Search results

The purpose of this study is to examine the escape motivations of the emerging market and provide suggestions for Australia’s promotion. This study adopts the push and pull framework to identify travel motivations of Emirati nationals to Australia.

This study uses a series of focus groups and in-depth interviews to understand the escape motivations that encourage Emiratis to leave their home country and travel to Australia for a holiday.

The results indicate that Emiratis are motivated to travel to Australia by three escape factors: physical, interpersonal and fun. The internal motivations that encourage Emiratis to escape their home country are inseparable from Australia’s external attributes that attract the Emiratis to the country.

The study contributes to the theory of tourist motivation by supporting it in the culturally different Muslim/Arab context, which has not been explored before. The authors argue that it is not so much what Australia offers and what escape needs the Emiratis can fulfil in Australia, but rather that Australia serves the Emiratis well and meets their escape needs.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the significance of culture generally, and Arab culture in particular, for the development of trust in business-to-business (B2B) banking relationships.

Qualitative fieldwork was employed, gathering in-depth interview data from bankers and their business clients in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In total, 80 relationships between bankers and business clients were investigated.

The development of trusting relationships between bankers and clients is affected by the cultural origins of the relationship partners. Strongly held religious beliefs, and loyalty to family, tribe and nation, lead to strong affect-based trust between bankers and clients from Arab culture. Cognitive-based trust is more characteristic of UAE banker/client relationships that involve partners from outside the Arab world.

The study was conducted in the UAE. Additional tests in other Arab countries would be valuable. The qualitative nature of the study means that statistical generalizations cannot be drawn.

The cultural origins of banking relationship managers are of considerable importance when seeking to develop relationships of trust with business banking clients in the Arab world.

This substantial, qualitative study of banker relationships with business clients throws considerable light on the importance of culture as an antecedent to trust in B2B banking relationships.

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 aim of this study is to conduct an initial investigation of information sharing between the vast number of expatriate employees and the small minority of local employees in Dubai’s private sector workforce. Research on the impact of the workforce localization policy has highlighted the frequent marginalization of locals within the expatriate-dominated private sector. One form of this is the reluctance of expatriates to share information with local recruits, and the authors conducted this study to assess the reality and extent of this phenomenon.

The authors designed a brief interview survey to probe how Emirati employees secure workplace information and whether they experience information withholding on the part of expatriate colleagues. The authors also explored whether any such experience impacts on their attitudes to working in the private sector since this is a key factor in the success of the localization policy. Complete responses were received from 0.9 per cent of the total local private sector workforce.

A notable lack of information sharing emerged with 58 per cent of respondents reporting their expatriate colleagues’ and superiors’ reluctance to share information with them, and 63 per cent describing experiences of discriminatory behavior.

The authors identify key cultural and communication issues relating to localization within Dubai’s multicultural workforce. These include the broader cultural factors that determine how Emiratis conceptualize information sharing. Future research can pursue this issue to help inform the development of supportive information sharing practices. Such practices are an essential part of the creation of a diversity climate, which is necessary to sustain localization.

This study is a pioneering attempt to empirically investigate the information sharing practices that Emirati private sector employees experience. It suggests that the exclusion of citizens from the workplace through practices such as “ghost Emiratization” reverberates in the workplace through a lack of information sharing.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the rationale for using social engineering as a tool to impact the nationalization of workforce in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Interpretative and exploratory approaches have been employed for this research. Accordingly, the study has extensively reviewed government documents, reports of international organizations and relevant academic literature, including journal articles, conference papers and unpublished dissertations.

The findings show that the UAE Government has initiated multiple policies and programs to enhance participation of indigenous Emiratis in the burgeoning labor market which has been hitherto dominated by the expatriates. However, while the Emiratization programs are on the verge of fulfilling the targets in the public sector job market, significant gaps exist between the targets and accomplishments in the private sector, causing policy concern.

This paper links theoretical insights from the social engineering model used in the social sciences research to analyze the dynamics of workforce nationalization. The study will be helpful to inform further empirical research in this area.

This paper aims to extend the traditional conceptualization of localization, which has largely focused on recruitment, by examining “employability” and “retention” as crucial determinants of localization success.

Using survey data from local (Emirati) employees in private sector organizations in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the authors develop a holistic model of localization and test the relationships between stereotypes, organizational socialization, employability and retention outcomes, using Smart-PLS.

Among the main findings are the significant influence of stereotypes on organizational socialization (OS) experiences of Emirati employees, with a negative relationship between “work ethics stereotypes” and perceptions of OS experiences. Strong evidence is also found for the indirect effects of OS experiences on retention of Emirati employees, mediated by employability.

This study contributes to the literature on localization by examining the relationships between key variables not examined together in previous research. In terms of limitations, the cross-sectional nature of the study prevents the identification of direction of causality among these relationships. Since employee integration, as part of localization efforts, is a gradual process, future research should include longitudinal studies.

Employability has emerged as a significant challenge for organizations and governments working to implement successful localization initiatives. This study’s findings highlight several opportunities for organizational and governmental policy interventions to support successful localization.

The authors’ holistic model extends localization literature by providing evidence for the role of stereotypes and employability as key constructs to be examined along with OS experiences and retention.

The United Arab Emirates' demographics show the entry of a large Generation Y (Gen Y) segment into the workforce. Companies need talented human resources hence this trend has implications for the country's continued economic growth. However, little is known about Gen Y in the UAE. Furthermore, the asymmetric distributions of the population and labor force by nationality, positively skewed for expatriates, present a diverse population that challenges our understanding of this generation. The purpose of this paper is to examine the life priorities and work preferences of Gen Y Emiratis and expatriates, so that organizations can effectively recruit this new generation into the nation's workforce.

Survey and interview results from Schwartz Value Inventory and Twenge et al.'s motivational model were analyzed for correspondence between life priority and work preference choices, and differences in preferences of Emiratis and expatriates.

Emirati and expatriate Gen Y regarded seeking stability as the most important life priority and were most motivated by extrinsic rewards. However, differences were found in the ranking of other life values and in comparison with the literature.

This research extended previous studies and increases understanding of Gen Y at work. Moreover, recommendations for the effective recruitment and retention are provided to help organizations manage this young generation who are central to the future of the Middle East.

The purpose of this study is to understand the destination image perceptions about Australia – a Western culture country – as held by the rapidly increasing, high spending, culturally dissimilar new segment of travellers, the Emiratis[1] from the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

A qualitative methodology was used to understand the cognitive, affective and conative images of Australia. A structured categorisation matrix was used to analyse the data so that only aspects fitting the matrix were selected.

Within the cognitive variable, Australia was found to be pleasant, family oriented, a fun place, laid back and the local people friendly. From an affective factor perspective, Australia was seen as being exciting, because of the variety of activities available for these tourists. Exciting was expressed by words like fantastic, amazing and extreme experience. In terms of the conative variable most of the Emirati tourists expressed strong feelings to go back to Australia and to even re-visit with friends. They also mentioned that they would recommend Australia to family and friends.

A limitation of this study was that our sample comprised informants mainly from the Emirates of Abu Dhabi and Dubai, the two largest Emirates of the nation. The study offers destination marketing organisations’ (DMOs) insights into Emirati travellers’ perceptions about Australia, which would benefit destination marketing.

This study examines the under researched area of how Australia – with its liberal Western culture – could be better marketed to the growing numbers of culturally conservative, high spending Emirati outbound tourists from the officially Islamic UAE, and also more generally to the socio-culturally homogeneous Gulf Cooperation Council region that the UAE is part of. Whilst destination image is an intensively analysed topic within the realm of tourism research, and reportedly a powerful influence on destination choice, the extant literature on how Australia is perceived as a travel destination by Emiratis is scant. For DMO’s attempting to attract wealthy Emirati tourists into Australia, this research is valuable and timely, as several Emiratis are seeking newer travel destinations away from the Western hemisphere, where the general anti-Arab/Islamic sentiments are currently quite strong.

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.

Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with a total of 60 UAE citizens in the age group of 18‐23.

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 low private sector employment levels among UAE citizens and discuss their implications for policy makers. The authors argue for two main approaches: first, a focus on training and orientation of young citizens to enable them to confidently pursue job opportunities in the private sector. This may also include ways for providing young UAE citizens with private sector exposure, as 98 per cent of the national workforce is currently working in the public sector and a lot of what young UAE citizens think they know about the private sector is not founded in reality. Second, interventions to address structural and institutional challenges hindering employment of citizens including gaps in employment conditions and remuneration levels for citizens between the public and private employment sectors.

While much previous research in this field has focused on the perceptions of employers, this is the first paper to actually explore the perceptions of those at the centre of the discussion – young UAE citizens themselves.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss issues and imbalances in the workforce in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that result from the nation's relatively recent emergence as a powerful economy in the world. A federal initiative entitled Emiratization is addressed that is intended to improve employment amongst the local Emirati population who, at present, make up a minority of the working population. The role that one federal tertiary education system, the Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT), contributes to this process is discussed with specific implications and challenges for Emiratizing the education system.

The paper is based on secondary research concerning employment statistics and policy in the UAE and observations of HCT, specifically the BEd program within the colleges.

Three main challenges facing HCT in its attempt to train Emiratis for employment in the education sector in the UAE are discussed in the paper.

There are practical implications and suggestions discussed for improving the Emiratization of the teaching sector in the UAE. This sector is highlighted as a core area for the Emiratization initiative by the paper.

The UAE represents a unique cultural context, a blending of languages, religion, politics and ethics, with calls for rapid modernization of its government schools. This paper maps out the growing pains and so is of value to both educators and policy makers in similar settings.