Expat or citizen? Raising the question of a potential impact of status on leader behavior

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore the concept that expatriate status, as opposed to national citizen status, may impact leader behavior. The intention is not to pursue a research question carved out from the expatriation and leadership research streams but rather to raise the issue of non-citizenship status as potentially moderating leader behavior. Design/methodology/approach The authors used grounded theory methodology, including interviews to gather data on the behavior of non-citizen leaders in the UAE. The resulting 28 interview transcripts were analyzed using inductive coding to arrive at aggregate theoretical dimensions. Findings Their findings reveal a keen tendency among expatriate leaders to display organizational legitimacy by remaining sedulously within established organizational schemata and monitoring employees closely. Research limitations/implications The study asks, rather than answers, a question and does not use an established theoretical framework, as its area of concern is not one that fits solely within the literatures on expatriation, international business, leadership, cross-cultural management or national citizenship. Furthermore, the context in which they conduct our investigation is the UAE whose workforce has a disproportionately high number of expatriates. Although this serves as a convenient context in which to study the rising occurrence of non-citizen leaders due to increased professional migration, the issue may be more meaningfully tested in geopolitical contexts with typical expatriate–citizen workforce ratios. Originality/value The central theoretical contribution of this preliminary study is to provide initial empirical evidence suggesting that the hitherto-ignored variable of national citizenship may be a significant one to address given increasing professional global migration.

Gender disparity in leadership boosts affective commitment and tacit knowledge sharing about libraries

“…Authentic leadership would be more effective when the followers responded positively and significantly because committed employees were always the priority of the organization. However, this study uses a factor of organizational commitment named affective commitment that signifies the strongest thinking and attachment of followers to an organization (Goby and Alhadhrami, 2020) because this factor is more effective than normative and continuance commitment (Baek et al , 2019). Accordingly, the researchers revealed that authentic leadership psychologically strengthens affective organizational commitment in the tourism industry of Iran (Hadian Nasab and Afshari, 2019), in the Nursing context in Canada (Baek et al , 2019).…”

“…Affective organizational commitment may have a substantial impact on tacit knowledge sharing behavior (Baek et al , 2019) so, should be tested in sharing tacit knowledge sharing through the motivation of leaders at educational institutions (Al-Mutairi et al , 2020). Leaders can increase the performance of the employees (Thuan, 2020), particularly when the followers remain committed to the organization, and prioritize their physical attachment to an organization (Goby and Alhadhrami, 2020). Interestingly, ethical leadership is the key to scrutinize emotional attaching (affective organizational commitment) in turn, enhances task performance and reduces turnover intention of the followers in the diversified context in South Africa (Lee et al , 2019).…”

“…Further, he calls the future research that affective organizational commitment may also mediate the link between authentic leadership and tacit knowledge sharing behavior. It could be possible for leaders to encourage followers’ affective commitment (Goby and Alhadhrami, 2020) and knowledge economy (Thuan, 2020). Besides, Xue et al (2011) and Sergio et al (2014) argue that authentic leadership is the ultimate enabler of tacit knowledge sharing behavior however, it may be directly or indirectly.…”

“…As well, commitment-trust theory (Morgan and Hunt, 1994) and reasoned action theory (Ng, 2020) support the moderating role of trust on knowledge sharing, exchanging and transferring behavior. Additionally, trust is the outcome of both authentic leadership and affective organizational commitment (Goby and Alhadhrami, 2020) and the premises of knowledge sharing (Smaliukienė et al , 2017; Rehman et al , 2019). Besides, Casimir et al (2012) supported the moderating role of trust between affective organizational commitment and knowledge sharing by targeting 496 employees of 15 organizations across 10 industries in Queensland.…”

Predictors and Outcomes of Successful Localization in the Aviation Industry: The Case of Oman

“…Successful localization should be considered as one of the main challenges for many governments and international companies in the GCC countries (Harry, 2007) including Oman. Therefore, the Omani government set quotas for various industries to determine the percentage of Omani to foreign workers (Goby & Alhadhrami, 2020). However, the success of these plans was limited as 85% of the workforce in private sectors is occupied by expatriates (Al-Lamki, 2005).…”