Human Resource Management

11/10/2022 in MENA region

Table of Contents

Abstract......................................................................................................................................2

Keywords................................................................................................................................2

Introduction................................................................................................................................2

HRM strategies used in Middle East and North Africa for recruiting, training, motivating and
rewarding employees.................................................................................................................3

Impact of external factors and global environment on human resource practices.....................4

Influence of changing political, economic, social, technological, legislative, and institutional

environment on HRM................................................................................................................4

Conclusion..................................................................................................................................5

Recommendations......................................................................................................................6

References..................................................................................................................................8

Appendix..................................................................................................................................10

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Abstract

While a sizable body of academic studies being attempted to explicate the function of
business and economic systems in the context of human resource management (HRM), there
has been relatively little investigation into the degree to which contextual factors explain
trends of HRM in the developing MENA countries. Understanding how this interaction plays
out in the unique setting of the Middle East and North Africa region is crucial because
various social forms and locations frequently create their own organization structure to
govern their workforces. From the standpoint of national business systems, the institutional
environments of Middle Eastern and North African countries stand out as an odd example
since they vary from many other nations in terms of the significant role that the state plays in
directing economic activity, job, function, skill, and power specialisation and substantial
segmentation, notably between locals and foreigners, as well as a distinctive employment
structure. As per our research through evaluation of 11 academic journals and two in-depth
interviews with people of 5-7 years of work experience, these operational environment
factors are closely associated to regular patterns of HRM practises, including unique rules for
local workers and expatriates.

Keywords
MENA, Human Resource Management, Interviews, Expatriates, Segmentation

Introduction

The performance of businesses depends on its human resources (Biygautane et al., 2014).

Therefore, it is crucial for a business survival to govern these human resource management,
encompassing policies, practises, and systems (Alnajdawi et al., 2017). The notion that there
is a universal strategy for efficient managing people is, however, oversimplified, and it is
now commonly acknowledged that human resource management (HRM) differs significantly
across regions of the world. Due to the outmoded universalistic approach that has been
frequently used (Awdeh et al., 2018), there is a growing need for HRM academia to assist to
comprehending the different approaches that businesses in various national settings work

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effectively. As a result, we will attempt to grasp the greatest HR practises in Middle Eastern
and African nations in this article.

HRM strategies used in Middle East and North Africa

for recruiting, training, motivating and rewarding
employees

According to (El-Khalil et al., 2018), HR managers in the MENA region utilise the strategy
of matching employer branding and employee value propositions to locals' goals. According
to the Gulf Talent study, a small percentage of candidates from the Middle East and North
Africa choose the private sector because they believe private businesses, especially
multinationals, offer higher learning and challenging chances. (Budhwar et al., 2018) believes
that adopting a variety of focused external recruitment techniques is one of the best practises
presently being utilised to expand the pool of candidates for selected personnel.

Training and development programmes are crucial for the successful integration of citizens
into the workplace, given the acknowledged limitations of the academic system and the
absence of market-relevant experience and skills. Coordination in sector-specific
collaborative training or development programmes in order to achieve a significant impact is
seen in this region. The study by (Awdeh et al., 2018) shows how important it is for people
from the MENA region to strengthen their leadership abilities. Many educated foreigners
work in important positions that call either leadership skills or in-depth knowledge of the
subject. Citizens should be trained to develop those tactical leadership skills in order to
decrease the dependence on expatriates.

Regarding compensation, 55% of businesses in the MENA region are employing complete
compensation initiatives to keep high-calibre personnel. The management uses tactics to
show that the banking system is concerned about the wellbeing of its employees, like
providing the thirteenth-sixteenth salary, providing interest-free mortgages, and keeping up
with employees regarding personal matters. Additionally, managers appreciate staff
members, recognise their accomplishments, and offer them the freedom to voice their
thoughts and insights (El-Khalil et al., 2018).

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Impact of external factors and global environment on
human resource practices

The available data indicates that there is a significant talent shortage in the area. This is
mostly caused by at least two factors. A sufficient quantity of talent is not being produced by
the educational system in major part. This is largely owing to the inapplicability and poor
level of education offered by research universities, which are frequently seen as the region's
economic development's barrier (Hennekam et al., 2017). The second factor is the exodus of
domestically produced expertise to Europe and other regions of the world.

The region is experiencing "brain wastages," or the educated and skilled leaving their home
countries but then either making very little use of their education and training or being
compelled to take on job positions that can be done by those with less training. Current
hiring, remuneration, and retention practises appear to be efficacious only for the mangers of
high-performing staff members. As a result, when compared to natives and Western
expatriates, immigrants' incomes usually tend to be lower than those of both groups on the
significant element of wages as an indicator of success.

Influence of changing political, economic, social,

technological, legislative, and institutional environment
on HRM

According to our research, a variety of nations share similarities in a wide range of cultural
motivations, including a significant emphasis on group alignment, institutional arrangements,
masculinity, and adhering to Arab traditions, as well as a limited focus on the future.
According to (Ariss et al., 2016), supervisors in nations like Morocco, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia,
and Egypt see delegating responsibility to lesser levels of staff and interacting with them
differently due to high-power distance. However, (BaniMelhem et al., 2018) found that many
ideal Islamic principles, such as fairness and equity are frequently not upheld in reality. This
illustrates why several HRM practises that are incompatible with Islamic principles are
widely used in the Middle East, including the use of nepotism in hiring and paying
employees.

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According to (Saheem et al., 2017), the system of education in the MENA region has mostly
concentrated on helping students build a sense of national identity rather than preparing them
for job as effective members of the workforce. Despite substantial and widespread
expenditure, the region's educational systems have not advanced. Even though the number of
institutions is growing quickly, the connection between the workplace and education has not
yet vastly enhanced. The foundations of higher learning and research, according to (Saheem
et al., 2017), have been disregarded.

Conclusion

As a part of our research, we conducted two in-depth interviews. The average interview
session lasted for 50 minutes:

 5 minutes - introduction of participants

 5 minutes - explaining the aim of interview
 30 minutes - Q/A with the participants
 10 minutes - combination of the facts communicated

Following is the summary of major inferences from interviews:

 A failure to take a stand against prejudice of any type. It would improve the
institution's reputation and encourage more engagement between the state and
individuals who are struggling or who are marginalized in society if all vulnerable
groups were included in the administration.
 Everyone's current working method has been put to the test during the lockdown. The
feeling of affiliation in the job has increased.
 A dearth of initiatives to improve the standard of social services provided to
government workers by enacting legislative measures and raising awareness of its
significance in the advancement of the human resources, which would have a
beneficial effect on economic advancement by standardising and professionalising the
services provided.

In addition to that, we evaluated 11 journals, filtered by using journal titles, categories, and
publishers, as well as the title and abstract. Our assessment of the literature reveals that the
Middle East and North Africa share several similar labour localization obstacles.

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  Greater emphasis on foreigners
 Education institutions that don't adapt to changing market demands
 Extremely generous perks for public employees
 Preference for prestige and renown over achievement
 Ineffective quota structures
 Poor localized policies implementation and awareness
 Limiting cultural norms with regard to women in the employment

Through our analysis, we have derived that to accomplish their stated strategic goals and
maintain the expansion of the region's infrastructure and capital investments that has occurred
over the past two or three decades, people, institutions, and countries in the MENA region
will have to make investments in their human capital. In order to localise in the region,
citizens must actively and effectively participate in both the business and public spheres.

Recommendations

We advise using a comprehensive strategy when developing, disseminating, putting into

practise, and overseeing national policies that successfully encourage localization in the
private industry. These include creating more jobs in vital non-extractive industries and
improving the quality and quantity of education and training programs to boost the abilities
and production of local residents. Additionally, it will be essential to establish hiring policies
for the private industry that acknowledge and address the cultural and economic barriers to
hiring locals. However, these regulations should be modified to reflect the aspirations and
objectives of each sovereign country in the MENA.

The strategic execution of localization programmes inside an organisation will need for
knowledge of talent, variety, and organizational change. Localization should be viewed as a
sort of potential talent management by organisations looking to use local expertise to
accomplish significant goals. These organisations should also seek to create efficient talent
acquisition procedures to ensure that:

 The organization's strategic purpose is taken into account while identifying and
planning for capacity shortfalls.

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 Positions are filled by utilising continually updated talent pools of both internal and
external candidates
 After being hired, nationalities are assisted in developing their skills in a way that
takes into account the benefits from differences in culture.
 Retention initiatives are focused at high-potential individuals by maintaining regular,
important data.
 To make sure it is producing the desired results, the regional talent management
process is tracked and inspected (Hennekam et al., 2017).

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References

Al Ariss, A., & Sidani, Y. (2016). Comparative international human resource management:
Future research directions. Human Resource Management Review, 26(4), 352-358. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2016.04.007

Alnajdawi, S., Emeagwali, O. L., & Elrehail, H. (2017). The Interplay among Green Human
Resource Practices, Organization Citizenship Behavior for Environment and Sustainable
Corporate Performance Evidence from Jordan. Journal of Environmental Accounting and
Management, 5(3), 171-184. DOI:10.5890/JEAM.2017.09.001

Awdeh, A., & Hamadi, H. (2018). Factors hindering economic development: evidence from
the MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA countries. International Journal of Emerging
Markets. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJoEM-12-2017-0555

BaniMelhem, H., Elanain, H. M. A., & Hussain, M. (2018). Impact of human resource
management practices on employees' turnover intention in United Arab Emirates (UAE)
health care services. International Journal of Information Systems in the Service Sector
(IJISSS), 10(4), 21-41. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4018/IJISSS.2018100102

Biygautane, M., & Al Yahya, K. O. (2014). Talent management in the MIDDLE EAST AND
NORTH AFRICA and GCC regions: Challenges and opportunities. Global talent
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Budhwar, P., & Mellahi, K. (2018). HRM in the Middle East. In Handbook of Research on
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El-Khalil, R., & El-Kassar, A. N. (2018). Effects of corporate sustainability practices on

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Appendix

Interview questions asked:

 Basic introduction of participants (including name, age, income)

 What is your work experience?
 What segment are you working in?
 How were you recruited for the role you are currently working in? Was the process in
inclination with the education you have acquired?
 What is your take on the HR policies in your current/previous organisation?
 Do you think you are provided with appropriate training during probation period?
 Do you think you are rewarded appropriately as per your efforts?
 Is your workplace inclusive in terms of gender diversity and disadvantaged groups?
 What is your opinion about the education system in your region? Do you think it
prepares you for your professional career ahead?
 Is there any difference between pre- and post-Covid work culture? Are there any new
HR initiatives launched by your company?
 Do you think foreign expatriates are provided better wages and rewards and local
citizens?
 What motivates you to contribute effectively to your work? Is it monetary benefit,
work-life balance or work culture?
 What according to you, can be improved in the human resource management of your
company?

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