation towards their professional success than that of their male counterparts. However, both genders see a mismatch in efforts being made to better equip themselves for the workplace. The hierarchy-based model delineates variables that could contribute to making localisation a successful employment programme in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The findings of this study relate to the UAE. However, there are similar localisation programmes that have been implemented in other Gulf Cooperation Council states. Hence, while the results of this study are relevant to the UAE, they may not be generalisable to the entire Gulf region.

It is proposed that the research findings and the structural model of relationships may help policy makers develop suitable strategies to strengthen the Emirati localisation programme.

This study makes a contribution to the literature and can serve as a guide to policy makers for localisation programmes. This is achieved by analysing the attitude of UAE nationals studying at higher education institutions. Furthermore, the study presents a hierarchy-based model of the barriers to localisation that explains the root causes of the problem.

The influx of expatriates to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries has led to labor imbalance inducing these countries to initiate workforce nationalization policies. However, despite the policies' emphasis on increasing the presence of nationals in all sectors, employing nationals in the private sector is still a critical challenge for policymakers. This paper explores local job seekers' and employees' perceptions of employment choices in the private and public sectors.

Adopting a qualitative approach, data were collected through in-depth interviews with 28 local job seekers, either not currently employed or employed but seeking another job.

The data revealed a contextualized understanding of positive and negative connotations pertaining to employment in the private and public sectors in Qatar.

Understanding nationals' negative preconceived notions against working in the private sector and the perceived benefits of public sector employment lays the groundwork for developing measures to help policymakers to create labor market-oriented policies that stimulate mobility between the public and private sectors.

This study contributes to the workforce nationalization literature in the GCC countries by examining local job seekers' perceptions associated with employment in the private sector and the public sector. A closer examination of why nationals are hesitant to enter the private sector can propel the pendulum towards higher success rates of workforce nationalization.