Job Satisfaction and Retention in the UAE Public Sectors

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Table of Contents

Background
Research problem
Research methodology
Anticipated timeframe for the research
Works Cited

Background

Job satisfaction is the contentedness of people working in a given place. Contented employees love their job, and they work very hard to deliver their best. Satisfied employees do not desire to find other job opportunities. Therefore, an employer with satisfied employees will have a high job retention capacity (Rehman and Waheed 178). Job satisfaction is a very crucial aspect that determines the productivity levels of employees. An organization with satisfied employees will have sustainable performance and excellent productivity levels (Abdulla, Djebarni and Mellahi 128). Employee satisfaction levels are directly proportional to the productivity and job retention levels. However, job satisfactory ratings indicate that 73% of UAE’s citizens are dissatisfied with their employment terms and conditions in both the private and public sectors (Maceda 1).

The public sectors of United Arab Emirates (UAE) have had difficulties in withholding their employees (AbdelRahman, Elamin and Aboelmaged 14). Essentially, the public sector comprises of all the ventures that are fully owned by the state. The non-profit making sectors that aim at providing public services to the citizens are all government entities. The public healthcare facilities, public learning institutions, natural resources, and the various government ministries aim at providing the citizens with the best services. The government uses part of the tax revenues to pay the public sector employees.

Essentially, UAE is one of the member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which controls about 50% of the world’s oil reserves. The GCC ought to control the economic and financial affairs for its member states. However, GCC has had trouble in performing its duties in the recent past (Ibrahim and Qassimi 28). The private sectors are not as overwhelmed as the government is, therefore, they are able to offer better employment terms than the public sector. The private sector takes advantage of GCC’s troubles to scoop its best employees.

In UAE, public employees have had diminishing pay premiums in spite of the fact that they rise through the ranks. Although the public employees complain, very little is done, and they only opt to leave their jobs to look for greener pastures in the private sectors (Solanki 13).

The move has had a significant negative effect on the public sector of the UAE. Whenever a public office looses a competent employee, the supervisors are forced to have inexperienced employees serving the government. Similarly, the duly trained employees will desire to leave once they are promised a higher pay with greater benefits than those in the public office. According to statistical reports, 19% of the employees in UAE’s public sectors were hired within the past 2 years (Shallal 128). It is therefore evident that UAE has a deficit in satisfying and retaining its employees in the public sector (Whiteoak and Manning 1677). Probably, the private sector offers attractive opportunities to graduates and other competitive employees, but the allegation is yet to be proven. This research will examine the public and the private sectors of UAE and measure the extent in which employee job satisfaction influences performance and job retention.

Research problem

As indicated, the public sector of UAE is experiencing massive losses due to its incapability to retain its employees (Rehman 82). The government is overwhelmed with the role of providing public services to the citizens and paying the infinite number of government employees. The employees who feel dissatisfied with their pay in the public sectors have distorted personal development, as they disbelieve in the UAE government (Randeree and Chaudhry 2).

The government entities suffer greatly as they lose their competent employees to the private sector. Essentially, the public sector has made it a trend to train new employees to take over the position once the competent employees resign. The government has done very little research to establish the underlying reason for the inappropriate trend. In the recent past, is was noted that 50% of the young and competent graduates (aged between 25-38 years) left the public sector to join the attractive private sector (McNall et al. 68). The negative perception of the public entities exists at college levels, where, college students state that they will not desire to work in the public entities (Jasim 377). The negative perception greatly affects the overall management role of the public entities. The workforce of the public entities comprises of old people who have no experience in using the enhanced management information systems (Ibrahim, Sejini and Qassimi 10).

To give a clear understanding of the controversial issues, this research will seek to answer the following research questions.

How often do the employees working in public sectors change their jobs?
Why do employees leave their job, are they dissatisfied with their jobs?
How do employees define job satisfaction?
Is the public sector doing enough to enhance job satisfaction and retain employees?
If the public sector is not doing enough, what strategies should it employ to ensure it retains its employees?
What are the advantages of retaining employees for a considerably long period?
Is there a relationship between job satisfaction, employee retention, and performance of the organization?

With the above questions in mind, the research will aim at investigating the current statues of the public entities in UAE. A stringent scrutiny will give a clear outlay of the job satisfaction levels of the employees, and their intentions to retain their jobs or resign. Therefore, the main objectives of the research are as listed below.

To study the relationship between job satisfaction and job retention;
To investigate the job retention and job satisfaction levels in the public sector in UAE;
To scrutinize the public sector management levels and ascertain their approaches to motivate employees;
To scrutinize the private sector and discover the approaches they use to win the highly beneficial young graduates;
To study the mind sets of the work force of UAE and determine if employees are money-minded;
To make a follow-up of the employees who resigned recently from the public sector, and depict the underlying reason for their resignation;
To establish the approaches that the public sector should employ to win the trust of competent employees, satisfy them, and retain them in the end.

Indeed, if the research accomplishes the above-mentioned objectives, it will be of great help to the public sector. The executives of the public sector will have a clear understanding of what the employees expect from them. Further, the public sector will understand all the tricks that the private sectors employ to win the trust of the admirable graduates. The research will help the executives of the public sector to come up with articulate decisions that will revive the failing public sectors of UAE. Although the UAE may have some apparent information of their dissatisfying employment conditions, this research will act as a wakeup call for the public sector executives to have things done with immediate effect.

Research methodology

As described, the research will aim at obtaining very crucial information from the government employees. Therefore, the researcher will employ brilliant strategies to ensure that the respondents give the required information. The data collection instruments will have to be precise to take minimum time of the respondents.

Research design

The research will employ a mixed research design, where, both qualitative and quantitative data will be employed to explore the problem. The researcher will analyze the relationship between the dependent variable, performance, sustainability, and production levels of organizations, and the three independent variables: (1) job satisfaction, (2) employee motivation, and (3) job retention. The need for quantitative data will oblige the researcher to collect first hand information that would help in developing a decisive conclusion. Moreover, the researcher will explore the available information that addresses the issue affecting the public sectors.

Sampling procedures

The researcher will employ a random sampling technique to select random respondents from the public organizations in UAE. Employees form the educational sector, healthcare sector, mining sector, and employees from various ministries will take part in the study. A random selection of public sectors located in the UAE’s capital city will occur, where, at least five respondents form each of the selected public entities will take part in the study.

Instrument of data collection

Questionnaires and interviews will be the main data collection instruments. The researcher will prepare a set of questions that will seek to obtain information of how the government employees perceive their employer. The questionnaires will seek information regarding the satisfaction and motivation levels of the government employees. The employees will also indicate if they intend to resign from their jobs and join the private sector. The questionnaire will assure the respondents of the confidentiality of the information that they provide.

Data collection procedures

The researcher will seek permission from ministry of labor before setting out to collect the data. The private sector employees will be engaged in an interrogative interview, whereas, the government employees taking part in the study will have to fill the questionnaires.

Data processing and analysis

The quantitative research will employ a descriptive statistics approach to make a scrutiny of the numeric data of the duly filled questionnaires. The statistical package for social sciences software will be used to give a clear outlay of the correlations and relationships of the dependent and independent variables. An ordinary MS Excel spreadsheet package will do some simplified analysis of secondary data, where, the secondary data from previous researches will back up the analyzed results.

Anticipated timeframe for the research

The research is expected to take a period of 8 months, and the activities are as scheduled below.

Expected.

Works Cited

AbdelRahman A. AbdelRahman, Abdallah M. Elamin, and M. G. Aboelmaged. “Job Satisfaction among Expatriate and National Employees in an Arabian Gulf Context.” International Journal of Business Research and Development 1.1 (2012): 1-16. Print.

Abdulla, Jassem, Ramdane Djebarni, and Kamel Mellahi. “Determinants of Job Satisfaction in the UAE: A Case Study of the Dubai Police.” Personnel Review 40.1 (2011): 126-146. Print.

Ibrahim, Mohamed, and Omaima Al Qassimi. “Work Stress and Job Satisfaction among Government Employees in UAE.” International Journal of Business Research and Development 23.4 (2008): 25-46. Print.

Ibrahim, Mohamed, Sabri Al Sejini, and Omaima Al Qassimi. “Job Satisfaction and Performance of Government Employees in UAE.” Journal of Management Research 4.1 (2004): 1-12. Print.

Jasim, Al-Ali. “Emiratisation: Drawing UAE Nationals into Their Surging Economy.” International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy 28.9 (2008): 365-379. Print.

Maceda, Cleofe. UAE’s Job Satisfaction Rating Very Low. 2008. Web.

McNall, Laurel, A. Masuda, Aline D. Nicklin and M. Jessica. “Flexible Work Arrangements, Job Satisfaction, and Turnover Intentions: The Mediating Role of Work-to-Family Enrichment”. The Journal of Psychology 144.1 (2010): 61-81. Print.

Randeree, Kasim, and Abdul Ghaffar Chaudhry. Leadership Style, Satisfaction, and Commitment: An Exploration in the United Arab Emirates’ Construction Sector 2012. Web.

Rehman Safdar, and Ajmal Waheed. “An Empirical Study of Impact of Job Satisfaction on Job Performance in the Public Sector Organizations. Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in Business 2.9 (2011): 167-181. Print.

Rehman, Safdar 2012, Employee Turnover and Retention strategies: An Empirical study of Public Organizations of Pakistan. Web.

Shallal, Musa. “Job Satisfaction among Women in the United Arab Emirates.” Journal of International Women’s Studies 12.3 (2011): 114-134. Print.

Solanki, Rathore. “Flextime Association with Job Satisfaction, Work Productivity, Motivation & Employees Stress Levels.” Journal of Human Resource Management 1. 1 (2013): 9-14. Print.

Whiteoak, John, and Rana L. Manning. “Emotional Intelligence and Its Implications on Individual and Group Performance: A Study Investigating Employee Perceptions in the United Arab Emirates.” International Journal of Human Resource Management 23.8 (2012): 1660-1687. Print.

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