‘Private sector’ Emiratisation: job satisfaction and sociocultural influences

Emilie Rutledge and Khaled Alkaabi

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: Purpose — To gauge the job satisfaction levels of UAE nationals employed in the (‘real’ and quasi-) private sector. Despite private sector Emiratisation (labour market nationalisation) having been in place since the late 1990s and considered a strategic government priority in 2007, the numbers of nationals employed in the private sector as a ratio to those employed in the public sector remains particularly low. Design/methodology/approach — This study is based on a survey of 653 nationals employed in the non-classic sector (i.e., working at commercially-run entities). The instrument used was based on the Job Satisfaction Survey construct and assessed, inter alia, the impact of sectoral pay and benefit discrepancies and prevailing societal sentiment towards the ‘appropriacy’ of pursuing a non-conventional career path. Findings — statistically significant relationships between the dependent variable of “continuance intentions” and various predictor variables were observed: β .399 for salary and benefits; whilst sociocultural influences was found to have a significant and negative relationship, β -.423. Originality/value — This research can help in a) identifying and prioritising the economic and social issues that are impacting the pace of Emiratisation and b) in understanding what incentives and measures can be useful and effective for the operational implementation of labour nationalisation policies throughout the Arab Gulf and therefore adds to the growing body of literature on an Arab Middle East HRM model.

Keywords: Arab Gulf labour markets; UAE; Emiratisation; labour nationalisation; job satisfaction; Job Satisfaction Survey. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J08 J21 J45 J61 J82 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-02-19
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ara
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