Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate leadership competencies of expatriate managers working within the UAE and identify if these competencies are unique from those needed in their home country. Additionally, the paper aims to identify how new competencies expatriate leaders have developed while in their current position and how this enhances their ability to better manage staff in the UAE. Leadership competencies are skills and behaviors that contribute to enhanced performance. While some leadership competencies are essential to all firms, some distinctive leadership attributes may be particularly relevant to organizations possessing a large expatriate community. Design/methodology/approach – Personal interviews and stratified sampling were used to examine the qualities and skills relating to expatriate managers’ success in leading UAE organizations. The research design did not differentiate between the origins and ethnicities of the leaders. The leaders, whether American, European, Indo-Pakistani or Asian, were treated as one entity. Findings – Factors such as communication ability, team building qualities and ability to handle local nationals were found to have a significant effect on expatriate adjustment and success in managing UAE organizations. Practical implications – By investigating specific competencies and skills that expatriate managers need to lead organizations in the UAE and the broader Gulf region, the study informs organizations on how they can better identify and develop leadership skills that lead to enhanced performance. Originality/value – The study focuses on leadership competencies within the expatriate community of the UAE.
Purpose – The purpose of this study is to examine issues of skills and cultural awareness amongst expatriate managers working in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The study explores expatriate management and leadership experiences within a predominantly Islamic context and the adjustments that have had to be made by the new arrivals before they could effectively undertake their senior functions within their organisations. Rapid economic growth and recent prosperity in the UAE has resulted in the recruitment and placement of large numbers of expatriate managers. Design/methodology/approach – Interviews were utilised to explore the experiences of expatriate managers in the UAE. These experiences have been interpreted to provide lessons and advice for new arrivals to the UAE, particularly those who are about to be placed into senior management positions. Findings – The findings from our interviews of expatriate managers and leaders reveal a great deal regarding Islamic principles and religious practices, the Arabic language, the preference for a paternalistic management style, customs around issues of female dress and issues of time management. A number of strategies are provided for managing these sensitive cultural issues in the workplace. Practical implications – This research provides an important examination of the effects of the UAE national culture on expatriate managers and how they have adjusted when managing local staff. Originality/value – This article adds to the disciplines of management and human resources by focussing on cross-cultural sensitivity and awareness, specifically within the context of the UAE.
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to study the influence of organizational justice and decision latitude on expatriate organization commitment and job performance.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from 175 nonmanagerial-level expatriate employees in Dubai, UAE using a purposive sampling approach. A structural equation model with partial least squared analysis was utilized to test the hypotheses.FindingsThe results show that decision latitude partially mediates the relationship between organization justice and organizational commitment and fully mediates the relationship between organization justice and job performance.Research limitations/implicationsData were collected from a cross sectional sample in UAE, and hence, the generalizability of the results to other contexts may be limited.Practical implicationsThe research study suggests ways in which human resource managers and practitioners can develop a stronger awareness of the importance of decision latitude in employee decision-making and the role it plays in promoting employees' commitment and job performance given perceived organizational justice.Originality/valueThe present research is among the first of its kind to examine the study variables within the nonmanagerial expatriate context.
The role of organizational structure as an important contextual variable has long been recognized in affecting a host of employee attitudes and behaviors, but there is a dearth of theoretical and empirical research that examines the ways in which organizational structure influences the occurrence of self-efficacy and its performance effects. This study addresses this gap by exploring how the two core structural components—formalization and centralization—separately and jointly affect employee self-efficacy and how they interact with self-efficacy to influence employee task performance. The study further examines the extent to which structure weaves its influence on individual performance through perceptions of self-efficacy. Data from 120 Pakistani public sector employees were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) and polynomial regression to assess the hypothesized relationships. The empirical analysis shows that formalization is positively associated with self-efficacy while centralization has a negative association, and such an improvement/attenuation in self-efficacy is partly transformed into performance improvements. The findings further reveal that self-efficacy and performance relationship is diminished under conditions of high formalization and high centralization. We discuss implications for theory and practice and delineate directions for future research.
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