Cableado Incorrecto

As outlined in the previous section, the uniqueness of the Middle Eastern context has arisen as a result of cultural, social, religious, political and economic factors.

These factors have played a significant role in shaping HRM policies and practices in organisations differently from those developed under other contexts;

this may be instrumental in both enabling and constraining HRM practices as a strategic function of an organisation. The main religious presence within the region is Islam and workplace behaviour and subsequent choices and decisions related to HRM have been affected as a consequence (Metcalfe 2007). For example, Hickson and Pugh (1995) argue that the Islamic ethics of behaviour provide an ethical framework for business and administration in Middle East countries. Hickson and Pugh (1995) also argue that one practical implication of the Islamic Work Ethic (IWE) is that hard work is not only encouraged but actively applied, as well as being perceived as a source of financial independence and a means of achieving personal growth, self-fulfillment and self-respect (Yousef 2002).

Al-Hamadi et al. (2007) identify major factors which play an important role and which shape HRM — Islam, civil service laws, social elites (Omani who educated

abroad) and expatriate workforce — with the valued applied through the Islamic framework playing a major role in the design and implementation of HRM policies and practices within the Omani context. These subsequent policies and practices are, for example, related to the support or prevention of equality between the genders and to equal pay.

However, although it is clear that the philosophy of Islam does encourage equality, regardless of gender or ethnicity, in every aspect of life, as well as a strong work ethic, the influence of social, political and tribal factors does appear to have a more significant impact on HRM practices such as hiring and promotion.

Moreover, it has been demonstrated that the main influence impacting on the development of HRM within the Middle East is nepotism (wasta) which is a consequence of a deeply ingrained tradition in Middle Eastern societies (Yahiaoui and Zoubir 2006). Budhwar and Mellahi (2006) demonstrate how wasta conflicts with the merit-based employment observed in Western organisations today in that many organisations, especially in the public sector, prefer to recruit candidates through word-of-mouth and other informal channels. This reinforces the assumptions of the historical preference for employing someone through personal connections (Budhwar and Mellahi 2006; Metcalfe 2007).

On the other hand, other factors that have influenced this wasta mindset are the political and tribal identities which are very common in the GCC region. For example, within Saudi organisations, the process of recruitment and selection is influenced mainly by one’s social connections, tribal identity and political affiliation (Mellahi 2006). Moreover, it has also been found that employees in Saudi Arabia with strong family and tribal connections are often promoted to higher positions.

Because of this tendency, wasta commonly influences the positions of higher management rather than those at middle and lower levels. For instance, Ali (1995) indicates that in most Arab organisations, there is two-tier staffing in which there are the top positions, based on one’s personal connections, and family-oriented positions, which are granted irrespective of the employee’s qualifications. In turn, this means that the allocation of staff at the middle and lower levels is mainly influenced by the employee’s experiences, skills and qualifications. As a result of these different staffing approaches, the process of recruitment and selection is reduced to a bureaucratic and administrative formality.

Furthermore, as a result of this non-merit approach to recruitment, it is still commonplace to find vacancies being filled before being advertised and it is also common practice to recruit new employees without opening the vacancy to the general public, especially when friends and relatives are already applying for the position. This approach often translates to the influence of friendship and kinship being prioritised over a candidate’s qualifications, as managers feel obliged to support their families or friends. Parnell and Hatem (1999), in their study on HRM in Egypt, have highlighted the fact that friendship is the cornerstone of Egyptian culture and has been a significant influence on selection and promotion practices.

As a result of this traditional approach to screening and selecting candidates, based on his or her prior social connections, Middle Eastern people believe that employment is very difficult to obtain without having these connections with members of the organisations to which they are seeking to apply. Furthermore, an official job analysis and description are very rarely carried out and are consequently never used when recruiting and selecting candidates. Moreover, Hickson and Pugh (1995) also argue that the responsibilities of a position are less specific within Middle Eastern organisations, which again may place more focus on a candidate’s social connections and background.

In addition to this non-merit approach to recruiting and screening candidates, it appears that the practice of performance appraisal within Middle Eastern organisations is also influenced by socio-cultural factors. Here, within these organisations, the appraisal of performance is mainly used to promote or increase the salary of the candidate; for instance, Al-Zufairi and Al-Enezi (2003) attempted to assess whether performance appraisal was used within private and public Kuwaiti organisations to determine promotion and salary increases or to identify poor performance. The study (Al-Zufairi and Al-Enezi) found that the lack of performance evaluation within these organisations was mainly influenced by an employee’s personal relations. Moreover, it was found that the results of performance appraisal were used more for administrative reasons than for developmental and strategic purposes and, where reports on performance were produced, employees could not evaluate them as all were confidential. This may be attributed to the cultural issue mentioned previously in the chapter, the fact that Middle Eastern people do not like to receive any criticism and that criticism of an employee’s performance is taken personally (Aycan et al. 2000). In addition

to the lack of objective performance appraisal, there is also the fact that direct supervisors are solely responsible for providing this feedback, which makes the performance assessment inherently based on the personal relationship the supervisor often has with the employee outside the workplace.

Furthermore, in their study on Turkish organisations, Aycan et al. (2000) indicate that performance appraisal within Turkish organisations is highly influenced by bias and subjectivity and that giving and receiving feedback on performance is a real challenge in a culture where people interpret professional criticism as personal attacks. Therefore, performance appraisal in Middle Eastern organisations can be characterised as traditional (carried out by supervisors), authoritative, centralised and subjective in nature (Budhwar and Mellahi 2006).

Moreover, Behery and Paton (2008) have explored performance appraisal and its cultural compatibility with UAE organisations and have demonstrated that appraisal and culture are strongly associated and that this has an impact on the employee’s working performance. Behery and Paton (2008) suggest that the job satisfaction of an employee may be positively linked to the extent to which they consider this appraisal and the organisational culture to be aligned. This also demonstrates an unexpected neutral effect in relation to the impact of national culture. One can argue that this supports the previous study on managing human resources in the UAE, where Suliman (2006) identified that organisations within the UAE failed to establish strong corporate cultures able to compete with other cultural layers in influencing employees’ behaviour. For example, work values in the UAE are mainly determined by regional and national cultures. This means that, unlike most Western people, family and tribal relationships tend to be prioritised among the majority of Gulf people when forming this organisational hierarchy (Suliman 2006).

Overall, socio-cultural issues, such as wasta, influence the workplace and this can negatively impact on performance. Thus, the productivity of an individual is often judged based on subjectivity rather than objective evaluation (e.g. tests, interviews), a fact which could be responsible for creating unequal employment opportunities and subsequently influencing the rate of unemployment observed in Middle East countries. Indeed, one of the main reasons for the high unemployment rate in the region is unequal job opportunity, especially among those who do not enjoy a potential political or administrative network of

relationships. While many Middle Eastern governments have introduced legal measures to eliminate this phenomenon, all their attempts have so far failed, as wasta is ingrained within a deep social fabric which in itself is based on the importance of tribal and family connections (Weir 2003).

Another point that might be considered in understanding HRM is the difference in viewing the importance of HR in the Western and Middle Eastern contexts. For example, the main differences between Western and Middle Eastern companies is that the former considers HRM as a strategic function that drives firms to achieve Sustainable Competitive Advantage (SCA), while the functionality of HRM in the Middle East has only basic functions and depends on internal and external political influences (Budhwar and Mellahi 2006). In this case, HR functions are dominated primarily by administrative work and social dignitaries, influential individuals and politicians, which usually interferes with the recruitment, selection and promotion process (Budhwar and Mellahi 2006). These differing views of HRM in Western and Middle Eastern organisations have limited the development of HR practices within Middle Eastern contexts. In order to address this, Kanungo and Jaeger (1990) attempts to identify the characteristics of developing countries concerning beliefs about human potential and argues that human capabilities within developing countries are often viewed as fixed and limited, which therefore means that career planning and progression within an organisation tends to be limited as well. One can argue that this approach to human potential may have been a contributing factor to the slow economic development in the Middle East region with its shortage of skilled labour.

Conversely, Western organisations may face difficulties in adopting HR practices within the Middle East. For example, many MNCs have had difficulty in applying new HR practices as HR functions in the Middle East have, for the most part, been reactive and administrative roles (Al-Husan et al. 2014). Indeed, Anwar (2003) finds that differences between American and Arabian cultures have led US companies to adopt management practices and policies that are suitable for the organisational culture typical to the UAE. In the same vein, Saleh and Kleiner (2005) show that, if multinational companies are to be successful, they should develop an understanding of the socio-cultural contextual factors unique to the Middle Eastern region. These studies suggest that the economy, culture and political systems of the Middle Eastern region have resulted in HR practices and

policies being shaped in a different way compared with other countries in the world. Because of these cultural factors, Mellahi et al. (2011) argue that, given the significant role played by local government and national institutions in shaping the business environment in the Middle East, further research will be needed on the role of these non-market actors in shaping MNEs in their strategic capabilities.

Overall, it is clear that the combination of macro socio-cultural and governmental regulations, and perceptions of HR, do play significant roles in shaping HR practices and models within Middle Eastern countries. Indeed Metcalfe (2007) argues that the nature of religion, institutional structures and social relations shape business processes differently compared with other Western contexts.

Thus, Metcalfe (2007) highlights the fact that these factors have a strong influence on HRM philosophies and practices in Middle Eastern organisations.

Accordingly, Afiouni et al. (2013) suggest that there is some difficulty in implementing Western-based models and practices in the region, with constraints arising from the idiosyncrasies of local culture, the Islamic influence and particularly national employment regulations. For instance, in his paper on an HRM model for Oman, Khan (2011) argues that the HRM models that have been developed by HR scholars (Fombrun et al. 1984; Beer et al. 1985; Hendry and Pettigrew 1992; Schuler 1992) have some limitations which are difficult to replicate in GCC countries. The limitations of implementing these models are a result of the nationalisation policy and the uniqueness of each of these countries.

For example, there are a number of labour laws and HR policies that were re-shaped in private-sector organisations in order to attract nationals and meet the nationalisation requirements, such as required working hours, wages and training and development programmes.

Furthermore, institutionalists such as Whitley (2000) and Hall and Soskice (2001) argue that national factors, such as economics, governance, financial and legal systems and trade unions, are the main sources of difference between nations regarding HRM. In response to these factors, Khan (2011) argues that it is important to have a model that accounts for regional, cultural and socio-economic factors, which will help the understanding of HR practices in a specific region or country. This supports the earlier argument made by Budhwar and Mellahi (2007) who state that evaluating region-specific constructs will help in the study of local

USA, Germany and Japan and finds that the socio-economic contextual factors of the American and Japanese HR systems are in many ways at opposite ends, with the factors for Germany falling somewhere in between. This study reveals that there is a difficulty in fully standardising managerial practices across countries. This could explain the role of socio-economic contextual factors in shaping HR practices and indicate how a divergence of HR practices among countries emerges as a result.

In order to examine this cross-national HRM, Budhwar and Sparrow (2002) propose a framework that identifies three levels and variables that can influence HRM practices and policies, which include national and institutional factors and dependent variables (e.g. age, size and the life-cycle stages of an organisation).

These factors, from both macro and micro levels, are believed to play a significant role in shaping HRM systems and are observed to create some divergences among Middle Eastern countries. Therefore, it can be argued that, with the factors proposed by Budhwar and Sparrow (2002) and with current challenges that face the region regarding further research on HRM and TM in particular (Afiouni et al.

2014), an understanding and examination can be developed concerning the role these current factors play in shaping talent management in the Middle East region in a different manner to the way it develops in other parts of the world.

Accordingly, this will lead to the development of theories and models that will contribute to local and global literature.

However, there is still a scarcity of HRM research in the Middle Eastern region, which makes it difficult to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the nature of HR in Middle Eastern countries (Budhwar and Mellahi 2007; Afiouni et al. 2013;

Afiouni et al. 2014). Godley and Shechter (2008) also claim that, although the Middle East is still economically and politically relevant on the world stage, the region remains unexplored and little is known about the HRM practices and approaches that organisations within this region currently adopt. Because of this, Afiouni et al. (2013) call for more efforts to achieve a better understanding of the complexities of external business realities in the Middle East and their impact on HR practices with a higher emphasis on empirical rather than conceptual research. As part of this emphasis, they argue that there is a need for further exploration of other key factors that impact on the formation of HR and its practices within the Middle East, such as institutional voids and natural

resource-rich economics. In particular, the recent challenges that face the Middle East, such as the Arab uprisings and their political influence, the economy and the unique requirements of younger generations (Afiouni et al. 2014), will influence HR policies and practices within the Middle Eastern region (Afiouni et al. 2014).

For example, following the Arab Spring, workforce-nationalisation initiatives in GCC were aggressively driven by governments across both public and private sectors, with the enforcement of nationalisation requirements to reduce the rate of youth unemployment and improve the quality of life for the wider population.

However, this nationalisation policy could act as a barrier to businesses operating within GCC countries as the region faces shortages in skilled labour, especially among the locals, which as a result could create a “war for talent” in certain business sectors (Sidani and Al Ariss 2014; Al Amri et al. 2016).

Therefore, these new trends in the Middle East (e.g. the Arab Spring and the nationalisation policy in GCC countries) suggest that further research on the nature of HRM within the region is needed. In particular, research needs to examine the impact of the Arab Spring on talent management and look at how the influence of the nationalisation policy impacts on talent retention, as well as examining the overall TM architecture common to the Middle East (Afiouni et al.

2014).

This study will examine the nature of talent management (TM) in one of these Middle Eastern countries, the Sultanate of Oman. This research will examine the role of institutional pressures, as well as internal factors responsible for shaping and implementing TM systems within Omani organisations. Furthermore, a specific TM approach adopted in Omani organisations will also be evaluated and its impact on employee commitment will be assessed. In the following section the national context of Oman will be examined, focusing on both cultural and institutional elements. In particular, the elements of human-resource development will be examined along with the influence of the law and labour legislation on these organisations, particularly those within the private sector. An overview of talent management in Omani private-sector organisations will then follow.