Abstract
This paper addresses a key social–cultural aspect of sustainability in the Gulf region: Workforce localization (WL). Our research objective is to empirically explore organizational socialization (OS) practices in the context of WL in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where National Citizens (NCs) are a powerful minority in the workforce. This research adopts a qualitative methodology, using semi-structured interviews with managers in charge of the WL program in 14 organizations in the UAE, across different industrial sectors and ownership. We found five major OS practices: Establishing thorough orientation programs, providing formal training programs (skills, diversity/cultural awareness, supervisor, mentoring and coaching team building), redesigning NCs’ jobs and work teams, engaging expatriates in NCs’ OS processes, and organizing networking events. All organizations rigorously evaluated the effectiveness of their OS practices. This study contributes to the empirical literature on management OS, WL, and diversity management in a non-western, emerging Arab country. It contributes to theory development on the content of OS practices, showing how a minority can be a powerful group around whom socialization processes are tailored to integrate them fully into the organization. Practically, our findings inform managers of how to adapt their existing OS practices to the specific needs of minority members, and support Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)-based organizations and policymakers with the design, monitoring, and implementation of WL programs, and with the development of a sustainable workforce.
Highlights
Sustainable development is the “development that meets the needs of current generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs and aspirations” [1] (p. 43)
We found that our participating organizations used five major organizational socialization (OS) practices to socialize National Citizens (NCs): Establishing a thorough orientation program, training initiatives, redesigning NCs’ job and project teams, engaging expatriates in the OS processes, organizing networking and social events
How do organizations in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) socialize their NCs? How do they measure the effectiveness of these OS practices? In summary, all types of organizations in our sample took great care in designing, implementing, and monitoring specific OS to socialize their NCs, taking into account the specificities of their local context
Summary
Sustainable development is the “development that meets the needs of current generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs and aspirations” [1] (p. 43). This paper addresses a key social–cultural aspect of sustainability in the Arab Gulf region: Workforce localization (WL). Over the last 30 years, each of the six member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) (Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)) has adopted some form of politically-led WL program to facilitate the recruitment and development of their National Citizens (NCs), which has changed the employment market landscape, and made WL a significant staffing consideration for international businesses operating in this region [4,5,6,7,8,9]. The success of a specific staffing program does depend on the quality of the hiring processes, and on the effective socialization of the new members after their arrival in the organization [12]. NCs’ organizational socialization (OS) is an important aspect of their fit, effectiveness, and retention in the workplace
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