Career Capital Development of Women in the Arab Middle East Context: Addressing the Pipeline Block

Taking a career capital approach, this paper addresses the issue of ‘pipeline block’ frequently experienced by women seeking career advancement. Focusing on the Arab Middle East (AME) region, we take a contextually relevant multi-level approach to examine these issues. The study uses a qualitative, interview-based approach, drawing on data obtained from women leaders from the AME region. Drawing on Bourdieu’s capital-field-habitus framework, we explore how women in the AME developed career capital in particular organizational fields. Our findings show the importance of human and social capital, as well as the influence of habitus for women’s career advancement in specific fields. We also highlight the unique contribution of cultural capital in helping women to navigate organizational fields where it is necessary to both challenge, and conform to, traditional norms. Limitations of the study include assumptions of homogeneity across countries of the AME, whereas differences are known to exist. Future research should consider these contextual differences, and also include a study of women who were not successful in gaining career advancement. Our multi-level approach highlights practical implications for women, organizations, and society. For organizations, we propose some context-relevant coaching strategies that can help women to attain leadership positions. Our multi-level approach highlights practical implications for women, organizations, and society. Focusing on organizations, we propose some context-relevant coaching strategies that can help women to attain advancement in their careers. We demonstrate originality in our findings by showing how women overcome the pipeline block in relation to their career advancement. The use of the Bourdieusian framework, an in-depth qualitative approach, and the AME context also add to the study’s originality

Etihad: contributing to the UAE vision through Emiratisation

© 2011, Emerald Group Publishing Limited. Subject area: Strategy, Emiratisation (national policy); human resources (recruitment, training and development, organizational culture and values) and marketing (branding, communication), tourism (destination image). Study level/applicability: Undergraduate and Postgraduate Business and Management. Case overview: This case highlights the strategy and initiatives taken by Etihad to attract Emirati employees (local nationals) to join the organization. Etihad Airways is the national airline of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), based in Abu Dhabi, the national capital. Since its inception in 2003, the airline has grown faster than any other in commercial aviation history; it currently flies to more than 60 destinations in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East and North America. In the UAE, nationals or Emiratis comprise only 20 per cent of the overall population. According to the UAE 2021 Vision, the government\u27s focus is on building the human capabilities on knowledge and innovation for Emiratis. This vision is reinforced in the Abu Dhabi Economic Vision 2030, which aims to boost national participation, encourage women (national women are on average more highly educated than the men) and decrease the education – market demand gap through training. Expected learning outcomes: This case can be used to teach strategy from the point of view of government, human resources and marketing. From the government point of view parallels can be drawn to other nations whose government have focused on policies to create opportunities for and to encourage local employability. An example of a similar programme that was very successful is the “Bumiputra” programme created for indigenous Malaysians in 1971. In the area of human resource strategy, recruitment, training, inculcation of corporate values are some areas that can be reinforced. Form the point of view of marketing; the case can be used to discuss branding from the point of view of people, loyalty building (internal) and communication (internal and external). Destination branding and the role airlines play can also be a discussion point from the strategic point of view with some opportunity for macro-environmental analysis using the PESTLE model. Supplementary materials: A teaching note available upon request

The effect of autonomy, training opportunities, age and salaries on job satisfaction in the South East Asian retail petroleum industry

South East Asian petroleum retailers are under considerable pressure to improve service quality by reducing turnover. An empirical methodology from this industry determined the extent to which job characteristics, training opportunities, age and salary influenced the level of job satisfaction, an indicator of turnover. Responses are reported on a random sample of 165 site employees (a 68% response rate) of a Singaporean retail petroleum firm. A restricted multivariate regression model of autonomy and training opportunities explained the majority (35.4%) of the variability of job satisfaction. Age did not moderate these relationships, except for employees >21 years of age, who reported enhanced job satisfaction with additional salary. Human Capital theory, Life Cycle theory and Job Enrichment theory are invoked and explored in the context of these findings in the South East Asian retail petroleum industry. In the South East Asian retail petroleum industry, jobs providing employees with the opportunity to undertake a variety of tasks that enhanced the experienced meaningfulness of work are likely to promote job satisfaction, reduce turnover and increase the quality of service

Tracking and evaluating the impact of large scale change initiatives: a proposed approach based on the application of balanced scorecard framework

Change Deployment and Change Management literature stresses the significance of introducing changes at a systemic level by focusing on strategy, structure, culture, systems, processes, tasks and behavior for sustained and continuous effectiveness of large scale change efforts. While various diagnostic models have been suggested in Change literature that helps in identifying internal and external alignment issues at a systemic level to inform change interventions within organizations, an integrated measurement system to track and evaluate the impact and effectiveness of Change initiatives has still not got the desired focus. This paper proposes a conceptual approach for tracking, measuring and evaluating the effectiveness of large scale Change interventions in organizations by drawing on some of the techniques of the Balanced Scorecard (BSC). This paper proposes that, to reap greater benefits from large scale Change, one must not only ensure alignment but also a continuous review of Change Deployment Processes at a systemic level. The approach focuses on the use of BSC techniques such as developing Change Themes and Results, setting Change Objectives, developing Lead and Lag Performance Measures for achievement of Change Objectives and measuring the progress of the initiatives with respect to the desired Objectives, for evaluating the effectiveness of Change Deployment efforts, all through applying cause and effect linkages

A diagnostic model of learning: three case studies

This paper proposes a Diagnostic Model of Learning based on open systems theory, conceptualising learning processes as the complex interplay of variables such that a change in any one of these requires a change in the rest of the system in order for effective learning to occur. The paper illustrates the utility of the model with three case studies drawn from management education subjects in universities in Australia, New Zealand and Dubai

Creativity training programs in the UAE government sector: lessons from the literature

Creativity training has been recognized in literature as impacting divergent thinking capabilities as evidenced through varied indicators such as idea generation and innovation. This conceptual paper reviews literature on creativity training and examines its impact on organizational performance. Second, it examines the effectiveness of different tools that measure the impact of creativity training. This paper proposes that there is a need to customize measurement of creativity training instead of using generic models. The UAE public sector, focussing on the Dubai Government, forms the context for this paper as it has recently started investing heavily in creativity training programs as part of Dubai\u27s strategic vision 2021 and thus would benefit substantially from customized tools for examining the impact of creativity training

Socio-demographic factors as a predictor of the college-choice process in international universities: some data from the United Arab Emerites

This is an explanatory study that seeks to identify socio-demographic factors that influence students\u27 choice of college and college majors. The study was based on a survey of freshman students in a premier University based in Dubai, UAE

A process model of managing organizational change during business process redesign

Purpose - Business process implementation has been primarily seen as a redesign of the workflow with the consequent organizational change assumed to be taking place automatically or through a process of muddling through . Although evidence suggests that 70 per cent of business process reengineering programmes have failed due to lack of alignment with corporate change strategy, the question of alignment of workflow redesign with the organizational change process has not received adequate attention. The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework for managing organizational change in a structured manner during workflow redesign, a perspective missing in the literature on business process management (BPM) implementation. Design/methodology/approach - This paper attempts to integrate the 8-S dimensions of Higgins model across the different phases of workflow redesign to develop a process framework of managing organizational change during BPM workflow redesign. As an exploratory study the paper draws on existing literature on BPM and change alignment to conceptualize an alignment framework of associated managerial activities involved during different phases of BPM workflow redesign. The framework is evaluated against two case studies of business process implementation to substantiate how lack of alignment leads to failure in BPM implementation. Findings - The paper provides a conceptual framework of how organizational change should be managed during BPM implementation. The model suggests the sequence of alignment of the 8-S dimensions (Higgins, 2005) with the different phases of the workflow redesign and identifies the role of the managerial levels in the organization in managing the alignment of the 8-S dimensions during business process change. Practical implications - This framework would provide managers with an execution template of how to achieve alignment of the workflow redesign with the 8-S dimensions thus facilitating effective organizational change during business process implementation. Originality/value - This paper proposes a process model of how organizational elements should be aligned with the workflow redesign during business process change implementation. No such model is available in BPM literature proposing alignment between hard and soft factors